China in Eighteenth-Century English and Irish Literature: Representations and Tensions

Postgraduate English: A Journal and Forum for Postgraduates in English (UK)

Mengmeng Yan

关键词: Eighteenth Century;    Orientalism;    China;    Sinology;    Fable;   

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: University of Durham

【 摘 要 】

This study discusses the competing views of China held by English and Irish authors of the eighteenth century. The entrenched tensions between different viewpoints of China in this period not only demonstrate that the picture of eighteenth-century and Romantic Sinology was not just black and white, but also observe an important stage of Britain establishment of its own identity in a globalising eighteenth-century world order. This essay will first discuss the idea of the ystified?East by focusing on oriental tales and fables of the eighteenth century, and then look at the various attempts to present a eal?China by English and Irish authors from the same period, such as Horace Walpole, Thomas Percy and Oliver Goldsmith. The division between the Orient and the Occident seems to be at once sharpened and challenged, as eighteenth-century English and Irish writers explore and reflect upon the perceived roper knowledge?of the eastern world.

【 授权许可】

CC BY