College:
St John's College
Course:
DPhil Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Chinese Literature)
Thesis Title:
Speak Mnemosyne: A Genetic Study of Guanzhui bian (Limited Views) in the Light of Qian Zhongshu's Private Notebooks
Contact:
william.blythe@sjc.ox.ac.uk
Educational Background:
SOAS, Sinology, MA (2019).
Cambridge University, Chinese Studies, BA (2010).
Research Interests:
My DPhil thesis explores the last major work in the literary Chinese canon, namely Qian Zhongshu’s 錢鍾書 (1910–1998) Guanzhui bian 管錐編 (The Pipe and Awl Chapters, or Limited Views) through the lens of "la critique génétique" (genetic criticism), a theoretical approach to modern autograph manuscripts that explores the causal relations between successive drafts of a published work (its "endogenesis"), and the hidden networks of intertextuality that informed its composition (its "exogenesis"). By analysing Qian’s encyclopaedic masterpiece of criticism in the context of his private notebooks, I cast light on its structural and stylistic innovations, while documenting the scholar's embattled attempt to redeem the tradition of classical Chinese literature during the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution.
Beyond genetic criticism and modern manuscript studies, I am also interested in the development and impact of sinology, late imperial court theatre, the digital humanities, and the transmission of oral literature, in particular folk songs in Hokkien. My research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Clarendon Fund, St. John’s College Oxford, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. I am supervised by Professor Tian Yuan Tan.
Recent Publications and/or Conferences:
“‘Only My Words Written Here Will Remain’: The Journey from ‘Avant-Textes’ to ‘Avant-Propos’ in Qian Zhongshu’s Collaboration with C.D. Le Gros Clark,” CLEAR, No. 46 (2024): 129–148.
“Strategies of (Mis)translation in Alexandre de Lacharme’s Confucii Chi-king, sive, Liber Carminum.” [Forthcoming at Monumenta Serica (Dec. 2024)]
Classical Chinese to English, Anon., “Ascendant Peace over the Four Seas,” in Tian Yuan Tan and Ewan McDonald ed., Behind the Scenes in the Forbidden City: Chinese Court Drama 1600-1800 [working title; under contract with Exeter University Press]
