Atlas : the archaeology of an imaginary city / / Dung Kai-cheung ; translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910462759903321
• Autore: Dong Qizhang <1967->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2012; ©2012
• ISBN: 0-231-50422-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (233 p.)
• Collana: Weatherhead Books on Asia
• Disciplina: 895.1/352
• Soggetti: LITERARY CRITICISM / General; Electronic books.; Hong Kong (China) Fiction
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface: An Archaeology for the Future / Kai-cheung, Dung -- Introduction / McDougall, Bonnie S. -- Part One: Theory -- 1 Counterplace -- 2 Commonplace -- 3. Misplace -- 4 Displace -- 5 Antiplace -- 6 Nonplace -- 7Extraterritoriality -- 8 Boundary -- 9 Utopia -- 10 Supertopia -- 11 Subtopia -- 12 Transtopia -- 12 Transtopia -- 14 Unitopia -- 15 Omnitopia -- Part Two: The City -- 16 Mirage: City in the Sea -- 17 Mirage: Towers in the Air -- 18 Pottinger's inverted vision -- 19 Gordon's Jail -- 20 "Plan of the City of Victoria," 1889 -- 21 The Four Wan and Nine Yeuk -- 22 The Centaur of the East -- 23 Scandal Point and the Military Cantonment -- 24 Mr. Smith's One-Day Trip -- 25 The View from Government House -- 26 The Toad of Belcher's Dream -- 27 The Return of Kwan Tai Loo -- 28 The Curse of Tai Ping Shan -- 29 War Game -- Part Three: Streets -- 30 Spring Garden Lane -- 31 Ice House Street -- 32 Sugar Street -- 33 Tsat Tsz Mui Road -- 34 Canal Road East and Canal Road West -- 35 Aldrich Street -- 36 Possession Street -- 37 Sycamore Street -- 38 Tung Choi Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street -- 39 Sai Yee Street -- 40 Public Square Street -- 41 Cedar Street -- Part Four: Signs -- 42 The Decline of the Legend -- 43 The Eye of the Typhoon -- 44 Chek Lap Kok Airport -- 45 The Metonymic ; Spectrum -- 46 The Elevation of Imagination -- 47 Geological Discrimination -- 48 North-Oriented Declination -- 49 The Travel of Numbers -- 50 The Tomb of Signs -- 51 The Orbit of Time -- Acknowledgments -- Author & Translators
• Sommario/riassunto: Set in the long-lost City of Victoria (a fictional world similar to Hong Kong), Atlas is written from the unified perspective of future archaeologists struggling to rebuild a thrilling metropolis. Divided into four sections-"Theory," "The City," "Streets," and "Signs"-the novel reimagines Victoria through maps and other historical documents and artifacts, mixing real-world scenarios with purely imaginary people and events while incorporating anecdotes and actual and fictional social commentary and critique.Much like the quasi-fictional adventures in map-reading and remapping explored by Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino, Dung Kai-cheung's novel challenges the representation of place and history and the limits of technical and scientific media in reconstructing a history. It best exemplifies the author's versatility and experimentation, along with China's rapidly evolving literary culture, by blending fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a story about succeeding and failing to recapture the things we lose. Playing with a variety of styles and subjects, Dung Kai-cheung inventively engages with the fate of Hong Kong since its British "handover" in 1997, which officially marked the end of colonial rule and the beginning of an uncharted future.