Abstract

The translational effort of Lu Xun (1881-1936), China’s foremost modern writer, has been largely placed under the nationalist and revolutionary paradigms which also characterize scholarly evaluations of children’s literature in modern China. This paper investigates Lu Xun’s translations in three periods and explores its multifaceted complexity toward a nuanced understanding. Each period reveals a paradoxical side of Lu Xun that is not quite in tune with mainstream scholarship on his translations: individualism, cosmopolitanism, and reservations about Marxism. The paper concludes that Lu Xun’s practice of translation implicates his complex, decades-long intellectual struggles in ways just as significant as the types of writing for which he has been celebrated.

pdf

Share