2021 Vol. 4, No. 3

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Articles
Translation and the Heritage of Postcolonial Studies
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
2021, 4(3): 409-427. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214301
Abstract:
This essay suggests that independence from colonialism is brought in by groups that are not in class contact with the general population. Therefore, the democracy imposed by this group comes undone and older, pre-colonial structures of power come in to underguard the polity. Indian postcoloniality can offer an example. The solution suggested is a holistic education of the largest sectors of the electorate, although at the moment it can only be entertained as a dream. Next, Talal Asad's Secular Translations is considered. This book offers anthropological fieldwork as a way of accessing the other. Asad sublates this into a reading of each Q'uranic recitation as an occasion of translation. This article connects that sublation to epistemological performance as the practice of the humanities beyond the discipline. The solution offered is of teaching imaginative activism, again holistically from the subaltern to the elite. The essay next cites a speech given in Osaka right after the presentation of the Kyoto prize to the author—which offers translation as activity rather than convenience. In conclusion, by way of Édouard Glissant and Gary Okihiro, the article suggests an understanding of history as creolity and a shift from nationalist language thinking to archipelagic thinking,where we understand that the world is an island, and that, by analogy, in globality,we are in islands of language in an ocean of traces.
[Abstract](129) [PDF 1815KB](65)
“You Don't Mind the Play”: On the Sly Scenes in The Taming of the Shrew
ZHANG Pei
2021, 4(3): 428-442. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214302
Abstract:
The Prologue of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is unique in its structure. Firstly, it consists of two scenes with the drunkard Christopher Sly before the play proper and the last six lines in Act I, Scene I; in this light it is a play before the play rather than a commonplace prologue. Secondly, the Sly scenes are in themselves a play performed on the stage rather than a routine speech narrated(usually by a Chorus or an actor, who is not necessarily a character of the play). In The Taming of the Shrew, therefore, the Sly scenes, i.e., the play before the play, and the play proper are situated at two different(though closely articulated) levels of the dramatic world and exert different dramatic functions: the former appears as the latter's play-before-the-play, while the latter as the former's play-within-the-play.Seen from the spectator-reader's perspective, the prologue(Sly's story) constitutes the first layer of dramatic illusion, whereas the Shrew's story provides the second.These two dramatic illusions are mirrors reflecting each other: Shakespeare has us watch Sly in the Sly scenes, just as Sly himself watches other players playing The Taming of the Shrew as the play-within-the-play. We watch Sly watch, and Sly being watched in the play represents us watching him watch on the stage: this creates a perfect Mobius strip of The Taming of the Shrew as a whole. Sly does not“mind the play,” nor does he have a rude awakening from the illusion at the end of the play. Here Shakespeare cunningly reveals the truth of life and practically forestalls the underlying modern metaphysical illusion of the Other World.
[Abstract](217) [PDF 2239KB](27)
Changing Interpretations of Luo-Tu and Scientific Disenchantment in the Qin and Han Eras
ZHANG Shuguo
2021, 4(3): 443-474. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214303
Abstract:
Luo-Tu, a mythical picture which depicts the legend of the tortoise from the river of Luo, belongs to the cult of esotericism of the Qin and Han eras.The authentic sources of Luo-Tu have been unknown for a long time. The reports of Confucian scholars of the Song dynasty mainly aim at a description of Luo-Tu,which was handed down from ancient times and had lost its original meaning. The genuine Luo-Tu derived from the exploration of esoteric realms of astronomy and astrology in the Qin and Han eras. The unearthed six-ren-shi-pan astronomical instruments from the tomb of the Marquis Xia Houzao included two dial plates—the heaven dial plate and the earth dial plate. The title of Qian-Zao-Du was derived from the heaven dial plate and the book used words such as Four-Zheng, Four-Wei,Eight-orientation, Eight-wind, and Eight Diagram to explain the earth dial plate. The Qian-Zao-Du had recorded observation results and fixed the length of a year at 365¼ days, and this discovery embodied the primitive scientific spirit of disenchantment in the Qin and Han eras. The heaven dial plate of the six-ren-shipan is a model of the orbital routes of sun and moon, and the earth dial plate, which was the source of Luo-Tu, was a model of the earth square and the four seasons of a year, and served to explain the relation between the monsoon climate and the life cycles of natural beings. The Qian-Zao-Du used the theory of Eight diagram to explain such astronomy instruments as the six-ren-shi-pan from the tomb of RuYin-Hou. With the disappearance of the instruments, the explanation had lost its scientific roots and could not be understood. With the historical appearance of enchantment movements, the true scientific meaning of Luo-Tu disappeared and only the riddle of diagram remained.
