“East meets West : Chinese reception and translation of Virginia Woolf” (Publication, 2009)
Year
2009
Text
Jin, Guanglan. East meets West : Chinese reception and translation of Virginia Woolf. (Ann Arbor, Mich. : Pro Quest, University Microfilms International, 2011). (Diss. Univ. of Rhode Island, 2009). (Woolf4)
Type
Publication
Contributors (1)
Jin, Guanglan
(um 2009) : Professor of English, University of Rhode Island
Mentioned People (1)
Woolf, Virginia
(London 1882-1941 Rodmell bei Lewes, Sussex, Selbstmord) : Schriftstellerin, Verlegerin
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Great Britain
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (19)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
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| 1 | 1919 | Lin Huiyin studiert am St Mary's College, London. |
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| 2 | 1924 | Lin Huiyin studiert Fine Arts and der University of Pennsylvania und nimmt Vorlesungen in Architektur. |
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| 3 | 1927-1928 | Lin Huiyin studiert Stage Design an der Yale University. |
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| 4 | 1932-2000 |
Virginia Woolf and China : general. 2008 / 2013 Cao Xiaoqin : Virginia Woolf was introduced in 1932 by Ye Gongchao and Chinese readers became acquainted with Woolf through Julian Bell's teaching in National Wuhan University (1935-1936). In the 1930s Woolf's novels influenced Ling Shuhua, Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin. From 1949 to 1979 there occurred a sudden silence in Chinese Woolf studies. During these decades of 'New China' literature by modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf were regarded as 'decadent' and therefore these works were 'totally denied, unable to be published openly, hardly found in libraries, and never taught in university classrooms'. From the 1980's on, there was a revived interest in Woolf among Chinese scholars. The large scale Chinese translations of Woolf's works began in the 1980s. Qu Shijing introduced Woolf in 1989. Chinese Woolf studies began increasingly systematic from the late 1990s. 2009 Jin Guanglan : The reception of Woolf has witnessed two stages, in which she is reviewed generally in a positive light. Te first stage from the early 1930s to the late 1940s may be characterized by so-called 'interaction' which sets the tone for the first part of the second stage. The first stage focuses on the interpretation and imitation of Woolf's stream-of-consciousness techniques, involves critique of her feminist essay 'A room of one's own', and culminates in Ling Shuhua's autrobiography, produced with the help of many British intellectuals including Woolf herself. The second stage of Woolf's reception begins in the 1980s with only a few scattered translations and critical essays, given that Woolf was closely connected with modernism, and associated with the various degrees of difficulty. Large scale translation and research of her works appear in the 1990s, which spawned what might be called 'Woolf fever' in the field of foreign literary criticism in China. Up to now, almost all of her novels and essays have been translated into Chinese, and several secondary research books as well as a great number of critical articles have been published. The political spects of Woolf – her concern with political issues, her representation of politics in her writings, her involvement in the public world, and her role as a public intellectual – are largely ignord. In fact, she continues to be generally regarded as an antipolitical writer. The few critical articles that explore Woolf's feminism deal only with her explicit representation of feminism in 'To the lighthouse' and her theoretical explication of androgyny in 'A room of one's own'. Woolf's cultural impact on contemporary Chinese writers is great. As promising writers or poets in China, such writers of the first generation of Woolf studies had a keen understanding of literature. In addition, they had bilingual and bicultural advantages, as well as exposure to the literary milieu of Woolf. Their direct contact with the Bloomsbury group made it possible for them to know the new literary trend. Although, the criticism generated during the first stage of Woolf scholarship is small in quantity, it is good in quality. The future of Woolf studies in China is promising because more and more intellectuals are engaged in researching her works. 2010 Lee Kwee-len : Virginia Woolf's reputation as a writer, critic, and writer has long traveled far and wide. While her popularity in Europe has been well documented, her reception in the Chinese-speaking world--which enjoys the largest population on earth--has been little discussed. This study represents an effort to trace the reception and influence of Woolf and her work in China and Taiwan, which share similar cultures and languages but have been separated by socio-political ideologies, back to as early as the 1920s. The discussion is temporally divided into four periods, from the pre-separation period before 1949, the pre-open-policy period before 1978, the pre-21st century period, through the most recent decade in the very beginning of the twenty-first century. Each period is shown to demonstrate its unique characteristics. The three decades before the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan enjoyed a privilege of direct contact or correspondence with Woolf herself and her contemporaries. Such a privilege was nevertheless limited to the elite few, which in turn limited Woolf's overall reception. The next period witnessed a Woolf