Xudong Zhang

Professor of Comparative Literature & East Asian Studies

Xudong Zhang is Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies at NYU. He is the founding director of the International Center for Critical Theory (ICCT), which co-organizes the Winter Institute series with University of Tokyo, Australian National University, and University of Bonn, Germany. He has published widely on critical theory and transcultural comparisons of Chinese and European modernities.

Education

Ph.D. 1995, Literature, Duke
B.A. 1986, Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University

Areas of Research/Interest

Xudong Zhang’s research interests include critical theory; modernism and modernity; theories of representation, narrative, and interpretation; political philosophy; aesthetics; and twentieth century Chinese literature and culture. Of his ongoing concerns are literary criticism and theory as poetics, socio-ontology, and historiography in one; identity and identity-formation in politico-philosophical and cultural-civilizational contexts; a theory of comparison and comparability; and methodological reconsiderations of area studies. Publishing in both English- and Chinese-speaking worlds, he is currently at work on manuscripts on Hegel’s aesthetics; Lu Xun; and the second volume of/sequel to his 2005/06 book, Cultural Politics in the Age of Globalization.

Affiliations

Zhang is a recipient of the New Institute Fellowship, Hamburg, 2022-23.  He is a member of the Berggruen Network; and of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at Peking University.  He is also the founding Director of the International Center for Critical Theory(ICCT) at NYU. 

NYU Affiliations

Department of Social & Cultural Analysis

Publications

  • Cultural Politics and the Chinese Way, 2nd Edition
    Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Press, 2021
    Cultural Politics and the Chinese Way, 2nd Edition
  • Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization, 3rd Edition
    Historical Reflections on Western Discourses of the Universal
    Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Press, 2021
    Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization, 3rd Edition
  • The Order of the Imaginary, 2nd Edition
    Critical Theory and Modern Chinese Literature
    Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Press, 2020
    The Order of the Imaginary, 2nd Edition
  • Toward A Critical Literary History: Modernity and Formal Self-Consciousness
    Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Press, 2020
    Towards Toward A Critical Literary History: Modernity and Formal Self-Consciousness
  • Tradition and Formal Innovation--Essays from the Inaugural Himalayas Cultural Forum, edited with and introduction by Xudong Zhang
    Shanghai: Century Publications Group, Shanghai People's Press, 2015. ISBN 978-7-208-13140-8/G1728. 148pp.
  • Literature and Its Times: Essays, Symposia, and Interviews on Republic of Wine and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
    co-authored by Xudong Zhang and Mo Yan (我们时代的写作——对话《酒国》《生死疲劳》
    Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780192990265
  • ICCT series 1: Rethinking Enlightenment in Global and Historical Contexts
    co-ed: NAKAJIMA Takahiro , ZHANG Xudong, & JIANG Hui
    Tokyo: The University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy, 2011. ISSN: 1882-742X
  • Duihua qimeng shidai 对话启蒙时代 (A Discourse on The Age of Enlightenment)
    Xudong Zhang & Wang Anyi
    Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2008. ISBN 978-7-108-02952-2
  • Postsocialism and Cultural Politics: China in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century
    Duke University Press, 2008.
  • Qidi 启迪 (Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin)
    edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Xuodong Zhang and Ban Wang, with an introduction by Xudong Zhang
    Paperback edition issued by OUP (Hong Kong) in 1998. Reprint. Simplified (mainland Chinese) edition: Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2008. ISBN 978-7-108-02
  • Letters from New York
    Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 2006.
  • Quanqiuhua shidai de wenhua rentong (Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization)
    Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005. 2nd edition, 2006 (ISBN：7301081499)
  • Whither China: Intellectual Politics of Contemporary China
    edited and introduced by Xudong Zhang
    Duke University Press, 2002. (ISBN 0822326485)
  • Postmodernism and China
    co-edited with Arif Dirlik
    Duke University Press, 2000. (ISBN 0822325446)
  • Chinese Modernism in the Era of Reforms: Cultural Fever, Avant-garde Fiction, and New Chinese Cinema
    Duke University Press, 1997. (ISBN: 0822318466)
  • Pi Ping De Zong Ji
    Beijing: San Lian Shu Dian, 2003. (ISBN: 7108018624)
  • Huan Xiang De Zhi Xu
    Oxford University Press, 1997. (ISBN: 019586008X)
  • The Cultural Logic of the Late Capitalism (Wan Qi Zi Ben Zhu Yi De Wen Hua Luo Ji)
    Fredric Jameson, edited by Xudong Zhang
    Oxford University Press, 1996. (ISBN: 0195864824)
  • Charles Baudelaire
    Walter Benjamin, trans. by Xudong Zhang
    San Lian Shu Dian, 1989. (ISBN: 7108001535)

Selected Articles