Trans-vision of Robinson Crusoe: The Migration of a Literary Text Ren Haiyan

Abstract

Robinson Crusoe is more than a myth of modern individualism as labeled by Ian Watt, it is an embodiment of Enlightenment ideology. Since this modern myth first arrived in China via Japan at the turn of the 20th century, it was intentionally appropriated. This paper proposes the use of the concept of trans-vision to examine the first published Chinese translation of Robinson Crusoe, Juedao Piaoliu Ji, to reflect on its migration into China and on how, in an attempt to continue the Chinese tradition of wenren (literati), translated discourses are expected to contribute to the renewal and transformation of society in a painful period of transition.