no. 4

  • The Dawning and the Vanishing of Inspiration: A New Thematic Approach to Foster's The Road from Colonus

    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

  • The Cultural Roles of Early American Fictional Spinster Detectives

    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

  • National Power and the Metaphor of Plague in Shakespeare's Coriolanus

    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

  • The Other's Resistance to the British Empire's Spatial Politics in Barker's The Ghost Road

    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

  • Milton's "Critical Allusion": On Satan in Paradise Lost and the Heroes in Western Classical Epics

    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

  • How Did They Blow Their Own Trumpet? An Analysis of the Embassy’s Chinese Translation of the List of Presents from Lord Macartney to Emperor Qianlong, 1793

    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

  • A Methodological Analysis of "Translating Verse to Verse": Based on Poetry Translation by Zha Liangzheng

    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

  • Critical Review of Current Studies on Chinese-Literature Translation and Dissemination Modes

    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

  • Turkish People's "Chinese Imagination" and the Communication of the Chinese National Image by Chinese Mainstream Media: Based on the Survey of the Perception of the Chinese National Image by the Turkish People (2016-2019)

    Author:Huiqun Li, Yongmin Xia

    Abstract: This article uses two telephone interviews with the Turkish people in 2016 and 2019 by China Radio International as samples to analyze the Turkish people's perception of the Chinese national image. The study found that the Turkish people's cognitive data about China has been on the rise in recent years, but China is still a distant country in their minds. The Turkish media's China reportage shows obvious ideological prejudice, which affects the Turkish people's perception of China. In response to the current situation, China Radio International promotes some strategies to play a role in the communication of the Chinese national image.

    Column:Translation and International Communication Studies   103-115   Details

  • A Small Talk on the Relationship of Translation and International Communication

    Author:Weirong Li, Ziyun Guo

    Abstract: The relationship between translation and international communication is similar to a symbiotic relationship, and the ultimate goal of translation is to communicate with the people outside of China. Translation plays a very important role in deciding whether communication is effective or not. In order...

    Column:Translation and International Communication Studies   116-124   Details

  • FirstPrevious12NextLast

All Rights Reserved. Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Hunan Normal University.