清末民初对外国短篇小说的译介(1898-1919)

Translations of Short Stories in China from 1898 to 1919: A Survey

目前对清末民初阶段的翻译研究,除极少数之外,几乎都是以翻译外国长篇小说为其主要的讨论对象,而忽略了对当时发表在报刊、杂志上的翻译短篇小说的探讨。为填补这一空白,本文对清末民初之际(1898-1919)所译介的域外短篇小说作了一全面而系统的研究,包括考察当时的译者、翻译数量、所译介作者等情况,并在此基础上解释短篇小说翻译高潮出现的原因和归纳出当时短篇小说翻译的特点。本文认为,上述研究有助于我们分析当时社会对西方短篇小说的态度和接受,重新勾画出中国现代短篇小说的发展轨迹,并了解其在后期成为小说艺术发展主要动力的原因所在。

Researches into the translation history during the late Qing and early Republican periods usually focus their attention on the translation of foreign novels, but ignore the burgeoning practices of short story translations in the newspapers and magazines. The present paper conducts a comprehensive survey of short story translations published in China from 1898 to 1919, examining the translators, foreign authors, and the numbers of translations. Based on the results of the survey, the paper explains the reason for the boom of short story translation at such a historic time, and analyzes the characteristics manifested in these translations. The results of the survey will shed light on our understanding of the general attitudes towards this new genre in China at the beginning of the last century and facilitate our remapping of the developing trajectory of modern Chinese short stories.