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Relying on research on various sources and literary traditions, it provides illumination of the historical contexts, centring on the cultural interaction and connectedness that occurred during the multidirectional global flows of the Judge Dee texts in both western and Chinese markets. This study contributes to current scholarship on crime fiction by questioning its predominantly Eurocentric focus and the divisive post-colonial approach often adopted in accessing works concerning foreign peoples and cultures.
Relying on research on various sources and literary traditions, it provides illumination of the historical contexts, centring on the cultural interaction and connectedness that occurred during the multidirectional global flows of the Judge Dee texts in both western and Chinese markets. This study contributes to current scholarship on crime fiction by questioning its predominantly Eurocentric focus and the divisive post-colonial approach often adopted in accessing works concerning foreign peoples and cultures.
Approaches to Translation Studies is an international series promoting the scholarly study of translation. The notion of plural ‘approaches’ to translation and its study calls up images of scholarly explorers following untrodden paths to translation, or more cautiously (re)tracing the familiar routes. Either way, it indicates a refusal to be tied to dogma or prejudice, a curiosity about possible new vistas, and an awareness that the observer’s view depends on where s/he comes from. But a recognition of the plurality of possible approaches does not necessarily mean passive acquiescence to relativism and scepticism. The idea of ‘approaching’ translation also implies a sense of purpose and direction.
In the context of today’s globalised and pluralised world, this metaphorically suggested perspective is perhaps more relevant than ever before. The series therefore remains fully committed to it, while trying to respond to the rapid changes of our digital age. Ready to travel between genres, media and technologies, willing to span centuries and continents, and always keeping an open mind about the various oppositions that have too often needlessly divided researchers (e.g. high culture versus popular culture, linguistics versus literary studies versus cultural studies, translation ‘proper’ versus ‘adaptation’), the series Approaches to Translation Studies will continue to accommodate all translation-oriented books that match high-quality scholarship with an equal concern for reader-friendly communication.
Approaches to Translation Studies is open to a wide range of scholarly publications in the field of Translation Studies (monographs, collective volumes…). Dissertations are welcome but will obviously need to be thoroughly adapted to their new function and readership. Conference proceedings and collections of articles will only be considered if they show strong thematic unity and tight editorial control. For practical reasons, the series intends to continue its tradition of publishing English-language research. While students, teachers and scholars in the various schools and branches of Translation Studies make up its primary readership, the series also aims to promote a dialogue with readers and authors from various neighbouring disciplines.
Approaches to Translation Studies was launched in 1970 by James S Holmes (1924-1986), who was also one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Translation Studies as an academic discipline. At later stages the series’ editorship passed into the hands of Raymond van den Broeck, Kitty M. van Leuven-Zwart and Ton Naaijkens. Being the very first international series specifically catering for the needs of the fledgling discipline in the 1970s, Approaches to Translation Studies has played a significant historical role in providing it with a much needed platform as well as giving it greater visibility in the academic marketplace.
Authors are cordially invited to submit proposals and/or full manuscripts to the publisher at BRILL, Masja Horn.
Volumes 2, 4, and 5 were published by Van Gorcum (Assen, The Netherlands), but orders should be directed to Brill | Rodopi.
The series published an average of two volumes per year over the last 5 years.
Abstract
This essay examines how “Eastern literature” was perceived and presented in the making of world literature in 1980s China, an era of political and cultural opening-up, through the lens of Indian literature included in the magazine Shijie Wenxue. Although the magazine’s editors discursively championed the idea of geographic all-inclusiveness, the larger conjuncture brought “Western literature” to the forefront of attention. “Eastern” authors and texts, in contrast, were confined to a state of “happenstance,” due to the occasional manner of their presentation. However, by re-reading Shijie Wenxue on three levels, I argue that the magazine managed to produce a relatively eclectic and “thick” knowledge of Indian literature, which would have otherwise been neglected because of its tokenistic appearance and low visibility. Adopting a more creative and critical mode of reading, one can turn the seemingly Western-centric project of Shijie Wenxue into a useful archive for readers with a special interest in “Eastern literature.”
Abstract
This article adopts a historiographical approach to analyse some key debates on world literature that played out in literary and cultural magazines during the Italian Fascist dictatorship. It shows that by hosting such debates – especially on realism – in seemingly random fashion, literary and cultural magazines in the 1920s and 1930s significantly contributed to problematise the cultural politics of a xenophobic regime regarding the arts in general, and literature in particular. To this end, I focus on journals of different sizes, political orientations and visibility to provide different theorisations of world literature. Finally, by discussing the multiple epitomes of world literature that the magazines created, I question the presence of what may be considered a coherent national, or even canonical, literature to argue that world and national literatures could co-exist when made to function not just as literary but also as a cultural mechanism.