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SUMMARY:Transforming the Way of Water: Yvonne Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea 
 and Zao Wou-Ki’s Paintings - Shuangyi Li (University of Bristol)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250204T170000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250204T183000Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b693724a-cd85-48b5-9869-3015ef1297b4/
DESCRIPTION:The Kenyan writer Yvonne Owuor’s novel The Dragonfly Sea (20
 19) revolves around the female protagonist Ayaana\, a supposedly Chinese d
 escendant\, growing up on the Kenyan island of Pate and travelling to Chin
 a to study on a state-sponsored scholarship and back. The protagonist’s 
 cross-cultural journey is deeply entangled with both historical past and c
 ontemporary global political and economic affairs. The Indian Ocean is por
 trayed as a space of ceaseless human and animal migrations\, a network of 
 historical\, political\, and economic relations\, connectivities\, and int
 erchanges\, which (in)form and (re)shape the basis and framework of what m
 ay be described as transcultural memories between and beyond Africa and Ch
 ina.\n \nThis talk proposes to approach this novel from an intermedial per
 spective. The Franco-Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki’s (1920-2013) abstract pa
 intings\, drawing inspiration from Post-Impressionism\, Expressionism\, Ch
 inese calligraphic lines\, and Daoist thought\, are frequently cited in th
 e novel\, which points to a visually and artistically mediated encounter\,
  understanding\, and cultural memory beyond verbally constructed narrative
 s. Zao shares Ayaana’s journey crossing the Indian Ocean by boat. Zao’
 s paintings\, embodying cross-cultural aesthetics\, resonate with Ayaana
 ’s transformative perceptions\, experiences\, and reimaginings of the se
 a and cultural relations. They translate and transform each other in the a
 utobiographical\, fictional\, and aesthetic making of Sino-African transcu
 ltural memories. \n\nShuangyi Li is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literat
 ures and Cultures at the University of Bristol. He is the author of two mo
 nographs: Proust\, China and Intertextual Engagement: Translation and Tran
 scultural Dialogue (2017\, International Comparative Literature Associatio
 n Anna Balakian Prize 2019) and Travel\, Translation and Transmedia Aesthe
 tics: Franco-Chinese Literature in a Global Age (shortlisted for R. Gapper
  Book Prize 2022). Shuangyi received his PhD at the University of Edinburg
 h and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lund University in Swede
 n funded by Swedish Research Council between 2017 and 2021. Together with 
 Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce at Edinburgh\, he has recently launched a new boo
 k series with Edinburgh University Press\, titled ‘Edinburgh Critical St
 udies in World Literature and Intermediality’. \n\nSpeakers:\nShuangyi L
 i (University of Bristol)
LOCATION:Dickson Poon Building (Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground
  floor))\, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b693724a-cd85-48b5-9869-3015ef1297b4/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Transforming the Way of Water: Yvonne Owuor’s The Drago
 nfly Sea and Zao Wou-Ki’s Paintings - Shuangyi Li (University of Bristol
 )
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