On the universal appreciation of literary works
By Kevin (Kaicheng) Yu
Whenever I walk into a local bookstore in Beijing, I always find the majority of books written by modern Chinese authors such as Mo Yan and Yu Qiuyu. This phenomenon is especially evident when concerning nonfiction. However, the literature section seems to have more diversity than other genres, often including works written in different historical eras, written by authors from another country, and books in translation. This essay will discuss why readers of different sociocultural backgrounds are able to appreciate diverse literature, and elaborate on how much a reader can gain from works written under a different sociocultural context.
It is often the case that translated versions of literary works may partially deviate from the writer’s original intentions. It is also true that readers from different social backgrounds (whether it’s during a different historical era, of distinctive regional cultures, or with unique linguistic customs) may not understand the greater context in which the author created the text. These facts may lead to a mistaken assumption that reading contemporary works in the original language in which it was written is the most effective way to acquire knowledge.
But one who is not satisfied by merely rediscovering a society similar to the one he or she comes from often longs for something novel and different . Not only does looking at the same world through the completely different lenses of society and culture provide more absorbing an experience, but it also enables a reader to perceive similar patterns lying behind the actions and interactions of all of humanity.
Here comes the question: where does the equilibrium lie? As is commonly perceived, the most essential values of literature are artistic and intellectual–one to evoke emotion and the other, convey ideas. Therefore, as long as the literary works, whether translated or not, are proven to be effective in creating emotional resonances and imparting values, their essence will last and they are still worth reading.
Les Miserables, the historical novel composed by the leading figure of French Romanticism, Victor Hugo, is one of the literary works that has affected me the most. The original text was written in French in the 1860s, providing readers a comprehensive overview of early 19th-century French society. The book is an absolute spectacle of epic scope. It covers nearly every aspect of 19th-century Parisian society, analyzes major historical events, and portrays some of the most memorable characters in the history of literature. Above all, it integrates all of these to set up Hugo’s criticisms of society, invoke sympathy for social pariahs, and emphasize the almost omnipotent power of love. I am a Generation Z high school student living in China, with Chinese being my native language. I have read Les Miserables in both English and Chinese multiple times, every time greatly enchanted by the plot, profoundly moved by the characters, and sinking into stormy contemplation about humanity and the humanities.
The main protagonist of the story, Jean Valjean, is transformed from a social outcast hardened by his time in jail to the physical embodiment of virtue, a man willing to dedicate himself to the well-being of others and who eventually sacrifices himself for his daughter. Love is, for Hugo, capable of transforming the seemingly irredeemable to a moral icon who is almost saint-like.
In Valjean’s case, he has religious love for god, devoted love for his occupation as a mayor, and selfless love for his adopted daughter, Cosette. Hugo wanted to emphasize the power of love, that it generates the power for redemption and accelerates the process. He felt it was necessary to speak against the prejudice and bias within French society, which treated the wretched as inhuman beasts. With Valjean’s character over-elevated, the power of love was magnified because this exaggeration makes it easier for people to realize what they may achieve if they treat others amiably without nameless hatred and fear that are attributed to social discrimination.
It is indeed very hard for us to experience the emotional turmoil of a former convict, but experiences are not necessary for us to understand the situation Valjean encounters. Today’s newspapers and editorials constantly reveal to us the flawed social justice system and the seemingly unresolvable loop of crime and prison-life in which the deprived and degraded find themselves hopelessly trapped. Just as elaborated by Hugo in his analyses of the criminal world of France, criminals today still do not receive society’s sympathy. Most criminals have their own downfall originating in their parents, also criminals. Their actions will likely be replicated by their children, who again doom to become criminals. ALong this track the number of innocent victims also increased, and hatred accumulated. This social phenomenon is universal, with almost no exception in any country, and doubtlessly generating so much trouble for every society. The recently passed criminal reform bill backed by bipartisan efforts attenuating rehabilitation facilities perhaps marks a first step, but there is still a long way to go before our society gaining the ability to self-cleanse itself – that is, to contain the expansion of the criminal world and to break the crime cycle before another generation falls into the abyss.
This is why Hugo’s work is equally meaningful to people of all languages: he offered a solution to this gigantic problem. He argued that mercy and love should be carried out alongside justice, and that public safety functionaries and judicial executants should have in mind that their goals are to reduce injustices in society without creating possibilities for the birth of new injustices. This main theme of the novel is difficult for translators of any language to neglect, and is unlikely to be misunderstood by readers of all kinds. Ergo, the value of the work persists.
As is shown in the book’s title, the main theme connecting the plot and characters is misery, the most predominant of which is undoubtedly the distress experienced by the grisette-turned-prostitute Fantine. Seduced by a middle-class playboy and hopelessly in love, she was ruthlessly abandoned and left alone to care for an illegitimate child. In the fairly patriarchal 19th-century Europe, while men could have promiscuous relationships with mistresses without being judged (sometimes even celebrated), women were subjected to a harsher and crueler standard, easily condemned when diverging from the social demand to be “innocent.” In Fantine’s case, premarital pregnancy had made her degraded and caused the loss of her job. To raise her child, she fell into prostitution. No sympathy had been shown to her and she was considered a criminal when acting in self-defense after being sexually harassed by a “gentleman.”
