After Bakhtin: Dostoevsky's Fantastic Realism Interpretation

Author: (English) Malcolm Jones
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Features: China is an ancient civilization, and the humanistic spirit has been particularly prominent within it. The "Zhou culture" is already impressive, and the pre-Qin philosophers such as Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Xunzi, and Han Feizi have broadly shaped the basic framework of Chinese cultural development in the following two thousand years, with occasional bursts of extraordinary brilliance. However, since modern times, China has faced strong winds and rains from Europe and America, leading to a decline in its blossoms and fruits. The reasons for this decline are both the overwhelming influence of foreign civilizations and the lack of capable successors within China itself. Today, in an integrated world, no culture can develop or survive in isolation, and the ancient Chinese culture has an urgent need to draw nourishment from various sources beyond its borders. Over the past century, Chinese scholars have translated numerous works. Now, without pretending to modesty, I have also established this "Humanistic Translation Series," with a name that is not afraid to be grand, so that various valuable translations can be included, and with the hope of contributing to the revival of Chinese humanism. The selection of materials and themes for the series is not afraid to be modest, and it strives for relative thematic focus. Currently, several albums have been roughly compiled:
1. Western Classical Thought and Figures, with special emphasis on ancient Greece.
2. Western Political Theory and Practice, with particular focus on the development of freedom and democracy as the mainstream of Western thought and institutions since modern times.
3. Intellectuals and the Free Market, as globalization has involved us all in the market economy, and the attitude of humanistic intellectuals toward this is particularly worth pondering.
4. Christian Spirit and Humanism, such as this transcendence, which is perhaps what the more realistic Chinese humanism needs to pay special attention to.
5. Dostoevsky and Russian Thought, hoping to draw the attention of Chinese readers to the depth of the souls of our neighboring country.
6. Academic and Intellectual Review, edited by He Junzhao and Tian Zhitian, which includes both translations and critiques, with recent issues particularly focusing on the twists and turns of the intersection between Chinese and Western history in the context of "modernity."
Over the past few years, we have achieved these initial results thanks to the strong support of the leadership of Jilin Publishing, including Zhou Jun Dianfu and Hu Jun Weige, as well as the dedicated efforts of the editorial team and many translators and proofreaders. "Ten years to grow trees, a hundred years to cultivate people," the revival of humanism is not something that can be achieved "in a day." We hope to make the "Humanistic Translation Series" a long-term endeavor, continuing to enrich the existing albums while also launching new ones, and sincerely hope that this cause continues to receive attention and support from scholars and friends in various fields.
The Western understanding and narration of Dostoevsky differ greatly from that in Russia, and it is precisely this difference that elevates the greatness of the author (this aligns with the general principle of hermeneutics: meaning is not naturally generated but interpreted by the subject toward the object), restores the richness of Dostoevsky's world, and may further expand the universal significance of Dostoevsky for humanity in the 21st century. At the same time, we can also observe that Dostoevsky has been integrated into the Western critical rationalist tradition, becoming an important resource or component in Western reflection on modernity. Of course, the century-long trajectory of this topic in the West also reflects the appropriate relationship between Western and Eastern Slavic academia and mainstream thought, thus rationally reflecting that the West accepts Russia with modern characteristics and strives to read Russian culture while seeking to remove Russian nationalism and amplify certain narrative meanings that are suitable for explaining contemporary global changes. This series of books is precisely chosen with the aim of reflecting the achievements, characteristics, and approaches of contemporary Western readings of Dostoevsky.