The Institute for Chinese Studies is pleased to present:
"Dream as Method: When the Real is Unreal"
Xinda Lian
Denison University
Brigid Vance
Lawrence University
Abstract: As is the case with other cultural traditions, the fascination with the “realm of dream” in China dates back to ancient times. When the quest for the mechanism behind the entangled relationship between the dream world and “reality” expanded to the field of literature and art, it takes the form of a narrative mode in which the mundane human experience is allowed an extra—otherwise impossible—spatial-temporal dimension. In the hands of the most talented writers, this narrative mode goes beyond dream in the literal sense and becomes a way of binary thinking capable of revealing the true nature of both the link and divide between “illusion” and “reality.” Though the contents and forms of the oneiric stories may vary, they are always bent on doing the same thing: to prove that the “unreal” is real, if the “real” is not necessarily unreal.
Xinda Lian is professor of Chinese language and literature, and Chair of East Asian Studies, at Denison University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His research interests include the Song dynasty poetry, the Song dynasty literati culture, and the stylistic analysis of the Zhuangzi text. He is the author of two books on the study of classical Chinese poetry and the study of the Zhuangzi text, as well as a variety of book chapters and articles on the study of classical Chinese literature and the study of the Zhuangzi.
Brigid E. Vance is assistant professor of history at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She received her doctorate from Princeton University in 2012. Brigid completed the Further Education in Analytical Psychology Program at the CG Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland where she engaged in dreamwork and a study of symbols. Her research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of dreams and dream divination in late Ming China. She also has research interests in early modern Japan, the history of psychology and psychoanalysis, and the use of material culture in pedagogy. In 2020, Brigid was awarded Lawrence University’s Award for Excellent Teaching by an Early Career Faculty Member. In addition, Brigid is the co-President for the Society of Ming Studies and a co-chair of the Gender Equity in Asian Studies group.
If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact Stephanie Metzger at metzger.235@osu.edu or 614-247-4725. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
