Abstract
Largely ignored by Gaskell scholars, the early Chinese translations of Gaskell’s works have not been carefully looked at. From 1920 to 1945, the publication of four stories by Gaskell-- Cranford, Cousin Phillis, Hand and Heart, and The Old Nurse’s Story, witnessed the transformation from politics-orientated to independence in China’s publishing history. With their growing understanding of foreign literature, Chinese scholars had been translating and criticizing Gaskell’s works, and gradually formed a focus on Cranford. It was not by accident that Cranford has received great popularity: there is no similar novella in contemporary Chinese literature that has ever treated the topic ‘balance and modernization’ so gently and delicately, yet the translators’ handling of the texts indicates cultural compromise too. As a result of that, I argue: the reception of Gaskell in China, especially during this period, sheds light on how western literature has been domesticated and accepted in another language, which also showcases why in that way could Gaskell become popular in an eastern country.
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Recommended Citation
Wang, Lisu
(2022)
"A study of Cranf 1927: Woo Kwang Kien and Translation-cultural Capital,"
Living in Languages: Vol. 2, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/liljournal/vol2/iss1/6