Secondhand China Spain, the East, and the Politics of Translation (Volume 39)

Carles Prado-Fonts, "Secondhand China: Spain, the East, and the Politics of Translation (Volume 39) "
English | ISBN: 0810144778 | 2022 | 272 pages | PDF | 1031 KB
This transcultural study of cultural production brings to light the ways Spanish literature imagined China by relying on English- and French-language sources. Carles Prado-Fonts examines how the simultaneous dependence on and obscuring of translation in these cross-cultural representations created the illusion of a homogeneous West. He argues that Orientalism became an instrument of hegemony not only between "the West and the rest" but also within the West itself, where Spanish writers used representations of China to connect themselves to Europe, hone a national voice, or forward ideas of political and cultural modernity.