“Translation ideologies of American literature in China” (Publication, 2015)
Year
2015
Text
Lockard, Joe ; Qin, Dan. Translation ideologies of American literature in China. [Not yet publ.]. (Lond7)
Type
Publication
Contributors (2)
Lockard, Joe
(1953-) : Associate Professor of English, Arizona State University
Qin, Dan
(um 2013) : Associate Professor of English, Sichuan University, Chengdu
Subjects
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (9)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1933-1997 |
Jack London : Chinese commentaries 1933 [London, Jack]. Shen yuan xia de ren men. Jiake Lundun zhu ; Qiu Yunduo yi. [ID D33499]. Qiu Yunduo describes London as an inspiration to socialism : "Dear readers, if you do not shut the door and your eyes, you would know that the dark side and difficulties of life can be seen everywhere. Rotten metal and rubbish, abyss and hell, these are not unique to the East End of London, but are common to modern society. In the so-called best districts of Shanghai, I see with my own eyes the hell-like miseries depicted in this book ; to tell the truth, reality sometimes is much worse than in the book. The only remaining road is to challenge – and in this lies the meaning of this novel". 1935 [London, Jack]. Lao quan shi. Jiake Lundun zhu ; Zhang Menglin yi. [ID D34489]. Zhang compares London in his introduction to an American Gorky. 1935 [London, Jack]. Ye xing de hu huan. Jiake Lundun zhu ; Liu Dajie, Zhang Menglin yi. [ID D34489]. Liu concludes in the preface "The American people and progressive forces worldwide are fighting agains capitalist reactionaries and warmongers, and London's literary legacy has become the former's powerful weapon." Liu identifies in London a contradiction between his "deep, irreconcilable hate for the capitalist world and passion for class struggles". 1943 [London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Zhou Xing yi. [ID D34490]. Zhou Xing argues that "London is more than a propagandist, he is an artist well versed in depicting characters too". Zhou pays particular attention to characterization of Martin Eden, asserting that his suicide represents a protest against decadent bourgeois society that envelops him He distinguishes London from Gorky by suggesting "There are those who accept collectivism and thus improve themselves, such as Gorky. There are thos who dither between rationalism and sentimentalism and eventually arrive at their own destruction. Jack London is a case in point". 1952 [London, Jack]. Qiang zhe de li liang. Jieke Lundun ; Xu Tianhong yi. [ID D34497]. According to Xu Tianhong, London's political consciousness remains limited by excessive individualism and avoidance of revolutionary struggle through escape into the pristine simplicities of nature. For Xu, while serious flaws remain even in London's most revolutionary works they expose and denounce international imperialism. 1953 [London, Jack]. Tie ti. Lundun zhu ; Wu Lao, Jin Lu yi. [ID D34500]. Wu Lao tells readers that when London published the novel in 1907 it was widely condemned "but the book is hugely popular among Soviet readers, especially the youth". In the introduction to the 2003 edition Wu Lao and Jin Lu argue that with rapid changes in present-day social structures, the political base of Western communism is shrinking and disappearing. While many workers belong to the working-class in socio-economic terms, psychologically they identify with the middle class. In addition to this shift in the nature of the working class, change can emerge paeacefully in mature democracies. "Even in America, where two capitalist parties rule alternately, such severe class confrontation as depicted in The iron heel that forces revolutionaries to resort to armed uprisings against counter-revolutionary violence is unlikely to occur." Violent anti-government attack would be condemned as terrorism rather than liberation. 1955 [London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Wu Lao yi. [ID D34496]. Introduction by Wu Lao of the 1981 edition : For Wu Lao, London was a genuine political revolutionary who might have been at the head of an American proletarian movement were it not for his career as a fiction-writer. He reads Martin Eden as a novel of working class self-identity and as an attack on bourgeois individualism energized by London's intellectual epiphany from reading Marx's Communist Manifesto. Yet Wu criticizes London for his vacillation between Marxism and the subversive attractions of Nietzsche's anti-socialist radical individualism. Even though London was caught in this contradiction, according to Wu Lao, his writing remained firmly committed to the working class and was a source of revolutionary confrontation with American capitalism. 1978 [London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Pan Shaozhong yi. [ID D34491]. In the preface Pan Shaozhong writes while the novel contributes "a penetrating revelation of the evil and ugliness of the bourgeoisie", its social significance remains limited by harmful individualism. 1981 [London, Jack]. Jieke Lundun duan pian xiao shuo xuan. Wan Zi, Yu Ning yi. [ID D34493]. Wan Zi and Yu Ning appreciated London's critique of capitalism and colonialism while pointing to his 'shortcomings' and 'erroneous attitude of white supremacism', they were the first translators in nearly a half-century to discuss his racism. 