Western Literary Criticism In Modern China:1917-1937

The first half of20th century is an important phase of our translation’s history, twentyyears after the May4th Movement is especially a golden age of western literature hadbeen massive introduced,during this time the amount of translation,the extent ofspread, the affection to the Chinese literature,culture,society,both of them almostreached a high peak that we nearly cannot find another time in the history to competewith it. When Western literature came into China, Western literary criticism andliterary theory followed, although the translations of them are a little chaotic, butundoubtedly they have a profound influence on modern Chinese literary criticism.This thesis aim at research how the Western literary criticism has been translated,spread and accepted in modern China, not only clear up Western critics’ cases, but alsoanalyses the development of modern Chinese literary criticism and characteristics.From1917, when Hu Shi published The Discussion on the Improvement ofLiterature,to1937the anti-Japanese war broke out that put a stop temporarily to thetranslation of Western works, this period of time is which the thesis relates with.The thesis contains introduction, main body and conclusion. The core part consists offour chapters.1st, The Romanticism poetic theory in China.2nd, Aestheticism inChina.3rd, Scientism, Historism and the external research in literature.4th,Symbolism poetics in China.The thesis main part begin by exploring how does a criticaccepted in China,base on analysis of individual cases and with the help of the trendof thought,genre, try to present how does the Western literary theory betranslated,spreading and its affection in China,discuss the reasons why the Westernliterary theory can be accepted,disputed,changed and misunderstood,research howdoes Western literary theory affect the Chinese modern literary criticism in ideas’origin,the formation of theory,the practice of criticism and other field,then,try tointerpret the Chinese modern literary criticism’s interaction with Western criticismtheory from an all-round and multi-angle position and find out the Western literarycriticism’s meaning and affection to the Chinese modern literary criticism.PrefaceThis part is mainly on present the relationship between the modern Chinese literarycriticism and western influence in macro view, analyses the research status in Chinaand abroad, research methods and existing problems,and explain the structuresetting,research ideal and research methods of this thesis.Chapter1The Romanticism poetic theory in China.The first chapter mainly discusses the situation of Romanticism’s dissemination and acceptance in modern China. The main body of this part is the cases’ analysis of twocritics,Wordsworth and Shelley, and try to analyze some questions which arediscussed between the critics,such as the language of poetry, poetic function, creativeinspiration, the difference between poetry and prose, and so on. The Chinese literaryacceptance of the romanticism not only embodied in literature works, but alsoreflected in literary ideas, critical ideas and critical method’s changing. In the processof accepting Western romanticism,"literature" has become the independent discipline,then the modern literary concept can be established.Chapter2Aestheticism in ChinaAs the representative of the British aestheticism,Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde’simpressionist criticism methods, the pursuit to the "flash","art for art’s sake" andother theory influenced Chinese modern criticism, but at the same time, their criticismare usually treated as materialism in an one-sided way and suffer a cold reception. Inthe modern Chinese literary criticism, the pure art theories have never been fullyaccepted, artistic form factors are rarely get the attention they deserve either.Chapter3Scientism,historicism and the external research in literatureAlthough Turner’s "race, environment, age" three elements theory has been questionedin the Chinese literary criticism, but it is still can be treated as a worthy criticismmethod to learn by many critics.Western concept of historicism, scientism trendmerging with Chinese traditional literature, it makes literary critic and creation focusmore on"reality", and the tend of external research in literature be strengthen, and thecharacteristic of the Chinese modern society, some critics’ reference from the SovietRussia vulgar sociology make this tendency more outstanding.Chapter4Symbolism poetics in ChinaThis chapter introduces the Baudelaire, Mallarme, and Navarre’s poetics’ translationand dissemination in China, and the process of "pure poetry" in Chinese poetictheory.It also discusses the impact of the French symbolism theory’s on the Chineseliterary criticism.EpilogueConclude the value and significance of this thesis, and depict the developing prospectof this subject.