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Reading Distance: Port Louis, Cairo, Beijing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2021

Michael Gibbs Hill
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Abstract

This essay uses a case study of Lin Shu (1852-1924) and (1876-1924) to argue for an approach to world literature called “reading distance.” Through a close reading of Lin Shu's and translations of Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie (Paul and Virginia) into Chinese and Arabic and a consideration of their work as translators and intellectuals, the essay reads between peripheries—places like Cairo and Beijing—to understand how intellectuals in those places grappled with difficult questions concerning translation, language reform, and changes in reading publics. By thinking with models of distant reading but also engaging with materials that are usually excluded from those models, the essay examines an important point of overlap in the intellectual and cultural histories of the Arab and Chinese enlightenments of the early twentieth century.

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Type
Research Article
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PMLA , Volume 135 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 859 - 876
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Michael Gibbs Hill

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