1985 [London, Jack]. Re ai sheng ming. Jieke Lundun zhu ; Wan Zi, Yu Ning yi. [ID D34498]. Wan Zi and Yu Ning : "Many of London's best works expost and criticize the darkness of capitalist society, decry the colonial exploitation of imperialism, and sing praise for the audacity of revolutionaries". 1988 Li, Shuyan. Jieke Lundun yan jiu. Li Shuyan xuan bian [ID D34600]. Li Shuyan dismisses London as 'no great thinker', one influenced by pseudo-science as well as science, narrow-minded patriotism as well as internationalism, and by white supremacy. "Quite a few ideas in his works would turn out to be wrong. Some were confused and simplistic even at his time". 1994 [London, Jack]. Jieke Lundun duan pian xiao shuo xuan. Jiang Jiansong yi. [ID D34494]. Jiang notes the racist themes of London's writing and attributes political contradictions to his 'eclectic reading'. Jiang distances himself from the selection contained in this collection of short stories with a caution that "We may not agree with ideologies reflected in certain works". 1995 [London, Jack]. Yi kuai niu pai : Jieke Lundon zhong duan pian xiao shuo jing xuan. Jieke Lundon zhu ; Yu Bin, Wen Hong bian. [ID D34502]. [Enthält] : London, Jack. A piece of steak. The enthusiastic indtroduction of Yu Bin and Wen Hong suggests that the reading public and critics were re-evaluating London to appreciate him more for narrative aesthetics, less as a propagandist. They too respond to the internationalism of London's writing : "Jack London is called a Red writer and he would call himself a socialist on account of the fact that he supported social revolution and hoped that the class into which he was born could lead a better life. What is more praiseworthy is that London also wrote stories such as The Mexican that commended socialist revolution and supported weak nations seeking independence. Stories on such topics have had huge influence on the under-class in America's readers, on the working class, and on readers in other countries who either belong to the working class or sympathize with social revolutions." 1996 [London, Jack]. Jieke Lundun zhong duan pian xiao shuo jing xuan = Selected novelettes and short stories of Jack London. Jieke Lundun Zhu ; Lu Weimin yi [ID D34495]. Lu Weimin's afterword to a collection of stories argues "London's masterpiece Martin Eden and his political dystopian novel The iron heel both demonstrate certain proletarian characteristics. The former is penetrating in criticizing the decadence and emptiness of capitalist society, whereas the latter, besides denouncing the oligarchy of American capitalists, specifically opposes opportunism in workers' movements and is thus the first American literary work of proletarian character." 1996 [London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Jieke Lundun zhu ; Zhang Xumei, Xi Qingming deng yi. [ID D34492]. Zhang and Xu states that the novel "directly challenges the values of the bourgeoisie and has exposed the hypocrisy and decadence of the upper class", forming a dramatic contrast with conemporary "smiling faces" novels. For such critics, London represents a political cutting edge that can renew a lacking spirit in recent fiction. 1997 [London, Jack]. Re ai sheng ming. Jieke Lundun zhu ; Hu Chunlan yi. [ID D34488]. Hu Chunlan suggests that contemporary Chinese readers can benefit from more balanced political appreciation of London : "During the McCarthy era when the Cold War mentality prevailed, views on Jack London's works once served as a benchmark dividing literary critics into leftists and rightists. Until this day America's mainstream critics still hold a lower evalutation of London than he deserves. But Chinese readers do not have to undervalue London's achievements on this account, nor do we have to ideologize overly Jack London and his works." |
|
| 2 | 1953 |
[Twain, Mark]. Yi ge bai huai liao Hadelebao di ren. Make Tuwen zhu ; Liu Yizhu yi. [ID D29628]. Liu Yizhu writes : "Although his works are anthologized in our senior high school textbooks, most Chinese readers still are not too familiar with Twain's works. We should first introduce to the people his major works, especially thouse later works that revealed the ugly reality of capitalistic society and opposed imperialistic policies of expansion." |
|
| 3 | 1956 |
[Twain, Mark]. Wang zi yu pin er. Make Tuwen zhu ; Zhang Yousong yi. [ID D29619]. Zhang writes : "Mark Twain revealed and criticized social cruelty without hesitation, but since he still had illusions about 'capitalistic democracy', he was not able to get rid of his reformist politics. At the end of the novel, the merciful and fair-minded new king is depicted as the savior for the people who are struggling. This is a weak point shared by all critical realistic authors." |
|
| 4 | 1958 |
[Twain, Mark]. Zai ya se wang chao ting li de kang nie di ke zhou mei guo ren. Ye Weizhi yi. ID D29600]. Ye Weizhi writes : "Twain not only used sixth-century England as a reflection of European monarchies, but also employed it to allude to the capitalistic United States of America... During the first few years after the Civil War, Americans from certain classes believed that theirs was a free country where everybody had “equal chance.” As time passed, this turned out to be a baseless myth. Although slavery was abolished, the spirit of the slave-owners and their spiritual numbness proved deep-rooted. Having got what they wanted, the northern capitalists allied with reactionary southern plantation-owners" Liu Haiming : Ye Weizhi made a penetrating analysis of the time and setting of the novel, pointing out the book's progressive points, its strong opposition to feudalism and its indictment of Roman Catholicism. He felt the novel was an extremely imaginative work ; Twain's use of the contradictions generated by the juxtaposition of characters from the Middle Ages with one from 19th-century America resulted in a wildly fantastic plot. A literary style full of change and variety also characterizes this work. |
