通俗如何经典？--中国近代读者视域中的外国作家

The Displacement of Popular and Classic Western Fiction Translations in China——the Foreign Writers among Chinese Readers

从1896年到1916年,中国文坛被译介数量最多的四位作家都是西方的通俗作家:柯南·道尔、哈葛德、凡尔纳与大仲马。从小说类型上看,这四位作家基本代表了侦探、冒险、科学小说与历史传奇。科幻与侦探小说为近代中国读者提供了现代知识与文体补充;冒险与神怪小说中也蕴含着思想参照的资源;而言情与历史小说多作为消遣。中国近代读者正是通过以上四位通俗作家,建立了最初的世界文学观,构筑(或者也是限制)了他们的世界意识与新文学建设理念。

Sir Conan Doyle, Henry Rider Haggard,Alexandre Dumas, and Verne were the most frequently translated foreign writers in China before 1916. The motive of Late-Qing^s translation was to renew modern knowledge and researching Western culture, not to copy a system of western classical literature. So the Chinese fiction reformers chorused resource language fictions on their amusement and popularization in order to attract the masses but not the elite. The four writers~ works represent detective, adventures, romance, history and scientific fiction. They are important to Chinese literature in aspects like knowledge source, style supplementation, entertaining function as well as reflection on thoughts. Such popular writers as these helped to construct the consciousness of world literature among Chinese readers.