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<p>A defining feature of turn-of-the-millennium Chinese literature is its conscious engagement with environmental issues, referred to as “the ecological turn.” Jia Pingwa’s 2000 novel <i>Remembering Wolves</i> (<i>Huainian Lang</i>), an ecofictive narrative, helps to set the tone for such creative efforts in mainland China. The story infuses Jia’s rumination over species extinction into what would otherwise be a consistent “root-seeking” narrative, and this powerfully conveys to the reader the author’s apprehension and confusion about the drastic socio-environmental changes in contemporary China. Existing studies of the novel have examined the author’s language use, aesthetic pursuits, and eco-ethics in a transforming China, but limited attention has been paid to the global vision of the Anthropocene in his writing. This paper seeks to add depth to such inquiries through an analysis of the novel’s paradoxical conception of extinction photography. It draws on Susan Sontag’s theories of photography and Anthropocene studies of extinction so as to approach the relationships between humans and wolves, individuality and governmentality, and modernity and wilderness. It then contends that the story reveals the material and affective potential of extinction photography by describing a structure of feeling that is resonant with Albrecht’s solastalgia, a psycho-physical homesickness particular to the Anthropocene. By combining methods from comparative literature and ecocriticism, this study serves as a possible expansion of Sinophone literary studies and Anthropocene studies in general.</p>

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From nostalgia to solastalgia: the paradox of extinction photography in Jia Pingwa’s Remembering Wolves (2000)

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月22日

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  • Fan Ni

摘要

A defining feature of turn-of-the-millennium Chinese literature is its conscious engagement with environmental issues, referred to as “the ecological turn.” Jia Pingwa’s 2000 novel Remembering Wolves (Huainian Lang), an ecofictive narrative, helps to set the tone for such creative efforts in mainland China. The story infuses Jia’s rumination over species extinction into what would otherwise be a consistent “root-seeking” narrative, and this powerfully conveys to the reader the author’s apprehension and confusion about the drastic socio-environmental changes in contemporary China. Existing studies of the novel have examined the author’s language use, aesthetic pursuits, and eco-ethics in a transforming China, but limited attention has been paid to the global vision of the Anthropocene in his writing. This paper seeks to add depth to such inquiries through an analysis of the novel’s paradoxical conception of extinction photography. It draws on Susan Sontag’s theories of photography and Anthropocene studies of extinction so as to approach the relationships between humans and wolves, individuality and governmentality, and modernity and wilderness. It then contends that the story reveals the material and affective potential of extinction photography by describing a structure of feeling that is resonant with Albrecht’s solastalgia, a psycho-physical homesickness particular to the Anthropocene. By combining methods from comparative literature and ecocriticism, this study serves as a possible expansion of Sinophone literary studies and Anthropocene studies in general.