2021 Vol. 4, No. 2

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Critical Essays
Cultures of Face and Cultures of Honor:Representations of Violence
Michael Steppat
2021, 4(2): 207-242. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214201
Abstract:
Recently social scientists have carried out substantial research concerning the world's cultures of face in relation to cultures of honor.It offers a range of data for the psychic or physical violence which in our time is built into each of these cultures,on a fairly global scale.Yet such research takes no notice of imaginative literature.Hence this essay asks:are we to assume that literature has nothing to contribute to an understanding of such forms of violence?Could we expect fictional works to offer insights of their own?Using social science as well as historical literary sources,the essay firstly aims to clarify what is meant by face and honor as cultural characteristics,focusing especially on personality and selfhood categories and on norms guiding social conduct.Then,secondly,the essay discusses instances of fictional works of our time and the recent past which,in a comparable manner,do indeed thematize key principles of face and honor cultures.It becomes apparent from research and fiction,in complementary ways,that these principles feature a notable gender imbalance.In many parts of the world,in so-called honor cultures,honor is often a prominent value in the context of women's assigned sexual and familial roles as they are dictated by a traditional family ideology.Thus,in such cultural contexts we can observe a direct link between male reputation and the female body,leading in effect to a gap between a woman's and a man's honor by setting double standards.Face cultures share a number of features with honor cultures:with a collectivistic orientation,they have traditionally encouraged a maintenance of strong family ties and social harmony,effectively resulting in similar double standards.Accordingly,the focus in this study is especially on notions of obedience and of infertility,to understand how these affect women.Fiction has recently been called an important source of inspiration for psychology as well as for sociology,and the analysis shows that imaginative works can indeed contribute valuable and original insights into harmful cultural practices.We should note that our own cultural positionality,wherever we are located,is at stake in this comparative process,which pushes us toward rethinking the assumptions that we ourselves,as researchers and as readers,bring to bear on our observations.
[Abstract](219) [PDF 1017KB](51)
Parmenides: The Divine Comedy of "the One"
ZHANG Yuan
2021, 4(2): 243-280. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214202
Abstract:
In Parmenides,one of the most obscure Eleatic dialogues,Plato conveys profound philosophical ideas and his entire theology as well.Composed in the strict form of Attic Comedy,it is the Divine Comedy of Plato,as it were,and at the same time probes into the most serious question concerning human beings,viz.how the opinions of mortals may afflux into the One,or the Divinity,through philosophy.The hypotheses and deductions on the One made by Parmenides,the founder of the Eleatic School,in the namesake dialogue are not only(as Parmenides says)the παιδíα of philosophers,but also the exodus of the whole work.The dramatic tension of the dialogue lies in the fact that Parmenides brings his monism to Athens when the democratic Athenian Empire,with its strong proclivity towards pluralism,had just reached its peak.This paves the way for future internal struggles of the Empire and sheds influence on,logically speaking,all the other Platonic dialogues.Just as the central topic of Parmenides is the One,Parmenides itself is the One of all Platonic dialogues-the One is the beginning,the One is the end,it is in itself,and it is in everything.
[Abstract](95) [PDF 1446KB](16)
Lu Xun's Fiction in the English World, 1926-1954
GU Jun
2021, 4(2): 281-300. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214203
Abstract:
As the founding father of modern Chinese literature,Lu Xun was one of the first modern authors to be translated into foreign languages,and his works have been published in numerous English versions.This paper will focus on these early English translations,from The True Story of Ah Q(1926)to Selected Stories of Lu Hsun(1954).From 1926 to 1954,most of Lu Xun's short stories were translated into English at least once,with"Kong Yiji"being rendered in as many as four different versions.The translators of those stories may be divided roughly into three categories:Western Sinologists such as George A.Kennedy and E. H. F. Mills,overseas Chinese translators such as Chi-Chen Wang of Columbia University,and local Chinese translators such as Feng Yu-sing.This paper will compare their respective translations,in terms of selection,language,and reception,with special attention to historically neglected pieces.
