Western romantic literature was translated into China in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.Its spirit of advocating individuality and pursuing freedom has exerted an important influence on China in the 20th century.At that time in China,romanticism was not only a special term from the West,but also a concept of"sinicization"which was constantly constructed.Based on the basic literature of The Short Story Magazine(1921-1931),this paper summarizes and collates its translation and misappropriation of romantic writers and works by using the method of philology.On this basis,it traces the origin of such writers and works in the west,explores the principles and literary ideals of the same people in The Short Story Magazine,and ponders the deep influence of western romantic literary trends on the practice of modern Chinese literature.Then it reveals the vivid course of Chinese literature in pursuit of "romanticism" at that time.According to the above ideas,the first chapter of the thesis aims to clarify the concept of romanticism.On the one hand,it seeks to deduce the literary tradition of Chinese romanticism,on the other hand,it explores the translation and introduction of western romanticism in China.By sorting out the manifestations of western romanticism and tracing the origin of romanticism in Chinese context,it further clarifies the connotation of romanticism,and it lays a theoretical foundation for sorting out the romantic texts of The Short Story Magazine.The second chapter of the paper is an overview of romanticism in the translation of The Short Story Magazine.On the one hand,it combs the translated texts vertically,and on the other hand,it analyses the translated works of writers.By summarizing and sorting out,it can be found that the number of translated works of romantic writers in The Short Story Magazine from 1921 to 1925 was relatively large,the number halved from 1926 to 1927,and the number continued to decrease from 1928 to 1931,which was closely related to the replacement of the editor-in-chief of The Short Story Magazine,the accumulation of romantic theory and the change of attitude towards romanticism in Chinese academic circles.In terms of the content of translation,this paper argues that The Short Story Magazine has a preference for writers who are obviously rebellious,such as Byron and Shelley,and tends to translate and introduce works with romantic flavor in the damaged country and positive romanticism in English and France,and to choose texts whose theme is conducive to spiritual emancipation.The third chapter of the paper traces back to the source of the works of the writers who are not well-known for their romanticism,breaks the strangeness of the text by searching for the real information of the writers,and further inquires into the reasons why The Short Story Magazine translates and introduces the writers on the basis of understanding the writers’ life experience and literary characteristics.The forth chapter of the paper,taking Shen Yanbing as an example,briefly analyses the influence of the translation and introduction of romanticism in The Short Story Magazine on the writers’ creation.Through the analysis of Shen Yanbing’s representative works Erosion Trilogy and The Midnight,which advocate "literature for Life",this paper holds that the translation and dissemination of romanticism have a profound impact on Chinese writers and will make them consciously choose the common themes of romantic literary works,borrow the characteristic themes of romanticism and adopt the writing of romanticism.Skills make the works romantic.The conclusion of the paper tries to explore the connotation of Chinese romanticism in the 1920s by analyzing and summarizing people’s understanding,attitude and definition of romanticism,and restore the process of romanticism’s construction in China.Generally speaking,romanticism has extremely important instrumental value in the 1920s.Its realistic significance of enlightenment and emancipation of the mind is higher than that of literature.After selective translation,Chinese romanticism,with its spiritual core of freedom and revolution,conforms to the realistic requirements of social change in China and becomes a major force to promote the spiritual emancipation of Chinese society. |