Education
Yanli He
Ph.D, Sichuan University (2013)
Post-Doctoral Fellow, East China Normal University
Visiting Scholar, Harvard University
Visiting Scholar, Stanford University
Interests and Expertise
African American Literature and Literary Theory
Socialist Realism and World Literature
Film Aesthetics
Minority Soldiers’ Memoirs and U.S.-China, Sino-Soviet Diplomacy History during World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War
Publications
Books in Progress (English, independent author):
1. Crossing Color, Iron and Bamboo Curtains, forthcoming.
Books (English)
2.The Socialist Side of World Literature, Lexington Books, 2025 (388 pages, independent author).
3. Mapping Minor/Small and World Literatures: Periphery and Center, Lexington Books, 2024 (with Nicholas Birns, 294 pages).
Books (Chinese)
4. The Talking Book: Henry Louis Gates’s African American Literary Theory (《会说话的书——盖茨的非裔文学理论研究》),Sichuan University, October 2023 (372 pages, independent author).
5. Boris Groys’s Literary and Art Theory(《鲍里斯·格罗伊斯文艺理论研究》),Sichuan University Press, August 2022 (252 pages, independent author).
6. Gender Poetics and Film Study (《性别诗学下的电影研究》), Sichuan University Press, May 2013 (202 pages, the first and primary author).
Articles (English):
1. “Impact of World Wars and the Cold War on Langston Hughes”, Alea:Estudos Neolatinos, December 2022, pp.30-55.
2. “Introduction: Socialist World Literature” (Yanli He and Daniel Pratt), Journal of Narrative Theory, Fall 2022, pp. 267-282.
3. “Equal Aesthetic Rights, Semi-Centers/Peripheries and World Literatures”, chapter 2, in Littératures périphériques, littératures mondiales, Peter Lang Publisher, 2022, pp.31-61.
4. “John Kinsella, International Regionalism and World Literature”, Angelaki, March 2021, pp. 81-91.
5. “Rethinking Minor Literature and Small Literature as the Secondary Zone Literature”, Territories, August 2020, pp.32-48.
6. “Boris Groys and the Total Art of Stalinism”, Australian journal: Thesis Eleven, May 2019, Vol. 152, pp.38-51.
7. “Water Curtain and World Literature: Tamizdat, Samizdat, and Sots-Art”, Journal of World Literature, forthcoming.
8. “Writers’ Sense of Southeast Asia and Australia in the Cold War Age”, Territories, forthcoming.
9. “Erasing the Pink on World Atlas: Re-mapping African American Literature”, Space and Culture, forthcoming.
10. “From Capitan Cook to One-Eyed Aboriginal Ghost: Comparing Melissa Lucashenko’s Four-Layered Perspectives in Mullumbimby and Too Much Lip”, forthcoming.
Articles (Chinese):
11. “The Bonded Phillis Wheatley and Three Stages of African American Literary Theory”, Frontier of Literary and Art Theory, Spring 2023.
12. “Cold Media, Hot Media and the Cultural Logic of Equal Aesthetic Rights: Boris Groys’ Art and Literary Theory”, Difference, Sichuan University Press, 2022, pp.160-179.
13. “Gates and African American Literary Canon Strategies”, Journal of Lan Zhou University, 2018(1), 110-116.
14. “Gates and African American Formalism”, Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2017(4), 258-272.
15. “Anti-Essentialism and Essentialism of Gates’ Literary Theory”, Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2013(3), 203-210.
16. “Gender Equality and Gates’ Literary Theory”, Contemporary Literary Criticism, 2013(2), 23-27.
17. “Naipaul Fallacy and Gates’ Literary Theory”, Foreign Literatures, 2012(3), 23-30.
18. “From Signifying Monkey to Esu: On Gates’ Literary Theory”, Journal of Sichuan Normal University, 2013(1), 61-67.
19. “Rethinking Gates’ Theory from Post-Colonial Perspective”, Journal of Chengdu University, 2012(2), 62-66.
20. “The Identity Transposition and The Great Chain of Being: Django Unchained”, Journal of Mian Yang Normal University, 2014(5), 146-150.
21. “Flexible Blackness and Rigid Subjectivity: The Butler”, Journal of San Xia University, 2014(5), 97-101.
22. “Their Eyes Were Watching Heaven: Interpreting Twelve Years of Slave”, Journal of Lang Fang Normal University, 2014(4), 32-36.
23. “The African Identity Problems in Amistad”, Journal of Sichuan Cultural Industry College, 2014(2), 33-38.
24. “African Identity in British Films”, Journal of Ning Bo Radio & TV University, 2014(2), 116-120.
25. “The Mobius Strip from Body to Post-body: Feminism Research of Desert Flower”, Journal of Guang Dong Radio & TV University, 2012(4), 55-60.
26. “The Definition of Colonial and Post-Colonial Film”, Journal of Chengdu University, 2014(4), 67-72.
27. “Review of Post-Colonial Film Theory”, Journal of Guang Dong Radio & TV University, 2014(2), 49-54.
28. “Chinese Identity in British Films”, Journal of Hai Nan Radio & TV University, 2013(1), 24-31.
