DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
| Researcher : Cheung EMK |
| Project Title: | Fruit Chan's films, "independent" filmmaking, and creative industries |
| Investigator(s): | Cheung EMK, Chan S.C.K. |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research |
| Start Date: | 02/2004 |
| Abstract: |
| To explore how the interaction of political, industrial, institutional, and cultural factors shape the production and circulation of Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan's films; to explore how the thematics, poetics, and aesthetics of Chan's films in turn shape the ways the terrains of "independent" and "mainstream" cinemas are re-defined, casting crucial implications on the role of creative industries in the cultural policy-making of Hong Kong. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Cheung E.M.K., Built Space, Cinema, the Ghostly Global City, The International Journal of the Humanitiesby Tom Nairn and Mary Kalantzis (eds.). Sydney, Australia, Common Ground Publishing, 2005, 1 (2003): 711-728. |
| Cheung E.M.K., Sabayoning the City (in Chinese). Hong Kong, Red Publish, 2005, 170 pages. |
| Cheung E.M.K., Some Thoughts on 2046, Conference Proceedings on "National, Transnational, and Internationa: Chinese Cinema and Asian Cinema in the Context of Globalization"Conference organized by Asian Cinema Studies Society (U.S.A.), Beijing University, and Shanghai University, June 6 to June 10, 2005.. Shanghai, PRC, 2005, 405-408. |
| Cheung E.M.K., 情陷星爺與狐狸洞洞主, 情陷星爺與狐狸洞洞主, <<我是一個演員:周星馳文化解讀>>陳婉瑩主騙. <<我是一個演員:周星馳文化解讀>>陳婉瑩主騙, 廣州, 南方日報出版社, 2005, 10-14. |
| Researcher : Ha MOY |
| Project Title: | Engendering french colonial narratives: the case of indochina, 1918-1938 |
| Investigator(s): | Ha MOY |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Low Budget High Impact Programme |
| Start Date: | 11/2001 |
| Completion Date: | 10/2004 |
| Abstract: |
| To write the gender factor back into colonial narratives; to formulate a new understanding of the French civilzing mission by using an alternative historiographic approach that could incorporate women's contributions. |
| Project Title: | Reading women in colonial francophone indochinese fiction |
| Investigator(s): | Ha MOY |
| Department: | History |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Small Project Funding |
| Start Date: | 11/2004 |
| Abstract: |
| To articulate an alternative theoretical and critical apparatus that could take into account the cross-cultural and ideological specificities of colonial writings; to undertake a rereading of these narratives that will re-inscribe the female voice in the texts; to bring out the multiplicity of female colonial experience through a heteroglossic cross-reading of fictional and archival narratives about colonial women. |
| Researcher : Marchetti G |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Marchetti G., "Interview with Andrew Lau and Alan Mak—INFERNAL AFFAIRS” (with Amy Lee and Thomas Podvin) , Hong Kong CineMagic. France, 2004. |
| Marchetti G., Editorial board member, Popular Communication, USA, 2005. |
| Marchetti G., Editorial team, New Hong Kong Cinema series, Hong Kong University Press, under the direction of Colin Day., Hong Kong, HKU Press, 2005. |
| Marchetti G., Global Modernity, Postmodern Singapore, and the Cinema of Eric Khoo, Chinese-Language Film: Historiography, Poetics, Politics, eds. Sheldon H. Lu and Yeh Yueh-Yu . Honolulu, USA, University of Hawaii Press, 2005, 329-361. |
| Marchetti G., Hollywood/Taiwan: Connections, Countercurrents, and Ang Lee’s HULK, Film Appreciation Journal (translated into Chinese) . Taiwan, 2004, 120: 80-90. |
| Marchetti G., INFERNAL AFFAIRS: Global Markets and Local Politics in Hong Kong Cinema, Film and Philosophy conference, University of Hong Kong, June 15, 2005. |
| Marchetti G., INFERNAL AFFAIRS: Global Markets and Local Politics in Hong Kong Cinema, National, Transnational, International: Chinese Cinema and Asian Cinema in the Context of Globalization, The Centennial Celebration of Chinese Cinema and the 2005 Annual Conference of Asian Cinema Studies Society, Shanghai University, June 9, 2005.. 2005. |
| Marchetti G., In the World of Women: Tony Leung Talks about Working with Wong Kar-Wai, CineVue 05: 28th Asian American International Film Festival . New York, USA, Asian CineVision, 2005, 34-35. |
| Marchetti G., In/Visible Histories (China): Documentary Film, Historical Memory, Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Community Service,” co-written with Karsten Krueger, Media and Society in Asia: Transformations and Transitions, 14th Annual AMIC Conference, Beijing, July 20, 2005.. 2005. |
| Marchetti G., Moderator, “Chinese Women in Diaspora: Independent Film/Women’s Visions and Voices,” Women’s Studies Research Centre Spring Workshop, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, April 23, 2005., 2005. |
| Marchetti G., On Tsai Ming-Liang’s THE RIVER (1996), Island on the Edge: Taiwan New Cinema and After, eds. Chris Berry and Feii Lu . Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2005, 113-126. |
| Marchetti G., Pursuits of Hapa-Ness: Kip Fulbeck’s Boyhood Among Ghosts, Where the Boys Are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth, eds. Murray Pomerance and Frances Gateward . Detroit, USA, Wayne State University Press, 2005, 279-296. |