never so forlorn in the Chinese-speaking worlds. In China, she was totally silenced along with her modernist comrades. Her reception in Taiwan appeared somewhat better but was still hardly commensurate with the efforts introducing her and her contemporaries. The last two decades of the twentieth century saw her reception on the rise in both Taiwan and China. Their somewhat different readerships, however, distinguished the ways in which she had been received: while Taiwan was warm and quick to notice her social concerns, China was more critical in attitude and focused more on her literary theories. During the 2000s, Woolf's reception is argued to have matured to such an extent that it turns into influences as evidenced in the various artistic creations in response to her works and the various appropriations of her image as a feminist writer. From the sporadic budding in the first half of the twentieth century to its full blossom in the last decade, Woolf's reception is examined against its receiving environment and argued to vary with different factors at different times. |
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| 5 | 1932 |
[Woolf, Virginia]. Qiang sheng yi dian hen ji. Ye Gongchao yi. [ID D311573]. Ye Gongchao published the translation of Woolf's story The mark on the wall with a brief and objective introduction of Woolf's works and influence in British literature world. He describes Woolf as 'the most widely known novelist in the past decade', who got both praise and censure in British literary world. Ye notes that some celebrated novelists such as Arnold Bennett, H.G. Wells, John Galsworthy, Frank Swinnterton and H.J. Massingham held the idea that Woolf's works were written with extreme elegance, but without any value, while E.M. Forster, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, and André Maurois responded that Woolf's opponents did not undertstand Woolf's representation of the emancipation of individuals. Ye claims that 'Woolf definitely has no intention to preach to her aufience or critique human life, which alone runs counter to the convention. What she is concerned with is neither the struggle of emotions nor problems of society and life, but the extremely vague, extremely abstract, and extremely acute feelings that psychoanalysis calls the subconsiousness'. Ye argues, Woolf's description of individuality is 'original', and thus her 'technique is absolutely valuable, 'because the novel is based on the presentation of individual behavior. Ye explains that he chose to translate The mark on the wall because it is 'the most typical representative work of Woolf's work. |
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| 6 | 1933 | Margery Fry reist in China. Sie gibt Vorlesungen and chinesischen Universitäten, trifft Ling Shuhua und Chen Yuan. Als erste führt sie die Bloomsbury in China ein, indem sie ein Gemälde ihres Bruders Roger Fry Professor S.K. Wang, dem Präsidenten der Wuhan Universität überreicht. |
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| 7 | 1935-1936 |
Bell, Julian. Letters from China. 1935 Letter from Julian Bell to Marie Mauron ;1935. Really, I am falling a bit in love with China – also, platonically, yes, I assure you (for particular reasons, social and so on) with a Chinese woman [Ling Shuhua]. She is charming – the wife of the dean [Chen Yuan] of the Faculty of Letters, a highly intelligent and amiable man, one of Goldie's [G. Lowes Dickinson] students. She's the dauthter of a mandarin, a painter and short story writer, one of the most famous in China. She's sensitive and delicate, intelligent, cultivated, a little malicious, loving those gossipy stories, etc., that are true about everyone, very gay – in short, one of the nicest and most remarkable women I know. Letter from Julian Bell to Virginia Woolf ; Fall 1935. It's lovely country and the Chinese are charming ; lecturing on the moderns, 1890-1914 ; 1914-36. I have to read the writers ; what is one to do : we all write too much ; I shall make the Lighthouse I think, a set book. Letter from Julian Bell to Vanessa Bell ; 23 Oct., 1935. Hsu Hwa [Ling Shuhua] is an intelligent and sensitive angel. Can you imagine someone quite unaffected, very sensitive, extremely good and kind, with a sense of humour and firm hands with life ; she's darling. She comes to my Shakespeare and Modern lectures, which has the good effect of making me lecture my best : when I'm with the students I sometimes don'trouble, or treat them as schoolboys. Letter from Julian Bell to Vanessa Bell ; 22 Nov. 1935. Oh Nessa dear, you will have to meet her [Ling Shuhua] one of these days. She's the most charming creature I've met, and the only woman I know whou would be a possible daughter-in-law to you (she isn't, being married with a charming child and ten years too old) that she is really in our world and one of the most gifted, the nicest, most sensitive and intelligent people in it. I don't know what will happen. I think when I'm cured I shall probably get her involved : at present I'm not physically disturbed – less by her than others – but I know myself well enough to know that the parade follows the fla, etc. Letter from Julian Bell to Vanessa Bell ; 18 Dec. 1935. She's [Ling Shuhua] a desperately serious person, with great reserves of unhappiness : she says she's lost faith in everything, and is now working to find love, something to believe in. She's subtle, sensitive, very complicated – also torn between an introspective – analytic part and a very fragile easily-damaged sensibility. And sensible and intelligent. And also very romantic at heart. And, I should imagine, nervously and