Translingual Practice
Literature, National Culture and Translated Modernity - China, 1900-37
Published on 1. January 1995
Book
Hardback
496 pages
978-0-8047-2534-7 (ISBN)
Description
This study combines contemporary literary theory, Chinese history, comparative literature, and cultural studies to analyse the historical interactions between China, Japan, and the West in terms of "translingual practice". By this term, the author refers to the process by which new words, meanings, discourses, and modes of representation arose, circulated, and acquired legitimacy in early modern China as it came into contact with European and Japanese languages and literatures. In reexamining the rise of modern Chinese literature in this context, the book asks three central questions: How did 'modernity' and 'the West' become legitimised in May Fourth literary discourse? What happened to native agency in this complex process of legitimation? How did the Chinese national culture imagine and interpret its own moment of unfolding?
Reviews / Votes
"This important book will be of great interest and immense use to anyone in modern Chinese cultural studies who would understand the process by which new words, meanings, discourses, and modes of representation arose, circulated, and acquired legitimacy in early modern China through contact with European and Japanese languages and literatures." -Choice "This book will be of interest to a wide audience and is must reading for those pursuing comparative studies."-Viren Murthy, University of HawaiiMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
2 half-tones
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
800 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-2534-7 (9780804725347)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Preface; 1. Introduction: the p roblem of language in cross-cultural studies; Part I. Between the Nation and the Individual: 2. Translating national character Lu Xun and Arthur Smith; 3. The discourse of individualism; Part II. Translingual modes of representation: 4. Homo Economicus and the question of novelistic realism; 5. Narratives of desire: negotiating the real and the fantastic; 6. The deixis of writing in the first person; Part III. National Building and Culture Building: 7. Literary criticism as a discourse of legitimation; 8. The making of the Compendium of Modern Chinese Literature; 9. Rethinking culture and national essence; Appendixes; Notes; Index.