earticle

영어

Based on polysystem theory, the article explores translated literature’s power that brought in modernity during the New Cultural Movement period (1915-1920). Translated literature in the period occupied the literary polysystem’s center and stimulated new forms of literature. At that time, translated works functioned as tools and models to erect new forms of Chinese literature. Hu Shi’s translation of western short stories was the typical proof which incarnated modernity. Hu was the primary advocate for the literary revolution of the period, a movement which aimed to replace scholarly classical Chinese in writing with the vernacular spoken language, Baihua dialect, and to cultivate new forms of literature which allowed writers to express their thoughts and emotions with realities. Hu’s motivation to translate western short stories was to foster the literary revolution and translated works as his Hu Shi’s Translation of Foreign Short stories functioned as accelerators to generate the drastic change in literary language and literary view. Most writers in the period could express their own thoughts and emotions through the creation of new forms of literature, following the example of the translated works. This case study indicates that translated literature played an important role by bringing modernity to China’s literary system.