Taiwanese Literature As World Literature

Owing to Taiwan's multi-ethnic nature and palimpsestic colonial past, Taiwanese literature is naturally multilingual. Although it can be analyzed through frameworks of Japanophone literature and Chinese literature, and the more provocative Sinophone literature, only through viewing Taiwanese literature as world literature can we redress the limits of national identity and fully examine writers' transculturation practice, globally minded vision, and the politics of its circulation. Throughout the colonial era, Taiwanese writers gained inspiration from global literary trends mainly but not exclusively through the medium of Japanese and Chinese. Modernism was the mainstream literary style in 1960s Taiwan, and since the 1980s Taiwanese literature has demonstrated a unique trajectory shaped jointly by postmodernism and postcolonialism. These movements exhibit Taiwanese writers' creative adaptations of world literary thought as a response to their local and trans-national reality. During the postwar years Taiwanese literature began to be more systematically introduced to world readers through translation. Over the past few decades, Taiwanese authors and their translated works have participated in global conversations, such as those on climate change, the "post-truth" era, and ethnic and gender equality. Bringing together scholars and translators from Europe, North America, and East Asia, the volume focuses on three interrelated themes – the framing and worlding ploys of Taiwanese literature, Taiwanese writers' experience of transculturation, and politics behind translating Taiwanese literature. The volume stimulates new ways of conceptualizing Taiwanese literature, demonstrates remarkable cases of Taiwanese authors' co-option of world trends in their Taiwan-concerned writing, and explores its readership and dissemination.

Owing to Taiwan's multi-ethnic nature and palimpsestic colonial past, Taiwanese literature is naturally multilingual. Although it can be analyzed through frameworks of Japanophone literature and Chinese literature, and the more provocative Sinophone literature, only through viewing Taiwanese literature as world literature can we redress the limits of national identity and fully examine writers' transculturation practice, globally minded vision, and the politics of its circulation. Throughout the colonial era, Taiwanese writers gained inspiration from global literary trends mainly but not exclusively through the medium of Japanese and Chinese. Modernism was the mainstream literary style in 1960s Taiwan, and since the 1980s Taiwanese literature has demonstrated a unique trajectory shaped jointly by postmodernism and postcolonialism. These movements exhibit Taiwanese writers' creative adaptations of world literary thought as a response to their local and trans-national reality. During the postwar years Taiwanese literature began to be more systematically introduced to world readers through translation. Over the past few decades, Taiwanese authors and their translated works have participated in global conversations, such as those on climate change, the "post-truth" era, and ethnic and gender equality. Bringing together scholars and translators from Europe, North America, and East Asia, the volume focuses on three interrelated themes – the framing and worlding ploys of Taiwanese literature, Taiwanese writers' experience of transculturation, and politics behind translating Taiwanese literature. The volume stimulates new ways of conceptualizing Taiwanese literature, demonstrates remarkable cases of Taiwanese authors' co-option of world trends in their Taiwan-concerned writing, and explores its readership and dissemination.

A History of Taiwan Literature, by Ye Shitao, an important public intellectual in Taiwan, is arguably one of the most important intellectual works of literary history. This translation is a most important resource for those interested in the intellectual history of East Asia, world literature, and Taiwan studies.

The New Generation of Taiwan writers, born after 1970, has unquestionably established a distinguished presence in today’s literary circles, and they continue to scale the creative peaks. This issue is entitled, “Special Issue on the New Generation Writers,” and is intended to locate these works within the context of the development of Taiwan literature so that we may observe the special qualities they have brought to literary modulation and generational change. We have also attempted to summarize in stages the imagination/composition that this new generation has projected on a period of history and on their generation. 關於台灣新世代作家，本輯選譯的作品，只限於短篇小說。新世代小說的特點，諸如鄉土題材、家族故事、俚俗人物、民俗儀典、地誌景觀、比喻修辭等的敘述方式和表現技巧，與前行代的書寫類型迥然不同。出生於1970年後的台灣新世代作家在當今文壇，泰半已卓然成家，且持續攀登創作的峰頂。本輯定題為「新世代作家小說專輯」，即在於將這些作品放置於台灣文學發展脈絡裡，來觀看文學演化與世代流變的特徵，並嘗試階段性地總理新世代投射一個時代與世代的想像╱書寫。

