Overview

Transpatial Modernity offers the first in-depth account of the triangular relationship among Chinese, Japanese, and Russian literature and culture in the modern era. Drawing on primary sources in all three languages-among others-Xiaolu Ma reveals how Chinese writers translated and appropriated Russian cultural tropes through the intermediary of Japanese writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To trace the global journey of these literatures and ideas, Ma maps four case studies involving leading cultural figures including Leo Tolstoy, Futabatei Shimei, and Lu Xun. Together, they demonstrate the central role of relay transculturation-cultural exchange among at least three cultures, one of which serves primarily as an intermediary-as the key to understanding East Asian modernity. Not limited to a dyadic relationship between source and target culture, Transpatial Modernity explores the implications of cultural brokerage within complex transculturation process, thus establishing the value of a new transpatial framework for understanding literary and cultural exchange in local, regional, and global contexts.

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9780674295834

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Packaged with an overpowering amount of primary materials and secondary sources, this book is a major study of triangular comparisons and interactions of Russo-Japanese-Sino transculturation across a broad landscape from Pushkin to Lu Xun, all based on the author’s own intimate command of three languages: Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. The author, Xiaolu Ma, writes in a dense but elegant style, whose knowledge of the Russian language gives her a great advantage, as obscure texts appear in refreshing light in this 'trans-space' of modernity. All in all, this 'snapshot' turns out to be a masterful scholarly tome and definitely a major achievement. -- Leo Ou-fan Lee, Professor Emeritus of Chinese Literature, Harvard University In this very original and theoretically sophisticated study, Xiaolu Ma explores the complex processes of cultural exchange whereby key works of Russian literature were translated into Chinese via Japan. She demonstrates how through triangulation with the Russian and Japanese worlds of letters, a model of modernity was offered to China that was different from that of the West. Using the concept of relay transculturation, and with impressive mastery of three languages, she offers subtle and detailed readings of key works and their translators. -- Stephen Smith, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford University

Author Information

Xiaolu Ma is Assistant Professor, Division of Humanities, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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