Shanghai Dancing: Memory, Diaspora and the Use of Images in the Contemporary Novel
April 2, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012. 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm @ TCC 351
Shanghai Dancing: Memory, Diaspora and the Use of Images in the Contemporary Novel
A conversation with author Brian Castro
After forty years in Australia, middle-aged António Castro packs a bag and walks out of his old life forever. The victim of a restlessness and rootlessness he calls “Shanghai Dancing,” António seeks to understand the source of his condition in his family’s wanderings. Reversing his parents’ migration to Australia, António heads back to their native Shanghai, where his world begins to fragment. Glittering prewar China, evangelical Liverpool, and 17th century Portugal fight for space with contemporary scenes of Asia and Europe. The stories of long-dead ancestors compete for primacy with those of new family, friends, and lovers. Combining photographs and written images, author Brian Castro’s fictional autobiography asks if life’s meaning is to be found in the moment or in the memory.
Castro will be in conversation with Colin Dickey, Michelle Har Kim and Ana Paulina Lee of the Comparative Literature Department at USC.
Lunch will be served.
Presented by:
Kaya Press
Event sponsored by:
Visions and Voices
