Akutagawa Ryunosuke In Chinese Modern Literature (1921-1949)

The translation of Akutagawa Ryunosuke' s works in our country can be backward to 1920' s. And great achievements have been gained since then. The attempt of this thesis, to have a study of Akutagawa Ryunosuke' s works in the development of Chinese modern literature in order to find out their influence and significance upon Chinese modem literature, distinguishes itself from others.This thesis consists of three chapters, i.e. Chapter 1: Lu Xun' s original translation and the beginning of Chinese modern historical fictions; Chapter 2: the interest in Akutagawa' s works and the discussion of "The Visit to China" in the modem literature; Chapter 3: the anti-aggression war literature in China and the sense of anti-war in Akutagawa' s works. The three chapters discuss relatively distinctive issues which represent the three influential focuses of Akutagawa' s works in different periods of Chinese modern literature respectively and illustrate why his works have been accepted in Chinese context.The argumentation of each chapter concludes the following points. The reason why the translations of Akutagawa' s works were not popular in China in 1920' s is that they were contrary to what Chinese literary world then welcomed. The influence of Akutagawa' s works is one of the triggers which cause the appearance of Chinese historical fictions originated by Lu Xun. There is a great interest in his works after his suicide, the basic reason for which is Chinese society then and there and the change of literature current. Whether his "The Visit to China" is negative or positive in China aroused great discussion in 1930' s. What discussed are very complicated issues of China as a semi-colony threatened and aggrieved by Japanese imperialism rather than the problems of being purely true or false. The continuous translation and republication of his works in the War of Resistance against Japan result from the specific background of Shanghai "Isolated Island" and moreover the anti-war sense against Japanese militarismThis thesis concludes that Akutagawa' s works play a positive or at least inspirational role in the development of Chinese modern literature to some degree.