A Comparative Perspective on Characterization in Classical Chinese Fiction

As an important aspect of fiction or narrative in general,characterization has long been a popular object for scholarly enquiries in literary studies. However,the well-known distinction into direct and indirect characterizations discursively formulated in Western literary theory may not be capable of accommodating various forms of characterization in other literatures and cultures. This article sets out to summarize and discuss the distinctive approaches to characterization in classical Chinese fiction in the triple purpose of complementing the binary distinction in the West,introducing the indigenous Chinese literary theory to Western readers,and facilitating their reading and understanding of Chinese fiction.

The“going global”of Chinese Fantasy Fiction through the Internet:Using I Shall Seal the Heavens on Wuxiaworld.com as an Example

In the 21st century,Chinese online fantasy fiction is gaining popularity overseas.Lai Jingping,a Chinese-American widely known online as RWX,inspired by the popularity of his translation of a Chinese fantasy fiction,Coiling Dragon,established a website called Wuxiaworld.com to disseminate Chinese fantasy culture.Now it has become the largest website in the world to translate these kinds of works.This paper,in order to explore the advantages of Wuxiaworld.com,examines the translation landscape and its trends as presented on this website,and further analyzes the translation of fiction and interactive platforms using I Shall Seal the Heavens,one of the stories on the website,as an example.Our study,through text analysis and data collection,found that Wuxiaworld.com is good at hyperlink-aided translations,and has translation awareness based on the analysis of covers,synopses and glossaries;foreignization is the main translation strategy when it comes to the fantasy terms in I Shall Seal the Heavens,while annotation in text as well as hyperlinks in the forms of text,pictures and music are adopted for cultural compensation;interactive platforms,such as comments,forums and announcements,are conducive to improving translation quality and stimulating readers’enthusiasm for these translations and Chinese culture.

In Her Mother’s House:Mother-Daughter Dissonance in Post-1990s Chinese American Fiction

This paper attempts to examine the trope of“home”and the depiction of mother-daughter dissonance“in her mother’s house”in post-1990s Chinese American fiction.The research selects four novels in the case study and focuses on how mother-daughter dissonance“in her mother’s house”is presented,what cultural connotations the trope of“home”carries and how they are affected by such extra-contextual factors as racism,sexism and classism.In comparison with two representative mother-daughter narrative works in pre-1990s period,the new characteristics and connotations of“home”in mother-daughter dissonance in post-1990s Chinese American fiction are revealed.

Research on the Foreign Communication of Chinese Science Fiction Literature in the Perspective of Public Diplomacy

In recent years,China’s public diplomacy has flourished,with literary exchanges and external communication undoubtedly becoming an essential part.Particularly with the progress of Chinese technology,science fiction literature has become a focal point both domestically and internationally.This paper investigates the background of the Chinese science fiction literature’s national characteristics,the manifestation of these characteristics in works,and the advantages of communication from three aspects.It also explores new ideas for the external communication of Chinese science fiction literature from the perspective of public diplomacy,inspiring new pathways for the integration of Chinese culture with the world,and telling Chinese stories to the world.

The Earliest Translations of Chinese Fiction into English Focus on The General History of China

The first works of Chinese vernacular fiction available in the West were published 1735,when the French Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Du Halde compiled translations of three pieces of Chinese vernacular fiction from Jingu qiguan(Marvels Ancient and Modern).These were later translated into English in The General History of China(1736)edited by John Watts.The three stories are"Lu Dalang gives money to re-unite his family","Zhuangzi bangs a drum and becomes an immortal",and"The bad servant sues his master because of a private grudge".The stories are framed by a dual purpose:they were a means to understand the nature of Chinese society,and they were also a pivot in the changing views of China.The moral content of the stories is played out in ambiguous ways,varying between simplistic moral lessons of good and bad rewards for good and bad deeds,and a more amoral tone.

