A Continuous Revolution: Making Sense of Cultural Revolution Culture (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Softcover

Mittler, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674970535 ISBN 13: 9780674970533

Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016

Synopsis

Cultural Revolution Culture, often denigrated as nothing but propaganda, was liked not only in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. A Continuous Revolution sets out to explain its legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art―music, stage works, prints and posters, comics, and literature―from the point of view of its longue durée, Barbara Mittler suggests it was able to build on a tradition of earlier art works, and this allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory and its proliferation in contemporary China.

Taking the aesthetic experience of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) as her base, Mittler juxtaposes close readings and analyses of cultural products from the period with impressions given in a series of personal interviews conducted in the early 2000s with Chinese from diverse class and generational backgrounds. By including much testimony from these original voices, Mittler illustrates the extremely multifaceted and contradictory nature of the Cultural Revolution, both in terms of artistic production and of its cultural experience.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Mittler is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674970535
• ISBN 13: 9780674970533
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 502