Due to its construction of an image of modern Chinese philosopher who comments and reflects on what he has seen in England in comparison to China,Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World(1760)has contradictorily b...Due to its construction of an image of modern Chinese philosopher who comments and reflects on what he has seen in England in comparison to China,Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World(1760)has contradictorily been interpreted in two ways:One considers it as an orientalist discourse denigrating Chinese culture,while the other takes is as an utopian fabrication idealizing Chinese culture.Seeking“difference”between English and Chinese cultures is the underlying logic of these two types of interpretations.On the contrary,rooting on the“sameness”between them,this essay offers a new understanding about The Citizen of the World through a close textual analysis.The aim is to demonstrate how The Citizen of the World makes use of the image of Chinese philosopher to represent English cosmopolitanism featured with“polite”and“universal”and how the principle of equality operates through English cosmopolitanism.展开更多
文摘Due to its construction of an image of modern Chinese philosopher who comments and reflects on what he has seen in England in comparison to China,Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World(1760)has contradictorily been interpreted in two ways:One considers it as an orientalist discourse denigrating Chinese culture,while the other takes is as an utopian fabrication idealizing Chinese culture.Seeking“difference”between English and Chinese cultures is the underlying logic of these two types of interpretations.On the contrary,rooting on the“sameness”between them,this essay offers a new understanding about The Citizen of the World through a close textual analysis.The aim is to demonstrate how The Citizen of the World makes use of the image of Chinese philosopher to represent English cosmopolitanism featured with“polite”and“universal”and how the principle of equality operates through English cosmopolitanism.