ecstatically passionate. She wouldn't let me make love to her to any extent at all last night. And she looks lovely… And inexperienced in love. Letter from Julian Bell to Eddy Playfair ; 27 Dec. 1935. She's [Ling Shuhua] very shy, verbally and physically. It's my oddest affair to date. She's as intense and passionate as your old enemy Helen [Soutar] is also a selftorturer and pessimist asking reassurance. And both jealous and not wanting to lose face. On the other hand, intelligent, charming ,sensitive, passionate and a malicious storyteller. And a perfect adviser on social situations : she's saved me gaffes innumerable. Letter from Julian Bell to Vanessa Bell ; 1 Febr. 1936. Our day in the Western Hills spent lookg at temples. Some of them are very lovely, beautifully proportioned courts of white marble : lots of bas-relief that seems to me decent decoration, and some good statues. There's a colossal sleeping Bhudda in a sort of copper-gold who I fancy distinguished statesmen sen him presents of colossal slippers. Then, as you'll see from the photos, we climbed a small mountain. I really lost my heart to the Western Hills… I really could live very happily in Peking. But I think I prefer Charleston. Letter from Julian Bell to Eddy Playfair ; Febr. 1936. In Sichuan there's no real culture – even faintly foreign society. And the Chinese are, I fell very different, if one wants intimacy of intellectual conversation. At least these rather stiff and provincial academics are. Peiping is utterly different ; these are genuine flexible Chinese, come intelligent foreigners mix with them. Letter from Julian Bell to Virginia Woolf ; Fall 1936. China's leading woman writer, my Dean's wife with whom I'm platonically in love is a passionate admirer of your work. |
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| 8 | 1938-1939 |
Letters between Virginia Woolf and Ling Shuhua. Letter from Virginia Woolf to Ling Shuhua ; 5 April, 1938. Dear Sue Ling, I hope you have had the letter I wrote in answer to your first letter. I wrote only a few days after I had yours. Now Vanesse [Bell] has just sent on your letter of March 3rd. I wish I could help you. I know what you have much more reason to be unhappy than we have even ; and therefore how foolish any advice must be. But my only advice – and I have tried to take it myself – is to work. So let us think how you could fix your mind upon something worth doing in itself. I have not read any of your writing, but Julian often wrote to me about it, and meant to show me some of it. He said too that you had lived a most interesting life ; indeed, we had discussed – I think in letters – the chance that you would try to write an account of your life in English. That is what I would suggest now. Your English is quite good enough to give the impression you wish to make ; and I could change anything difficult to understand. Will you make a beginning, and put down exactly anything you remember ? As no one in England knows you, the book could be more free than usual. Then I would see if it could not be printed. But please think of this : not merely as a distraction, but as a work that would be of great value to other people too. I find autobiographies much better than novels. You ask what books I would advise you to read : I think the English in the 18th Century wrote in the best way for a foreigner to learn from. Do you like letters ? There are Cowpers, [Horace] Walpoles ; very clear and easy ; Scotts novels ; (Rob Roy) ; Jane Austen ; then Mrs. Gaskells life of Charlotte Brontë ; then among modern writers, George Moore's novels – they are simply written too. I could send you English books, but I do not know if you have them already. But from your letters I see that you write very well ; you need not copy others, only find new words by reading quickly. I say nothing about politics. You know from what I said before how strongly the English are on your side but cannot do anything to help. We hear about China from friends here. But perhaps now there will be a change. The worst may be over. At any rate please remember that I am always glad if you will write and tell me anything about yourself : or politics : and it would be a great pleasure to me to read some of your writing, and criticize it : so think of writing your life, and if you only write a few pages at a time, I could read them and we could discuss it. I wish I could do more. We send you our best sympathy. Yours Virginia Woolf. Letter from Ling Shuhua to Virginia Woolf ; 25 May, 1938. I'm thinking all the stories I had told Julian and them down would be something to the Western people, perhaps some people with free thoughts or others who sympathize with all things human. If I could write this book in a very natural way – from it people coulde see some truths of life and art or sex which Westerners never have a chance even to think about them, that would be something worth doing. Letter from Ling Shuhua to Virginia Woolf ; 16 Nov. 1938. During these last weeks as all bad news brought out at once, we lost [Guangzhou] unexpectedly and Hankow [Hankou] had to withdraw our troops, and the West being in a helpless condition… As I understand that it is useless to got to the front to fight for we cannot find our enemy, we only see the machines… I dream… I saw my house in the ruin and broken furnitures, outside the hous the laying corps, the unburied corpses smelling badly. I think perhaps you would like to know a bit of extreme miserable mind feeling so I wrote this to tell you. Letter from Virginia Woolf to Ling Shuhua ; 9 April, 1938. Dear Sue Ling, I got your letter written on March 3rd a few days ago, and ansered