The life of books is awakened by reading. Books are like windows, through which one can look further and higher, see more things, and trigger contemplation and reverie. Although reading cannot change the length of life, it can extend the depth and thickness of life.
At the beginning of spring, everything is changing. This magazine specially launches a new column " reading ", inviting many famous scholars across the country to talk about the books they are reading, and share their reading experience and happiness with readers, with a view to responding to each other and Let’s work together to welcome a spring full of hope and vitality.
- Editor's note
Why the first year of modernist literature was 1922
Ding Fan
Ding Fan is a senior professor at Nanjing University, a member of the Academic Committee of Nanjing University, and the vice president of the Chinese Literary Criticism Society.
This is the first good book I received in the New Year of 2024. From the cover binding to the "monthly diary" writing style, to the unprecedented novel viewpoints, and the method of using events as the narrative hub, it immediately caught my eye. .
translator Mr. Tang Jianqing is a famous translator. Whether it is the translation of literary works or the translation of ideological and philosophical works, he is first-class. In particular, he can accurately and profoundly translate the original work to the readers, so that we can learn from it. Not only did you get aesthetic pleasure, but you also got great ideological shock. For example, he translated Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Somerset Maugham's "On the Chinese Screen", Nabokov's "Speaking Alone", Fisgerald's "Tender Is the Night", Grossman "The Grammar of My Heart", Vonnegut's "2081: The Complete Short Stories of Vonnegut", Greenblatt's "The Great Turn", Shagan's "The Birth of Modern Faith", etc.
The book "Stars of Genius Shines: 1922, the First Year of Modernism" he translated this time is written by Kevin Jackson, a British cultural and film media person who is not familiar with many roles. The author is unknown in China. But the name of this book surprised me. The first year of modernism was set in 1922, which was a bit sensational and became my excitement for reading this book. The adjective "stars of genius shine" made me eager to see his work. Talented roster.
"Stars of Genius Shine: 1922, the First Year of Modernism", [English] written by Kevin Jackson, translated by Tang Jianqing, published by Nanjing University Press
This book, except for the "Introduction" and "Follow-up", is based on every chapter of 1922 Month is the title, which I call an innovative form of "monthly history". The most important thing is that the author uses the American poet Ezra Pound's theory of 1922 as the "first year of the new era" as the axis to unfold the story. A literary and journalistic "chronicle" that is as puzzling as his much-maligned Ulysses, Mussolini's admirer, "he was taking Ulysses "Are you kidding me about its characteristics as the end of an era?" Is it really "Ulysses" that pushed the wheel of history of modernism? Is this really a transitional era from "pre-modern" to "modern"? In the "Introduction" of this book, the author combs the literary history before 1922. What concept does he want to express? ——"1922 is a year of many great firsts, births and foundations. The old world is disappearing." "The world's first fascist state is being established in Italy." And the establishment of the "Soviet Union". All these important historical event backgrounds have become the reasons for the first year of modern Western literature: "Ulysses and The Waste Land were outstanding literary works of the year, and they were the shining sun and moon of modernist works... This group of Genius was unknown before and has never been equaled since. The following pages attempt to identify some of the most important planets in these constellations of genius and explain how the masterpieces of Joyce and Eliot appeared in this galaxy .”
Undoubtedly, this is a very readable literary “chronology”. It uses events and trivial matters of life as the narrative thread, and weaves together background pictures of the era, just like a montage of news documentaries. The combination of shots brings us into that era of "big changes". Those years of "boiling frogs in warm water" that were ignored in the past, once they are infinitely magnified into "close-ups", it allows us to enter It has created a realm of great thinking - when feudal farming civilization and modern industrial civilization are engaged in a life-and-death struggle, how should we deal with the repeated conflicts of civilization? In this sense, we humans are entering "post-modernism" "Today, this is not just a question of the first year of literature, it should be a major proposition of the era of culture and civilization.
If "1922, the year when geniuses shined" is the "first year of modernism", then , where will its end date be? Or is it an endless waiting period?
I think this book can be used as a professional reference book for the history of modern Chinese literature and comparative literature, because in the past one hundred years, Modernist literature has always been a mystery that will never be revealed, because what we lack is the common sense of the historical background and the ability to think about problems.
Rushed at Nan Dahe Garden at 10:30 on January 20, 2024
Author: Ding Fan
Text: Ding Fan Editor: Zhou Yiqian Editor: Zhu Zifen
Please indicate the source when reprinting this article.
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