This entire plot arc disturbs me greatly, as nothing pains me more than the ruining of beauty and innocence, which were the primary characteristics of Fantine. But what haunts me even more is the fact that in the supposedly developed epoch of the 21st-century, men are still discriminating and oppressing their female counterparts in the most atrocious and abominable ways.
Gender-based violence prevails in every corner of our modern world. In patriarchal societies, women are treated as entirely subordinated to men and are of less value. In societies with feeble judicial systems and corrupted public safety institutions, sex trafficking, rape, and other hate crimes against women are surprisingly common. Even in highly-developed countries, there is still a horrendous number of prostitutes who are mostly victims themselves. They suffer from childhood abuse, are lured into addictive drug use, and are objects of sex trafficking, almost always treated as criminals without sympathy.
Though sexism manifests differently in different locations, there is a commonality among them. These women all suffer the same fate of Fantine. “We are not civilized as you’d think, since we mistreat our sisters,” is another message Hugo hopes to convey due to his romantic nature. In another of his widely-celebrated work, Notre-Dame de Paris, he has shown similar perspectives regarding the tragic fate of the heroine, Esmeralda. Hugo mourns over Esmeralda’s damaged beauty and innocence inflicted by the double standard society gives to its sons and daughters. As feminism flourishes all around the world, such themes will indubitably evoke strong ethical and emotional resonances. The recent flourish of the #ME TOO movement is a clear accusation to the blatant disregard of women’s rights which
I have given two examples above concerning some main themes of the renowned classic, Les Miserables, and have explained that since the social phenomena the book portrays continue to exist with no exception to time, location, or society itself, the significance of the work’s value also persists. The other major themes of the book include the terrible fates suffered by underprivileged children (Cosette and Eponine), the flaws of the judicial system that created and fostered misery (Javert), historical and social progress carried out in the form of violent revolution (Enjorlas and the students), and the irremediably amoral monsters sheltered by the corrupted system that is the bourgeoisie (the Thenardiers). All these forms of misery are still common in today’s world, especially in the less-developed nations just starting the process of industrialization and urbanization similar to early 19th-century France. The only major theme elaborated by the author that is left seemingly only loosely connected to the readers’ worlds is the description and analysis of 19th-century Parisian society, which, on the other hand, does invoke the interests of fans of French culture.
Summing up, we can still see that most portions of the book were dedicated to illustrating universal phenomena faced by all societies, evoking universal emotions such as sympathy among the readers, and prompting societies to make changes that are universally applicable. It is thus reasonable to conclude that the encounters between minds and ideas presented by literary works like Les Miserables are not affected by the factors of time, location, and language.
Shifting to the matter of language and the passages themselves provides similar results. Admittedly, the thick layers of implication may be diluted when the translator has to reorganize the entire passage due to linguistic conventions and norms. It is also true that a clever linguistic pun or a reference to the writer’s contemporaries might make no sense to a reader who grew up in a completely different environment. It might even be true that a less important message that the writer was trying to convey is concealed because the translator has added his or her own original thoughts, which are naturally magnified through during the translation. It is very true that language bears with it emotional, historical and cultural messages.
As an enthusiast of French history myself, I have some basic knowledge concerning the French revolution, the emergence of the First French Empire, and the restoration of monarchy. Therefore, I’m familiar with most of Hugo’s key references to revolutionary figures, Napoleonic politicians, and even Bourbon aristocrats. Some of the clever jokes he played on them are indeed very amusing, but that doesn’t cover up the fact that the puns are a rhetorical tool used only to enhance the reader’s experience. Most of these references do not take away the fundamental artistic, emotional, and intellectual layers of the book. A reader only needs to know the major social events of that chaotic era to follow the main trail of the plot and understand the deeper implications. In fact, a lot of humor is still character-oriented, as the structure of the novel is very clear, with historical analyses stripped away from plot development.
Moreover, as a bilingual reader, I’ve read both versions of Les Miserables translated directly from French into English and from French into Chinese, and have found that almost all the messages the writer was trying to convey, no matter how trivial they are, overlapped. This suggests that there are hardly ever any omissions on the part of the translators. As long as the work is directly translated from the original language (without a transitional language), information loss will play no significant role when reading. This is generally true for most other literary works celebrated as “classics”. To conclude, one’s reading experience may be a little weakened, but overall this effect is at its minimum.
Hugo wrote in the opening page of Les Miserables that “so long as the three problems of the century–the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labor, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night–are not resolved,” that “so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth… there should be a need for books such as this.” This still stands true today for any place on this earth in which people suffer and misery prevails, and will always stand true as long as these issues stay unresolved. As for any other literary work, as long as such a message resides in the core of the values it represents, able to invoke emotional resonance from and inspire other people, it is always valuable for them, even though they come from different sociocultural backgrounds, to read.