it at once. But stupidly I forgot to send it by airmail – so I write this to tell you that I have written. And the olny thing of any interest I had to say was to ask you to write your autobiography, and to say I will gladly read it and give it any correction it needs. Now your other letter (March 24th) has just come, in which you tell me that you have begun to write this. I am so glad. Julian always told me that you had lived a most interesting life : and you say he also wanted you to write it down – simply, as it comes, not bothering about grammar at all. I also asked if you would like me to send you any old English books – 18th Century ones perhaps – so that you could learn words. But you will find this in my letter. Let me know if I can do anything to help you in your work. I am certain work is the only way in which one can live at this moment. I will send this now, and hope you will get it soon. We send our sympathy and shall always wish for news both of you and of your war, and politics. Yrs Virginia Woolf Letter from Ling Shuhua to Virginia Woolf ; 24 July, 1938. [Betr. Ling, Shu-hua. Ancient melodies [ID D31562]. If my book could give English readers some picture of real Chinese lives, some experience about Chinese who are as ordinary as any English people, some truth of life and sex which your people never have a chance to see it even seen by a child in the East, I shall be contented. I'm not those who only want satisfy readers' curiosity whether or not it's true to. Letter from Virginia Woolf to Ling Shua ; 27 July, 1938. Dear Madame Sue Ling, I have just seen Christopher Isherwood, who gave me the lovely little box with the two little gifts from you. I need not say that I am much touched that you should have got them for me, and I shall keep them on my table—not as a memory of you, for I have never seen you, but all the same I think of you often. Thank you so much. I heard from him how much they had enjoyed seeing you. But he was only here for a moment, and I did not have time to get much information from him. I hope however that you are going on with your work. I am sending you two little books, one is the [Mrs Gaskell] life of Charlotte Bronte, the other Lambs Essays. I think Lamb wrote very good English prose—but do not bother to read it as an exercise; only for pleasure—The life of Charlotte Bronte will perhaps give you a feeling for the lives of women writers in England in the 19th century—their difficulties, and how she overcame them. And it is a very interesting life in other ways. But I will send other books from time to time, on condition that you do not think you must thank me for them. And certainly you must never think of paying for them. They are so cheap in England. I can buy them for a few pence. Tell me the names of any you think you would like. We are just going down to Sussex, and I hope to have more time there. London is so crowded. There is a quiet time here politically for the moment. That is to say we are waiting for what Hitler may do next. People are tired of talking about war; but all the same we do nothing but buy arms. The air is full of aeroplanes at the moment. I hope some day you will write again and tell me how you are getting on with your work. And please remember how glad I shall be to give you any help I can in reading it and correcting any mistakes. But write exactly as you think—that is the only way. With my love, good bye. Please call me Virginia. I do not like being Mrs Woolf. Virginia Woolf. Letter from Virginia Woolf to Ling Shuhua ; 15 Oct., 1938. I am typing this, so as to save your eyes, for my writing is so hard to read. At last I have read the chapter you sent me – I put it off, for one reason At last I have read the chapter you sent me – I put it off, for one reason and another. Now I write to say that I like it very much. I think it has a great charm. It is also of course difficult for an English Person, at first, there is some incoherence, and one does not understand the different wives ; who they are ; which is speaking. But this becomes clear after a time, and then I feel a charm in the very unlikeness. I find the similes strange and poetical. How far it can be read by the public as it stands, I do not know. That I could only say if you would go on sending me more chapters. Then I should get the whole impression. This is only a fragment. Please go on ; write freely ; do not mind how directly you translate the Chinese into the English. In fact I would advise you to come as close to the Chinese both in style and meaning as you can. Give as many natural details of the life of the house, of the furniture as you like. And always do it as if you were writing Chinese. Then if it were to some extent made easy grammatically by someone English I think it might be ossible to keep the Chinese flavor and make it both understandable yet strange for the English. One of the reasons why I did not read it or write before was that we have been so uneasy in England ; we were almost sure of war. Everything was ready, even the gas masks served out, and orders given to house children from London. This atmoshphere made it difficult to fix ones mind on books. Now for the time at least that strain is over. Please forgive me then for having been so long in writing. Next Time you send me more chapters – soon I hope – I will write more quickly. We are just going to London. The houses there are still protected many of them with sand bags. But in China I know things are far worse. I find the only relief is to work. And I hope you will go on, writing, for it might be a very interesting book. Did you get a letter I wrote in August, and a parcel of