|
| 5 | 1958 |
[Irving, Washington]. A'erhanbola. Huashengdun Ouwen zhu ; Wan Zi, Yu Ning yi [ID D34195]. Wan Zi and Yu Ning writes : America had just won its independence when Irving started to write. The American Revolution is the same as any other revolution led by the bourgeois class—after the rule was subverted, it was the American bourgeois who became the new rulers and exploiters. During the anti-colonial War of Independence, farmers, craftsmen, and workers shouldered the entire burden, despite leading extremely difficult lives. After the war ended, the bourgeois class rapidly took possession of the victory. A few years after Irving was born, the economy collapsed; there was devaluation and then severe inflation. Farmers were forced to resort to demonstrations under such pressures. The American bourgeois, landowners, and slave-owners were busy changing the political institutions of the country, with the purpose of establishing organs of state power to protect the profits of the exploiting class. |
|
| 6 | 1959 |
[James, Henry]. Demofu fu ren. Hengli Zhanmushi zhu ; Nie Hualing yi. [ID D29928]. Nie Hualing writes in the 1980 edition : "At the beginning of the 1950s, the literary world of Taiwan was like a vacuum. The works from the May Fourth Period and by contemporary writers in the mainland were suddenly taken away from us, and we could only read Zhu Ziqing and Xu Zhimo. We 'literary bohemians' searched blindly and freely—when we found anything we just gulped it, for we were too hungry. I got Madame de Mauves like that. I did the translation immediately. Then in Taiwan, people engaging in literary studies seriously were very curious about and wanted to know more about modern novels like Madame de Mauves. My translation of James illustrates this special phenomenon: in the fifties, the literary world of Taiwan was filled with escapist literature and anti-communist literature. Brave intellects and young writers who were more aware of the situation felt great indignation." |
|
| 7 | 1981 |
[Twain, Mark]. Make Tuwen zi zhuan. Make Tuwen zhu ; Xu Ruzhi yi. [ID D29484]. Xu praises Twain as an outstanding anti-imperialist author who supported China during the invasion of the Eight-Nation-Alliance [Boxer Rebellion]. He also cites Russian critical opinion of Twain. |
|
| 8 | 1982 |
[James, Henry]. Hua sheng dun guang chang. Zhanmusi ; Hou Weirui yi. [ID D34510]. While deeply appreciative of James' writing, Hou comments, "The reason that the characters and the social aspects are somehow 'narrow and restricted' is that the author had relatively little social experience. James knew little about the difficult lives of people in society's lower strata. Nor did he know much about the rising social struggles at that period when capitalism was turning into imperialism". Hou seeks to balance a laudatory approach to James qua modernist with criticism of James' conservative aestheticism. This is a balancing act that is fairly common in Chinese introductions to works written by centrist or conservative American writers as the translator seeks to reconcile literary and political reputations. What is often missing, however, is the integration and reconciliation of these reputations. Hou introduces the plot of Washington Square with the observations that "American capitalism developed quickly in the middle of the nineteenth century…[and]…The generation of Americans born at that period did not hesitate to use every method to pursue material profits: wealth-hunting was the basis of their system of virtues". The introduction does not synthesize its socio-historical information with the novel's plot, nor does this substantial discussion treat the gender aspects of the 'woman as capital' dispute between Dr. Sloper and Morris Townsend. Failure to discuss gender issues significantly distanced Hou's introduction from the feminist discussions that characterized Washington Square elsewhere in the world in 1982. |
|
| 9 | 1997 |
[Wharton, Edith]. Niu yue jiu shi. Yidisi Huadu zhu ; Pu Long deng yi. [ID D34511]. Pu Long writes : "After the victory of the liberation war, we emphasized the element of the people in literary works. This goes well with the standard of the redskin school and that is why many works by writers such as Whitman, Twain, Dreiser, and London have been introduced into China. On the contrary, paleface school writers always have been neglected. The representative figure, Henry James, did not get introduced until the reform and opening-up period. Although her Ethan Frome was translated by Lu Shuxiang as early as the anti-Japanese War period, Edith Wharton did not get her other works translated (as well as a reprint of Ethan Frome) until the 1980s. In fact, Ethan Frome is not palefaced—its theme is still redskinned." |
Sources (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1958 |
[Irving, Washington]. A'erhanbola. Huashengdun Ouwen zhu ; Wan Zi, Yu Ning yi. (Shanghai : Xin wen yi chu ban she, 1958). = (Shanghai : Shanghai yi wen chu ban she, 1984). Übersetzung von Irving, Washington. The Alhambra : a series of tales and sketches of the Moors and Spaniards. (Philadelphia : Carey & Lea, 1832). 阿尔罕伯拉 |
Publication / IrvW2 |