Chinese Modernists and French Leftist Intellectuals in the 1930s and 1940s: On the Translation and Transmission of Benjamin Goriély’s Les Poètes dans la révolution russe
Refereed conference paper presented and published in conference proceedings
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AbstractIn both global and local contexts, the reception and rendition of the Western aesthetic modernism by Chinese modernists have, in the last three decades, aroused great interest among the community of scholars. However, discussions concerning their attachment to the leftist ideologies in China and in Europe have been very limited. A large corpus of Chinese modernists’ writings and translations related to the Leftist intellectuals in Europe, especially in France, has been overlooked, thus making it a missing chapter in the study of Chinese modernist literature.
Chinese modernists mainly Shi Zhecun, Dai Wangshu and Ye Lingfeng translated a great number of literary and political writings by French leftist intellectuals, such as Romain Rolland, André Gide, Henri Barbusse, Paul Vaillant-Couturier, Louis Aragon and André Malraux, in order to introduce diverse perspectives on Marxist literary theories and Russian-Soviet literature to the highly politicalized literary community in China in the 1930s and 1940s. They also translated relevant studies conducted by authors from the Francophone intellectual communities of Geneva and Brussels, including those considered to be unorthodox leftists. It is in this particular historical context that Dai Wangshu’s Chinese translation of the Russian émigré critic, Benjamin Goriély’s Les Poètes dans la révolution russe, published in various forms in five stages between 1934 and 1941, carries its significance.
From a transcultural perspective, this paper aims at investigating the discussion on Russian-Soviet literature in Les Poètes dans la révolution russe by putting emphasis on the development of leftist cultural movements in Russia, France, Belgium and China. It will also examine how Dai Wangshu introduced the Russian-Soviet literature and literary theories to China from the point of view of the Francophone leftist intellectuals in the historical context of the period of the League of Left-wing Writers (1930-1936) and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
Chinese modernists mainly Shi Zhecun, Dai Wangshu and Ye Lingfeng translated a great number of literary and political writings by French leftist intellectuals, such as Romain Rolland, André Gide, Henri Barbusse, Paul Vaillant-Couturier, Louis Aragon and André Malraux, in order to introduce diverse perspectives on Marxist literary theories and Russian-Soviet literature to the highly politicalized literary community in China in the 1930s and 1940s. They also translated relevant studies conducted by authors from the Francophone intellectual communities of Geneva and Brussels, including those considered to be unorthodox leftists. It is in this particular historical context that Dai Wangshu’s Chinese translation of the Russian émigré critic, Benjamin Goriély’s Les Poètes dans la révolution russe, published in various forms in five stages between 1934 and 1941, carries its significance.
From a transcultural perspective, this paper aims at investigating the discussion on Russian-Soviet literature in Les Poètes dans la révolution russe by putting emphasis on the development of leftist cultural movements in Russia, France, Belgium and China. It will also examine how Dai Wangshu introduced the Russian-Soviet literature and literary theories to China from the point of view of the Francophone leftist intellectuals in the historical context of the period of the League of Left-wing Writers (1930-1936) and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
All Author(s) ListKWONG Ho Yee Connie
Name of ConferenceXXIst Biennial Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies (EACS)
Start Date of Conference23/08/2016
End Date of Conference28/08/2016
Place of ConferenceSaint Petersburg, Russia
Country/Region of ConferenceRussian Federation
Proceedings TitleXXIst Biennial Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies
Year2016
Month8
PublisherSaint Petersburg State University
Place of PublicationSaint Petersburg, Russia
Pages1 - 15
LanguagesEnglish-United Kingdom
KeywordsChinese Modernists, French and Francophone Leftists, Marxist Literary Theories, Aesthetics and Politics
