Description
Book SynopsisThis study-bridging contemporary theory, Chinese history, comparative literature, and culture studies-analyzes the historical interactions among China, Japan, and the West in terms of "translingual practice."
Trade Review"This important book will be of great interest and immense use to anyone in modern Chinese cultural studies who would understand the process by which new words, meanings, discourses, and modes of representation arose, circulated, and acquired legitimacy in early modern China through contact with European and Japanese languages and literatures." —
Choice"This book will be of interest to a wide audience and is must reading for those pursuing comparative studies."—Viren Murthy, University of Hawaii
Table of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction: the problem of language in cross-cultural studies Part I. Between the Nation and the Individual: 2. Translating national character Lu Xun and Arthur Smith 3. The discourse of individualism Part II. Translingual modes of representation: 4. Homo Economicus and the question of novelistic realism 5. Narratives of desire: negotiating the real and the fantastic 6. The deixis of writing in the first person Part III. National Building and Culture Building: 7. Literary criticism as a discourse of legitimation 8. The making of the Compendium of Modern Chinese Literature 9. Rethinking culture and national essence Appendixes Notes Index.
