2022 Vol. 5, No. 3

Special Topic
New Vision and New Practice of the Impact Studies of Comparative Poetics
CAO Shunqing
2022, 5(3): 7-20. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225301
Abstract:
As an important branch of comparative literature, comparative poetics is divided into parallel studies and impact studies in terms of research paths. From the existing research results in the academic field, the parallel studies of comparative poetics have been effective, but the results of impact studies of comparative poetics are lacking. The lack of attention to the empirical value of impact studies is a serious shortcoming of current comparative poetics. This paper argues that it is necessary to reconsider the study of poetic influence relations. This paper re-examines the scope of comparative poetics and emphasizes the importance of research on the Sinicization of Western poetics. In fact, modern Western poetics has been influenced by Chinese poetics; however, the existing research results in comparative poetics have focused on the influence of the West on China, i.e., the Westernization of Chinese poetics, but have not yet delved into the study of the influence of China on Western poetics, i.e., the Sinicization of Western poetics. Therefore, this paper develops as a new field and vision the study of how Chinese literary thought influenced Western thought and became a variant form of the development process of Western literary theory. Taking the influence of Chinese culture on Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida and Ezra Pound as examples, it elaborates the influence of Chinese culture on Western philosophy and poetics, explores the variation of influence under the theory of comparative literary variation, and demonstrates the best empirical study cases on the mutual appreciation of Chinese andWestern civilizations.
Changes and Prospects of Overseas Chinese Literature Research
YU Xiayun
2022, 5(3): 21-31. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225302
Abstract:
After more than 40 years of development, overseas Chinese literature research has made great progress in terms of concept discrimination, methods and ideas. The process has gone through three stages "seeking common ground," "reserving differences" and "literary governance" -through which the overall consciousness and comparative characteristics of the research gradually emerged. The concept of "overseas Chinese literature" refers not only to a special type of literature in special space or place, but also to a "misplaced" thinking about global modernities. Taking Chineseness and locality as the most critical issues of its own, overseas Chinese literature research continues to discuss the relationships between internal and external, Chinese and foreign, primary and secondary, variants and invariants, etc. It illustrates the complexity and locality of identity politics by discussing root and route, and also illustrates the energy and mobility that are fulfilled in the process of identity establishment by discussing "shi." The concepts of "Sinophone" and "Sinophone/Xenophone Mesology" put forward recently are the latest trends in overseas Chinese literature research. The former tries to emphasize differences and minorities, while the latter concerns about the close connection between literature and nature, society, spirit and other aspects, strengthens the human condition, and responds to the ontology of literature. Both of these new concepts drive us to pay attention to the mobility and inherent connectivity of overseas Chinese literature. It deals not only with the development of Chinese literature and the relationship between Chinese and foreign literature, but also with speculation on the practice of all minority transnational literature. Like the back-and-forth rhythm of oceans, overseas Chinese literature represents the process of persistent dialogue between different cultural experiences, which helps us to think about and refine a marine poetics.
Science Fiction Studies in China
LYU Chao
2022, 5(3): 32-46. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225303
Abstract:
The study of science fiction has gone through more than 100 years of development in China. To explore this topic in the context of the history of Chinese comparative literature, the research subject is Chinese scholars, and the research object is both local and overseas science fiction. Based on the strict academic paradigm, the research of science fiction can be divided into two types:"semi-professional" and "professional." For a long time, the two groups of researchers have learned from each other and made important contributions to the development of science fiction studies in China. Semi-professional research originated in the early 20th century, mainly in the form of writers' perceptions, science fiction fan comments, etc. Professional research rose in the 1990s and has flourished in the 21st century. It has developed from lonely spark to prairie fire.Although there is some overlap with semi-professional researchers, most professional researchers come from universities. They generally have doctorate degrees, have received complete and systematic academic training, and are familiar with modern academic paradigms. Their output has greatly improved in depth, breadth and standardization, mainly reflected in five aspects:the continuous development of academic activities, the establishment of academic organizations, the emergence of high-level research projects and academic achievements, the remarkable achievements of talent training in universities, and the bright spots of international exchanges. Since the 21st century, research achievements in science fiction can be divided into six major areas:research data collation and translation, literary history writing, writers and works research, comprehensive works, translation and communication research, and representative thematic research. Although the existing achievements are unprecedented in terms of quantity and quality, there is still a broad research space to be explored by successors.