[Abstract](611) [PDF 590KB](60)
From Individual Souls to China's Soul: On Ming Qing Chinese Christian Fiction
LI Shi-xue
2021, 4(2): 301-314. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214204
Abstract:
Chinese Christian fiction first appeared in late Ming China,but flowered in the Qing Dynasty,when Joseph Prémare,a French Jesuit,began to compose stories in Chinese,the first of which was inspired by Cicero's "Somnium Scipionis." Prémare's writings were followed soon by works by such Protestant writers as Robert Morrison and William Milne,whose "Chang Yuan lianyou xianlun", actually presented like a catechism,circulated widely up to the early Republican era.Prémare and Milne strove to save individual souls from the temptation to worship local pagan deities.But later in the Qing dynasty,more Christians-Chinese as well as foreigners-wrote vivid novels and stories aimed at delivering the entire Chinese nation and saving China's soul.The most salient example is John Fryer's call for stories to rescue China.Although Fryer himself did not write stories,the roughly 150 stories he collected are the best illustration of this writing for the purpose of redemption.
[Abstract](213) [PDF 888KB](43)
Time Rhetoric and Asia Writing: The Political Cosmology in The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires
ZHOU Yun-long
2021, 4(2): 315-326. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214205
Abstract:
The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires: An Account of the East,from the Red Sea to Japan,Written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515 is an official report by ToméPires who was sent as an ambassador to Asia in the early sixteenth century.This report partly represents the knowledge of Asia before Europe entered the Indian Ocean international trade system.There are two series of time:universal time shared between the narrator and Manuel I and the Asia-Indian Ocean time sealed by the former.The Suma Oriental records the conversation of a Christian reporting his traveling in Asia and providing secular knowledge about many different areas to Manuel I.This scene secularizes the sacred time as "universalizing time." The narrator in The Suma Oriental seems to travel not only in spaces,but also in time and ideas.With the narrator's traveling,the secular knowledge of Asia is accumulated and Europe is gradually modernized.The exotic traveling becomes a secular pilgrimage.In fact,the present tense that is used to represent Asia has never shared the same significance with the "universalizing time" which is owned by the narrator and the Manuel I,but imprisons Asia by the time preservative.In other words,Asia represented in The Suma Oriental relies on the spatialized-time rhetoric.This time rhetoric separates the narrator from Asian spectacle and distributes and resettles the exotic knowledge in a Foucauldian tableau.Then,the cultural distance and ranks between Europe and Asia are produced,and the spatialized-time significance is foregrounded.This time rhetoric sets a non-synchronicity relation between Asia and Europe and freezes Asia in the narrating as the reference of European time and space.The political cosmology in The Suma Oriental is a metaphor of the producing mechanism of exotic knowledge and world awareness in early modern Europe.
[Abstract](111) [PDF 848KB](24)
The "Two Sinclairs" in the 1930s: A Cross-Cultural Interpretation of Local Ideas of Modern Literature
FENG Bo
2021, 4(2): 327-338. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214206
Abstract:
The domestic translation and introduction of American writers Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis in the 1930s is a cross-cultural event that cannot be ignored.The local enthusiasm for Upton Sinclair and indifference to Sinclair Lewis has formed a sharp contrast.This very different status of acceptance shows that as the traditional Chinese countryside has evolved to modern times,it has continuously strengthened the gentrification of the local sentiment.There has also developed a different interpretation of modern anxiety focusing on modern people's "dangerous disturbance" in urban and rural narratives.The different fate of the "Two Sinclairs" traveling in foreign lands in the 1930 s was actually due to the twoway discovery,negotiation and interaction of the nation-state,individual,and class outside and local by modern intellectuals.