| Marchetti G., Reviewed book manuscripts/articles for Duke University Press, Signs, Popular Communication, University of Illinois Press, Hong Kong University Press, Palgrave MacMillan, Eras, New York University Press., 2005. |
| Marchetti G., Staff editor, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, USA/Internet, Jump Cut, 2005. |
| Marchetti G., Tragic Destiny of a Screen Queen—Linda Lin Dai (1934-1964) , Hong Kong CineMagic. France, 2004. |
| Marchetti G., Whither (or Wither) Chinese Women’s Films? BAO’BER IN LOVE and THE JADE GODDESS OF MERCY, World Cinema (translated into Chinese). PRC, 2005, 1: 40-49. |
| Marchetti G., Zhong Shan (Sun Yat-Sen) University, Guangzhou, PRC, In/Visible Histories: Asia on American Screens, film and lecture series, 2004-2005., 2005. |
| Marchetti G., “Interview with Eric Tsang Chi-Wai” (with Amy Lee and Thomas Podvin), Hong Kong CineMagic. France, Hong Kong CineMagic, 2004. |
| Researcher : Sabine MA |
| Project Title: | Nuns on screen: the changing face of modern women religious in post World War II film |
| Investigator(s): | Sabine MA |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Merit Award for RGC CERG Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| Refer to hard copy |
| Project Title: | Nuns on screen: the changing face of modern women religious in post World War II film |
| Investigator(s): | Sabine MA |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| To examine how nuns are respresented in mainstream, and mainly English language, film since the Second World War and what cultural myths of gender and religion shape their cinematic projection; to study the underlying institutional and sexual politics of their filmic representation, and consider how the images and stereotypes projected on screen compare to the diverse and often substantial roles that nuns actually played in the development of modern society, and the changes, in turn, that modern secular society produced in nuns' lives and religious community. |
| Researcher : Swirski P |
| Project Title: | The unknown Lem: five lost novels from the world canon |
| Investigator(s): | Swirski P |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Seed Funding for New Staff |
| Start Date: | 07/2003 |
| Abstract: |
| To conduct a first ever English-language study of these five unknown Lem works. |
| Project Title: | Mining the mindfield: literary narratives as thought experiments |
| Investigator(s): | Swirski P |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 08/2004 |
| Abstract: |
| To provide a detailed account of the mode of cognition typical to literary narratives and the type of research common in philosophy and the sciences. |
| Project Title: | Mining the mindfield: literary narratives as thought experiments |
| Investigator(s): | Swirski P |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Merit Award for RGC CERG Funded Projects |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| Refer to hard copy |
| Project Title: | Browbeaten into pulp: American popular literature |
| Investigator(s): | Swirski P |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research |
| Start Date: | 01/2005 |
| Abstract: |
| Throughout the period of its cultural domination in the 20th century, popular fiction in America has met with indictments of its alleged ill-effects on readers, highbrow literature, on culture in general and even on American society large. Given that genre fiction continues to dominate the nations’ cultural and literary life, the time is ripe to examine popular literature as a literary phenomenon rather than as a cultural nuisance. My objective in this research project is to survey and analyze the socio-aesthetic evidence accumulated over the course of the last century in order to put forward a detailed picture of the ways in which highbrow and genre literatures influence and interpenetrate each other. All available data indicates that most of the canonical recriminations against American popular fiction (and, by extension, popular fiction in other cultures and nations) stem from ill-founded misconceptions about its nature and aesthetic attributes. Cross-examining statistical and argumentative findings by means of illustrations from popular and canonical works, I will conclude with an analysis of novels by Raymond Chandler and Walker Percy in the lights of the general theses advanced by means of this research. The investigation of the relation between American mainstream (highbrow) and popular (lowbrow) fiction is significant in at least three contexts. First of all, a review of available statistical and sociological evidence, including community and leisure studies, will allow me to contest key myths still prevailing in literary and cultural discourse, among them the demise of reading and the commercialization of the literary system attributed to modern paperback publishing. As these and other misconceptions have been used to underwrite any number of aesthetic critiques of popular fiction, refuting them will go a long way towards a better understanding of literary culture today. Second, through a systematic analysis of the socio-aesthetic critiques of popular fiction, I will re-evaluate their merits and challenge their core assumptions by a reductio or an extensive documentation of “inbred” analogues in highbrow fiction. As part of an implicit push for a greater literary democracy, this part of my project will refine the methodological tools for studying and teaching popular fiction. Third, my research will culminate with a detailed study of select investigative mysteries by Chandler and Percy, both in terms of their mediation between the high and the popular in American culture, and their contributions to twentieth-century literature. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Swirski P., American Literature, or, Fahrenheit 2/11, Graduate Institute of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Taipei, Taiwan, National Chiao Tung University, 2004. |