本輯以王禎和的短篇小說為主題，除了凸顯王禎和於台灣文學史上作為鄉土文學的先驅地位，也旨在向英語讀者譯介其具台灣鄉土特色的系列作品。本輯特邀臺大外文系鄭恆雄教授擔任客座編輯，撰寫〈導論〉並選擇英譯的作品：〈那一年冬天〉、〈兩隻老虎〉、〈小林來台北〉、〈伊會唸咒〉、〈素蘭要出嫁〉、〈老鼠捧茶請人客〉，以及〈素蘭小姐要出嫁──終身大事〉。前述七篇王禎和之原著則分別由長期耕耘台灣文學英譯的黃瑛姿、葛浩文（Howard Goldblatt）、林麗君、陶忘機（John Balcom）、古芃（Bert M. Scruggs）以及台灣學者董崇選、強勇傑擔綱譯出。 The latest special issue of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series focuses on the short stories written by Wang Chen-ho not only to reveal his leading role in the Nativist literature that rose in Taiwan during the 1990s, but to introduce his works in the unique local language of Taiwan for English language readers. In this special issue on Wang Chen-ho, seven stories were selected for translation: “The Winter That Year,” “Two Tigers,” “Little Lin Comes to Taipei,” “She Really Can Put Curses on People,” “Sulan's Gonna Get Married,” “The Mouse Serves a Guest Tea,” and “Miss Sulan's Gonna Get Married—A Lifetime of Marital Bliss.” These seven stories span the two periods of Wang's works mentioned above. The first five belong to the first period of Naturalism, while the last two break away from Naturalism to embrace broader themes, even containing a lot of comedy, as in the final story, “Miss Sulan's Gonna Get Married—A Lifetime of Marital Bliss.”

This issue contains the verse of twenty-four poets. From 1924, when Hsieh Chun-mu first published four “Poems in Imitation,” the development of new poetry in Taiwan has a history of almost one hundred years. The roots of new poetry in Taiwan with its “twin flower bulbs,” to use the phrase coined by Chen Chien-wu, has now bloomed and borne fruit. It manifests diversified themes, and places great stress on both artistic expression and social concern. It recognizes globalization as the major trend of the times, and maintains a dynamic balance between nativist consciousness and the ensibilities of the Chinese cultural diaspora. Taiwan literature and its new poetry written in Chinese should have a place in the Chinese world community,as well as in the history of world literature. Limited by the space allowed for the journal, we could only select works related to “local” and “quotidian” writing. Yet we hope to observe through these works the manner in which the unique charm and gracefulness of contemporary poetry from Taiwan has blossomed in the garden of world literature. 這一專輯精選具有代表性的詩人二十四家。 從1924年謝春木發表「詩的模仿」四首算起，台灣新詩的發展也有將近一百年的歷史。新詩「兩個球根」在台灣已經開花結果，呈現出主題多元，創作藝術與關懷現實並重，面對全球化的時代趨勢，保持本土意識與文化離散互相呼應和抗衡。台灣文學和以華文創作的新詩，不僅在華人世界，甚至在世界文學的大花園裡，都應該占有一席之地。我們出版這一專輯，收到篇幅的限制，只能以「地方與日常」選錄相關詩作，藉以展現台灣當代詩在世界花園裡一枝獨秀的風姿。

The six stories in this collection are representative works from the mature period and the war period. Each story depicts different hardships and predicaments faced by Taiwan as a colony under Japanese rule, offering insight into how this part of Taiwan's history continues to impact contemporary Taiwanese society.