Comparing China and the West

China has been intensively engaging with the West for over a century in its attempts to develop economic, political, and military power. At first limiting itself to appropriating Western technology, Chinese intellectuals eventually began to assimilate Western culture, literature, and ideas comprehensively, though of course doing so in a way that integrated them into their own cultural and political traditions. Its brand of communism, for instance, combines Western Marxism with forms of governance shaped by the long dynastic era of Chinese history. The Chinese assimilation of Western traditions establishes a basic openness to the West while also providing strategies for dealing with the West in times of conflict. On the one hand, China’s economic and political rise has been built upon a history of admiration for the West and the consequent ability to emulate Western practices. On the other hand, this intimate knowledge of the West has allowed China to take advantage of Western prejudices in order to undermine its structures, exploiting for instance the norms of free trade in a way that has undermined those very norms.

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The Telos Press Podcast: Sijia Yao on Third Term Comparisons

In today’s episode of the Telos Press Podcast, David Pan talks with Sijia Yao about her article “Third Term Comparison,” from Telos 199 (Summer 2022). An excerpt of the article appears here. In their conversation they discuss the difference between world literature and comparative literature, as well as the methodological advantages of comparison; the pervasiveness of biases in both Chinese and Western discourses about the other, and how these biases should be approached; the difference between a binary comparison and a third term comparison; how one can do a third term comparison; and how a third term comparison of D. H. Lawrence and Eileen Chang avoids the binary opposition between China and the West. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Print copies of Telos 199 are available for purchase in our online store.

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The Telos Press Podcast: Brian Wolfel on Carlyle’s Transcendentalism and Theorizing Postliberalism

In today’s episode of the Telos Press Podcast, David Pan talks with Brian Wolfel about his article “Thomas Carlyle’s Conception of Transcendentalism in Sartor Resartus and Its Application to Theorizing Postliberalism,” from Telos 199 (Summer 2022). An excerpt of the article appears here. In their conversation they discuss the problems of liberalism that transcendentalism tries to address; the basic characteristics of the transcendentalism that Thomas Carlyle describes in Sartor Resartus; how Carlyle’s transcendentalism embodies a kind of post-liberalism; how Carlyle’s transcendentalism can be understood as anti-dogmatic, or as a dogmatic anti-dogmatism; how Carlyle’s transcendentalism functions as a practical political philosophy; the relation of Carlyle’s transcendentalism to American transcendentalism and contemporary New Age philosophy; and the perilous status of liberalism in relation to current forms of authoritarianism. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Print copies of Telos 199 are available for purchase in our online store.

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The Telos Press Podcast: Karen Thornber on Decentering the West and China

In today’s episode of the Telos Press Podcast, David Pan talks with Karen Thornber about her article “Decentering the ‘West’ and ‘China’ in China–West Comparison,” from Telos 199 (Summer 2022). An excerpt of the article appears here. In their conversation they discuss the inherent pitfalls of the project of literary comparison, and how these pitfalls can be avoided; what it means to “decenter” the “West” and “China,” and how the process of decentering relates to the process of centering; whether the process of decentering involves the recognition of alternative imperial (or nation-based) centers and in a sense a re-establishing of the paradigm of centering; how the focus on decentering relates to the center-periphery paradigm in the production and dissemination of national literatures; how the transnational approach affects our consideration of problems such as discrimination, healthcare, ecological degradation, and climate change; and how the political nature of the opposition of China and the West affects the study of literature. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Print copies of Telos 199 are available for purchase in our online store.

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The Continuing Travails of Trumpification

Save 20% on the paperback edition of The Travails of Trumpification by purchasing it in our online store and using the coupon code BOOKS20 during checkout.

The disagreement about the propriety of the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s residence reveals a fundamental divide over the proper role of the federal government. On the one hand, the defenders of the search have emphasized the rule of law and the idea that no one should stand above the law. From this perspective, Trump represents a danger to democracy itself, which the federal government is defending. On the other hand, for Trump supporters the search epitomizes the all-encompassing reach of the federal government into people’s daily lives and thus a further example of the erosion of freedom in the United States. The uncomprehending attitude of each side toward the other exemplifies the ways in which “the travails of Trumpification,” as described by Tim Luke, do not represent a passing phenomenon. As three recent reviews of Luke’s book emphasize, Trumpism is a complex phenomenon that is not just about Donald Trump. Populism predates Trump’s rise by more than a century, and the motivating attitudes and ideas will surely continue to shape American politics after he is gone. The focus on Trump the man has led, for both supporters (not least Trump himself) and detractors, to a failure to address the broader currents that he has been able to mobilize.

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New Reviews of Timothy W. Luke’s The Travails of Trumpification

Forthcoming in Educational Philosophy and Theory is a collection of reviews of Timothy W. Luke’s recent book The Travails of Trumpification, published by Telos Press Publishing. Excerpts from the reviews appear below, and the full set of reviews can be read here (subscription required). Save 20% on the paperback edition of The Travails of Trumpification by purchasing it in our online store and using the coupon code BOOKS20 during checkout.

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