Author Description

The study of manuscripts has a long history in China and the West. Traditional research paradigms of textual criticism aimed to edit an ideal 'pure and reliable' text, based upon comparisons of different transcripts. However, with the emergence of printing technology, transcript analysis eventually fell out of practice. There has also been a shift in research paradigms and objectives of manuscript genetics and criticism. Textual genetics emerged out of this context; it aims to collect and combine the 'genetical materials' in the creation phase of a text, in order to identify the 'precursor-texts', so as to restore the creation process of a text. The concept of 'text' here is no longer a 'fixed substance', but a 'floating process'. Starting from this perspective, this study provides an analysis of modern Chinese literary and translated manuscripts since the 19th century onwards. Modern Chinese literature is a period of 'unique literature' in that it has a close relationship with the historical and social development of modern and contemporary Chinese society: this marks its most salient characteristic. Its 'uniqueness' has first to be represented in the interaction between literature, politics and society, and in the 'social meaning' and 'political meaning' that is endowed upon literature. The uniqueness of modern and contemporary Chinese literature requires more than an analysis of the manuscripts based on relevant Western theories: it requires theoretical breakthroughs in accordance to the actual situation and basic characteristics of the researched subject.