Chronology Entry
Year
1921
Text
Mao, Dun. Xin wen xue yan jiu zhe de ze ren ji nu li [ID D27632].
Mao Dun schreibt : “Our purpose in introducing Western literature is half for their literature and art and half for modern thoughts about the world… the latter should be more emphasized….we won't accept 'Art for Art's sake' literature… those modern works, like those of Wilde, the British aesthete, with the idea of 'life is decoration' should not be introduced without careful selection. Wilde's idea of art is the highest object; that life is only a decoration contradicts current cultural needs in China. If work like this is carelessly introduced….it will only undermine our new literature movement. Therefore, selective introduction is the foremost thing to consider when we discuss foreign literary works.”
Zhou Xiaoyi : Mao Dun regards Wilde as 'entirely a failure'. He calls him 'an individualist' and 'a hedonist' who 'has the gift to invent an 'airy castle' which is their paradise. He enters into this 'castle' to enjoy 'the fruits of the garden on the earth' and sees this as the meaning of life. For Wilde, 'to create beauty is to seek new sensations, self-enjoyment and self-indulgence. Yet what benefits and uses of this activity can be given to mankind ? The aesthetic wave moves higher above the sea of the life of human beings, but does this suggest any progress and advance in history ?'
Mao Dun schreibt : “Our purpose in introducing Western literature is half for their literature and art and half for modern thoughts about the world… the latter should be more emphasized….we won't accept 'Art for Art's sake' literature… those modern works, like those of Wilde, the British aesthete, with the idea of 'life is decoration' should not be introduced without careful selection. Wilde's idea of art is the highest object; that life is only a decoration contradicts current cultural needs in China. If work like this is carelessly introduced….it will only undermine our new literature movement. Therefore, selective introduction is the foremost thing to consider when we discuss foreign literary works.”
Zhou Xiaoyi : Mao Dun regards Wilde as 'entirely a failure'. He calls him 'an individualist' and 'a hedonist' who 'has the gift to invent an 'airy castle' which is their paradise. He enters into this 'castle' to enjoy 'the fruits of the garden on the earth' and sees this as the meaning of life. For Wilde, 'to create beauty is to seek new sensations, self-enjoyment and self-indulgence. Yet what benefits and uses of this activity can be given to mankind ? The aesthetic wave moves higher above the sea of the life of human beings, but does this suggest any progress and advance in history ?'
Mentioned People (2)
Mao, Dun
(Wuzhen, Zhejiang 1896-1981 Beijing) : Schriftsteller, Übersetzer
Wilde, Oscar
(Dublin 1854-1900 Paris) : Irischer Schriftsteller, Dramatiker, Dichter
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Ireland
/
Translator
Documents (2)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1997 | Zhou, Xiaoyi. Oscar Wilde : an image of artistic self-fashioning in modern China, 1909-1949. In : Images of Westerners in Chinese and Japanese literature : proceedings of the XVth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association‚ Literature as cultural memory, Leiden 1997. Ed. by Hua Meng, Sukehiro Hirakawa. (Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2000). | Publication / WilO4 |
|
| 2 | 2010 |
Guo, Ting. Translating a foreign writer : a case study of Byron in China. In : Literature compass ; vol. 7, no 9 (2010). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00727.x/full. |
Publication / Byr3 |
|