scholarly journals Comments on Per Wästberg’s Presentation Speech for the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Weiqin Liu ◽  
Chengfa Yu
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Mo Yan ◽  
Work World

<p>In Per Wästberg’s presentation speech for the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, some information should deserve the attention of the Chinese academic circle. There is some truth in his compliments of Mo Yan, such as “he is a poet”, “he is a wonderful portrayer of nature”, “he knows everything and describes everything especially about a forgotten peasant world”, “in his work, world literature speaks with a voice that drowns out most contemporaries”. Wästberg also offers his interpretation and review of some of Mo Yan’s works. However, the speech inevitably shows Westerners’ misunderstanding of Mo Yan and his works and their ideological prejudice against China and the Chinese society.</p>

World Literature, the opaque archive, and the untranslatable: J. M. Coetzee and some others

2021 ◽  
pp. 002198942098874
Author(s):  
Andrew van der Vlies
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Limit Case ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Theoretical Orientations ◽  
Disciplinary Field

A key concern of recent theoretical orientations in the development of “World Literature” as a discipline has been the question of accessibility to literatures in minor languages, which is to say of literal and metaphorical translatability, even transparency. This essay explores the challenge posed by the occlusion of the possible intertextual influence of works in such languages that are evident only as a trace in texts that now seem indisputably part of a canon of World Literature. What happens when the engagement of writers in this canon with cultural production in languages adjacent to those in which they themselves principally operate is not evident to an increasingly global community of scholars, and perhaps not even evidenced in an author’s archive (whether this is understood to be a material collection or indeed a virtual space conceptualized as the literary ecosystem in which an author has developed)? This essay addresses these questions with reference to the work of South African-born Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. Coetzee, and to the problem posed by some of his work’s (and his archive’s) others, here specifically Afrikaners and the work of Afrikaans-language writers. This consideration has implications not only for the current shape of Coetzee studies, but for that of World Literature more broadly, presenting something of a limit-case for the translation metaphor that directs some of its formulations as disciplinary field.

scholarly journals Virtue or Vice? Trauma Reflected in Mo Yan’s Frog

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-189
Author(s):  
Jinghui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Population Control ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Mo Yan ◽  
Epistolary Novel ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Ancient Chinese

The preoccupation with human nature is deeply rooted in literature. This paper starts from the ancient Chinese rudimentary understanding of human nature, then passes through Mo Yan’s Frog, an epistolary novel which covers the 30-year history of the Chinese population control policy through the description of an obstetrician in quest of her own human nature, and ends with her mediation and effort to retrieve goodness in the face of state will. Mo Yan, as well as many other Chinese people, does not deny that the onechild family policy had been laid down with a good intention to promote the general welfare of all citizens in China. But through a detailed reading of the novel Frog, it is argued that this policy might be a legalized illegality, which results in the schizophrenia of the main character out of the dilemma of justifying her deeds as virtue or vice. It is suggested that the experience of the female character in the novel, as well as in the contemporary Chinese society, should be investigated allegorically, and it reveals a universal issue about the complexity of human nature, for in a certain sense, one may start aiming to be Mother Theresa, but end in finding himself or herself merely a devoted clownlike servant of the state will.

scholarly journals Howard Goldblatt’s Translations of Mo Yan’s Works into English: Reader Oriented Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nishit Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Mo Yan ◽  
English Reader ◽  
Oriented Approach

This article examines the strategies followed by Howard Goldblatt, the official translator of Mo Yan while translating his works from Chinese into English. Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012 and critics argued that it was Goldblatt’s translation that was mainly responsible for Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize in Literature. Though Mo Yan’s works in translation are available in various languages, it is Goldblatt’s version that has become most popular. Therefore, from the perspective of Translation Studies, it would be interesting to identify the techniques used by Goldblatt that make his translations so special. The present paper compares titles, structure, and culture-specific expressions in the original and its English translation to identify the strategies followed by Howard Goldblatt in translating Chinese literary texts.

scholarly journals Impact of Globalization in Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Centre

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-151
Author(s):  
Dr. Girish Kousadikar
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Call Center ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
Common Phenomenon ◽  
The World

Literary genius of Indians has been widely appreciated all over the world. The prestigious titles starting from Nobel Prize to Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize are bestowed to Indian writers. It becomes very common phenomenon to nominate Indian writers for such honors in the world literature. Chetan Bhagat emerged as youth icon to contrive undercurrents of transformation evident in young generation of India.  This paper is a modest attempt to trace out impact of globalization in Bhagat’s novel One Night @the Call Center.

Nobel Prize Winning World Literature

1977 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Moran
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
World Literature

From Gaomi to Nobel

2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-282
Author(s):  
Jinquan Yu ◽  
Wenqian Zhang
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Mo Yan ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

The global translation field is characterized by a core-periphery structure. The translation of Chinese literature into English falls into the category of translation flows from the periphery to the core. Combining Bourdieu’s field and capital with world literature studies, this article explores the factors impinging on the production, circulation and consecration of Chinese literature in the English literary field with the English translation of Nobel Laureate Mo Yan’s fiction as an illustrative case study. By so doing, the article shows that the logic of market dominant in the English publishing field plays a decisive role in the production and circulation of Chinese literature in the English world. The translation agents such as translators, publishers and editors act as gatekeepers in the selection process and facilitators in the consecration process. With the analysis of the case of Mo Yan, the article argues that the success and canonization of his fiction in the English world relies not only on the aesthetic and commercial stakes of its publishing context, but also on the promotion and consecration via the joint efforts of the English publishers, the editors, the literary agent and Howard Goldblatt who possess a multiplicity of capital in their own fields.

The Nobel Prize, Mo Yan, and Contemporary Literature in China

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Zhang Qinghua ◽  
Andrea Lingenfelter
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Mo Yan
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