Paul Auster’s 21st-Century Fiction in Mainland China: Translation, Dissemination, and Academic Reception

Abstract

As a major contemporary American writer, Paul Auster’s fiction since the turn of the 21st century has demonstrated notable characteristics of media convergence in its translation and dissemination in Mainland China. In terms of dissemination, traditional print publication and e-reading platforms complement each other, while reviews in conventional media and user-generated evaluations on new media platforms together shape the receptive context for his works. At the level of academic reception, domestic research has shifted from broad introductions to in-depth interpretations. Monographs focus on the pursuit of identity and spatial writing; articles in core journals concentrate on narrative techniques and the construction of community in his later works; while M.A. and Ph.D. theses continue to expand the philosophical dimensions and traumatic themes within the framework of postmodernist literary studies. On the whole, the dissemination and study of Auster’s 21st-century fiction in Mainland China not only reflect the Chinese academia’s reception of contemporary American literature, but also provide a representative case for exploring the transcultural circulation of literature in the postmodern context.