[Abstract](154) [PDF 6435KB](28)
Catholic Culture in the French Translation of the Classic of Poetry by the Jesuit Missionary Pierre-Martial Cibot
JIANG Xiangyan
2021, 4(3): 475-487. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214304
Abstract:
The French Jesuit missionary Pierre-Martial Cibot translated “Wen Wang” and “Si Qi” from the “Greater Odes of the Kingdom” of the Classic of Poetry into French. Three points are discussed in this essay. Firstly, while the original Chinese poem “Wen Wang” described the relations among Tian, Shangdi,and Wen Wang, in the French translation the three were metaphors for the Christian Trinity. Secondly, King Wen is the focus of the poem “Wen Wang,” while in translation it has been transferred to reverence of Tien(敬天). Thirdly, the French translation of "Wen Wang" and "Si Qi" described Wen Wang and his mother Si Qi,both perfect in virtue, as metaphors for Jesus and his mother Maria. In this way, the culture of the translator was planted into the translation, and the meaning of the poems, as well as the culture transmitted, was transformed.
[Abstract](164) [PDF 2040KB](33)
Eternity, Ego and Nature: An Analysis of the Theme of Nostalgia in The Journey to the East from the Religious Ideas of Eliade
HUANG Zengxi
2021, 4(3): 488-508. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214305
Abstract:
The Journey to the East is regarded as an important transformational work for Hermann Hesse. For long, due to the use of cryptic language, symbols, and metaphors, the subject and many details of the book are ambiguous and controversial. Given the similarities between Hesse and Eliade in ideological inclination and cultural standpoint, this paper analyzes the theme of nostalgia in The Journey to the East in the light of Eliade's relevant theories of religion. For Eliade, religions convey a nostalgia of human beings for the perfect mythical paradise. Although traditional religions have faded in the modern world,the nostalgia for paradise as a heritage has been preserved in modern culture,literature, and art. Combining with other representative works of Hesse, the theme of nostalgia in The Journey to the East contains three dimensions—eternity, ego, and nature—echoing the nostalgia for paradise described by Eliade on many levels. To be specific, the novel describes man's spiritual journey to conquer temporal existence and search for an eternal home, as well as the individual's symbolic journey to overcome the existence of polarity and pursue the whole ego. At the same time, it is also a utopian journey of human beings surmounting the confrontation with nature and recovering their original harmony. Although Hesse was inclined to place his hope of overcoming modern spiritual crisis mainly in the arts, his thoughts,in the case of the root of crisis and the way of overcoming the crisis, contained a deep religious background. It was, all the time, wavering between arts and religion.Thus, there exists an evident continuity between The Journey to the East and his earlier works. This interpretation of The Journey to the East from the perspective of Eliade's religious theory helps to not only clarify many blurred details in the work,but also to provide a holistic reference for studying Hesse's other works.
[Abstract](168) [PDF 2302KB](44)
William Blake and the Mythmaking of W. B. Yeats's The Wanderings of Oisin
ZHANG Jingzhou
2021, 4(3): 509-522. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214306
Abstract:
Yeats's narrative poem The Wanderings of Oisin is his first overt poetic attempt to retell and reinvent Celtic-Irish mythologies. Aside from the influence of English Romantic poets such as Shelley and the Gaelic literature published in Transactions of the Ossianic Society on The Wanderings of Oisin, it is significant to address another source: while Yeats was writing the poem, he was also writing commentaries on the poems of William Blake. By examining the relevant texts, this paper attempts to show that Yeats's interpretation of Blake accompanies the creative process of The Wanderings of Oisin. Not only does Yeats's understanding of Blake have an impact on the imagery, the structure, and the themes of the poem, but Yeats's self-consciousness expressed in his interpretation of Blake also provides clues to understanding the particular manners in which the Celtic-Irish mythology is told in The Wanderings of Oisin. Furthermore, Yeats's theosophical readings of Blake and his application of these interpretations in The Wanderings of Oisin also participate in the shaping of his core cultural values: it is the continuity of cultural symbols in the mindset of individuals as well as communities that constitutes a unified identity of an individual, a cultural entity, and a nation.Obtaining this continuity requires the imaginative mind to constantly transcend reality and to make the infinite imagination emerge from the finite life. In this sense,despite the fact that they still bear the stamp of youthful compositions of “songs of innocence, ” Yeats's interpretation of Blake and his initial portrayal of a “Celtic Ireland” in The Wanderings of Oisin are also his attempts to overtly define Ireland's cultural identity. Seen in this light, they are in fact the first “songs of experience” in which the young poet attempts to participate in the process of the shaping of a modern nation.
