The essential role of translation in the remapping of world literature in China

Abstract

Each country, each nation has its own map of world literature in any given historical period. The construction of the map largely depends on translators and their literary translations. No doubt, academic works on the history of world literature written or translated by scholars from target countries have made equally remarkable contributions. But in most cases the weight of those contributions is particularly felt by readers who take up foreign literary studies as profession, especially in China. To general readers, it is through the strenuous efforts the translators have made that they have acquired that very map they desired for. This essay aims to reveal the different maps in the eye of the Chinese readers in different historical periods and their constructions through our endeavor to sort out and describe relevant facts gleaned from a hundred-odd period since the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the People’s Republic of China. Meanwhile, the essay also attempts to show the functions and influence the translators and their activities perform and exert through relatively meticulous analyses of the relevant facts.