Zhu Gang (Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnic Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Scholar)
Chair/discussant: Gregory Nagy (Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Department of the Classics, Harvard University)
Co-sponsored with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Departing from text-centered perspectives and based on performance-centered approaches in folkloristics, the poetics of communication considers verbal art as an oral performance and communicative event. In this light, this talk will seek to combine two interrelated paradigms in approaching the Shibaoshan Song Fair as a living oral tradition: 1) ethnographic analysis of ballad singing in the situated context; and 2) cultural interpretation of the Song Fair as a speech event. As a theoretical model, the poetics of communication pays attention to the ethnopoetic process of oral performance and the socio-cultural function of the contextualized communicative event, trying to introduce new cross-disciplinary perspectives to the contemporary methodology of research on oral traditions.
Upcoming Events
Visiting Scholar Talks
The Economics of Bloodline: Language, Social Class, and the Racialization of Damunhwa Youth in South KoreaMonday, October 5, 2026
Conference
Celebrating the Scholarship and Legacy of Professor Elizabeth J. PerrySaturday, October 10, 2026
Visiting Scholar Talks
When Men Marry into the Wife’s Family: Patriarchy, Intimacy, and Masculinity in Everyday Family Life of Post-Reform ChinaTuesday, October 13, 2026