Introducing Walter Scott: What Scott Scholars Can Learn from the Prefaces of Chinese Translations of Walter Scott`s Works

Abstract

The field of world literature has demonstrated how a global readership can discover new readings of a text. This article, accepting that translators have a key role in influencing how their readers respond to a text, considers six late-twentieth-century Chinese translators` prefaces of the Waverley novels. It argues that by taking the prefaces as a group, a pattern emerges in their interpretation of Scott`s works. Broadly, they suggest that Scott depicts the conflict between feudal and commercial ideologies, and they argue that his novels illustrate issues with commercialism while exhibiting a nostalgia for feudalism. This paper evaluates this claim, and concludes that although this interpretation cannot fully be supported by the texts, it does suggest a new area of exploration in Scott studies.