books ? Tell me, for if they came sage I will send more. It is easy to get books cheaply in London. Please never think of paying for them. It is a great pleasure to me to send them. Tell me what you like. It is difficult to know. I am keeping the manuscript you sent. I can read your writing quite easily, so don't bother to type. Yours with love, Virginia Woolf Letter from Ling Shuhua to Virginia Woolf ; 31 Dec. 1938. I know there is very little chance for me to write a good book in English for the tool I use to do my work in something which I can not handle well. It is true in cooking too, if one uses a foreign pin [pan] or stove to cook a Chinese dish, it won't come out the same as the original. It often loses some good taste. In writing I don't know how far it counts. When I read a good translation, I feel a relief at once… Dear Virginia, I want you to tell me what shall I do since I am in a state of nervous tension. Oh, yet, how I hope you would be as kind as before to tell me to try it, don't despair. Letter from Virginia Woolf to Ling Shuhua ; 17 April, 1939. Dear Sue, I am so glad to hear that you have at last got my letter safely. I will always send them by air mail in future. I have heard several times from you, and I am keeping your chapters as they come. But I hope you keep copies, so that there may be no risk through the post. It is difficult to know what to advise you to do, except that I am sure you ought to go on writing. The difficulty is as you say about the English. I feel that the whole feeling of the book would be very much spoilt if some English were to put what you write into formal English prose; yet of course as it stands it is difficult for English readers to get at your full meaning. I suppose you could not dictate to an educated English person? Perhaps in that way the sense and the feeling could be combined. But it would depend entirely upon finding some¬one who could be quick enough to understand and able to express. I must of course leave this to you, as I do not know what opportunities you have. Meanwhile, I think it is best to get together as many chapters as possible; and then to read them all through together. One cannot get a true impression if one reads in little bits. But I have seen enough to be interested and charmed. Publication would of course depend upon many things so that it is useless to think of it—things we cannot control. But please go on, and let us hope that it will become more hopeful for books later. At the moment we are finding it very difficult to continue our publishing for nobody will read anything except politics; and we have had to make plans for taking our press away from London, and of course have to face the prospect, should there be war, of shutting up our publishing house altogether. It is very difficult to go on working under such uncertainty. But I myself feel it is the only pos¬sible relief from the perpetual strain. It has become worse here, since Italy also began to steal land [Albania]. We do not know if the American presi¬dent's appeal will be heard. If not, there is nothing can prevent war. We are spending Easter in the country; but all the time aeroplanes are crossing the house and every day we hear of some unfortunate refugee who asks for help. I am reading Chaucer and trying to write about our friend Roger Fry. Also Vanessa and her children come over and we play bowls, and try to go on with our painting and gardening as if we were sure of living another ten years. When I go to London I will see if I can find some books to send you. Only I find it so difficult to guess what you would like. Never mind; books are very cheap; and you can always throw them away. I have not seen Christopher Isherwood as I had hoped but he and Mr Auden like so many people have gone to America. They dont like it, I hear; but at any rate there is more feeling of security there; and they can work better so they say. But I had wanted to hear more about you. It seems millions of miles away—your life, from this. It is full spring here; and our garden has blue, pink, white flowers—and all the hills are deep green, but very small; and our little river is about as big as a large snake; Julian used to wade across it; and sail a tiny boat. On the other hand, people crowd together. We are hardly ever alone even for a day. Would you like this change of proportion? I often envy you, for being in a large wild place with a very old civilisation. I get hints of it in what you write. Do you ever send Vanessa your paintings? Please write whenever you like; and what¬ever happens please go on with your autobiography; for even though I cannot help yet with it, it will be a great thing to do it thoroughly. I am giving you the advice I try to take myself—that is to work without caring what becomes of it, for the sake of doing something impersonal. I will send this by air, and let me know if it comes safely. If so, I will go on if you dont mind these very scrappy letters; written in a garden house, after my morning working at my book. Yours Virginia Woolf Letter from Virginia Woolf to Ling Shuhua ; 16 July, 1939. Dear Sue, I am afraid that I have been very bad about answering your letters. It is partly that I am a very bad letter writer—after writing all the morning about Roger Fry, I hate the type writer. And then we went to France for a holiday, driving about Brittany; and directly after that my mother in law had an accident; was ill and died. And now we have to turn out of this house, which is crammed with books and papers and type and furniture and go to another. 