Writer. Author. Thinker. Storyteller.
CAROLYN T. BROWN, PHD
ABOUT ME
Now retired from my position as Director of the Office of Scholarly Programs and the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, I have returned to some of my former passions, which include the intersection of literature, culture, and psychology, with a special focus on Chinese literature. With this website I hope to connect and build community around issues of cultural perspectives and spiritual transformation.
Academically, I hold a PhD in Literature from American University, Washington, DC in addition to an MA in Chinese Literature and a BA in Asian Studies from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. During my academic career I published in several journals, including CLEAR and Modern Chinese Literature, and edited Psycho-sinology: The Universe of Dreams in Chinese Culture. My non-academic publications include reflections on my college experiences, my life’s journey, and my experience of my parents’ deaths.
Professionally, I served as Associate Dean for Humanities at Howard University before moving to the Library of Congress as the Director of Collections and Services and Director of Area Studies Collections with oversight of the Asian Division. Currently, I serve on the Board of Trustees of the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Community Perspectives
EVENTS
A Chinese Jungian:
Ego and Shadow in the Short Stories of
Lu Xun
May 11, 2018
An Evening with Carolyn Brown
7:30-9:00 PM, Friday, May 11, 2018
Jung Society of Washington, DC
The Library
5200 Cathedral Avenue
Washington, DC 20016
More information:
Psychological ‘Truth’ in Lu Xun’s
The True Story of Ah Q
April 12, 2018
4:00 - 5:00 PM, Thursday, April 12, 2018
Library of Congress
James Madison Memorial Building
Pickford Theater, Third Floor
Washington, DC 20540
Book Launch:
Reading Lu Xun Through Carl Jung
March 24, 2018
Meet-the-Author: Carolyn T. Brown, PhD
10:45 AM, Saturday, March 24, 2018
Cambria Press Booth (#109)
Cambria Sinophone World Series Reception
(invitation only)
7:30 - 9:30 PM, Saturday, March 24, 2018
Marriott Balcony A, Mezzanine Level
Washington Marriott Wardman Park
2660 Woodley Rd NW
Washington, DC 20008
I am very excited about my book release by Cambria Press as part of the Cambria Press Sinophone World Series Reception. This event is a meeting-in-conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Association of Asian Studies. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
The Short Stories of Lu Xun:
A New Perspective
June 16, 2016
12:00 - 1:00 PM, Thursday, June 16, 2016
Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson Building
Asian Division Reading Room Foyer – LJ 150
10 First St SE
Washington, DC 20540
(Metro: Capital South)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Asian Division & Asian Division Friends Society
Presents a Talk by
Dr. Carolyn Brown
The Short Stories of Lu Xun:
A New Perspective
READING LU XUN THROUGH CARL JUNG
I am extremely proud and honored to share my latest publication with you. My close friends, family, and of course my publisher know how much work was put into getting this book ready for release and publication. I’m so excited to finally share Reading Lu Xun Through Carl Jung with a wider audience and hope you enjoy it.
The book approaches Lu Xun’s stories differently. Carolyn T. Brown brings an African American intellectual’s perspective as well as a Jungian one to bear on her analysis of Lu Xun’s fiction, and this is valuable in my view. This book will appeal to scholars of comparative literature, ethnic studies, as well as Chinese Studies. I have colleagues in China who would be very interested in and impressed by it as well.
Jon von Kowallis
Professor and Chair of Chinese Studies, University of New South Wales
The application of Carl Jung’s structural views and insights to the analysis of Lu Xun has not been previously proposed or carried out. In this clear, well-organized, and accessible study, Carolyn T. Brown presents a carefully laid-out argument for reading Lu Xun through Jungian principles. One paradox for readers of Lu Xun’s fiction is that the world he captured has, on the one hand, changed beyond recognition and on the other hand, is wholly recognizable in terms of human and political relations. As such, readers often need guidance on both points. This book offers sensible, sensitive guidance, and its succinct coverage of every one of Lu Xun’s work of short fiction is an asset.
Eva Shan Chou
Professor and Chair, Department of English, Baruch College, City University of New York
This is truly a great contribution not only to Lu Xun studies but also to modern Chinese intellectual history. The approach is seminal and convincing. The arguments based on close reading of the texts are careful, coherent, and revealing. The meticulous analysis of the four images and their inner entanglement is practically unassailable. In particular, the interpretation is not a projective imagination but the revelation of the inner logic encoded in the texts, not something read into the texts but underlying the texts. What Carolyn T. Brown has accomplished in this book is akin to a highly skilled doctor who makes an accurate etiological diagnosis.
Peng Guoxiang
Qiu Shi Distinguished Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Intellectual History and Religions, Zhejiang University
I am impressed by this book by Carolyn T. Brown, who has been wise to choose Jung's version of psychoanalysis to interpret Lu Xun's short stories. As she rightly points out, the similarities in the structure of thought common to Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and Lu Xun are striking. Brown's reading of Lu Xun is convincing, especially her chapter on 'The True Story of Ah Q' where she brings in the analyses of Rene Girard and Erich Neumann to deepen our understanding of the story.
Yu Ying-shih
Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University
This book is a remarkable achievement of scholarship, hermeneutic interpretation, integration of disciplinary lenses. Carolyn T. Brown’s work in this book embodies the internal dialogue, what the Jungians in Zurich called the Auseinandersetzung, the give and take dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious which furthers both healing and development. Brown’s applications of Jung’s theories are valid and appropriate. Reading Lu Xun Through Carl Jung will help readers gain fresh, new perspectives in the appreciation of Lu Xun’s works, as well as a better understanding of Jung and his genuine applicability to the movements of life.
James Hollis, PhD
Executive Director, Jung Society of Washington
"He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!"
"Outwitted” by Edwin Markham