A Historical Review of Robert van Gulik and His Judge Dee Mysteries in Chinese World （1996-2016）

Judge Dee Mysteries was written by a Dutch diplomat and orientalist Robert van Gulik, and has been translated into more than twenty languages, gaining a wide attention with the honorary title of ＂Orienta/Sherlock Holmes＂ in English world. It returned to China with Chen Laiyuan and Hu Ming＇s translations in 1980s, and since then there emerged various studies by Chinese scholars on Robert van Gulik and his works. This article makes a historical review of Judge Dee Mysteries in Chinese world during the past 20 years, presents problems in translating and introducing Robert van Gulik in Chinese, and proposes comments and suggestions for further translation and studies of Judge Dee Mysteries in a comparison with Chinese gong＇an fictions.

Doctors’Dilemma in Auspicious Pulse Diagnosis Represented in Ming-Qing Fiction

Auspicious pulse diagnosis/pregnancy diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine involves such issues as medical skills,narrative skills,family decency,and ethics.It is an excellent case for the exploration of ethical dilemmas in traditional Chinese medical practice.The early classical medical texts such as Su Wen(Basic Questions)and Ling Shu Jing(Spiritual Pivot Canon)provide a principle-based ethical guide for doctor-patient communication,while popular fiction such as Hong Lou Meng(A Dream of Red Mansions),Yu Mu Xing Xin Bian(Stories:Entertain to Enlighten),and Feng Yue Meng(Courtesans and Opium)in the Ming and Qing dynasties present literary examples for solving ethical dilemmas.This article will analyze these texts from three perspectives.First,the doctors in the text were subject to gender order and other delicate etiquette and customs,therefore were unable to make the diagnosis without embarrassing the patients and jeopardizing family decency.Second,the narrator tends to attribute pregnancy misdiagnosis to three reasons:incomplete patient information,doctors’poor narrative competence,and doctors’corrupted medical ethics.Finally,the Ming-Qing fiction proposes three methods to solve this moral dilemma:clear pulse reading,tactful speech,and taboo challenging.This discussion of moral dilemmas in pregnancy diagnosis in traditional Chinese medical practice can be used as a reference for the localization of narrative medicine.

As An“Unfinished Scheme”-- Detective Fiction and the Sinicization of Modernity,1896-1949

This paper,analyses how the Chinese writers borrowed the literary genre of detective fiction from the West,but also points out the"indigenous"features of the Chinese detective fiction during the late Qing and early republic periods.Further,it examines why a few Chinese writers chose to reshape detective fiction-an imported literary genre-with these indigenous features.While earlier studies argue that the"old htterateurs"in modem China represented the conservative forces,I believe that these writers were in fact well aware of the impact of Western ideologies and intellectual trends on the Chinese society.Their preference of the indigenous,therefore,was not a bhnd choice but a conscious act of resistance.Unlike the"New Literature"writers'positive responses to Westem ideas,this group of writers treated Western ideas not as the way-to save the motherland.Rather,they viewed the"hegemony"of the empires with alarm,and resorted to a set of traditional Chinese cultural values for ways of precluding such hegemony.Their efforts of reshaping detective fiction by this means,I argue,sheds a new light on the cultural transformation of the Chinese society-and,more broadly,of the Asian societies-during this time.That is,such transformation figured not simply as the great triumph of the West over the Asian societies,but rather suggested a dynamic process of cultural collisions and re-creation.

中国当代非虚构文学英译全景扫描

中国当代非虚构文学的英译由英文版文学杂志肇始,逐渐发展到以单行本的英语出版为主流方式。随着中国的进步与发展,单行本的英译出版也由过去单一的“译入”模式发展到现在的“译入”与“译出”模式并举,昭示了国际社会了解真实中国的迫切需求,也反映出在中国文化走出去中非虚构文学所承载的独有价值与作用。非虚构文学面向事实,依赖真人真事展开叙事,其英译和传播对构建真实的中国国际形象至关重要。因此,有必要覆盖整个翻译传播链,开展以中国当代非虚构文学英译为专题的理论研究,以强化我国非虚构文学英译的应有价值和功用。