37 Mecklenburgh Square will be our address in Septem¬ber. So I hope you will write there. Also it is difficult to think of any news worth sending. One only caps stories of war—and you have enough of your own. Here they say it must come next month. That is what Harold Nicolson who is in Parliament told me two nights ago. By this time one is so numb that it seems impossible to feel anything, save that dull vague gloom. We are getting used, I suppose. But it will be different when it comes. Like you, I find work the best thing; and I have more than I can do. It is dull work—sorting letters, trying to find quotations; trying to fit them together. Roger Fry left such masses of papers; and they are full of interest; but full too of detail. I keep wanting Julian to help me. I am keeping all your chapters together. As I told you, I shant read them till the book is done. And please go on with it, as it might be of such great interest. I am also sorry that I have never sent more books— I began to feel for one thing that books would never reach you. But I will get some cheap ones this week; chancing that you may like them. There again, I dont know what to send, whether new or old, poetry or fiction or biography. But tell me some time what it is that you would like. Thank you very much for the red and black poster, which I liked. And you say you are sending something else to Vanessa. I am just going to dine with her. That is a great pleasure. And I wish you lived near and could come in. These little meetings are the best things we have at present. We talk about pictures not about war. I am so sorry for all you are having to suffer—but what is the use of saying that, all these miles away? Any time you want to write please do. The letter will be sent on. Next week we go down to Sussex, Monk's House, Rodmell, Lewes is the address. Will one be able to work? Will one have to fill the house with refugees? There are aeroplanes always round us; and air raid shelters—but I still believe we shall have peace. And there I will stop. With my love and believe in my sympathy, futile as it seems. Yours Virginia Woolf |
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| 9 | 1986 |
[Woolf, Virginia]. Lun xiao shuo yu xiao shuo jia [ID D31571]. Qu Shijing adopted a synthetic approach by citing Woolf's own words of literary theory, views and critical approaches. And then he makes his own analysis and evluastion. He separates Woolf's theory in seven major views : the view of time-change, the view of subjective reality, the view of character-centrism, the view of breaking the convention, the vie3w of experimentation, the view of the future novel, Woolf's literary ideal. |
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| 10 | 1989 | Ling Shuhua kehrt krankheitshalber nach Beijing zurück. |
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| 11 | 1990 |
Yang, Yuehua. Faguo nü xing zhu yi pi ping yu Fujini Wu'erfu [ID D31607]. Yang's article offers a comparative study of Woolf's feminist literary criticism and the French. As early as the 1920s, Woolf pioneered feminist literary criticism based on her profound exploration of the negative influence of social, historical and cultural convention on women and their literary creation as well as on the 'puculiarity' of their literature. Her A room of one's own, Women and fiction, Jane Austen, George Eliot and other essays well illustrate the realm, principle, and methodology of feminist literary criticism, whose objective is 'to challenge the patriarchal convention'. Woolf's feminist literary criticism includes 'the search for women's literary tradition, investigation of gender discrimination in literary practice, and exploration of the subject matter, genre and style of women's literature'. Yang also claims that Woolf holds that 'the aesthetic significance of a work rests not on what it expresses, but on how it does so ; a writer should be impersonal and non-utilitarian and an androgynous mindset is the best state a writer can reach'. |
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| 12 | 1995 |
Tong, Yanping. Lu zai he fang : du fu Wu'erfu de 'Yi ge zi ji de fang jian' [ID D31608]. Tong sees Woolf's adrogynous mind for literary creation as a mere ideal because 'in most circumstances a male writer's style is different from a female one's', which betrays its authors's sexual identity. When composing their works, many writers have in mind their intended audience or particular artistic pursuit, so their aesthetic taste are determined or affected by their sex and life experiences. Tong argues that even in A room of one's own, Woolf contradicts herself at certain points both in the ideas she conveys and the tone she adopts. Tong concludes that even though the key of Woolf's concept of androgyny is to oppose sexual prejudice and discrimination, the androgynous mind for creation seems to be an ideal beyond reach. |
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| 13 | 1996 |
Lin, Shuming. Zhan zheng yin xiang xia zheng zha de fu Wu'erfu [ID D31609]. Lin explores Woolf's description of the two great forces : art and war and her denunciation of war in Mrs. Dalloway, To the lighthouse, The waves and Three guineas as well. |
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| 14 | 1998 |
