Historically, Francophone graphic novels (GNs) have been translated into English in the U.S. more often than other types of books, on average. Famous twentieth-century examples that most English-speaking readers will be familiar with are Asterix and Tintin, as well as the turn-of-the-twenty-first-century breakaway hit, Persepolis. As those three titles hint, GNs can cover a wide … Continue reading French Graphic Novels in translation, Part I: First Second Books
March is the month of French translated literature on the GLLI blog, and I wanted to highlight French graphic novels, because they are now an integral part of the French literature world. When I was in Bologna for the International Children’s Book Festival, I was on a mission: to find French translated graphic novels so … Continue reading Recent French Graphic Novels for Teens & Middle Schoolers
For an idle literary translator, what’s a good place to search for foreign fiction? Anthologies and bestseller lists, web wish-lists of books that ought to be translated? Old bookshops where floor-to-ceiling shelves are laden with literature from decades or centuries ago? All good suggestions. But there’s another source which can prove fruitful. If your … Continue reading Under Cover of Dust
A Meal in Winter by French author Hubert Mingarelli is a subtle book that quietly but methodically stalks the reader’s sympathies. It does so through a beautiful, spare prose style that begins with the first line: “They had rung the iron gong outside, and it was still echoing, at first for real in the courtyard, and then, for a longer … Continue reading Book Review: A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli
Towards the end of last year, Rachel Hildebrandt invited Paper Republic to give the Global Literature in Libraries blog a Chinese focus in February. We posted one a day throughout the month, simultaneously on the GLLI blog (search for "Chinese") and on the Paper Republic blog (search for "GLLI") - that's 28 posts in total, see the full … Continue reading The GLLI-PR collaboration on Chinese literature, Feb 2017 (list of all 28 posts)
Our penultimate post is about popular Chinese fiction of the ghostly, grave-robbing kind. We are thrilled to post this piece by writer and translator Xueting Christine Ni, who is currently working with the fantasy and science fiction author Tang Fei, and writing a book on Chinese deities. Having studied English literature in London, and Chinese … Continue reading Raiding China’s Tomb Adventures – by Xueting Christine Ni
Theresa Munford teaches Chinese at a secondary school in the UK. She took the initiative a few years ago to set up a Chinese book group. At a symposium on Chinese children’s literature in 2016 she played a video in which she interviewed two of her teenage students about the Chinese books they had read. They spoke … Continue reading St Gregory’s School ‘Reading China’ book group – by Theresa Munford
In October 2015 the Chinese government announced major changes to their population policy, commonly known as the One Child policy. Instead of curbs that limited one-third of Chinese households to strictly one child, Chinese families across the nation could have two children starting from 1 Jan 2016. With incredible timing, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Mei … Continue reading One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Social Experiment – by Mei Fong
What's big and exciting in Chinese literature? We asked Heather Inwood, who always seems to have her finger on the pulse! She's Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge, and author of Verse Going Viral: China’s New Media Scenes (2014). One of the biggest and most exciting developments in … Continue reading Popular genre fiction in China, from the monkey king to tomb robbing – by Heather Inwood
