Reception Of American Novel In China During 1919—1949

In 1895, the shame of the Sino-Japanese war shocked the Chinese and people in China began to open their eyes to see the world, and Chinese literature start its transition from ancient style to modern style. During the year 1919-1949, American fiction stared to catch the Chinese readers' eyes. Chinese readers' aesthetic expectation directly affect their choice and acceptance, abandon and misreading of American novels. This paper intends to explore acceptance of American novels in China during 1919-1949 from the perspective of reception aesthetics.The second chapter summarizes the translation situation of American fiction in China from 1895 to 1895. Chronologically, the translation is divided into three periods: starting period(1895- before and after the May 4th movement), silent period(1917-1927), and booming period(1927-1949). There were most translation of American novels in China's from 1927 to 1949.The third chapter generalizes the styles and reasons of Chinese readers' choice of certain novels; introduces the most representative writers and their works of American fiction from its birth till 1949; demonstrates the general classes of novels accepted by Chinese readers: Political, Romantic, Realistic, and modernist novels and analyses the reason of the choice from the reception aesthetics point of view. As to the works unselected, this paper also makes some analysis.The fourth chapter selects the most representative writers including: Shi Zhecun Lu Xun, Guo Moruo Sha Ting as cases in supporting that Chinese readers accepted American fiction with their expectation horizon. From the pre-understanding of aesthetics reception theory, this paper explains the reasons that every writer accepted the novels of the United States, and analyzes their acceptance of the American novel from their creation features.The fifth chapter, on the basis of above, as well as reception theory, summarizes the reason why Chinese readers chose and misreading American fiction. The fact that Chinese readers chose American novels was driven by the reality of the society as well as the nation's convergence. The readers' misreading of the novel was mainly due to readers' simplistic understanding of the American novel, the image of the United States in Sino-US bilateral relationship and Chinese readers' misunderstanding of Western religion.This paper tries to explain Chinese readers' recceptation of American fiction and aims at broaden the views toward Sino-Us literature exchange before Liberation.