[Abstract](208) [PDF 2172KB](31)
The Possibility of Intercultural Citizenship Education: A Case Study of Multicultural Group Work in a Japanese University
LI Xiaoyan
2021, 4(3): 523-538. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214307
Abstract:
There are various views as to how to develop world-class human resources, and the possibility of intercultural citizenship education at universities has been subject to debate. While the Japanese government has identified three essential components of global human resources, there is no agreed approach to their development. Here we report and examine multicultural group work in class-share,an approach conceived in the course of our educational practice. We argue that multicultural group work in class-share is an effective and efficient approach. Based on the author's previous research, we have constructed a process model(called the ASCI model) of multi-cultural group work. Since 2014, the author has been conducting a learner-agency course at Kyushu University offered to both Japanese and international students. Since each student comes from a different cultural and environmental background and since the students have a variety of majors, we characterize their activity as multicultural group work. In the course, students acquire awareness of language and culture through a cycle of group discussion,interviews, and essay writing. The students report having renewed both their linguistic and their cultural knowledge. This acquisition and development of knowledge is referred to as self-renewal. We argue that the progress of self-renewal is also knowledge creation. We observe that self-renewal reflects MEXT's three components of global human resources. Furthermore, following Byram(2008), we argue that the learner self-renewal observed in this case study also fosters supranational citizenship and human resources that have the potential to contribute to world peace.
[Abstract](99) [PDF 2643KB](43)
Special Topic
Opening Remarks by the Moderator: Perspectives and Tentative Explorations of Qiao-Yiology in Literature
YE Jun
2021, 4(3): 541-542.
Abstract:
[Abstract](58) [PDF 1425KB](36)
“Observing the Image,” “Explaining with Language,” and “Setting Up Religion with the Divine Way”: Divination and Literary Problems in Jiao Gong's Forest of Yi from the Perspective of Literary Qiao-Yi
LI Chuan
2021, 4(3): 543-558. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214308
Abstract:
Modern Chinese literature is the product of the intervention of Western dualism. There are two levels: time and space. From the perspective of space, it is necessary for Chinese literature and foreign literature to be integrated in the global vision of world literature; from the perspective of time, we should pay attention to the significance of the debate between ancient and modern for the reflection of current literary concepts. These two levels are exactly the direction of Qiao-Yiology studies. With the disintegration of the traditional system of Confucian classics, Jiao Gong's The Forest of Yi was first regarded as a “literary” work, and there were many factors in literature. The Forest of Yi is rooted in the five principles of “setting up images to fulfill the meaning” in Zhouyi, which proves the value of“the integration of iconology.” No matter the teaching of Zhouyi, or the teaching of the Book of Songs, and other Confucian classics, all contain the logic of the origin of Chinese literature. Understanding this logic can further explore the value and significance of The Forest of Yi in the current context. As far as the divination system of The Forest of Yi is concerned, its “observing the image” is the tradition of Zhouyi, its “explaining with language” is the tradition of the Book of Songs, and its expressive characteristics are poetic and intuitive rather than logical and rational. It is also necessary to reexamine the test system of The Forest of Yi from the perspective of readjusting our way of life and rethinking the struggle of modern people in the universe to cope with the crisis of modern scientism. Within the tradition of Yi-ology, divination has always been a branch and an end, and the emphasis on virtue is the core idea of Confucian classics. However, the emphasis on virtue in the Zhouyi is based on the theory of divinity, which is full of fatalism.
