Penguin Classics and the Canonization of Chinese Literature in English Translation

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Menghan
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Politics Of Recognition ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
The Status ◽  
Literary System ◽  
Canonical Status

This article examines the process by which translated Chinese literature becomes ‘canonical’ in the anglophone literary system. Adopting a notion of the ‘classic’ that takes into account both essentialist and historical stances, it conducts a study of Penguin Classics originally written in Chinese under the aspects of choice of texts, translations, publishing, and literary-critical reception. It addresses the questions: What is the current canon of Chinese literature in English translation? What are the forces that certify some Chinese works as deserving canonical status in anglophone culture? And what consequences might the politics of recognition have for the understanding of world literature at large? It argues that translated texts are valorized by multiple mediators within institutional frameworks, and the status they are accorded reflects the structures of the global literary economy.

scholarly journals Small Literature as a Problem. Could It Be Solved?

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-289
Author(s):  
Dalia Satkauskytė
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Global System ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
The Status ◽  
Franco Moretti ◽  
Literary System

Th e article discusses the status and functioning of so-called small literatures, including Lithuanian literature, in the global system of world literature. Referring to Franco Moretti and Pascale Casanova’s interpretation of world literature system as based on the principle of inequality, the author discusses the conception of belonging to small literatures as a destiny and interprets the onecentric world literary system as hegemonic. Being dominated by grand literatures, small literatures have very restricted possibilities of gravitation towards the center of world literature. In that theoretical context, the article considers the following issues: is it possible and how is it possible to avoid the destiny of small literatures staying in the periphery of world literature, what role in this situation plays the writer himself, what depends on the culture and research politics, could literary scholars play the role of mediators and what could be the alternatives for onecentered world literary system.

A famine in Surat in 1631 and Dodos on Mauritius: a long lost manuscript rediscovered

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Winters ◽  
J. P. Hume ◽  
M. Leenstra
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Dutch East India Company ◽  
The Status ◽  
Insight Into

In 1887 Dutch archivist A. J. Servaas van Rooijen published a transcript of a hand-written copy of an anonymous missive or letter, dated 1631, about a horrific famine and epidemic in Surat, India, and also an important description of the fauna of Mauritius. The missive may have been written by a lawyer acting on behalf of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It not only gives details about the famine, but also provides a unique insight into the status of endemic and introduced Mauritius species, at a time when the island was mostly uninhabited and used only as a replenishment station by visiting ships. Reports from this period are very rare. Unfortunately, Servaas van Rooijen failed to mention the location of the missive, so its whereabouts remained unknown; as a result, it has only been available as a secondary source. Our recent rediscovery of the original hand-written copy provides details about the events that took place in Surat and Mauritius in 1631–1632. A full English translation of the missive is appended.

Against Global Literary Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Edmond
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
The World

Abstract Literary studies has taken a global turn through such institutional frameworks as global romanticism, global modernism, global anglophone, global postcolonial, global settler studies, world literature, and comparative literature. Though promising an escape from parochialism, nationalism, and Eurocentrism, this turn often looks suspiciously like another version of Anglo-European imperialism. This essay argues that, rather than continue the expansionary line of recent decades, global literary studies must allow other perspectives to draw into question its concepts, practices, and theories, including those associated with the terms literature, discipline, and comparison. As a settler colonial (Pākehā) scholar in Aotearoa New Zealand, I attend particularly to Māori literary scholars from Apirana Ngata, Te Kapunga Matemoana (Koro) Dewes, and Hirini Melbourne to Alice Te Punga Somerville, Tina Makereti, and Arini Loader. Their work highlights the limitedness of global literary studies in its current disciplinary guise. Disciplines remain important when they bring recognition to something previously marginalized, as in the battle to have Māori literature recognized within Pākehā institutions. What institutionalized modes of global literary studies need, however, is not discipline but indiscipline: a recognition of the limits of dominant disciplinary objects, frameworks, and practices, and an openness to other ways of seeing the world.

scholarly journals The administrative and canonical status of the Belarusian Metropolis during the periods of German occupation and post-war emigration (1941–1956)

2020 ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Aliaxandr V. Slesarau
Keyword(s):  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Church Life ◽  
National Question ◽  
The Status ◽  
Post War ◽  
Canonical Status

