The Reception of Jane Austen in Early Modern China

A Canonical Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID20248355
AuthorsHelong Zhang (0000-0001-8430-6071, Shanghai International Studies University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume11
Issue4
Pages90
Publication date2022-07-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumanities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/h11040090
OpenAlexW4286219260
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

In China, Jane Austen has undergone an amazing metamorphosis from an obscure foreign writer disregarded or disapproved of for a long period to a great novelist highly acclaimed and fully acknowledged. Only recent years have seen the publication of a few scholarly articles on the reception trajectories of Austen in the Chinese academic world. This article revisits the issue, particularly the reception of Austen in early modern China from a canonical perspective. During the first major wave of literary translation, Austen was absent in the translation projects of dominant male translators, especially in Lin Shu’s choice. It was not because of their gender discrimination as generally considered, but because of their lack of canon consciousness. The literary light of Austen, too bright and too sparkling to ignore, was finally shed upon the Chinese land, but her canonical place was not instantly recognized. The wartime translators’ efforts to render Pride and Prejudice into Chinese reflect the difficulty in the making of a canonical Austen under very different historical circumstances

Aesthetics · Art · China · Consciousness · Epistemology · Literature · Political science · Pride · Sociology · Visual arts · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

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