29. “The Identity Temptation in Posthumous Life Space: On Love for Life”, Journal of Ning Bo Radio & TV University, 2013(2), 117-121.
30. “On Kung Fu Panda I & II”, Journal of Guang Dong Radio & TV University, 2013(2), 78-83.
31. “The Female Identities in Secret Fan and Snow Flowers”, Journal of San Xia University, 2012(3), 108-112.
32. “Three Kinds of Female Identities in The Piano in a Factory”, Journal of Ning Bo Radio & TV University, 2012(2), 118-122.
33. “Mr. & Mrs Single: The Identity Choice of Female Fake Singles”, Movie and Literature, 2011(19), 68-71.
34. “The National Aesthetic Features and Cultural Origins in West China”, Contemporary Literary Criticism, 2012(6), 101-104 (the second author, the first author is Prof. Li Tiandao).
35. “Life Aesthetics of Zhou Yi”, Social Science Research, 2012(6), 189-205 (the second author, the first author is Prof. Li Tiandao).
36. “Art Space and Political Power: Thomas De Quincey’s Museum Theory”, Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2016(2), 317-331.
37. “The Buddhism of Ki-duk Kim’s Film”, Journal of Ning Bo Radio & TV University, 2012(3), 117-121.
38. “Jack Sully’s Identity in Avatar”, Journal of Hai Nan Radio & TV University, 2012(1), 8-13.
39. “The Identity Choice of the ‘Forth World’ in The Only Good Indian”, Movie Literature, 2011(21), 26-29.
40. “Dances with Wolves: The Vacillating Identity of John Dunbar”, Journal of Biographical Literature, 2011(1), 51-56.
Editing Special Issues
1. “Socialist World Literature”, Journal of Narrative Theory, Vol. 52, Fall 2022, Yanli He and Daniel Pratt, pp. 267-418.
2. “Periphery and Center: Mapping Minor/Small and World Literatures”, Space and Culture, forthcoming, 2023, Yanli He and Robert T.Tally.
3. “Socialist Realism and World Literature within the Soviet Union”, Journal of World Literature, forthcoming, Daniel Pratt and Yanli He, forthcoming.
4. “World War and Cold War on Literature”, Alea, Summer 2022, Yanli He, Nicholas Birns, Ana Maria Lisboa, and Jaime Ginzburg.
Leading Projects:
1. 2017 China Postdoctoral Science Foundation for International Conference and Communication, “Soyinka’s Nobel Prize and World Minor Literature” (May 31 of 2017, no authorized number)
2. 2016 State Social Philosophical Scientific Foundation Research Program of China (State PSFRP), “Boris Groys’ Literary and Art Theory” (No. 16CWW002)
3. 2015 Ministration of Education of Social Science Foundation in China, “Gates and the Historical Problems of African American Formalism” (No. 15YJC751017)
4. 2015 China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, “Gates and the Historical Problems of African American Literary Theory” (No. 2015M571517)
5. 2015 Sichuan University Publishing Foundation, “The Aesthetic Hegemony and Others’ Identity in American and British Films” (No. skcb201504)
6. 2014 Sichuan Province Social Science Foundation, “African American Theory and its White Context” (No. skq201415)
7. 2014 Sichuan University Young Scholar Foundation, “The Double Faces of Gates’ Literary Theory” (No.SC14C024)
Awards:
Outstanding Research Award, Sichuan University, January 2022
Outstanding Teaching Award for 2020–2021, Sichuan University, October 2021
Outstanding Student Counselor, Sichuan University, December 2015
Outstanding Researcher. CASHL, July 2014
Academic Conferences:
1. 2021ACLA (American Comparative Literature Association), co-organized seminar: “Spy Images from the Nineteenth Century to the Cold War Age”, with Daniel Pratt, Montreal, April 19-22, 2021.
2. 2020ACLA, co-organized seminar: “Socialist Side of World Literature”, with Daniel Pratt, Chicago, March 19-22, 2020.
3.2019ACLA, co-organized seminar: “Debating (Ultra)Minor/Small and World Literatures in the Age of Cold War”, with Iker Arrazon, Georgetown University, WD.C., March 7-10, 2019.
4. 2018ACLA, organized seminar: “Debating (Ultra)Minor/Small and World Literature”, presented paper “Minor/Small Literatures in the Cold War Age”, UCLA, March 29 to April 1.
5. 2017 World Literature Congress(2nd) Conference, UCL Belgium, October 18- 22, presented paper “Equal Aesthetic Rights of (Ultra)Minor/Small and World Literatures”.
6. 2017 Santiago seminar “Minor/Small Literature & Culture” in Spain, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, July 12-14, presented paper “Loose Canon and African American Literature”.
7. 2017ACLA, Utrecht University, July 6-9, co-organized seminar: “Worlding Minor/Small Literatures”, with Cesar Dominguez, presented paper “Soyinka’s Nobel Prize and World Minor Literature”.
Courses:
Literary Theory
Classical Literature and Film Re-Composition
The Third World Nobel Prize Winner in Literature
Contemporary Western Literary Trends
Visual Culture Studies