About this Event
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Aesthetics of Risk in Franco-East Asian Literatures is the first book that examines the concept of risk in non-anglophone world literature. Focusing on how risk is produced and reshaped by literary aesthetics, Li argues that risk is a creative rather than negative force in world literature. Instead of disaster narratives, Li approaches risk from the fresh perspective of ludic aesthetics, or playful, gamelike, illusionistic and experimental literary strategies. Comparatively analysing an original selection of texts by modern and contemporary French-Francophone and East Asian writers, each chapter focuses on a particular genre such as the novel, life-writing, poetry, and image-texts. The reimagination of risk in literature is revealed to be closely related to different forms of play such as structured games, masquerade, poetic and intermedial experimentation. Franco-East Asian literatures help us rethink risk in linguistically diverse and cross-cultural contexts, providing a new paradigm for comparative criticism and world literature.
The Aesthetics of Risk in Franco-East Asian Literatures was published by Cambridge University Press in February 2026.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
aofan Amy Li is Associate Professor in Comparative Cultural Studies at the UCL School of European Languages, Culture, and Society. Her educational background is in French, Art History, and Comparative Literature. After she earned her MPhil and PhD at Queens' College, Cambridge, she was a Junior Research Fellow in Comparative Literature & Translation at St Anne's College, Oxford and a Visiting Scholar in French & Comparative Studies at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. Li is a member of the AILC/ICLA (International Comparative Literature Association) Research Committee on Literary Theory. She also commissions books as co-editor of the series 'Routledge Studies in East Asian Translation'. From 2014-2015, she edited the Oxford Comparative Criticism & Translation Review.
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ABOUT THE EVENT
Xiaofan Amy Li will present her book and (Emeritus Professor of French, UCL SELCS) and (Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Cultures, Bristol University) will respond before opening the discussion to a Q&A with the audience.
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This event is also part of the activities of SELCS-CMII's Research Cluster 'World Literatures & Cultures'
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
IAS Common Ground, G11, South Wing, Gower Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
