The Joy of Discovery Human Footprints and Literary Shadows Anthology

Author: Chen Zishan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: Everyone is walking on the journey of life. As figures fade away, they leave behind traces, deep or shallow, which, when gathered together, form a book. People often say, "Reading life." Indeed, when the impressions of individuals are described, those distant traces become the best subjects for us to understand history and the structure of life. Books are like people—each book's birth process and the search for its stories by people are inherently part of the human experience. The shadows of books, like the traces of people, always leave us with endless fascination. For this reason, many people talk about them with great enthusiasm, even becoming obsessed, thereby experiencing a unique kind of joy. The words in this small book, of course, have never applied for "research projects" and are not serious academic papers. Most of them do not conform to "academic norms," but I am confident that they have a touch of scholarship. At the very least, they are my research insights. They have unearthed some lost works of important writers, verified some little-known facts in literary history, and resolved or partially resolved some unresolved or mysterious cases in modern and contemporary literary history. To put it academically, they are examples of micro-studies and empirical research in the history of modern and contemporary literature. While there is little theoretical elaboration in the book, my reflections on the history of modern and contemporary literature are embedded within it.