Cold Literature 冷的文學

Gao Xingjian, 2000 Noble Laureate in Literature, approaches his writing with a strong conviction of the purity of literature and its dignity as art. The result is what he calls "Cold Literature", personal, detached, apolitical and antipathetic to noisy slogan-mongering writing, yet this literature also manages to be compelling and engaging with the strongest cogency.

The present anthology contains many gems of Gao's works. It presents an all-round picture of Gao and his many talents-novelist, playwright, poet, painter and theorist-and takes the reader into a world that is uniquely Gao's, the quest for the self and its salvation, the depth of his understanding of the tragedy of modern man and ultimately, the dignity of being human. 

Cold Literature brings together for the first time two English translators of Gao Xingjian's works, Gilbert C. F. Fong and Mabel Lee. Some of the translations in this collection are newly produced, and others have been revised, so that the beauty and musicality of Gao's language are revealed in Chinese as well as in English.

高行健為2000年諾貝爾文學獎得主,他深信文學是純粹的,而且具有藝術的尊嚴。他一直以此為寫作的原則,練就出一種「冷的文學」。甚麼是「冷的文學」？它只屬於個人,抽離而非政治化,逃避口號式的喧囂,文氣卻又沛然洋溢紙上。

高氏集小說家、劇作家、畫家及理論家於一身,藝博而精。本文集輯錄他各類型的文學作品,又獲高氏惠借其水墨畫作為插圖,以現藝術家面貌。讀者讀其文、賞其畫,猶如進入高氏的美學世界,探索自我和自救,剖析現代人的悲劇,又見為人的尊嚴。

《冷的文學》首度合編方梓勳及陳順妍的英文譯著,所有譯文均經重新修訂,部份更為初次問世。高氏的語言透現意美和樂美,妙譯英語,亦可作如是觀。