This book views the Dutch sinologist, Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee mysteries as a hybrid East–West form of detective fiction and uses the concept of transculturation to discuss their hybrid nature with respect to their sources, production, and influence.
The Judge Dee mysteries authored by Robert van Gulik (1910–1967) were the first detective stories to be set in ancient China. These hybrid narratives combine Chinese historical figures, traditional Chinese crime literature, and Chinese history and material culture with ratiocinative methods and psychoanalytic themes familiar from Western detective fiction. This new subject and detective image won a global readership, and the book discusses the innovations that van Gulik’s Judge Dee mysteries brought to both Chinese gong’an literature and Western detective fiction. Furthermore, it introduces contemporary writers from different countries who specialize in writing detective fiction or gong’an novels set in ancient China.
The book will meet the interest of fans of Judge Dee stories throughout the world and will also appeal to both students and researchers of comparative literature, Chinese literature, and crime novels studies.
Author(s): Yan Wei
Series: Routledge Studies in Chinese Comparative Literature and Culture
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 128
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Judge Dee Mysteries and Western Detective Fiction
Judge Dee Mysteries and Traditional Chinese Gong’an Literature
Robert van Gulik as a Transcultural Writer
Orientalism, Variation Theory, and Transculturation
Orientalism and Chinoiserie
The Variation Theory of Literary Dissemination
Transculturation
The Structure of This Book
Notes
Chapter 1: Hybridity in the English Translation Dee Goong An
The Structure of Four Strange Cases under Empress Wu
Typical Gong’an Elements in Dee Goong An
Reformed Outlaws Become the Judge’s Lieutenants
A Murder Victim Reports His Case to the Judge through Supernatural Signs
The Judge Receives Clues by Praying in a Temple
The Criminal’s Confession is Obtained through Torture
Translation Style and Quality in Dee Goong An
Stylistic Outlook and Local Expression in Dee Goong An
Alterations in Dee Goong An
Research Notes and Illustrations in Dee Goong An
Notes
Chapter 2: Tradition and Innovation in Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee Mysteries
Three Phases of van Gulik’s Judge Dee Mysteries
Transculturation in Characterization
Judge Dee and His Four Lieutenants
Sympathetic Female Criminals and the Vulnerable Female Body
Innovations in Van Gulik’s Judge Dee Series
Refashioning Supernatural Elements
From a Dream to a Drama
The Detective and the Fortune-Teller
Interpretations of Abnormal Psychology
International Politics and Ethnic Conflicts
The Use of Material Culture and the Refined Taste of the Intellectual
Conclusion: The Willow Pattern, Chinoiserie, and an Allegory of Transculturation
Notes
Chapter 3: Judge Dee Goes Home: Chinese Translations of Judge Dee Mysteries and New Stories of Judge Dee
Chinese Translations of Van Gulik’s Judge Dee Series
Contemporary Reworkings of Judge Dee Stories
Judge Dee and His Father : Tales of Judge Dee by Zhu Xiao Di
Empress Wu, Political Conspiracy, and the Mole: Judge Dee TV Shows by Qian Yanqiu
Fantastic Spectacles and the Detective as an In-between Figure: The Judge Dee Films of Tsui Hark
Notes
Epilogue: Detective Fiction in Ancient Chinese Settings after Judge Dee
Chen Shunchen and His Japanese Detective in the Tang Dynasty
Cases Solved by a Traveling Librarian: Elsa Hart’s Li Du Series
Ma Boyong and the Mixture of American Crime TV Dramas and Historical Video Games
Crossing the Gong’an Novel with the Historical Novel: Gao Yang’s Xiao Baicai
Retrospect and Prospect
Notes
Bibliography
Western-Language Sources
Chinese-Language Sources
Index
