On The Reception And Influence Of Han Shan's Poems In America

Han Shan, a Zen poet of the Tang Dynasty, and his poems of distinctive style were on the whole neglected and even denied in the history of Chinese literature. In China, he was not even considered as a minor poet prior to the eighteenth century. Surprisingly, his fortune as a poet fares much more impressively abroad, especially in America. After being introduced to the United States by way of Japan, Han Shan and his poems attracted so much attention of Americans, especially American youths that Han Shan suddenly turned into an ideal hero of the Beat Generation of the United States in the late 1950s. This particular literary case, which will be mentioned as"Han Shan phenomenon"in the following sections, arouses the interest of the author of this thesis who attempts to make a tentative analysis of the phenomenon of cultural misreading which has obviously existed in that case in the hope that it would lead to a rather systematic understanding of Han Shan phenomenon.Cultural misreading is always inevitable in translation and intercultural communication which has been explored by many scholars, but for hundreds of years it has been taken as a prior obstacle against their efforts toward the truth of the Other, hence denigrated it as an irritable cultural phenomenon with some negative results. However, is this really the case of misreading in its existence? This thesis intends to conduct an intensive and systematic research on the misreading existent in the process of the translation and reception of Han Shan's poems in America mainly in the light of philosophical hermeneutics and reception theory by placing it in the broad context of the intercultural communication and dialogues in order to prove its necessity and rationality as well as the importance of re-evaluating its significance.This thesis consists of seven chapters:Chapter One is an introduction to the whole thesis. It briefs the motivation and objectives of the present study as well as the basic structure of this thesis.Chapter Two focuses on the relevant studies of cultural misreading and the theoretical framework of this thesis. At the beginning of this chapter the author summarizes the relationship between translation and cultural misreading. And then she makes a review of theoretical studies on cultural misreading, including cultural relativism, Said's"traveling theory"and deconstructionism. Given the important role of the readers in the reception and misreading of Han Shan's poems in America, reception theory will be the main theoretical foundation of this thesis. So in the third section of this chapter, the author gives a rather systematic account of reception theory as well as philosophical hermeneutics. The representatives of these two theories, including Hans-Georg Gadamer, Roman Ingarden, Hans Robert Jauss as well as Iser and their theories are comprehensively introduced.Chapter Three offers a general account of the distinctive characteristics of Han Shan and his poems, his position in the history of Chinese literature as well as the reasons for his being neglected and denied in China.Chapter Four covers the translation and influence of Han Shan's poems in America. Among all the English versions, the three ones respectively translated by Arthur Waley, Burton Watson and Gary Snyder are mainly introduced and analyzed. Besides, two important aspects of the influences of Han Shan's poems in America constitute the content of the third part of this chapter.Chapter Five verifies the necessity and rationality of cultural misreading in the light of reception theory by analyzing the case of Han Shan. At first, through a comparison between the spirit in Han Shan's poems and hippie culture as well as between the attitudes of Han Shan and American nature-writers toward nature will be made in order to find out the misreading in the translation and reception of Han Shan's poems in America. Jauss's"horizon of expectations"and Iser's"appeal structure"as well as their common focus on the role of readers in the process of reading a literary text would be very efficient in the explanation of the case of Han Shan in that in the process of the translation and reception of Han Shan's poems, Americans'"horizons of expectations"and the rich Buddhistic or Zenic philosophy hidden in those rather straightforward poems all open up to the misreading. Therefore, their theories will be applied in the analyses of Han Shan phenomenon in this chapter.Chapter Six explores the particular significance of cultural misreading in intercultural communication. It claims that misreading, in certain circumstances, may serve as a means of promoting intercultural understanding. Apart from the example of Han Shan, both that of Tagore and Pound will be presented, too, in order to find the necessity and productivity of misreading in the intercultural dialogue. In the last part of this chapter, the significance of misreading of Han Shan's poems in the Sino-US cultural communication will be explored.Chapter Seven is the conclusion. It claims that through the application of reception theory as well as philosophical hermeneutics in the exploration of translation and misreading of Han Shan's poems in America, it is found that misreading may open a magic door toward mutual understanding and serve as a starting-point of understanding. In the process of misreading, different ideas and views can come into being which may act as a means of advancing dialogues and communication between cultures. Therefore, the phenomenon of misreading is not only inevitable, but of great significance in intercultural communication under certain circumstances. Consequently, the study of cultural misreading should not just focus on the misrepresented phenomenon itself superficially, but should try to explore its necessity and productivity in getting a different or new understanding of another culture. In other words, the significance of cultural misreading waits to be re-evaluated more systematically and scientifically, and it should be positioned properly in the translation history, too.