Beschreibung:
Abstract: This contribution analyses reading practices of Chinese readers during the 1970s as well as three exemplary works of literature of the era: two pieces of unofficial handwritten entertainment fiction from the Cultural Revolution (A Strand of Golden Hair and Zhang Yang’s The Second Handshake) and the short story “The Class Teacher” by Liu Xinwu (1977) all of which have the influential novel How the Steel was Tempered as a prominent intertext. Approaching literature through actual reading practices reveals how both actual readers, as well as authors of literature and fictional characters poach other literary texts in their attempts to make sense of their own world, thus re-interpreting the source text for their own purposes. The Chinese Cultural Revolution decade (1966-1976) and its immediate aftermath offer a particular interesting case study. While the political regime aimed at censoring the literary field and controlled what was available to readers, many readers countered these strategies by clandestine tactics like stealing books from closed libraries, reading books meant for internal publication or interpreting the narratives along lines unimagined by the political authorities. The perspective on reading practices thus reveals that world literature remained widely read, influential and meaningful throughout the era – and beyond, both in grassroots reading practices and literary works