Description:
Since 1988, J. Hillis Miller has traveled to China to lecture on literary theory, especially the role of globalization in literary theory. Over time, he has assisted in the development of distinctively Chinese forms of literary theory, Comparative Literature, and World Literature. The fifteen lectures gathered in An Innocent Abroad span both time and geographic location, reflecting his work at universities across China for more than twenty-five years.
Review Quotes: "A new object comes into view: The Critic as Guest. For almost thirty years now, Hillis Miller has generously offered himself for inspection by Chinese scholars as a native informant of the U.S. intelligentsia, of deconstruction, of the humanist university, of print culture. Left to our imagination are their responses--the other half of the conversation silhouetted here. But with what modesty Miller steps over the horizon! With what scruples he offers his sometimes necessarily broad and blunt reports! This not really so innocent set of talks and essays traces a bright thread through one of the great cultural exchanges of our time, the words bounced between China and America."--Haun Saussy, University of Chicago