Shaobo Xie
Positions
Professor
Contact information
Background
Educational Background
B.A. English Lang & Or Literature, Hunan University, 1979
Doctor of Philosophy English Lang & Or Literature, University of Calgary, 1993
M.A. English Lang & Or Literature, University of British Columbia, 1987
M.A. English Lang & Or Literature, Hunan University, 1982
Biography
I am a professor in the Department of English, with teaching and research interests in literary theory, postcolonial literature and theory, Chinese Canadian literature, translation studies, globalization and cultural studies, Chinese modernity, Taoist philosophy, comparative literature, and Michel Foucault. Some courses I have taught at the University of Calgary in the past include ENGL 303: Theories for Reading, along with several graduate courses in theoretical and cultural studies. My recent publications include works on postcolonialism and translation, such as "Translation for the Subaltern" (Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies vol. 10, no. 2), "World Literature, Translation, Untranslatability" (Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies vol. 7, no. 2), and "Restaging World Literature in the Age of Neocolonialism/Neoliberalism" (Comparative Literature and Culture (CLCWeb), special issue on colonialism). Additionally, I am a founding member of The Asian-Pacific Forum on Translation and Intercultural Studies, a member of Canadian East Asian Studies Association, and am on the editorial board for Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies, and several other journals. My current projects include "Translating Confucian Parrhēsia: A Foucauldian Perspective", a Foucauldian study of the Confucian tradition of parrhēsia, and "Translation for the Subaltern: Access to Justice in Digital Economies", a project seeking to construct a genealogy of the concept of the subaltern, exploring how in different socio-historical contexts it has been refigured in response to a certain exigency of the moment.
Research
Areas of Research
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| ENGL 303 LEC 01 01 | Theories for Reading | 2020 |
| ENGL 517.31 SEC 01 S01 | Adv Topic Thrt'l Cultr'l Study | 2021 |
| ENGL 607.64 SEC 01 S01 | Topics Thrtc'l/Cltr'l Studies | 2021 |
Projects
This research project is a Foucauldian study of the Confucian tradition of parrhēsia. It reads Confucius against Confucianism and the various uses that have been made of it over time and in the age of global capitalism, translating Confucius’ key concepts such as junzi (authentic man), shi (educated person dedicated to disseminating Tao or truth), and ren (humane care, human relationality, unconditional care of others) into contemporary discursive language. It explores how Confucius, as an “untimely” educator and philosopher, provided his contemporaries with what Nietzsche calls “a new image of man,” a critical aesthetics of existence, and a new technology of the self. The research leads to the conclusion that what is called Confucian capitalism, which has been created to add a human face to capitalism, has nothing to do with Confucius and the Confucian tradition of parrhēsia and aesthetics of existence.
The dialogues on the question of how to represent the subaltern are always riveted on exploring how to translate their meanings, values, desires, and experiences without further silencing their voice and erasing their history. For, as Spivak has always reminded us, theories, concepts, and frameworks we unintentionally reinforce or reproduce Eurocentrism or West-centered knowledge structures. The effort to represent the subaltern must always mark its own failure. This research project seeks to construct a genealogy of the concept of the subaltern, exploring how in different socio-historical contexts it has been refigured in response to a certain exigency of the moment. By reason of contemporary global subalterns’ experiences of exclusion from hegemonic power structures and their exposure to social inequalities and various forms of (neo)colonial violence, it is necessary to revise the parameters of subalternity to accommodate newly emergent subaltern sentiments and subjectivities in the age of neoliberal capitalism and digital imperialism. When subaltern peoples are denied ability to speak directly for themselves and access to information in digital economies, what is erased are their languages and idioms outside which they can neither speak nor be heard. The last part of the project addresses the problems and politics of translation as well as the urgent need to launch counterhegemonic translation strategies to expand and redefine the concepts of justice, equality, democracy, wellbeing, and development such that they can reflect the voices, perspectives, desires, and experiences of the subaltern. One of the most pressing tasks today is, by way of translation, to enable the subaltern to speak for themselves and to be heard sympathetically and respectfully.
Awards
- Teaching Excellence Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, University of Calgary. 2009
Publications
- "Translation for the Subaltern". Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies vol. 10, no. 2. 95-107. (2023)
- "World Literature, Translation, Untranslatability". Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies vol. 7, no. 2. 151-163. (2020)
- "Green Religion as a Way of Life: Thoreau and his Ecocentric Aesthetics of Existence". ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews vol. 33, no. 4. 252-262. (2018)
- "Graham Harman’s Poetics of Objects". Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art vol. 38, no. 5. 34-42. (2018)
- "Restaging World Literature in the Age of Neocolonialism/Neoliberalism". Comparative Literature and Culture (CLCWeb), special issue on colonialism. 1-15. (2018)
- "Does Literature Matter Today? Thoughts of the Outside". CounterText vol. 4, no. 1. 98-113. (2018)
- "Translation and Globalization". Eds. Jonathan Evans and Fruela Fernandez. Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics, Routledge. 79-94. (2018)
- "Urban Space and the Ambiguity of Chinese Modernity". City, Culture, and their Representations, Sichuan UP. 65-73. (2016)
- "Is the World Decentred? A Postcolonial Perspective on Globalization". Ed. Richard J. Lane. Global Literary Theory, Routledge. 888-901. (2013)
- "Cultural Translation in the Age of Globalization". Ed. Om Dwivedi and Martin Kich. Postcolonial Theory in the Global Age: Interdisciplinary Essays, McFarland. 87-103. (2013)
- Other Positions: Cultural Critique and Critical Culture (Linglei lichang: wenhua pipan yu pipan wenhua). Trans. Zhao Guoxin and Chen Li. Nanjing UP. (2008)
- The Postmodern Problematizing of History. Co-edited with Pamela McCallum, trans. Lan Renzhe. The Chinese Social Sciences Press. (2008)
- Dialogues on Cultural Studies: Interviews with Contemporary Critics. Co-edited with Wang Fengzhen. University of Calgary Press. (2002)
- Cultural Politics of Resistance (dikangde wenhua zhengzhixue). Trans. Wang Min’an and Chen Yongguo. The Chinese Social Sciences Press. (1999)
- "Foucault's Aesthetics of Existence: Subject Reinvention and Self-Transcendence". International Conference on Foucault, Tsinghua University, Beijing. (2024)
- "World Literature, Translation, Untranslatability". East and West: The 4th International Summit Forum of Writers, Translators and Critics/Editors, Nanning University, Nanning. (2019)
- "Foucauldian Heterotopia and Aesthetics of Existence: Resistance to Neoliberalism". The 2018 Media and Architecture Exhibition & Forum, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. (2018)
- (Keynote Address) "Deconstruction and Call of Democracy". Forum on Body, Machine, Space, Politics, Fine Arts Museum of the Central China Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. (2011)
- (Keynote Address) "Displacement, Differentiation, Difference: A Critical Perspective on Globalization". The CACS Annual Conference on "Culturepoles: City Spaces, Urban Politics and Metropolitan Theory", McMaster University. (2004)
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