Yang, Yuehua. Cong dui li zou xiang dui hua [ID D31606]. Yang offers an interpretation of the different gender principles and the metaphorical significance of androgyny through analysis of the three major characters, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe. Yang states that 'Woolf's female principle and male principle refer to the pecular characteristics each of human sexes possesses. Yang claims that Mrs. Ramsay's female principle is the female virtue and temperament. It can influence not only women but also men and, to some extent, excels the male principle approved by social convention. Mr. Ramsay is the representative of the male principle, who, as an obstinate, rigid and self-centered authority, is indifferent to the sufferings of his wife and children, and only concerned with his pursuit of absolute philosophical truth in terms of reason and logic. Yang believes that 'The third part of the novel indicates that with the passage of time and the test of the disaster the confrontation changed to dialogue and integration. Moreover, this dialogue and integration were established on the basis of restoration of the female principle. He concludes that 'The transition of the androgynous painter Lily Briscoe from a letter character to a major one reveals profoundly the progress of the masculine and feminine powers in an individual from imbalance to balance and integration as well, bringing her creative talent into full play'. |
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| 15 | 1999 |
Ma, Rui. Cong Wu'erfu dao xi su de nü xing zhu yi pi ping [ID D31610]. Ma argues that Woolf's A room of one's own is recognized as a classic for feminist criticism not simply because of the major thinking Woolf produces, but because of the emphatic breakthrough she makes with patriarchal theoretical discourses. It is reflected in her innovative choice of a narrator with an ambigious identity, her use of metaphor, symbolism, and fictionalization. Ma also argues that Woolf's narrative form demonstrages her continuing protest against patriarchal discursive models. Woolf's description of the narrator's pondering the question of women and fiction on the banks of a river is not only a reflection of 'my thinking process' but also 'a demonstration of the power of thinking'. Ma sees Woolf's essay itself as a metaphorical network, in which various metaphors such as the title, the setting Oxbridge, and so on are not only anchored in their specific significance respectivels, but also associated with one another. Together, they greatly helped to convey Woolf's feminist ideas about women and writing and 'created a different rhetorical discursive model', rather than merely serve as a rhetorical technique. Woolf also introduces fictionalization into literary criticism. |
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| 16 | 2000 |
Sheng, Ning. Guan yu Wu'erfu de 1910 [ID D31611]. Sheng Ning's essay offers a third discussion of Woolf's theory of fiction, investigating the reasons of Woolf's choice of time and rectifying the translation and interpretation of Woolf's diction 'human character'. 'Woolf's particular choice of the year and the month is the exhibition of the post-impressionist paintings organized by Woolf's friends Rogert Fry and Desmond MacCarthy'. Sheng claims, that Woolf sees the new artistic perception conveyed by this Post-Impressionist show as demonstrating an era-breaking change of self-understanding. Sheng holds that the most important idea Woolf wants to express in 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown' is that 'here is a character imposing itself upon another person. Hereis Mrs. Brown making someone begin almost automatically to write a novel about her'. Sheng concludes that 'what Woolf means is that on or about December 1910 the image of character changed. |
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| 17 | 2000 |
Wang, Jianxiang. Lun Fujiniya Wu'erfu de nü xing zhu yi li chang [ID D31612]. Wang identifies that Woolf's fundamental stand is to demand a female to be herself, and idependent self, different from the male, unattached to the male but harmonious with the male and the whole world. Wang distinguishes that if Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist claim remains at the level of women's equality with men, Woolf's has actually transcended the level of 'being equals' and and risen to the height of reconstructing a female self'. In fact, 'to be oneself' has become a powerful call for the later feminist movement. According to Woolf's analysis, the oppression imposed upon women by patriarchy in both history and literature penetrated every aspect of women's lives, exerted an imperceptible influence on their thinking, and even made them unconsciously internalize the convention of the mental, moral, and physical inferiority of women. As a result, women's consciousness of being themselves was lost. In order to reconstruct women's self-consciousness or to be themselves, Wang argues, in addition to gaining a room of her own and an income of five hundred pounds a year, women should endeavor four things : overcome self-deprecation, or in Woolf's words 'kill the angel in the house'; establish their own values ; come out of the narrow private world and enter the broad public world; and establish a harmonious relationship between the two sexes. |
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| 18 | 2000 |
Yin, Qiping. Wu'erfu xiao shuo guan bu lun [ID D31613]. Yin explores Woolf's theory of fiction on the basis of Qu Shijing's research and questions some of his conclusions as well. He argues 'that the whole body of Woolf's theoretical views can be attributed to her life-determinism'. 'What Woolf means by life includes both subjective impressions of the individual and the objective reality of society'. Yin claimes that Woolf's viewpoint that life is 'the proper end of fiction' constitutes the cornerstone of the whole body of Woolf's theory of fiction. Yin argues that the time-change (including human character chang) Woolf referred to took place not only in 1910, but throughout all historical periods. Yin reminds the reader that Woolf not only called on the novelist to constantly break the convention, but at the same time also opposed violent change, which 'suggests that she at least had realized the necessity of maintaining a blanance between inheriting and breaking the convention'. 'Woolf's ideal is that fiction should flourish together with poetry and philosophy'. 'Woolf's subjective impression is strongly tied to objective experience'. 'Woolf was concerned with the interaction of practical experience and subjective consciousness. Her view of reality is deeply rooted in actual life'. |