| Swirski P., America’s Rhyme and Reason: Rap at the Academy, Black History Month Fulbright Lecture series. Hong Kong, SAR, Hong Kong University, 2005. |
| Swirski P., Caught Between The Jungle and The Big Bad City., In The Third International Conference of Arts and Humanities; Conference Proceedings. CD-ROM.. 2005, online publication. |
| Swirski P., Distinguished Teacher Fellowship nomination, Hong Kong University, 2005. |
| Swirski P., Honorary Professor nomination, Jinan University Research Institute of Foreign Languages and Literature. Guangzhou, China, 2005. |
| Swirski P., International Forum on American Studies, American Studies Association. Atlanta, 2004. |
| Swirski P., It Came From the Edge: A Brief History and Future of the Paperback Novel, International Comparative Literature Association. Hong Kong, SAR, 2004. |
| Swirski P., Michael and I: The Literary and Cinematic Rhetoric of Michael Moore, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Hong Kong, SAR, 2005. |
| Swirski P., Politics in Movieland: From Hollywood to Washington to Hong Kong, Keynote speaker. Thirteenth International Symposium on English Teaching. Taipei, Taiwan, 2004. |
| Swirski P., Politics in Movieland: From Hollywood to Washington to Hong Kong, Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on English Teaching. Taipei, Crane Publishing, 2004, 108-117. |
| Swirski P., Take Two: The Great Gatsby on The Gold Coast, Film Studies Center and the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. National Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2005. |
| Swirski P., The American Revolution Will Not Be Televised—It Will Show at the Movies, American Studies Lecture Series. Hong Kong, SAR, Hong Kong University, 2004. |
| Swirski P., The Anglo-American Norm or Pan-human Norm, Thirteenth International Symposium on English Teaching. Chairman and moderator.. Taipei, Taiwan, 2004. |
| Researcher : Tambling JCR |
| Project Title: | Dante and purgatory: writing the history of emotions |
| Investigator(s): | Tambling JCR |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Competitive Earmarked Research Grants (CERG) |
| Start Date: | 09/2002 |
| Abstract: |
| The project involves entensive reading of Dante's Purgatorio (c.1315). The aim of the project is to read how differing emotions are culturally formed. In this sense, the project uses insights from psychoanalysis, and from readings derived from modern cultural studies. The intention is to test their validity in describing the very different historical emotional states which are represented in Dante's text. |
| Project Title: | Writing "Blake" |
| Investigator(s): | Tambling JCR |
| Department: | Comparative Literature |
| Source(s) of Funding: | Small Project Funding |
| Start Date: | 11/2002 |
| Completion Date: | 10/2004 |
| Abstract: |
| To write a scholarly monograph on William Blake in the light of my current research interests, and to give a revaluation of blake in the light of the best contemporary critical and cultural theory. |
| List of Research Outputs |
| Tambling J.C.R., Allegory and the Madness of the Text: Hoccleve's Complaint, New Medieval Literaturesed. David Lauton, Rita Copeland and Wendy Scase. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 2005, 6: 223-248. |
| Tambling J.C.R., Blake's Night Thoughts. London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 224 pages. |
| Tambling J.C.R., Levinas and Macbeth's ‘Strange Images of Death’ , Essays in Criticism. 2004, 54: 351-372. |
| Tambling J.C.R., Listening to Schizophrenia: The Wozzeck Case, The pleasure of Modernist MusicAreved Ashby (ed.). Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2004, 176-194. |
| Tambling J.C.R., No Name, No Title:Richard The Second, William Shakespeare: Richard II byHenri Suhamy (ed.). Paris, Ellipses, 2004, 145-160. |
| Tambling J.C.R., Review of Alan Robinson, Imagining London, 1770-1900, Dickensian. 2005, 64-66. |
| Tambling J.C.R., Review of John Burt Foster Jr and Wayne J. Froman (eds.)Thresholds of Western Culture: Identity, Postcoloniality, Transnationalism; Massimo Verdicchio and Robert Burch (eds.) Between Philosophy and Poetry: Writing, Rhythm, History; James E. Swearingen and Joanne Cutting-Gray, Extreme Beauty: Aesthetics, Politics, Death , MLR. 2005, 35: 344-347. |
| Tambling J.C.R., The Language of Flowers: James, Hawthorne, Allegory, Literature Compass. 2004, 1: 1-17. |
| Tambling J.C.R., Thinking Melancholy: Allegory and the 'Vita Nuova', Romanic Review. 2005, 96: 85-105. |