[Abstract](124) [PDF 2109KB](48)
The Possibility of Qiao-Yiology in Literature: On the Structure of Space and Time in Time-Travel Fiction
DONG Linlu
2021, 4(3): 559-569. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214309
Abstract:
As the theory of Qiao-Yi is being improved, it becomes normal to apply Qiao-Yiology in the study of literature. Addressing numerous examples, this paper attempts to connect Qiao-Yiology and literature at a disciplinary level. QiaoYi phenomena in the literary world are diversified and yet connected to the real world. This will help to fulfill the contents of Qiao-Yi, invent a new interpretation of time-travel fiction, and open new avenues for literary criticism. The space-time inverse in time-travel fiction is one unique kind of Qiao-Yi phenomenon. It exists in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which demonstrates three elements(time, space, and spirit) in space-time inversing Qiao-Yi phenomena and their use for analysing the relationship between the literary world and the real world. The Qiao-Yi phenomenon in the literary world is an important step in understanding literature as a whole, and the theory of Qiao-Yi provides us with the idea of analyzing the real world from material displacement(time and space dimensions being combined into one in the real world) to spiritual change. In the literary world, the temporal dimension can be separated, forming the phenomenon of “temporal change—material displacement(spatial change)—spiritual quality change,” and the implication, interaction, and influence of the two temporal dimensions, as well as the plurality and dissolution of the subjects in them, are the core contents of Qiao-Yiology in literature and related literary-critical methods. The analysis of the spatio-temporal structure in Qiao-Yiology in literature takes the change of time and space as the major premise of the phenomenon of “change,” and the important variable functions of time and space as the core elements of the analysis of the spatio-temporal structure at the level of reality and the phenomenon of Qiao-Yi in the literary world where the spatio-temporal structure is different from reality.
[Abstract](100) [PDF 2734KB](24)
Ideological Change in Nelly Sachs's Eli from the Perspective of Qiao-Yiology
CHEN Anrong
2021, 4(3): 570-578. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214310
Abstract:
Nelly Sachs, the Swedish poetess who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, was born in Germany and lived in Berlin for the first half of her life. Like many of Jewish descent, it was only after the Nazis came to power that she was surprised to find herself the object of a “purge” and forced to accept a crude and inhuman division of her identity. This genocidal classification brutally tore Jews who had already integrated into the local life from their own past, and the whole process was full of extreme spiritual suffering. In Sachs's poetic drama Eli, she invented a medieval story to allude to the misfortune of Jews, including herself. The poetess was forced into exile from Germany to Sweden. Although she was lucky to be able to save her own life, the spiritual wound never healed. To seek spiritual consolation, she turned to Jewish mysticism. Her works did not directly describe the bloody disaster, but faithfully recorded the process of the poetess's spiritual transformation. Taking the movement of geographical position and the flow of ideology and culture as the object of investigation, Qiao-Yiology has constructed a methodological “avenue” of “binary and three-dimensional” from the constant migration and change of things, and explored the causal process from “Qiao” to“Yi,” thus providing a new way of thinking for scientific research. This paper is a brief attempt to apply the theory of Qiao-Yiology to the field of literary studies,trying to find the artistic spark aroused by the collision of different beliefs in Eli from the perspective of Qiao-Yiology, as well as the interaction between imagination and reality in literary creation, so as to be able to define the extent to which mysticism has influenced the poetess and her works.
[Abstract](115) [PDF 2098KB](27)
Book Reviews
Hartley, John. Advanced Introduction to Creative Industries
JIN Wen
2021, 4(3): 581-584. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214311
Abstract:
[Abstract](109) [PDF 1037KB](37)
WANG Yugen. Writing Poetry, Surviving War: The Works of Refugee Scholar-official Chen Yuyi(1090–1139)
TANG Peixuan, ZHOU Rui
2021, 4(3): 585-587. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214312
Abstract:
[Abstract](126) [PDF 1223KB](34)
ZHANG Yu. Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965
CHEN Fanghao
2021, 4(3): 588-590. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20214313
Abstract:
[Abstract](172) [PDF 1034KB](35)
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