Author：Shouyi Luo

Abstract: Raymond Williams’s criticism on Orwell lasted for 30 years and turned all the more hostile. According to Williams, Orwell and his works were a complex of “paradoxes”: Orwell intended to be committed to the society but constantly felt alienated; he tried to build connection with proletarians but always failed to do so, and these paradoxes were fundamentally related to his “ruling-class” identity and ultimately threw him into despair. Based upon Orwell’s life details and writings, this thesis attempts a critical analysis of “Williams’s Orwell,” revealing Williams’s complex feelings dominated by “anxiety of influence”, refuting all kinds of biases caused by Williams’s class-determined perspective, and aiming for a clarification of the major misunderstandings of Orwell and his works.

Column：Cultural Studies   001-012   Details

Author：Meng Zhang

Abstract: James Joyce’s reading and acceptance of Dante have always been a topic of great concern to Joyce scholars. This article argues that the influence of the Divine Comedy is extremely typical as to form, among other things, the structure, characters and images of Joyce’s short story “Araby.” Provided that in the Divine Comedy, Dante’s “poetics of conversion” is realized through the structure of the “three visions” (the corporeal, the spiritual, and the intellectual); then in Araby there is also an underlying structure of “three visions,” namely the secular life of North Richmond Street, Mangan’s sister and the Araby market....

Column：Cultural Studies   013-023   Details

Author：Qingyu Wang

Abstract: The widely accepted belief that there was a strong connection between the Essex “rebellion” and William Shakespeare’s Richard II has limited scholars’ interpretation of this play. This research sheds light on how a supposed “historical context” has consistently misled the understanding of the play. The Earl of Essex’s political opponents within the Elizabethan government used John Hayward’s The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII to implicate Essex in a plot, portraying his group as scheming by staging a performance of Richard II on the day before the “rebellion”. They even intentionally conflated Hayward’s historical ...

Column：Cultural Studies   024-034   Details

Author：Yang Liu

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the spread process and reasons of Zetian characters in Japan. It is believed that Japanese characters are mainly spread through official channels in Japan, and attention should be paid to the political factors behind cultural communication. Except for the word “圀”, the use of Zetian characters in existing official documents and materials is concentrated between the seventh envoy to the Tang Dynasty (702) and the eighth envoy to the Tang Dynasty (717). After that, few official materials were used to use Zetian characters, while people in Nara and Heian periods used Zetian characters more frequently. The use of Zetian characters by Japanese people played down its political meaning and highlighted its beautiful moral side.

Column：Cultural Studies   035-046   Details

Author：Jue Wang

Abstract: Avancini is one of the representative writers of the Baroque period in Germany, and his representative work is Pietas Victrix. In the play, Avancini chooses Constantine the Great, the first Christian monarch in European history, to portray him as a model of a devout and virtuous Christian monarch. In the history of German literature, this play is one of the representative works of Baroque drama and constitutes an important part of the political discourse of Baroque drama; On the political level, it reflects the creative demands of Avancini to promote faith and express political concepts through dramatic creation.

Column：German Literature Studies   047-055   Details

Author：Yi Xu

Abstract: In 1752, Benjamin Franklin successfully invented the lightning rod, which marked a significant milestone in man’s comprehension and manipulation of nature. From that point, man liberated himself from the fear and anxiety caused by “thunderstorms”, and began to set positive aesthetic value to this weather phenomenon. Following this breakthrough of the history of technology, the German Enlightenment poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock composed the free-rhythm hymn “Frühlingsfeier” with the theme of “thunderstorm” which served as an emblematic work in his oeuvre. This poem, with its pioneering technique from content to form, constitutes the initial affirmative aesthetic portrayal of the “thunderstorm” in the history of German literature with profound impact....

Column：German Literature Studies   056-068   Details

Author：Lianxiang Tan, Jihui Zhang

Abstract: In the digital age, it is indispensable to explore how to improve the reception of Chinese culture in the world through multimodal narratives. The graphic novel A Chinese Life, co-authored by Chinese cartoonist Li Kunwu and French diplomat Philippe Ôtié, has been translated into more than ten languages. Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié explain the narrative characteristics of the work and the factors shaping them through epitexts such as media interviews, while reconstructing cultural context through peritexts such as covers and footnotes. Their efforts aim to match the target audience’s cognitive framework of Chinese culture. ...

Column：Translation and Communication Studies   069-079   Details

Author：Chunrang Shi, Haoyu Chen

Abstract: In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a noteworthy collaboration unfolded between foreign missionaries and Chinese scholar-officials. They engaged in a close partnership, employing diverse cooperative translation methods such as “Western scholars orally instructing, Chinese scholars recording”, “Western scholars translating, Chinese scholars refining”, and “Western scholars slossing, Chinese scholars making prefaces”. Through these collaborative translation strategies, a significant influx of Western scientific works found their way into China. The collaborative translation approaches of that era offer valuable insights for contemporary endeavors in introducing Chinese culture globally. These insights ...

Column：Translation and Communication Studies   080-088   Details

Author：Derong Xu, Chenfei Wang

Abstract: Chen Bochui’s thought on children’s literature translation, influential in China in the 20th century, reflects his pursuit and historical views for Chinese literature. The essence of his translation lies in the concept of child-oriented, motivated by the selection criterion of “combining fun and education” and the standard of “winning children’s hearts”, all aimed at achieving the goal of shaping a sound nation. Chen Bochui’s translation thought not only improves the quality of children and Chinese children’s literature, but also has great reference to current children’s education and the translation of children’s literature.

Column：Translation and Communication Studies   089-100   Details

Author：Danlei Qin, Geng Chen

Abstract: Chinese folk art contains the philosophy of “harmony between nature and man” and the universal value of “truth, goodness and beauty”. The international exhibition of Chinese folk art, as an essential ingredient of contemporary “cultural diplomacy”, is conducive to upgrade the comprehensive construction of national soft power, strengthening the effective link with the culture of the target country, enhancing the vitality of the content of cultural diplomacy under the globalization. The world will recognize a real China through Chinese folk arts exhibition, understanding Chinese traditional thinking, ethnics and diplomatic attitude of “opening-up, friendliness, peace”.

Column：Translation and Communication Studies   101-108   Details