Co-Sponsored by the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies
Hosted by the Department of East Asian Studies
The departments of East Asian studies and Russian and Slavic studies are proud to have Assistant Professor Roy Chan of Oregon University, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, speak upon conceptions of intelligentisa through Chinese literature .Having survived considerable persecution during the Cultural Revolution, Ba Jin (1904-2005) emerged back on the Chinese literary scene in 1979 with a translation of the first part of 19th century Russian writer Alexander Herzen’s memoirs, Byloe i dumy (My Past and Thoughts, in Chinese, Wangshi yu suixiang). Herzen had long been a considerable influence on Ba Jin, and for decades Ba Jin had endeavored to translate his memoirs. After completing the first volume of translation, Ba Jin traveled to France where he met with Herzen’s descendants, and visited his grave in Nice. Ba Jin recorded these experiences in a number of writings. This talk seeks to understand how Ba Jin’s engagement with Herzen attempted to transplant certain conceptions of intelligentsia identity through his own aesthetic and ethical activity; like the Russian intelligentsia that so inspired Ba Jin, he also sought to meld life, literature, and history. Historic events and personal dramas transmute into aesthetic expression, which in turn spurs new actions and events in an infinite loop. Translation in this instance is conceived broadly: not simply as a literary activity, but also as an ethical activity that incorporated both personal and revolutionary mourning.
Roy Chan received his Ph.D. (2009) in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and also holds a B.A. (2002) in Russian and Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. Prior to coming to Oregon, he taught at the College of William and Mary, and was a Harvard University Fairbank Center An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow in Chinese Studies.
https://russian.arizona.edu/sweeping-tomb-nice-revolutionary-mourning-alexander-herzen-and-ba-jin