The article is devoted to considering the specifics of the administrative and canonical status of the Belarusian Metropolis in the diaspora, during 1946–1956 stayed in the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. The conclusion is drawn about what happened from 1950 to 1956 phasing down the status of the metropolis, which led to the cessation of its existence. One of the most important reasons for the liquidation of the Belarusian Metropolis in the diaspora seems to be the fear of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad bishop about the possible occurrence of disturbances in church life caused by the national question. The liquidation of the Belarusian Metropolis led to a deeper integration of Belarusian emigrants into the cultural environment of the Russian diaspora.

scholarly journals Tradition Versus and Modernity in Laila al-Juhani’s The Waste Paradise: An Intertextual Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1197-1202
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdullah Abduldaim Hizabr Alhusami
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Short Story ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Saudi Women ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Story Writer

The aim of this paper is to investigate the issue of intertextuality in the novel Alfirdaws Alyabab (The Waste Paradise) by the female Saudi novelist and short story writer Laila al-Juhani. Intertextuality is a rhetoric and literary technique defined as a textual reference deliberate or subtle to some other texts with a view of drawing more significance to the core text; and hence it is employed by an author to communicate and discuss ideas in a critical style. The narrative structure of Alfirdaws Alyabab (The Waste Paradise) showcases references of religious, literary, historical, and folkloric intertextuality. In analyzing these references, the study follows the intertextual approach. In her novel The Waste Paradise, Laila al-Juhani portrays the suffering of Saudi women who are less tormented by social marginalization than by an inner conflict between openness to Western culture and conformity to cultural heritage. Intertextuality relates to words, texts, or discourses among each other. Moreover, the intertextual relations are subject to reader’s response to the text. The relation of one text with other texts or contexts never reduces the prestige of writing. Therefore, this study, does not diminish the status of the writer or the text; rather, it is in itself a kind of literary creativity. Finally, this paper aims to introduce Saudi writers in general and the female writers in particular to the world literature.

scholarly journals A Review of the Overseas Communication of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Jia Fang ◽  
YanFang Hou
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Communication Channel ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Communication Content ◽  
Communication Situation ◽  
The World ◽  
Communication Effect

The novel the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi 三國演義）stands out among the most famous and influential works in Chinese literature. It was read by readers from all levels of society from the Emperor down all over the world. At present, most researches of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms focus on its English translation and its communication in a certain country, especially concentrated in neighboring countries or regions surrounding China, such as Thailand, Japan and so on. In order to provide researchers with a comprehensive and systematic review about its spread and impact, this research intends to investigate the current communication situation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in various countries from three aspects of communication form, communication strategies and communication effect. Then it is found that the overseas communication of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has diversified forms and various communication strategies, but there are still some deficiencies and problems in the process of overseas communication. In order to solve these problems, this paper puts forward corresponding suggestions from the perspectives of "communicator", "communication content" and "communication channel", with an aim to provide some reference for the overseas communication of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Translating the Translational: A Comparative Study of the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese Translations of Xiaolu Guo's A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Flair Donglai Shi
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
English Language ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Chinese Student ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Minor Literature ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Translational Strategies

The untranslatability of this particular novel does not come from the ‘resistant singularity’ claimed by world literature scholars like Emily Apter, but has to do instead with its inherently translational nature as a novel about intercultural (mis-)communication. Comparative close readings of the three versions published in Britain, Taiwan, and mainland China focus on paratexts, intra-textual visual design, and specific translational strategies. Caught between the established traditions of diasporic Chinese literature and liuxuesheng wenxue (‘overseas Chinese student writing’), A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers and its Chinese-language translations offer insights into the dialectic between ‘minor’ literature and ‘world’ literature, discussed here with a particular focus on the global hegemony of the English language.

Chinese Language and Literature Reform in The Beginning of The 20th Century

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chanh Nguyen Thi Mai ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Language Reform ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The 19Th Century

It is difficult not to mention language reform when referring to Chinese literature modernization between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Language played a critical role in facilitating the escape of Chinese literature from Chinese medieval literary works in order to integrate into world literature. The language reform not only laid a foundation for modern literature but also contributed considerably to the grand social transformation of China in the early days of the 20th century. Chinese new-born literature was a literature created by spoken language; in Chinese terms, it was considered as a literature focusing on “dialectal speech” instead of “classical Chinese” used in the past. In international terms, it can be named as living language literature which was used to replace classic literary language in ancient books – a kind of dead language. This article will analyze how language reform impacted Chinese modern literature at the beginning of the 20th century.

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