Author：Yuxiang Qin, Dan Zhao

Abstract: The prominence view and the figure-ground theory are related to each other because they both involve perceptual relations. However, they are not equal, and this results in their difference in superiority. The prominence view is a general principle of cognition and a basic way of thinking, and it is superior to the figure-ground theory in syntactic analysis for being economical in theory and capable of simplifying the analyzing process and providing systematic and reasonable explanations to related syntactic problems. The figure-ground theory, which has developed from the description of the perceptional relation between the two parts in the perceptional field, can very well illustrate the prominence relation between the things involved in the prominence view, but it is limited in its application in syntactic analysis because of the difficulty in determining figure and ground and the irreversibility of the perceptional relation between figure and ground.

Column：Linguistic Studies   135-144   Details

Author：Yi Peng, Bei Luo

Abstract: Within recent years, foreign and domestic studies of energy discourses have been in constant development, but little research is directed towards renewable energy discourses in terms of critical metaphor analysis. Based on the contrastive analysis of critical metaphors, as well as the self-constructed corpus on Chinese and American renewable energy news reports in the past ten years, this paper explores identical and different metaphors linked with these discourses, discloses origins of the identical and distinct metaphors, and points out that important factors leading to the same metaphors include the natural tendency of energy development, the responsibilities of China and America as major powers, and the commonalities of culture and thoughts between the two countries. The main reasons giving rise to correspondingly different metaphors involve the differences of ideology and social culture.

Column：Linguistic Studies   145-156   Details

Author：Shenyou Mei

Abstract: As the most famous short story by Edward Morgan Forster, The Road from Colonus has been much studied in relation to Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus. This essay, by identifying Coleridge's “Kubla Khan” as another important source text, argues that this Foster's is mainly about the dawning of inspiration as a testimony to the enormous power of the subconscious and the vanishing of inspiration due to the intervention of outsiders. An investigation into Forster's personal circumstances reveals his strong trust in inspiration, as well as his deep-seated anxiety about its vanishing in the absence of someone committed to the idea of “only connect.”

Column：Literature and Culture Studies   001-011   Details

Author：Qiong Li

Abstract: Anna Catherine Green's The Affair Next Door and The Circular Staircase and Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Circular Staircase create the earliest prototypes of spinster detectives in American literary history. These fictional images are in their nature self-contradictory: as detectives, they play the cultural role of upholding bourgeois morality and family ideals, but as single, autonomous women, they challenge the dominant discourse through their investigation of women's plight and their recasting of the image of the spinster. In their novels, Green and Rinehart endow the spinster detectives with the right to narrate in their own voices. Their narration not only highlights their roles in defending morality and women's rights, but also redescribes their characters and potential and subverts the Victorian prejudices governing sex, age, and marital status.

Column：Literature and Culture Studies   012-020   Details

Author：Fang Yuan

Abstract: Without any direct references of plague, Coriolanus is haunted by the metaphor of plague in which Shakespeare compares citizens' turbulence to the plague within. Analysing the historical evidence, the author finds that citizens' riots were more prevalent than the plague at that time. When Shakespeare wrote ...

Column：Literature and Culture Studies   021-029   Details

Author：Tiantian Huo,Shidan Chen

Abstract: The British postmodern writer Pat Barker's The Ghost Road juxtaposes colonial space, war space, and the war hospital, presenting a panorama of the British Empire's spatial politics, in which the Empire constructs the hierarchical spatial order in the colonial space through employing colonial violence, controls individuals in the war space through practicing state patriarchal ideology, and produces bare life through utilizing the mechanism of a state of exception in the war hospital. The ghost, representing the colonized, the dead soldier, and the patient in the war hospital, resists the British Empire's spatial hegemony by violating borders, being present, narrating,

Column：Literature and Culture Studies   039-048   Details

Author：Yining Ma, Yuxiao Su

Abstract: One of the most distinctive techniques of Paradise Lost, allusion, provides an interpretive approach to the nature of Satan. Milton alludes to the language, actions, and situations of heroes in Western classical epics, associating Satan with them. These associations, however, do not place Satan in the position of the hero in Paradise Lost. Rather, they set the traditional heroes as the standard against which Satan’s nature is measured. This article, therefore, reviews Milton's "critical allusion" in Paradise Lost and how it sheds light upon the interpretation of the pseudo-heroic nature of Satan. This approach has not been systematically studied in domestic academic circles. The present article first introduces the concept and function of "critical allusion." Then it points out that Milton's relation of Satan to such archetypal epic heroes as Achilles, Aeneas, and

Column：Literature and Culture Studies   049-057   Details

Author：Hongzhi Wang

Abstract: The Macartney Embassy to China from Britain in 1793 is no doubt one of the most important events in Sino-British history. As the embassy was sent under the pretext of offering belated congratulations on the eightieth birthday of Emperor Qianlong, the British brought along expensive presents. Yet Qianlong was not impressed. After reading the Chinese translation of the list of presents, he made severe criticisms that the faraway barbarians were merely blowing their own trumpet to exaggerate the value of the presents. Working on the recently identified Chinese translation of the list of presents prepared by the embassy, this paper examines the reasons why Qianlong felt offended. The recently identified translation will also be compared with the one collected in the archives of the Grand Council to demonstrate how and why it was amended by the Chinese.

Column：Translation Studies   058-079   Details

Author：Haihong Yin

Abstract: Based on a brief review of the history of poetry translation, this article points out "translating verse as verse" requires two elementary conditions: First, the translated text must be verse instead of prose. Second, the translators should be poets or those who have poetic talent. Apart from these two elementary factors, "translating verse as verse" also requires literary athletics in poetry translation. Zha Liangzheng, one of the outstanding modern Chinese poets and translators, is famous for his numerous and high-quality translated poetic works, and considered a typical practitioner of “translating verse as verse.” Considering diction,...

Column：Translation Studies   080-092   Details

Author：Baorong Wang, Enqi Zhou

Abstract: It is significant to investigate translation and dissemination modes for Chinese literature as they have a bearing on Chinese literature and culture reaching a world audience. This article offers a critical review of the existing studies in the field. The research topic attracted scholarly attention in China at the turn of the century through Eva Hung’s pioneering paper, which was published in 1991. Three phases of development can be identified: the heated debate on the best "translator model," preliminary exploration of translation and dissemination modes, and attempts at systematic construction of such modes. Nevertheless, this topic is still largely under-researched. Hence, the authors suggest some possible avenues for further research.

Column：Translation and International Communication Studies   094-102   Details