Abstract
The central question that this book addresses is “What is significance of reading, teaching, and researching traditional Chinese fiction in the English-speaking world?” Key terms used in the book, such as “English-speaking world” and “traditional Chinese fiction,” are defined. The introduction engages with recent scholarship on translations of Chinese literature, discussing their arguments and identifying issues that remain to be explored. The second part of the introduction overviews the structure of the book and provides a summary of each chapter. The primary contribution of this book is that it connects traditional Chinese fiction to other literary and cultural traditions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abel-Rémusat, M., trans. Iu-kiao-li, ou, les deux cousines; roman chinois. 4 vols. Paris: Moutardier, 1826.
Apter, Emily. The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
Bassnett, Susan, ed. Translation and World Literature. London: Routledge, 2019.
Chan, Leo Tak-hung, ed. One into Many: Translation and the Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003.
Debon, Günther. “Goethe erklärt in Heidelberg einen chinesischen Roman.” In Goethe und China – China und Goethe, edited by Günther Debon and Adrian Hsia, 51–62. Bern: Peter Lang, 1985.
Eoyang, Eugene. The Transparent Eye: Reflections on Translation, Chinese Literature, and Comparative Poetics. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Eoyang, Eugene and Lin Yao-fu, eds. Translating Chinese Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Ge, Liangyan. The Scholar and the State: Fiction as Political Discourse in Late Imperial China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015.
Gerber, Leah and Lintao Qi, eds. A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation (1919–2019): English Publication and Reception. Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2021.
Gu, Ming Dong, ed. Translating China for Western Readers: Reflective, Critical, and Practical Essays. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014.
Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Vernacular Story. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Hao, Ji. “A Comparative Study of Two Major English Translations of The Journey to the West: Monkey and The Monkey and the Monk.” Journal of Chinese Humanities 2 (2016): 77–97.
Hegel, Robert E. “Traditional Chinese Fiction—The State of the Field.” The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 2 (1994): 394–426.
Lam, Ling Hon. “A Case of the Chinese (Dis)order? The Haoqiu zhuan and Competing Forms of Knowledge in European and Japanese Readings.” East Asian Publishing and Society 3, no. 1 (2013): 71–102.
Lefevere, André, ed. Translation/History/Culture: A Source Book. London: Routledge, 1992.
Ma, Ning. The Age of Silver: The Rise of the Novel East and West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Ma, Ning, “‘A Strong Resemblance’: Samuel Richardson, Chinese Talent-Beauty Novels, and a Secret Origin of ‘World Literature’.” In Encountering China: Early Modern European Responses, edited by Rachana Sachdev and Qingjun Li, 78–94. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2012.
Milner-Barry, Alda. “A Note on the Early Literary Relations of Oliver Goldsmith and Thomas Percy.” The Review of English Studies 2, no. 5 (1926): 51–61.
Plaks, Andrew. The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Purdy, Daniel. “Goethe, Rémusat, and the Chinese Novel: Translation and the Circulation of World Literature.” In German Literature as World Literature, edited by Thomas Oliver Beebee, 43–60. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Pym, Anthony. Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome, 1998.
Qi, Lintao. Jin Ping Mei English Translations: Texts, Paratexts, and Contexts. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
Rath, Brigitte. “Pseudotranslation.” In Futures of Comparative Literature: ACLA State of the Discipline Report, edited by Ursula K. Heise, 230–233. Abingdon: Routledge. 2017.
Saussy, Haun. Translation as Citation: Zhuangzi Inside Out. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Schonebaum, Andrew. Novel Medicine: Healing, Literature, and Popular Knowledge in Early Modern China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016.
Song Lijuan. “Zhongxue xichuan” yu zhongguo gudian xiaoshuo de zaoqi fanyi (1735–1911)—yi yingyu shijie wei zhongxin [The Transmission of Chinese Scholarship in the West and the Early Translations of Traditional Chinese Fiction (1735–1911) with a Focus on the English-Speaking World]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2017.
St. André, James. “Exploring the Role of Pseudo-Translation in the History of Translation: Marryat’s Pacha of Many Tales.” In China and Its Others: Transforming Knowledge Through Translation: 1829–2010, edited by James St. André and Peng Hsiao-yen, 29–50. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012.
St. André, James. Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2018.
St. André, James and Peng Hsiao-yen, eds. China and Its Others: Knowledge Transfer Through Translation, 1829–2010. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011.
Venuti, Lawrence. “World Literature and Translation Studies.” In The Routledge Companion to World Literature, edited by Theo D’haen, David Damrosch, and Djelal Kadir, 180–193. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.
Wang, Ning. “World Literature and the Dynamic Function of Translation.” Modern Language Quarterly, 71, no. 1 (2010): 1–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Luo, J. (2022). Introduction. In: Traditional Chinese Fiction in the English-Speaking World. Chinese Literature and Culture in the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05686-4_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05686-4_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-05685-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-05686-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)