People - Faculty - Braester
Yomi Braester
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Yale University (1997)
۞ Professor of Comparative Literature
۞ President, The Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature
۞ Director, UW Summer Program in Chinese Film History and Criticism
at the Beijing Film Academy
۞ Member, Cinema Studies Program
۞ Member, Program in Theory and Criticism
۞ Adjunct Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Literature
۞ Resource Faculty Member, History and Theory of Architecture
۞ Book Review Editor on Film and Media, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture
Major research interests:
Professor Braester’s research focuses on modern China and Taiwan and ranges from literary and film history to analysis of visual practices—in architecture, advertisement, screen media, and stage arts. He is committed to locating literary and visual texts within larger cultural matrices and comparative contexts. His work is guided by a persistent concern with how texts and images form and manipulate our perception of history.
In Witness against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth-Century China(Stanford UP, 2003), Professor Braester reassesses the testimonial value of fiction, drama and film. Whereas many scholars portray mainstream Chinese fiction and cinema as expressing a strong belief in the public sphere, the book shows that writers and filmmakers have often stressed how their works might estrange the audience. Their “witness against history” is a testimony against the belief in the authors’ historical agency, against the faith in progress, and ultimately against the possibility of bearing witness altogether. On the one hand, the book presents a historical reevaluation of the legacy of the May Fourth movement and the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution; on the other, it calls attention to the polyphony of voices resulting from the burden placed on the texts.
Professor Braester’s Painting the City Red: Film and Theater as Agents of Chinese Urban Policy, from 1949 to the 2008 Olympics (Duke UP, forthcoming) demonstrates how urban identity—as enunciated by decision makers, professional planners, playwrights, and filmmakers—is inextricably linked to public policy. Films and plays in particular have taken an active part in shaping strategies of urban development. The book challenges the prevalent focus in cinema studies on the moment of encounter between the screen and the viewer. The singular event of sitting in a film theater is in fact predicated on a relationship between various political, economic, and ideological institutions that channel cinematic production to a specific message and predispose the audience to a desired reception.
Personal web page:
http://faculty.washington.edu/yomi