An Anthology of the Twentieth Century Chinese Literary Theory and Criticism

Translating 20th century Chinese literary theory and criticism is a difficult task that has been attempted by many scholars but remains unaccomplished. In this project, the two editors are trying to sort out about 50 works of literary theory and criticism by 40 authors and to translate them into English. These original works were widely influential in their own time and have exerted persistent modeling influences upon the history of 20th century Chinese literature as well as theory and criticism. If China does have such well-known authors in the 20th century like Lu Xun, Mao Dun and Lao She, and more contemporary ones like Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Wang Anyi, China's literary critics and theorists in this period almost remain unknown and unrecognized by international critical and scholarly circles. In this sense, modern Chinese literary theories seem to be unworthy of noticing to the Western literary scholarship. Having this situation in the editors' mind, they aim to improve this embarrassing situation by introducing to the world the representatives in the theoretical and critical field in different periods of 20th century China, thus contributing to the diversity of literary studies on the international scale. The result of this ambitious project is the 375, 000-word English translation of the most important theoretical and critical works or essays by the most influential Chinese literary theorists and critics in the 20th century. Starting from Liang Qichao and ending with Chen Xiaoming, one can find how Chinese literary theory and criticism have evolved in the broad context of world literature and theory and criticism.