Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature is a significant milestone in modern Tibetan cultural studies. In the West, scholarship on modern Tibetan literature has only begun to seriously develop in recent years, in part because modern Tibetan literature itself is a recent phenomenon. Tibetan writing in Chinese has received more attention from scholars in the China field, but Tibetan-language literature has largely remained accessible only to those with the ability to read it. Lama Jabb's book, which addresses itself exclusively to Tibetan-language material, thus represents a major contribution to the study of Tibetan literature and to modern Chinese cultural studies more generally.

The book consists of seven chapters, chapters one and seven being an introduction and a conclusion, respectively. In between, the author constructs a lucid and detailed argument built around the central theme that the rupture between modern Tibetan writers and their predecessors has been greatly exaggerated. Traditionally, the 1978 Third Plenum has been emphasized as the turning point when more liberal policies allowed for the flourishing of a new literature in Tibet. Lama Jabb lays out an alternative to this neat break, emphasizing instead “the persistence of Tibet's artistic past and living traditions in the creativity of the present” (p. 231). The second pillar of Lama Jabb's argument is indicated by the book's subtitle, “the inescapable nation.” That is to say, the literature and other art forms investigated all reflect a core concern with preserving and perpetuating a “Tibetan national identity” (p. 2).

These contentions are meticulously demonstrated through a focus on modern Tibetan poetry, fiction and popular songs. In chapter two, popular music is read as a “public space” in which Tibetans exhibit their “common concerns and collective identity under difficult political circumstances” (p. 29). Chapter three dispels the idea that social criticism is a product of (Chinese-influenced) developments since the 1950s by setting the fiction of prominent modern authors such as Dhondup Gyal alongside a range of traditional oral and literary sources. Chapter four turns to the narration of cultural trauma, specifically the 1958 uprisings in Amdo, and traces the indebtedness of Tsering Dhondup's novel The Red Wind Scream (Rlung dmar 'ur 'ur) to oral precedents. Chapter five concerns the Third Generation of Tibetan poets. Reading against their self-characterization as radical iconoclasts, Lama Jabb instead stresses their connections to the major modern poets who came before them – and, of course, their inheritance of traditional genres such as mgur. Finally, chapter six addresses erotic poetry, tempering our understanding of its seemingly taboo and transgressive newness with examples of its various precedents. In each of these chapters, intellectual concern with national identity is identified as the glue that binds these literary works together.

Throughout Oral and Literary Continuities, Lama Jabb demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge of modern Tibetan literary texts that is, moreover, constantly complemented by wide readings in classical Tibetan literature. The breadth and depth of his reading across genres and periods is truly an exceptional feat of scholarly endeavour. Furthermore, the book is richly endowed with synopses of short stories and novels, as well as numerous excerpts of Tibetan poetry, ballads, and modern song lyrics in translation, providing the uninitiated reader with invaluable access to the material under discussion. Many of these translations, products of the author’s own hand, appear here in English for the first time.

These are some of the book's many strengths. However, we encounter serious issues when it comes to the theorization of nationalism that these close readings are made to serve. For Lama Jabb, the Tibetan nation is “constituted of history, culture, language, religion, territory, shared myths and rituals, collective memories, and a common sense of belonging to a troubled land” (p. 232). Nationalism as a modern construct is dismissed as a “fashionable notion” (p. 47). This leads us to some highly problematic conclusions. For instance, the author's contention that the idea of a “Tibet” (“Bod”) consisting of “Cholka-sum” (the “provinces” of U-Tsang, Amdo, and Kham) was “etched into the Tibetan imagination and part of common parlance well before the establishment of Communist Chinese rule” (p. 43) may be valid, but to assert that this proves the existence of an enduring idea of a Tibetan “nation” is dubious. There is a tendency towards dehistoricization here, in which the existence of signifiers such as “Tibet” and “the three provinces” in old texts is presented as evidence that a concept has been transferred, unaltered, from distant history to the present day. For a specific refutation of this point, we might point to Gray Tuttle's work on the shifting nature of geographical conceptions in Amdo (see Gray Tuttle, ed., Mapping the Modern in Tibet, IITBS, 2011).

This focus on cultural nationalism leads to the curious absence of the actual nation-state in which all of this literature was produced. The book references no Chinese sources, and connections with major Chinese and transnational literary movements (scar literature, magical realism, misty poetry) are avoided in favour of emphasizing a purely “Tibetan” heritage, giving the impression that Tibetans needed no interaction with outside sources to create the texts under discussion. This is absolutely not to say that there is a Chinese cultural hegemony over Tibetan literature, but rather than rejecting outside influence, could we not consider instead how new concepts were translated, reinterpreted and reinvented by modern Tibetan intellectuals in combination with the pre-existing cultural heritage Lama Jabb investigates so well?

Despite these significant reservations, Lama Jabb's achievement is to be highly praised. We can only hope that his work will inspire further advances in the field, and such an assertive standpoint – always argued with clarity and an assured grasp of the material – is certain to do just that. It will be essential for inclusion in any syllabus on modern Tibetan literature, but it should prove equally vital for modern Chinese literature courses that seek to be creative and to challenge our conventional understandings of the field. For scholars and students alike, Lama Jabb's book provides expert guidance to a world too long overlooked by mainstream Chinese literary scholarship.