An NYRB Classics Original When the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, Last Words from Montmartre. Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, Last Words tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women—their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. In a style that veers between extremes, from self-deprecation to pathos, compulsive repetition to rhapsodic musings, reticence to vulnerability, Qiu’s genre-bending novel is at once a psychological thriller, a sublime romance, and the author’s own suicide note. The letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders—until the genderless character Zoë appears, and the narrator’s spiritual and physical identity is transformed. As powerfully raw and transcendent as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Theresa Cha’s Dictée, to name but a few, Last Words from Montmartre proves Qiu Miaojin to be one of the finest experimentalists and modernist Chinese-language writers of our generation.

This volume brings together experts with diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the China field, from cultural studies to history to musicology, to make a timely intervention—from the historical demise of enuchism to male cross-dressing shows in contemporary Taiwan—to inaugurate a subfield in Chinese transgender studies.

While celebrating the centenary of the “annus mirabilis” of modernism, we now encounter modernism after postmodernist, poststructuralist, postcolonial, critical race, feminist, queer and trans writing and theory. Out of the figures, narratives and concepts they have developed, a less universal, more global, decentred, context-specific, interconnected modernism emerges. In “after modernism” the meanings of “after” include periodisation, homage and critique. This book attends to neglected genealogies and intertexts—“high” and “low,” yet offering unacknowledged ontological, epistemological, conceptual and figurative resources. How have artists of the Global South negotiated the hierarchical division of art capital into Western high art vs. Global-South culture? Modernity’s location has been the Western metropolis, but other origin stories have been centring slavery, colonialism, the nation-state. If modernity did not originate once, why not multiple and still-to-come modernities? Instead of a universalizable Western modernity vs. local non-Western traditions, the contributors to this book discern multiple modern traditions. Rather than reifying their heterogeneity, the authors tunnel for lost transnational connections. The nation-state and the citizen have together defined Western modernity and the “civilized.” Yet they have required the gender binary, gender and sexual normativity, assimilation, exclusion, forced migration, partition, segregation. In-between the public and the private, humans and the natural world, this book explores a multiple, relational modern subjectivity, collectivity and cosmic interconnectivity, whose space is indivisible, entangled, ever folding and unfolding. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Angelaki.

Literature, from the Chinese perspective, makes manifest the cosmic patterns that shape and complete the world—a process of “worlding” that is much more than mere representation. In that spirit, A New Literary History of Modern China looks beyond state-sanctioned works and official narratives to reveal China as it has seldom been seen before, through a rich spectrum of writings covering Chinese literature from the late-seventeenth century to the present. Featuring over 140 Chinese and non-Chinese contributors from throughout the world, this landmark volume explores unconventional forms as well as traditional genres—pop song lyrics and presidential speeches, political treatises and prison-house jottings, to name just a few. Major figures such as Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Eileen Chang, and Mo Yan appear in a new light, while lesser-known works illuminate turning points in recent history with unexpected clarity and force. Many essays emphasize Chinese authors’ influence on foreign writers as well as China’s receptivity to outside literary influences. Contemporary works that engage with ethnic minorities and environmental issues take their place in the critical discussion, alongside writers who embraced Chinese traditions and others who resisted. Writers’ assessments of the popularity of translated foreign-language classics and avant-garde subjects refute the notion of China as an insular and inward-looking culture. A vibrant collection of contrasting voices and points of view, A New Literary History of Modern China is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of China’s literary and cultural legacy.

Totempole is Sanford Friedman’s radical coming-of-age novel, featuring Stephen Wolfe, a young Jewish boy growing up in New York City and its environs during the Depression and war years. In eight discrete chapters, which trace Stephen’s evolution from a two-year-old boy to a twenty-four-year-old man, Friedman describes with psychological acuity and great empathy Stephen’s intellectual, moral, and sexual maturation. Taught to abhor his body for the sake of his soul, Stephen finds salvation in the eventual unification of the two, the recognition that body and soul should not be partitioned but treated as one being, one complete man.

