“The critical reception of Herman Melville in China” (Publication, 2012)
Year
2012
Text
Yang, Jincai. The critical reception of Herman Melville in China. In : Leviathan ; vol. 14, issue 2 (2012). (MelH2)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Yang, Jincai
(um 2005) : Professor Nanjing University
Mentioned People (1)
Melville, Herman
(New York, N.Y. 1819-1891 New York, N.Y.) : Schriftsteller, Dichter
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (8)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1926-2000 |
Herman Melville and China : general. Yang Jincai : In the late 1970s wide interest in Melville occurred when China slowly walked away from the shadow of the Cultural Revolution. Throughout the 1980s, Melville studies in China were characterized by little reference to American scholarship. The Chinese critical fervor during the period featured a focus on the 'gloominess of Melville'. From the 1990s on, comparative studies of Melville and his contemporaries or disciples began to claim a fuller place in Chinese academe. These comparative approaches render a wealth of literary material that has helped readers in China understand Melville's writing. The most ambitious Melville publishing venture of the 1990s was the translation of Moby Dick. Heading into the twenty-first century, Melville scholarship in China has advanced in varied ways. The brisk publication of Melville's works has augmented Chinese scholars' unrelenting efforts in Melville studies. In contrast with the comparative approaches, critics now depart from the traditional trajectory of biographical and historicist approaches and focus on Melville's artistic project including his manipulation of narration, characterization, and writing technique. Norman Michael Bock : Melville, Herman. Moby Dick : Chinese do not tend, at least not to the extant westerners do, to accord divinity to a single, conscious being. The Judeo-Christian assumption of monotheism encounters constant challenge even in China today, where small family temples may contain side-by-side statues of Christ, the Buddha, and Guanyin – all of whom are perceived as coequal manifestations of the same diffuse metaphysical presence. As the novel progresses, Ishmael moves away from the most extreme Western proclivity for assuming an anthropomorphized, antagonistic god, but appearances notwithstanding, he does not move toward the Chinese sensibility. Traditional Chinese scholars did not assume that the world is indifferent and nonpurposive, as Melville does. They saw the universe, on balance, as benevolent. At the end of the chase, when Ishmael, the sole survivor of the Pequod's crew, is finally alone in the timelessly rolling ocean, buoyed by the coffin of his lost comrade Queequeg, confrontated by the same heartless immensity that drove Pig mad, the narrator can react constructively to the woe he has felt all along. Ishmael now appreciates himself as representative of the archetypal wandering orphan of Judeo-Christian myth, waiting to be picked up by the Rachel to begin life anew on the lee shore. Chinese readers, accustomed to Chinese novels that detail the protagonist's involvement with the ethical concerns presented by the quotidian, will question why Moby Dick ends at this point. Melville, Herman. The bell-tower : Chinese readers will appreciate the continuities, and subtle differences between Hawthorne' The birthmark and Melville's The bell-tower. Both tales focus on a prideful inventor who seeks to create an object that stands beyond the limitations and imperfections of historical existence. Although Melville warns against what he perceived as a misguided American tendency to strive to transcend the realm of historical limitations, he also recognizes that dreamers such as Bannadonna achieve certain precious perspectives on human experience. For Chinese readers, this paradox repeats a point made in Moby Dick and defines a key feature of American culture. Melville, Herman. Bartleby the scrivener : This tale has proven tremendously intriguing to the generation of Chinese students that passed the first National University Entrance Exam conducted after the Cultural Revolution. These readers often attribute to Bartleby a heroic nihilism. Some Chinese students inclined to find evidence of Bartleby's redemption have argued that the protagonist, in dying, seems to fertilize the prison yard, so that 'by some magic, through the clefts, grass-seed, dropped by the birds, has sprung'. Bartleby the scivener provoked a cult of interest among Chinese undergraduates. Many intellectuals who had lost years of educational opportunity to the tumult of the Cultural Revolution now channeled their previously unarticulated inclinations toward nihilism into their readings of this work. |
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| 2 | 1926.1 |
Zheng, Zhenduo. Meiguo wen xue [ID D29708]. Zheng quoted Moby Dick by Herman Melville and appraised Melville as 'one of the rarest symbolic writers'. |
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| 3 | 1933 |
