Suchergebnisse

In his article "China and the Politics of Cross-Cultural Representation in Interwar European Fiction" Carles Prado-Fonts analyzes Joan Crespi's La ciutat de la por (The City of Fear, 1930) to illustrate the varied representations of China in interwar Europe. In the 1920s and 1930s, a plurality of views on China and the Chinese people became widespread across different parts of Europe, mainly shaped by English, French, and German representations. Contradictory images of China coexisted in literature, thought, and popular culture. Crespi's work exemplifies these contradictions: China appears as both an attainable reality and an unreachable fantasy, two tropes that prevailed in Catalan society after having been adapted from the European imagery. The novel responds to these contradictory discourses by launching a radical critique of Western modernity imposed on China. This article argues that representing China from Catalonia (or from the rest of Spain) not only implied the import of data and knowledge from European sources but also the transculturation of formal aspects and a subordination of agency. By showing how difficult it was to imagine China from the periphery of Europe without the mediation of these European centers, this article rethinks the politics of cross-cultural circulation in a noncolonizer, noncolonized context. ; En aquest article "China and the Politics of Cross¿Cultural Representation in Interwar European Fiction" Carles Prado-Fonts analitza la novel·la de Joan Crespi "La ciutat de la por" (1930) per il·lustrar les variades representacions de Xina durant el període d'entreguerres d'Europa. ; En este artículo Carlos Prado-Fonts analiza la novela de Joan Crespi "La ciutat de la por" (The City of Fear, 1930) para ilustrar las variadas representaciones de China durante el período de entreguerras de Europa.

Julio de Larracoechea served as vice-consul in Shanghai betweeen 1932 and 1936. After the outbreak of the Civil War he returned to Spain and wrote Ramonchu en Shanghai hoping that it would help him recover his post. The novel was published in 1941 and served its purpose. Ramonchu en Shanghai projects a representation of a distant China that favors Larracoechea's agenda and the exaltation of Spanish patriotism at the beginning of Francoism. This article argues that the effectiveness of Larracoechea's project is based on the inconsistency of China as signified. Here we can see how the orientalist and othering paradigms of previous centuries are still prevailing, even if they now coexist with more mature paradigms in the European context. Caught between a global scenario extremely interested in China and a national framework still politically uncertain, Ramonchu en Shanghai is able to transculturate the image of China towards a localized and particular representation that contributes to the construction of Spain during the first years of Francoism by using otherness and concepts such as patriotism, cultural imperialism or race. ; Julio de Larracoechea sirvió como vicecónsul en Shanghai entre 1932 y 1936. Al estallar la Guerra Civil regresó a España y escribió la novela Ramonchu en Shanghai con la esperanza de que le ayudaría a recuperar su cargo diplomático. La obra se publicó en 1941 y cumplió con su propósito. Ramonchu en Shanghai proyecta una representación de China distante que facilita la agenda del autor y la exaltación del patriotismo español a inicios del franquismo. El presente artículo sostiene que la efectividad del proyecto de Larracoechea se basa en la inconsistencia de China como significado. Así se nos muestra cómo los paradigmas orientalistas y alterizantes de siglos anteriores siguen vigentes, aunque convivan con paradigmas representacionales más maduros en el ámbito europeo. A caballo entre un escenario global enormemente interesado por China y un marco nacional políticamente incierto, Ramonchu en Shanghai es capaz de transculturar la imagen de China hacia una representación localizada y particular que, mediante la alterización y el uso de conceptos como patriotismo, imperialismo cultural o raza, contribuye a la construcción de España durante los primeros años del franquismo.