This volume offers critical perspectives on memories of political and socioeconomic ‘transitions’ that took place between the 1970s and 1990s across the globe and that inaugurated the end of the Cold War. The essays respond to a wealth of recent works of literature, film, theatre, and other media in different languages that rethink the transformations of those decades in light of present-day crises. The authors scrutinize the enduring silences produced by established frameworks of memory and time and explore the mnemonic practices that challenge these frameworks by positing radical ambivalence or by articulating new perspectives and subjectivities. As a whole, the volume contributes to current debates and theory-making in critical memory studies by reflecting on how the changing recollection of transitions constitutes a response to the crisis of memory and time regimes, and how remembering these times as crises renders visible continuities between this past and the present. It is a valuable resource for academics, students, practitioners, and general readers interested in exploring the dynamics of memory in post-authoritarian societies.

PONSON DU TERRAIL'S COMPLETE ROCAMBOLE SAGA IN NEW, UNABRIDGED ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS ROCAMBOLE 6 – ROCAMBOLE'S LAST WORD (Le Dernier Mot de Rocambole) ​​​​​​​ In this series, Rocambole and his associates travel to London to fight a sect of Thugs, the stranglers, worshippers of goddess Khali and return the stolen inheritance of the “gypsy girl”. From there, Rocambole will travel on to the Indies in pursuit of his enemies On his return though, he will need to be careful, because the London po-lice are on his tail! Also included is “The Truth About Rocambole”, where he reveals in first person, the background to all his previous exploits and the ending of the Indian adventure. This volume includes new unabridged English translations of the original French texts: “Le Dernier Mot de Rocambole - Tome I - Les Étrangleurs” “Le Dernier Mot de Rocambole - Tome II - Les Millions de la bohémienne” “Le Dernier Mot de Rocambole - Tome III - Un drame dans l’Inde” “Le Dernier Mot de Rocambole - Tome IV - Les Trésors du Rajah” “La Vérité sur Rocambole” Text translation and layout, artwork, introductory notes, author’s biography , synopses and chronology: © 2023 Roland Radaelli and IP Rights Ltd THE COMPLETE SAGA IN NEW UNABRIDGED ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS The Rocambole Saga The Rocambole adventures were first published in instalments in various French feuilletons, as supplements to newspapers. This was an extremely popular format in 19th Century France as well as in other countries. Novels such as Dumas’ “The Count of Montecristo”, Sue’s “The Mysteries of Paris” and Feval’s “Le Bossu” (“The Hunchback”) were first published in instalments and later reprinted as books. From 1857 to 1870, the year before the author’s death, Ponson du Terrail wrote thousands of pages chronicling Rocambole’s adventures, first as a master criminal, then as a defender of justice. The novels also offer an eye-opening account on how society was structured in 19th century France with stark divisions between nobility, rich businessmen and the working classes. Far from being outdated, these novels feel as fresh today as when they were written over 150 years ago. About the Author Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail was born in France in 1829. From 1850 he started writing serials for several newspapers and in 20 years will write over 200 novels! In 1857 he created the character of Rocambole, which will go on to achieve great success all over the world. The word “rocambolesque” is still used nowadays in many languages to describe fantastic, incredible adventures and scheming plots. With Germany’s invasion of France in 1870, Ponson du Terrail joins the resistance but a sudden illness strikes him and he dies in January 1871. The ROCAMBOLE SAGA in our catalogue includes the following ebooks: Series 1 - Legacy of Blood Series 2 - Knaves of Hearts Series 3 - Adventures of Rocambole Series 4 - Rocambole's Redemption Series 5 - Rocambole's Resurrection Series 6 - Rocambole's Last Word Series 7 - Rocambole in London Series 8 - Rocambole in Prison Series 9 - Rocambole and the Hangman's Rope