Literary Information Warfare
Eileen Chang, the US State Department, and Cold War Media Aesthetics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3266455 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Jean So (0009-0002-6442-055X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 719-744 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9831 • E-ISSN: 1527-2117 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00029831-2367328 |
| OpenAlex | W2006858117 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 17 |
So's essay reconstructs a literary genealogy for the emergence of "information warfare" in the early Cold War period (the 1950s). Specifically, it argues that this form of warfare-which So dubs "literary information warfare"-took shape first and most keenly within the US state's encounter with Communist China. The essay narrates this story by exploring the United States Information Agency's (USIA) recruitment of a major Chinese author, Eileen Chang, to the cause of information fabrication and deployment in Hong Kong. It combines this story with a brief history of 1950s US communications studies in which Chang's work and new theories of information converge through the figure of Wilbur Schramm. Schramm, cofounder of the Iowa Writers Workshop and "father" of modern communications studies, worked with Chang via the USIA. In sum, Chang's story sheds light on how the US state's confrontation with Communist China in the 1950s provided the basis and impetus for developing a new model of information theory through the weaponizing of literature
Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy) · Art · Art history · China · Cold war · Communism · Information Warfare · Literature · Media studies · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Computer Science · History · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Law · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Political Theology and Sovereignty
The process and effects of mass communication.
Archives of Authority
How We Became Posthuman
The Hungry World
Lure of the Modern
The Cold War and the United States Information Agency
Hong Kong and the Cold War
Modernism, Media, and Propaganda
Women, War, Domesticity
The Great American Mission
Ends of Empire
Cold War Orientalism
America's Chinese”
Literary Scholarship
Propaganda and democracy
From Information Theory to French Theory
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2024 (8) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |