The Acceptance And Imagination Of "Sherlock Holmes" In China (1896—1949)

Sherlock Holmes’s detective novels have been translated into China since the late Qing Dynasty,and they were warmly welcomed at the very beginning,and the "Sherlock Holmes" image has become the most popular foreign detective among Chinese readers.Across the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,after several centuries,the reading and acceptance of Sherlock Holmes stories in China has been enduring,and even during the Republic of China,a large number of film and television images and localized derivative imitations that transcended the text emerged.This thesis is not limited to discussing Sherlock Holmes,who only discusses the image of text novels,but combines the characteristics of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China and readers’imagination to analyze Chinese readers’ perceptions of Sherlock Holmes at the level of novel text,film and television images,related reading materials,and derivatives.The reception and imagination of the works,and strive to analyze the reading and understanding of "Sherlock Holmes" by different audiences in the background of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.Compared with creators,readers play a more important role in the production of textual meaning.This dissertation is based on reader response criticism,supplemented by semiotic theory to construct a research perspective.Taking the meaning production activities of readers as the main body,and then through Fish’s reader subject theory and interpretive community perspective,plus Saussure’s point of view of the signifier and the signified,this paper specifically analyzes the Chinese readers’ construction of the meaning of "Sherlock Holmes" in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.Process:The first chapter first introduces the background of the time when Sherlock Holmes’s detective novels were translated,and clarifies how the traditional koan novels have declined,what is the opportunity for "Sherlock Holmes",which is a foreign detective novel,to be selected for translation,and why it was sought after by readers in the late Qing Dynasty after it was translated.and welcome process.The second chapter then analyzes the process of translation and publication of Sherlock Holmes novels in depth,firstly sorts out the basic situation of the translation time and the translator’s creation in the previous and later translations,and analyzes Sherlock Holmes novels from the perspectives of translation positions,dissemination methods,translation groups,and translation stages.translation processThe third chapter analyzes the acceptance and interpretation of "Sherlock Holmes" in the late Qing Dynasty from the perspectives of Western imagination,scientific enlightenment and justice maintenance,based on the background of the social needs change in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.The "misreading" and imagination of Sherlock Holmes in the novel.From this,it can be concluded that in the social context of Enlightenment and reform,the literary aesthetics of the early Sherlock Holmes novels did not receive much attention,but the industrial social background,scientific artifacts and democratic ideas in the novels attracted great attention from Chinese readers.Interest was once elevated to the meaning of textual value.Translated and vigorously promoted by intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty,the Sherlock Holmes story became a "textbook" for democratic science and law.The fourth chapter is based on the social foundation of scientific and technological development and media prosperity in the Republic of China,summarizes the understanding and interpretation of "Sherlock Holmes" in the Republic of China from three perspectives of text acceptance,media twist and classic formation,and even completed the process of internalization and transcendence.With the confirmation of the status of detective novels in popular literature,the improvement of translation level,and the catalysis of the media,Chinese readers’ understanding of Sherlock Holmes’s detective novels during the Republic of China has roughly conformed to his original creative position.Not limited to this,the sinking and widening of acceptance groups,the emergence of film and television images,the emergence of derivative imitation works and related reading and criticism materials all heralded the prosperity of "Sherlock Holmes" meaning production during this period.