Discrepancy And Disjunction-the Reviews And Translations About Chinese Modern Literature In T’ien Hsia Monthly

The research object of this dissertation is an English periodical T’ien Hsia Monthly (1935-1941), published and edited by some Chinese intellectuals. The main task of this dissertation is to reveal the dilemma of the process of culture circulation by analyzing two columns of the magazine in terms of Chronicle and Translation. In the specific historical circumstance, the nationalistic discourse must be the potential interlocutor of the magazine. Meanwhile, the image of China imagined by Western is another factor that must be concerned by the intellectuals. Then, the discrepancy and disjunction of the opinions between the Chronicle and Translation emerge from the text. To go into details, the intellectuals are not sure about the style and the function of literature. Besides pointing out the discrepancy and disjunction, I intend to highlight the reasons leading to this circumstance and the attitude and perspective of the intellectuals on the literary practices. Through this research, I hope that we can uncover the literary history covered by the mainstream discourse and finally enrich the composition of Chinese modern literature.The first chapter collects the articles about Chinese modern literature published in T’ien Hsia Monthly. The writers and the translators are tending to be introduced if necessary. On the basis of this introduction, I will point out the discrepancy and disjunction between these two columns. The second chapter deals with the reason that leads to the discrepancy and disjunction. The New Culture Movement is always being regarded as the beginning of history of Chinese modern literature. Leaders of the movement like Hu Shi and Chen Du-xiu both underline the social function of literature, which means that the independence of literature is infringed at first. As the heirs of this movement, the editors of T’ien Hsia Monthly inherit this perspective more or less. After the break-out of the Sino-Japanese War, literature is required to play a role of propaganda. So the editors published a lot of articles in Chronicle to declare that literature should be more practical for pandering to the political correctness. However, they in private prefer the kind of literature with more individual styles and aesthetic pursuit, which is decided by their education and personal experience. That is why the works published in Translation are not fitted with the opinion expressed in the Chronicle.The third chapter studies how the magazine response to the western discourse about the Chinese image which has been imagined to be poor, weak, and uncivilized for long. So the editors publish the translations originally written by Lu Xun, Shen Cong-wen, Lin Shu-hua etc. to show the western world a different image compared with what they imagined. During this procession translation plays an important role. As we all know, meaning of the words cannot be translated into another language and remain completely consistent. On the opposite side, the meaning in original language may be deconstructed through the translation process. For example, the works of different language styles in Chinese are tending to be similar after translated into English. And if the language becomes homogeneous, the differences between country and city, pre-modern and modern will disappear. Furthermore, to those who claim the pieces to be more understandable, the works and articles written in English seems to be a great irony.