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In this remarkably stimulating and erudite series of essays, Eugene Chen Eoyang explores many of the underlying paradigms and presumptions in world literature, highlighting issues of cultural interchange and cultural hegemony. Translation is seen in this perspective as a central rather than a peripheral factor in understanding the meanings of literary works. Taking concrete examples from Chinese literature, Eoyang illuminates not only the semantic collisions that underlie the complexities of translation, but also the cultural identities reflected in language and values. The title alludes to a passage from Emerson, reminding us that the object on view is not only the vision we see but is also...
This book explores the encounters between “East” and “West”, studying how “they get along”. These exchanges involve deliberate exoticizations and incommensurabilities, as well as creative fusions, such as Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit monk in the late 16th-early 17th centuries who learned Chinese in Beijing well enough to compose works in Chinese, and Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel Laureate, who admired Chinese civilization. The book also considers the effect of the West on Asian countries, the cases of Japan and Turkey, who tried to “modernize” by becoming more “Western”, and the examples of China and Korea, who adopted Western forms of theatre to advance a distinctly Asian aesthetic. It will appeal to anyone seeking more than a superficial understanding of the encounters between “East” and “West”.
A Companion to the History of the English Language addresses the linguistic, cultural, social, and literary approaches to language study. The first text to offer a complete survey of the field, this volume provides the most up-to-date insights of leading international scholars. An accessible reference to the history of the English language Comprises more than sixty essays written by leading international scholars Aids literature students in incorporating language study into their work Includes an historical survey of the English language, from its Germanic and Indo- European beginnings to modern British and American English Enriched with maps, diagrams, and illustrations from historical publications Introduces the latest scholarship in the field
This eclectic collection of essays focuses on a number of intriguing issues in translation: some of these "polemic" essays challenge certain widespread beliefs and practices: for example, the belief that humor is untranslatable; the assumption that translations are always inferior to the originals; the spread of translations that are more impenetrable to the target audience than the originals ever were to the source language audience; above all, the notion that translation is a marginal rather than a major area of study: indeed, as one essay suggests, translation may represent a model of thought, and translating a mode of thinking. These essays also consider the international trade in transl...
English Language as Hydra argues that, far too often, the English language industry has become a swirling, beguiling monster, unashamedly intent on challenging local lingua-diversity and threatening individual identities. This book brings together the voices of linguists, literary figures and teaching professionals in a wide-ranging exposé of this enormous Hydra in action on four continents.
In Two-Way Mirrors, Chen Eugene Eoyang engages in cross-cultural study, shedding light not only on the object of study but also on the subject conducting the study. The book's leading metaphor is that of the shop window, which is at once transparent (allowing a view of the merchandise on display) and reflective (offering an image of the prospective shopper). Eoyang shows the different and oppositional premises in Eastern and Western poetics juxtaposed not as contradictory but as complementary, allowing for a mutual illumination of values. He confronts the question of globalization and postmodernism bidirectionally, from an Asian as well as a Western perspective. Eoyang concludes by speculating on the continuing development of comparative literature, a discipline particularly well suited to new modes of discourse both reflective and reflexive, as illuminating as a two-way mirror.