Zhang, Yuerui. Meilijian wen xue [ID D29501]. Zhang devoted a short paragraph to Herman Melville observing him as one of 'the modern important satirists in the New York Group to critique both human hypocrisy and the bloody colonial wars in the Western world'. Apart from his passing remarks on Typee, Omoo, Mardi, and White-acket, he notices 'the theme of incest in Pierre', a book that 'embodies Melville's deepest pessimism'. He concluded that 'Moby Dick was not even recognized as a great novel until the 1920s', displaying his sympathy for the ignored American. His introductory words ignited a wide interest in Melville. |
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| 4 | 1934 |
[Melville, Herman]. Taipi. Wu Guangjian yi. [ID D30230]. Wu Guangjian discusses in a brief introduction Melville's major works, mentioning briefly his volumes of poetry : Timoleon, John Marr and other sailors, and Battle-pieces and aspects of the war. Wu's abridgment of Typee with his critical commentary did much to spread the influence of Melville among Chinese literary scholars. |
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| 5 | 1957 |
[Melville, Herman]. Bei jing : Mobi Dike. Cao Yong yi. [ID D30233]. The postscript dwells on Cao's experience of translating Moby Dick and offers his critical analysis of the novel in terms of its plot and theme. Cao Yong's preface to his revised edition in 1982 is a personal reading of Moby Dick explaining why Cao had to improve his translation. |
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| 6 | 1958 |
Zhou, Jueliang. Bai jing ji : Mobi Dike [ID D30234]. Zhou wrote a review essay, praising Cao Yong's translation of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. It was also a critical survey of Melville's art, asserting that Melville deserves more attention. He said with regard to Melville's literary work that he was a rare writer of his time who represented the various elements of his age. Melville should be observed not only as an individual writer, but also as an important representative in the history of American literature. |
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| 7 | 1978 |
Dong, Hengxun. Meiguo wen xue jian shi [ID D29603]. Dong and his colleagues argue that while Moby Dick contains mysticism – the incomprehensible White Whale suggests Melville's inability to comprehend the powerful drive of American capitalism - Melville's revelation of social inequities and criticism of American capitalist society are obvious throughout. In his preface, Dong also considers Bartleby as a victim of capitalism, for Dong, Bartleby suffers from the depressive alienation of American business life. |
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| 8 | 1982 |
Zhou, Jueliang. Heman Meierweier. In : Wai guo wen xue [ID D30234]. [Herman Melville]. Zhou's ritical survey of Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, White-jacket, and Moby Dick affirms Melville's stance as a social critic and sees him as an artist who could be deftly realistic, symbolic, and allegorical at the same time. He argues that Moby Dick symbolizes a combination of virtue and vice, and its whiteness both innocence and terror. |
Sources (7)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1943-1947 |
[Melville, Herman]. Bai jing ji. Feng Yidai yi. In : Ou mei xiao shuo ming zhu jing hua [ID D30231]. Übersetzung von Melville, Herman. Moby Dick ; or, the whale. (New York, N.Y. : Harper & Brothers, 1851). [Teilübersetzung]. 白鯨記 |
Publication / MelH21 | |
| 2 | 1958 | Zhou, Jueliang. Bai jing ji : Mobi Dike. In : Xi fang yu wen ; vol. 2, no 1 (1958). [The white whale : Moby Dick by Herman Melville]. | Publication / MelH23 | |
| 3 | 1987 |
[Melville, Herman]. He Maierweier de "Shui shou Bili Bade". Zhou Jueliang yi. In : Shi jie wen xue ; vol. 6 (1987). Übersetzung von Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. In : Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, and other pieces. (London : Constable, 1924). [Unvollendetes MS, geschrieben 1886-1891]. 赫麦尔维尔的水手毕利伯德 |
Publication / MelH4 | |
| 4 | 1998 |
[Melville, Herman]. Bai jing ji. Luo Kuang yi. (Xi'an : Shanxi ren min chu ban she, 1998). Übersetzung von Melville, Herman. Moby Dick ; or, the whale. (New York, N.Y. : Harper & Brothers, 1851). 白鯨記 |
Publication / MelH28 | |
| 5 | 1999 |
[Melville, Herman]. Bai jing ji. Liu Yuhong, Wan Maolin yi. (Beijing : Beijing yan shan chu ban she, 1999). Übersetzung von Melville, Herman. Moby Dick ; or, the whale. (New York, N.Y. : Harper & Brothers, 1851). 白鯨記 |
Publication / MelH26 | |
| 6 | 1999 |
[Melville, Herman]. Bai jing ji. Luo Bu yi. (Ha'erbin : Ha'erbin chu ban she, 1999). Übersetzung von Melville, Herman. Moby Dick ; or, the whale. (New York, N.Y. : Harper & Brothers, 1851). 白鯨記 |
Publication / MelH27 | |
| 7 | 2000 |
[Melville, Herman]. Bai jing ji. Liang Zi yi. (Beijing : Guang ming ri bao chu ban she, 2000). Übersetzung von Melville, Herman. Moby Dick ; or, the whale. (New York, N.Y. : Harper & Brothers, 1851). 白鯨記 |
Publication / MelH19 |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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