Translingual practice : literature, national culture, and translated modernity--China, 1900-1937

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Translingual practice : literature, national culture, and translated modernity--China, 1900-1937

Lydia H. Liu

Stanford University Press, 1995

  • : hbk
  • : pbk

Available at  / 34 libraries

Note

Bibliography: p. 433-458

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: hbk ISBN 9780804725347

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?

Table of Contents

  • 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.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780804725354

Description

Are languages incommensurate? If so, how do people establish and maintain hypothetical equivalences between words and their meanings? What does it mean to translate one culture into the language of another on the basis of commonly conceived equivalences? This study-bridging contemporary theory, Chinese history, comparative literature, and culture studies-analyzes the historical interactions among 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 contacted/collided with European/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 legitimized 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?

Table of Contents

Preface 1. Introduction: the problem 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.

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