New Books in East Asian Studies Nan Z. Da, The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (Princeton UP, 2025)
Aug 21, 2025
Nan Z. Da, an Associate Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University, bridges the worlds of Shakespeare and Chinese history in her discussion. She delves into the parallels between King Lear and Chinese narratives, emphasizing familial discord and power struggles. Da explores how modern Chinese history resonates with the tragic themes of Lear, reflecting on authority and authoritarianism. She also shares insights on adapting Lear for Chinese audiences and hints at her future projects focusing on the Chinese diaspora.
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Lear Mirrors Historical Complexity
- Nan Z. Da finds King Lear's structural trickiness mirrors the convoluted sequence of Chinese history.
- She uses the play's ambiguity to explore how historical events become hard to analogize and narrate.
Lear and Regime Change
- Lear belongs to Shakespeare's post-Elizabethan tragedies and engages with catastrophic regime change.
- Da argues the play's relation to history is unusually complex and generative for comparative reading.
Making Calls In History
- Lear's events are unreplicable yet the play teaches how to 'make a call' about historical moments.
- Da links this to Chinese literary concern with judgment and the historian's dilemma.