Development and Theoretical Innovation of Literary Anthropology in China
QIU Yuqi, LI Yongping
2022, 5(3): 47-76. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225304
Abstract:
Literary anthropology is considered to be a comparative literature research school that considers and studies literature from an anthropological perspective, and is an interdisciplinary study that was born in the field of comparative literature in the 20th century.As the result of the interaction between anthropology and literature, literary anthropology has interdisciplinary characteristics. Since the reform and opening up of China, the budding of literary anthropology research in the country can be traced back to the research of scholars such as Wen Yiduo and Zheng Zhenduo in the early 20th century. Forty years after the reform and opening up was a period in which Chinese literary anthropology moved from method to discipline, from foundation to growth. Chinese literary anthropology researchers have always adhered to the principle of combining "Universality" and "Chineseness," absorbing and transforming literary anthropology theories and methods introduced from the West, so that they could be flexibly applied to local issues. This paper takes the development of literary anthropology in China as a clue and sorts out the localization process of literary anthropology in China according to three aspects:the background of literary anthropology, the history of literary anthropology in China, and the innovation and practice of literary anthropology by Chinese scholars. From the perspective of theoretical innovation, the construction of Chinese discourse in literary anthropology mainly focuses on the following four aspects:the reinterpretation of early classics, the project of tracing the origin of Chinese civilization, literary ethnography search, and interdisciplinary research. From the perspective of the development of research methods, the contributions ofChinese literary anthropology focus on interdisciplinary methods such as "the Quadruple Evidence Method" and "the N-Evidenc Method." The localization process of literary anthropology in China reflects its cross-integration with Chinese culture, history, archaeology, ethnology and other disciplines.
Articles
The Transfiguration of the Russian Revolutionary Spirit: Chinese Translations of Kemuyama Sentarō's Modern Anarchism in the Early Twentieth Century
MA Xiaolu
2022, 5(3): 77-99. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225305
Abstract:
In 1902, the Japanese scholar Kemuyama Sentarō(1877-1954) published Modern Anarchism. It was one of the first books in EastAsia to provide a comprehensive and systematic scholarly overview of the late nineteenth-century Russian revolutionary movement.This book of political scholarship had a sensational impact in China and motivated the Chinese to translate stories about the politically radical Russian nihilists-both factual and historical fiction-as well as write original fiction on these themes. This article traces the translations of Kemuyama's book in China at the beginning of the twentieth century, detailing the editorials and sketches in Chinese newspapers that drew direct inspiration from Kemuyama's book. By outlining how Kemuyama's scholarly research into Russian revolutionary politics eventually served as a crucial impetus for early twentieth-century Chinese social and revolutionary movements, the article explores the relationship between transcultural texts and politics, and the implications for translation as a cultural mediator.In addition, thearticle also explores how Kemuyama's book guided its Chinese readers to establish a link between revolution and literature that shaped the Chinese interpretation of Russian literature throughout the twentieth century. Inspired by the Russian nihilists and writers depicted in Kemuyama's book, the Chinese translators transformed their renditions into vehicles of their own revolutionary sentiments.
On Takeuchi Yoshimi, Who Failed to Understand China as the All-under-Heaven World: A Comparative Study with Takeda Taijun
Tsuyoshi Ishii
2022, 5(3): 100-115. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225306
Abstract:
Takeuchi Yoshimi and his colleague, Takeda Taijun, represent two idiosyncratic understandings of Chinese literature and culture.While both of them attempt to reflect upon modern Japanese culture via China, they decisively part ways from each other in their readings of extinction(in Takeda) or eschatology(in Takeuchi). Through a comparison of Takeuchi's interpretation of Lu Xun and Takeda's interpretation of Sima Qian, this essay attempts to work out the difference between these two influential thinkers in their attitudes towards modern China and modern Japan, clarifying their different formulations of the cultural-political relationship between the two countries. While Takeda makes an analogy between the China-Japan relationship and the Xiongnu-Han Dynasty relationship, which boils down to a relationship deprived of alterity, a relationship that is determinable if not repeatable, Takeuchi, along with his Lu Xun, insists upon a relationship that is nonrelational, a relationship that lies beyond expectation, that is eschatological in a strong sense.