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| 19 | 2001 |
Shu, Yongzhen. Qu bie yu zheng he : dao deng da qu de nü xing zhu yi jie du [ID D31614]. Shu examined Woolf's critique of the traditional male logocentrism in To the lighthouse from the perspective feminist criticism by employing her ideas in A room of one's own. She asserts that 'If A room of one's own is Woolf's theoretical exposition of feminist literature, To the lighthouse is her practical employment of her feminist literary theory in fiction'. Woolf anchors her critique of the traditional dynamic between the sexes in her presentation of the binary oppositions of men and women resulted from male logocentrism. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay represent two diametrically different worlds respectively ; the husband is a professional man with his career, belonging to society, while the wife is a typical 'angel in the house' without a job, gelonging to the family. Shu also analyzes three kinds of secondary oppositions between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. First, intelligence versus beauty. Mr. Ramsay is a remarkable and respectful philosopher whereas Mrs. Ramsay is a women of extreme beauty and heavenly goodness. What makes To the lighthouse different from traditional novels, Shu argues, is that Woolf does not rest satisfied with reflecting this historical phenomena, she further questioned it and puts forward her solutions as well to eliminate it. The second solution is well embodied in Woolf's characterization of Lily Briscoe who, seeking to unify disparate elements into a whole, finally sublimates her understanding of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay's different personalities to become a real srtist with her painting. Shu writes that as male-centrism secured by the patriarchal system 'has penetrated into every aspects of culture including language, women have no language of their own to express their pecular experience and psychology, thus being deprived of voice. |
Sources (10)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1980-1985 |
Wai guo xian dai pai zuo pin xuan. Yuan Kejia, Dong Hengxun, Zheng Kelu xuan bian. Vol. 1-4. (Shanghai : Shanghai wen yi chu ban she, 1980-1985). [Übersetzungen ausländischer Literatur des 20. Jh.]. 外国现代派作品选 Vol. 1 : [Modern literature]. [Enthält] : Biao xian zhu yi. [Expressionism]. 表现主义 Wei lai zhu yi. [Futurism]. 未来主义 Vol. 2 : Yi shi liu. [Stream of consicousness]. 意识流 Chao xian shi zhu yi. [Surrealism]. 超现实主义 Cun zai zhu yi. [Extistentialism]. 存在主义 [Enthält : Übersetzung von Woolf, Virginia. The mark on the wall und Auszüge aus Mrs. Dalloway.] Vol. 3 : Huang dan wen xue [Absurd literature]. 荒诞文学 Xin xiao shuo. [The new novel]. 新小说 Kua diao de yi dai. [Beat generation]. 垮掉的一代 Hei se you mo. [Black humor]. 黑色幽默 Vol. 4 : [Modern literature]. |
Publication / YuanK2 | |
| 2 | 1990 |
Yang, Yuehua. Faguo nü xing zhu yi pi ping yu Fujini Wu'erfu. In : Sichuan wai guo yu xue yuan xue bao ; vol. 15, no 3 (1999). [French feminist literary criticism and Virginia Woolf]. 法国女性主义批评与弗吉尼职伤尔夫 |
Publication / Woolf63 | |
| 3 | 1995 |
Tong, Yanping. Lu zai he fang : du fu Wu'erfu de 'Yi ge zi ji de fang jian'. In : Wai guo wen xue ping lun ; vol. 2 (1995). [Where is the way out ? : reading Virginia Woolf's A room of one's own]. 童燕萍 路在何方 : 读弗•伍尔夫的一个自己的房间 |
Publication / Woolf64 | |
| 4 | 1996 |
Lin, Shuming. Zhan zheng yin xiang xia zheng zha de fu Wu'erfu. In : Wai guo wen xue pi ping ; vol. 3 (1996). [V. Woolf struggling under the shadow of war]. 战争阴影下挣扎的弗伍尔夫 |
Publication / Woolf65 | |
| 5 | 1998 |
Yang, Yuehua. Cong dui li zou xiang dui hua. In : Sichuan wai guo yu xue yuan xue bao ; vol. 4 (1998). [From confrontation to dialogue ; betr. Virginia Woolf]. 从对立走向对话报 |
Publication / Woolf62 | |
| 6 | 1999 |
Ma, Rui. Cong Wu'erfu dao xi su de nü xing zhu yi pi ping. In : Wai guo wen xue yan jiu ; vol. 3 (1999). [Feminist criticism from Woolf to [Hélène] Cixous]. 从伍尔夫到西苏的女性主义批评 |
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| 7 | 2000 |
Sheng, Ning. Guan yu Wu'erfu de 1910. In : Wai guo wen xue ping lun ; no 3 (2000). [Virginia Woolf : on or about December 1910]. 伍尔夫的1910年的12月 |
Publication / Woolf67 | |
| 8 | 2000 |
Wang, Jianxiang. Lun Fujiniya Wu'erfu de nü xing zhu yi li chang. In : Sichuan wai guo yu xue yuan xue bao ; vol. 16, no 2 (2000). [On Virginia Woolf's feminine views]. 论弗吉尼亚伤尔夫的女性主义立场 |
Publication / Woolf68 | |
| 9 | 2000 |
Yin, Qiping. Wu'erfu xiao shuo guan bu lun. In : Hangzhou shi fan xue yuan xue bao ; vol. 4 (2000). A supplementary study of Virginia Woolf's views on fiction]. 伍尔夫小说观补论 |
Publication / Woolf69 | |
| 10 | 2001 |
Shu, Yongzhen. Qu bie yu zheng he : dao deng da qu de nü xing zhu yi jie du. In : Wai guo wen xue yan jiu ; vol. 1 (2001). [Differentiation and integration : a feminist reading of 'To the lighthouse' von Virginia Woolf]. 区别与整合 : 到灯塔去的女性主义解读 |
Publication / Woolf70 |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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