Manipulated Translation, Politicized Canon: Reception of The Gadfly in China

Zhen Zhang

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Chapter 11 Manipulated Translation, Politicized Canon

Reception of The Gadfly in China

In: Comparative Literature and China

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Zhen Zhang

Zhen Zhang Renmin University of China School of Liberal Arts Beijing China

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8006-1310

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 210–225

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004750913_013

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Abstract

The novel The Gadfly (1897) enjoyed enormous popularity in the Soviet Union, China, and other socialist countries in the twentieth century. The novel was first canonized in the Soviet Union, listed as an extracurricular reading for middle school students, and then canonized in China in the 1950s and early 1960s. Instead of inviting open-ended interpretations, the authorities endorse a politicized interpretation of the novel, portraying the Catholic hero “Gadfly” as a romantic revolutionary fighting for national independence. In contrast to its immediate success in socialist countries, the novel is hardly known and even largely forgotten in the West. This essay looks into the translation, circulation, and reception of the novel in the Soviet Union and China, particularly the political power structures inherent in the processes of its canonization in these socialist countries. Despite the political effort to elevate it to the status of a literary canon in the socialist bloc, the novel never entered a canon of world literature as such, which, I argue, should be tested out by its intrinsic literary values and appreciated by worldwide communities of enlightened readers, free from heavy-handed political interventions and ideological manipulation.

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Comparative Literature and China

Methods and Perspectives

Series: Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, Volume: 111

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004750913

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 22 Jan 2026

Subjects
- Asian Studies
  - China
  - Literature & Culture
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Criticism & Theory
  - Comparative Studies & World Literature

Front Matter

Part 1 East-West Cross-Cultural Comparison

Part 2 World Literature and the Empire of Letters

Part 3 Development of Comparative Literature in Chinese Cultural Spheres

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Chapter 11 Manipulated Translation, Politicized Canon

Reception of The Gadfly in China

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Citation Info

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Comparative Literature and China

Methods and Perspectives

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