中国写实文学:语境异置与价值选择

美国的非虚构文学是包含了报告文学等文体在内的大文类概念。“中国化”的非虚构文学剥离了报告文学,是一种具有自身取材面向和价值取向的特指性非虚构文学。新时期中国报告文学题材丰富,主题多样,新世纪以来的报告文学则呈现主题化写作的倾向。中国写实文学包含了特指性非虚构文学和报告文学。美国的非虚构文学是中国写实文学的参照物。本文基于现实主义文学的基本原理,梳理美国非虚构文学在不同的语境中的语义变化,分析中国特指性非虚构文学在特定语境中的出场逻辑,对其和报告文学各自所具有的叙事特征和价值功能作出简要论述。特指性非虚构文学,虽然并不符合它原有的文类逻辑,但其所体现出的鲜明的现实介入精神,其题材和题旨所显示出的新写作形态,是对已有报告文学的一种拓展和补足。报告文学,主要是主题写作类报告文学,它的存在既有文体功能的定制,也有时代存在的规定,具有不可替代的主流意识形态的叙事价值。两者具有价值互补的意义。

中西融合视域下中国小说诗学话语体系建构

中国小说理论体系要立于中国,面向世界,需要融通中西学术的视野,以“中国”为方法,以“世界”为目的,超越中国小说研究的传统子史框架,构建中国小说的起源、本体论、认识论、概念视域、写作模式、形式技巧和阐释学实践的系统框架,然后进入概念分析、哲学反思、本质探究、机制剖析等深层次研究,从而形成自成一体的非西方叙事的中国小说诗学话语体系。中国小说诗学话语体系的建构需要理性批判、形而上学、中庸调和、中西融合、系统思维以及历时与共时整合的综合研究方法。

美国南方文艺复兴小说:环境史语境、生态维度与中国视角

19世纪末至20世纪上半叶,美国南方工业化创造了前所未有的物质财富,也产生了难以弥补的生态创伤,体现了西方现代化的局限。由于南方文艺复兴文学所处的历史语境正是南方工业化、现代化快速发展的时期,这一时期小说创作中的环境书写成为认知和剖析南方现代化乃至西方现代化的重要载体。作家们或以鲜明立场批判西方现代化的种种弊端,或以矛盾心态含混呈现工业发展与生态环境保护之间的悖论议题,或以去人类中心立场重塑人与自然在社会变革中的身份与关联,为中国学界审视西方现代化提供了重要文学素材。以中国式现代化视角鉴赏并评析这一时期作家作品中环境书写的主题意蕴、审美价值和生态维度,观照南方文艺复兴作家对西方现代化的回应、批判和反思,可以为中国式现代化与西方现代化的比较提供话语资源。

凡尔纳科幻小说汉译经典化的知识生产模式

以凡尔纳科幻小说汉译本经典化策略为研究内核,可以管窥知识生产的社会形塑力是如何与中国科幻文学的世界性生成相联结。权威话语与阐释话语的动态合成、“报”“书”“刊”互补、文化自觉与商业出版整合和译创一体构成了凡尔纳科幻中国化的独特知识生产模式。它促成知识生产中的的各参与力量在复杂社会场域中的协调,将凡尔纳法语科幻小说形塑为汉译文学经典。凡尔纳科幻小说的中国经典化实质上是其汉译知识生产的系统化,也彰显了中国科幻文学发展进程。

美国现代中国文学史书写的美学范式与谱系

自20世纪60年代至今,美国的现代中国文学史书写思想多元,成就斐然。其书写路径最具代表性的是夏志清的新批评美学、许芥昱的政治美学以及王德威的后现代主义美学。不同时期美学范式的变迁反映了中美关系变迁、西方文学理论思潮冲击以及汉学史的内在流变等诸多因素。内外因素交织的历史语境生成了文学性历史与历史性文学的辩证以及解构主义思路。通过考察三位华裔学者不同的美学范式与交叉谱系,可以更好地揭示美国的现代中国文学史书写的整体脉络,为国内文学史研究提供互鉴与交流的跨文化阐释思路。

海外华文小说中传统意象资源的转化:以张翎《归海》为例

张翎的长篇小说新作《归海》主要包括三个不同层面的叙事主题,分别指向书写母亲、自我疗愈及回望故土。同时,作家援引、激活传统意象符号,建构起以“归海”为核心的雨/水、龙、凤意象体系,紧密贴合小说叙事且与之形成互补关系,深化了作品的叙事美学内涵。意象的选择与运用,不仅体现出张翎在跨文化语境中汲取、转化汉语文学传统的叙事自觉,也示范了一种将海外生命体验与民族精神进行融合性书写的独特路径。

