Nobel laureate uses transmedia in pursuit of artistic freedom

What is it about?

L'annee Gao is the first post-Nobel project by Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese-language writer to win the Nobel Literature Prize. This paper examines how l’année Gao conveys death in five different medial forms (painting, poetry, play, opera, cinema) that echo and respond to each other, thereby presenting a coherent attempt to situate the monumentalizing effects of the Nobel’s prestige as a subject of his reflections.

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Photo by Hanna Zhyhar on Unsplash

Photo by Hanna Zhyhar on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The study of Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese-language writer to win the Nobel Literature Prize, is an industry in itself. However, there remains a lack of extensive discussions on Gao's first post-Nobel project: the l'annee Gao festival organized by the Marseille government. This article seeks to fill this gap by studying the festival from a transmedial perspective. It further introduces insights of world literature studies into the field of transmedia studies, which is generally focused on media and popular culture.