Translating Early Modern China - Illegible Cities

A volume on translation and language in China from the fifteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries. It uses fictional narrative to discuss translators who worked between Chinese and (mostly) non-European languages and studies dictionaries, language primers, grammars, poetry collections, and conversation manuals.

List of contents

• Preface: On History and Its Opposites


• Introduction: On Cities and Their Opposites


• Gathering


• 1: Glossary (1578)


• 2: Documents (1389/1608)


• 3: Grammar (1678)


• 4: Primer (1730)


• 5: Poems (1848)


• Dispersal


• Bibliography

About the author

Carla Nappi is a historical pataphysician whose research tends to focus on Chinese and Manchu texts in early modernity, and who holds the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in History at the University of Pittsburgh. From undergraduate training in paleobiology, Professor Nappi pursued an M.A. in History of Science and then a Ph.D. in Chinese history. Her first book, The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and its Transformations in Early Modern China (Harvard, 2009), looked at problems of evidence and belief in Chinese natural history. Her two most recent books Metagestures (with Dominic Pettman, Punctum, 2019) and Uninvited (with Carrie Jenkins, McGill-Queens University Press, 2020) reflect a growing emphasis on collaborative work and on integrating short fiction and poetry into her practice. Her current work is preoccupied with insomniac temporality; with the relationship between DJ'ing, history, and translation; and with housekeeping as a magical practice.

Summary

A volume on translation and language in China from the fifteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries. It uses fictional narrative to discuss translators who worked between Chinese and (mostly) non-European languages and studies dictionaries, language primers, grammars, poetry collections, and conversation manuals.

Additional text

This book highlights the strategic linguistic tactics Chinese rulers continue to employ to control a nation of diverse religions and cultures. Unique but difficult to categorize, this book is a welcome addition to scholarship on not only Chinese history but also the art of linguistics and translation theory.

Product details

• Authors: Carla Nappi, Carla (Mellon Professor of History and Co-D Nappi, Prof Carla (University of Pittsburgh Nappi
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2021
• EAN: 9780198866398
• ISBN: 978-0-19-886639-8
• No. of pages: 256
• Series: Global Asias
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Latin, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Chinese, Chinese, Translation & interpretation, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Literary studies: poetry and poets, Translation and interpretation