当代美国拉美裔小说中的华人抗争者形象

当代美国拉美裔小说塑造了华人抗争者形象。加西亚的《猿猴之猎》通过互文性、文本与“副文本”和“潜文本”的互动,以及对“雌雄同体”概念的文学化利用,塑造了敢于反抗种族压迫和性别歧视的华人抗争者形象。迪亚斯的《奥斯卡·瓦奥短暂而奇妙的一生》以“讲述”和“呈现”相结合的方式,塑造了善良正直,勇于匡扶正义的华人抗争者形象。华人抗争者形象凸显拉美华人正直勇敢的精神品质,既折射了华人在特定历史时期拉美国家的生存经验和华人形象的多样性,又解构了美国白人文学中被动顺从华人刻板形象,对于建构正义勇敢的正面华人形象和国家形象具有重要参考意义。

中国科幻全球传播公共产品的塑造--基于《科幻世界》的跨文化传播与全球传播视角的分析

中国科幻文艺产品的全球传播近年来逐渐受到社会各界的关注,而作为存在时间较长、对中国科幻影响力较大、发展历史悠久的科幻杂志--《科幻世界》是中国科幻文艺界最具有代表性的全球传播品牌性刊物。在新中国科幻传播史上,该杂志创刊至今,就作为中国科幻创作与传播的引领者向世界传递中国声音,肩负起跨文化传播的重任。该文主要采用个案研究和深度访谈的方法,围绕有关该杂志品牌塑造的要素--封面符号的创意与视觉传达、绘制品牌文本科幻想象蓝图展开考察与分析,探索其在中国科幻跨文化传播中的品牌塑造与发挥的引领作用,以及绘制中国想象力地图与世界共享中国科幻全球传播的价值体现。

中国科幻电影的文体建构与类型话语

中国科幻电影的文体建构与类型范式演变,立足于想象未来人类世界的文明秩序与共同命运,注重通过多元类型杂糅的叙事文体,拓展科幻电影类型的文体边界、丰富科幻电影的审美表达空间,同时回应着动态变化的社会、技术与文化格局。中国科幻电影的文体演变与中国电影的产业发展和变革密切联系,其类型叙事与文体表征有效建构起中国科幻电影的民族身份和文化寓言。目前的国产电影市场上,关注人性深度与价值观建构的“软科幻”电影占比较大,而体现电影工业化发展综合实力的“硬科幻”电影仍处于探索阶段。未来中国科幻电影的发展,应在坚守文化主体性的立场下,探索新时代背景下的类型叙事与文体表征,用中华优秀传统文化讲述中国“在地化”的科幻故事,在展现未来人类科技想象的同时,反思生命的意义。

作为“理想”的“二十一世纪”——《电世界》中的现代性想象

作为中国科幻文学的滥觞,晚清科幻小说是进行“想象”的重要工具。它不仅是晚清“现代性”的表征,更是其展开的重要介质。作为与晚清相呼应的历史坐标,“二十一世纪”则为现代性“想象”提供了延展的空间与舞台。《电世界》构建了一个与晚清全然不同的时空坐标与世界体系,对高度发达的现代社会中的时空、科技、人格进行了多维度畅想,较早地尝试了从“神怪”到“科幻”的范式转换,同时对民族国家的建立也进行了一次思想上的探索和准备。

儿童语境下中国志怪题材图画书的叙事流变与优化研究——以福建省非遗文学“李寄斩蛇”为例

“李寄斩蛇”是具有鲜明儿童文学特色的中国古代志怪故事之一。各版本图画书通过视觉化改编使“李寄斩蛇”故事重新进入儿童视野,但也在历史发展中呈现出不同的特色分野。中国志怪题材既有现实的影子,又是一种浪漫的构想。儿童图画书创作如何在这一传统题材领域破局立新,应有四个方面的理论遵循和考虑:打通认知屏障,构建多元化的创作格局;凸显游戏精神,回归儿童语境的艺术旨趣;聚焦图画叙事,强化插图设计的文化创意;正视童年意义,关注作品内在的哲学表达。