[Abstract](77) [PDF 874KB](33)
Tensions in Anthropological Discourse around 1800: Play,Identity, and Cognitive Crisis in Kleist's Amphitryon
ZHANG Shu
2021, 4(2): 339-351. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214207
Abstract:
As a representative writer of the period of German literature around 1800,between Weimar Classicism and Romanticism,Kleist not only reveals the darkness,violence,desire,and madness in Greek mythology,but also introduces modern consciousness to the characters of Greek drama.The story of Jupiter being incarnated as Amphitryon obtains new interpretation in his writing.The problems of perceptive disorder,emotional confusion,loss of rationality,and failure of identity raised in the play pose a challenge to the concept of "der ganze Mensch", which was highly praised by classical humanism,and reflect the complex discourse of the era.The recreating of the mythical archetypes embodies the disenchantment with traditional belief systems of authority and the doubt about the new anthropological model of rationality and perception;it also implies the conflicts between emotional impulse,morality,and law,and fully shows the tension field that consists of reason and sensation,cognition and perception.The repeating and replacing of mythic heroes in literature is an embodiment of eternal game between present text and hidden discourse system.
[Abstract](119) [PDF 825KB](34)
The Close Relationship between Literature and Epidemics
WANG Hong-tu
2021, 4(2): 352-360. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214208
Abstract:
Since ancient times,epidemics have been closely connected with human society,and have often exerted considerable influence upon the course of history.They also find expressions in numerous literary works. "The Decameron", by Italian author Boccaccio,is a masterpiece in the era of Renaissance.Its narrative framework is set against a background of the Black Death ravaging Europe in the 14th century.The novel The Plague and the drama "State of Siege", both composed by French writer Albert Camus,demonstrate a panorama of epidemics,foregrounding man's will to revolt and abnormal changes in mentality.And White Snow,Black Crows,a novel by contemporary Chinese writer Chi Zijian,presents a detailed description of the plague shrouding China's northeast over a century ago.Chi concentrates on people's struggles and pains in Harbin under the pressure of epidemics,and offers a vivid display of ordinary life at that time.It can be seen in some literary works that though writers would sometimes fail to work out a panorama of epidemics,epidemics still play an important role in characters'lives,recharting the courses of their fate. W. S. Maugham is a popular British writer,whose novel The Painted Veil focuses on the rebirth of the female protagonist,Katie.A frivolous woman,she came to an area ravaged by epidemics,and ended up experiencing a radical spiritual growth.With a purified soul,she plucked up courage and started a new life.Similar drastic changes can be found in Death in Venice,a novella written by German author Thomas Mann.The protagonist,Achenbach,was a writer who happened to be on vacation in Venice.Having fallen in love with a Polish boy,Tadzio,Achenbach chose to stay as a cholera outbreak took place on the scenic spot.This erotic adventure eventually led to his infection and demise.In Mann's view,Achenbach embraced a "elevated sense of life that transcends all civilized life experiences",which is in line with German Romanticism.
[Abstract](115) [PDF 783KB](28)
Interview
An American Scholar's Research on Chinese Women in the Twentieth Century: An Interview with Distinguished Professor Gail Hershatter
LI Wei-rong, HE Xiao
2021, 4(2): 363-378. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214209
Abstract:
Gail Hershatter has devoted her entire scholarly career to research on Chinese women in the twentieth century.In order to better understand the details of her research,the author conducted an interview with her via e-mail.The interview centers around six topics:her introduction to the Chinese language and China;her time studying Chinese language and conducting research in China;the application of archival documents and oral history narratives;the paradigms of objectivity,big history,and the gender of memory;the aspects of personal voices,gendered division of labor,and gender equality;and curricula of Chinese history and beyond.
[Abstract](237) [PDF 469KB](20)
Book Reviews
Johns, Charles William. The Irreducible Reality of the Object: Phenomenological and Speculative Theories of Equipment
Graham Harman
2021, 4(2): 381-383. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214210
Abstract:
[Abstract](94) [PDF 257KB](42)
WU Zhen. A Study of Yun-men Zhuan,the Unique Copy of a Chantefable
XU Yu
2021, 4(2): 384-388. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214211
Abstract:
[Abstract](123) [PDF 433KB](20)
Conference Reports
The Construction of First-Class International Periodicals and the Responsibility of Chinese Periodical Editors: Summary of the Second Summit Forum on the Construction of First-Class Journals and the Symposium on Young Scholars of Humanities
WANG Li-jian, JI Jian-xun
2021, 4(2): 391-396. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214212
Abstract:
[Abstract](91) [PDF 546KB](18)
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