Understanding Others as Others: A Reading of the Political Thought of Maruyama Masao and Takeuchi Yoshimi, or Advocating the “Gentle Subject”
Ryohei Tatebe
2022, 5(3): 116-135. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225307
Abstract:
This paper attempts a contemporary reading of Maruyama Masao, a prominent intellectual of postwar Japan, by bringing his arguments into dialogue with those of Takeuchi Yoshimi, another outstanding Japanese postwar intellectual. After experiencing many kinds of irrationality during World War II, Maruyama started to think explicitly about the nature of politics in the postwar situation. As he advocated for "understanding others as others" in his 1961 essay "Politics and Man in the Contemporary World," his concern was related to the question of the relationship between the self and others, or between the "inside" and the "outside" world. However, when faced with the same issue, Takeuchi Yoshimi proposed the opposite. While Maruyama was oriented toward others, Takeuchi looked at the inner nature of the self. For my argument, I would like to use Maruyama's notion as a starting point and at the same time suggest that Takeuchi's view of the self as something open or defenseless is significant in making "understanding others as others" possible. By engaging the arguments of these two intellectuals, I propose the idea of politics based on the "gentle subject," contrasting with Maruyama's notion of the "powerful subject." My conclusion is that considering the "gentle subject" is a necessary process in expanding Maruyama's thought to its full potential.
In Search of Alternative Soundscapes: International Modernism and Sonic Warfare in Late 1930s China
HAO Yucong
2022, 5(3): 136-155. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225308
Abstract:
This article traces the crossed paths of two types of wartime modernisms and their respective engagements with China's wartime soundscapes in the late 1930s:the first is represented by the modernist poetry of W.H.Auden, and the second is the political modernist documentary of Joris Ivens. Contextualizing the two artists within the network of international modernism in the 1930s, I examine how Auden's and Ivens's journeys to wartime China informed divergent modernist experiments with the expressive and affective capacity of sound and voice, and argue that they developed their own auditory aesthetics and constructed alternative soundscapes beyond wartime acoustic violence. Auden and Ivens followed a similar path from Madrid to Wuhan, embarking from the debris of the Spanish Civil War and arriving at the battlefield of wartime China. Their encounters with the Sino-Japanese War were crystallized, respectively, into the sonnet series of "In Time of War" (1939) and the solidarity documentary film, The 400 Million(1938). Both artists registered the complex soundscape of wartime China:while they were overwhelmed by the deadly blasts of aerial bombardment, siren sounds, and cries of war victims, they sought to redress this wartime crisis of perception by reimagining an alternative soundscape beyond the sonic warfare.
Musical Coding and Political Decoding in the Gaze of Empires: The Use of Music and National Writing in James Joyce's Dubliners
WANG Han
2022, 5(3): 156-174. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225309
Abstract:
In the late 19th century, the Irish Literary Renaissance, led by intellectuals such as W. B. Yeats, was on the rise. James Joyce, however, was keenly aware of the nationalistic sentiment that permeated the Renaissance.He believed that the sloppy alliance between literature and politics is easily shaped by the absolute monistic discourse of dominating ideology, and the literary works presented by it will inevitably fall into empty cliches.As a diaspora intellectual in Europe, Joyce dedicated the entirety of his mind for literary creation to his fatherland Hreland. In his early story collection Dubliners, Joyce focuseson hisnational writing by employing abundant musical elements, which both implies the political ecology of that era and presents young Joyce's thoughts on national rejuvenation. In their totality, the multi-dimensional usages of music in Dubliners mark Joyce's deep integration of literature and music. Using music as a signifier to summarize the signified politics of the era, Joyce coalesces the "dualcolonialism" of Irish society into familiar music images, which in turn awaken the paralyzed Irish nationals. This article studies the transcoding resemblance between music coding and political decoding, and explores how Joyce uses these "meaningful" musical symbols to signify politics and social life against a diachronic and synchronic background.
Book Reviews
Ngugi, Mukoma Wa. The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership
YU Jingyuan
2022, 5(3): 175-177. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225310
Abstract:
SHEN Weirong, YAO Shuang. What is Philology? The Methodology and Practice of Modern Humanities
HAO Lan
2022, 5(3): 178-182. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225311
Abstract:
LI Qingben. Intercultural Interpretation and Communication of Chinese Culture
SUN Yapeng
2022, 5(3): 183-188. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225312
Abstract:
Conference Reports
Report on the ICL Symposium on Mr. Sun Jingyao and Comparative Literature in China
HOU Jialu, ZHANG Shilin
2022, 5(3): 189-193. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225313
Abstract:
Perceiving New Global Changes,Technology and Humanities Going Hand in Hand: Report on “Great Changes and New Explorations: Academic Forum on Science Fiction Literature Research in the New Era”
ZHANG Yuan
2022, 5(3): 194-198. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225314
Abstract: