The study of the story “To Tell or Not Tell” by V. Tokareva in Chinese literary studies

Chai Li ORCID: 0009-0000-3178-0415 Postgraduate student, Department of Russian Language and Literature, Far Eastern Federal University 690950, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok, Ajax str., 10 847743692@qq.com Other publications by this author

The "May 4 Movement" in 1919 in China contributed to the awakening of women's consciousness. Not only did it cause profound social changes and a cultural revolution, but it also became a women's liberation movement that prompted a group of women with democratic and free thinking to take the initiative in expressing their views on society and life, as well as in expressing the unique thoughts and feelings of women in literature. Since then, foreign women's literature has appeared in China, and Chinese women writers have also begun to think about themselves and the world. Since then, Chinese feminism has continued to evolve.

In the mid-1980s, Western feminism really began to spread in China. Chinese scientists have carried out many translations of the classics of Western feminism and conducted research in this area. The appearance of translations of foreign women's prose is also ensured by the spread of feminism. After the 1980s, many translations of Russian women's literature appeared in China, for example, works by such authors as L. Petrushevskaya, V. Tokareva, T. Tolstaya and others.

V. Tokareva became known in Russian literature since 1964, publishing the story "A Day without Lies" in the 7th issue of the newspaper Molodaya Gvardiya, and has not stopped writing since then. Since 1986, when the story "Between Heaven and Earth" (translator Zheng Hailing) appeared in the Chinese magazine "Soviet Literature", the writer's work has captivated Chinese readers. Thanks to the constant translations and research of the writer's works, Chinese scientists have obtained a number of valuable scientific results. This work analyzes both the main translations of V. Tokareva's story "To Say – not to say ..." into Chinese, and the results of the study of this story in China. We have chosen the chronological principle of description in order to present the dynamics in the evaluation of the author's story in Chinese literary criticism.

Review of translations and studies of V. Tokareva's work in China

V. Tokareva is a Russian writer whose work has attracted the attention of Chinese translators and readers over the past thirty years. Twenty-five stories by V. Tokareva have been translated into Chinese; some of them, including "Between Heaven and Earth", "Old Dog", "Don't Create", "I am. You are there. He is", "To say – not to say ...", etc. have two or more translations. The first translated collection by V. Tokareva into Chinese is The Long Day, which was published by the Henan People's Publishing House in 1990, translated by Zheng Hailing.

In the process of translation, Chinese scientists continue to look for new strategies suitable for the stylistic originality of V. Tokareva's work. For example, Liu Tong's dissertation from Beijing University of Foreign Languages "Report on the translation of V. Tokareva's story "A Day without Lies" ^[15] analyzes such features of the original text as the display of real life and simple language. And the basic principles of translation are introduced, such as "达义为本" (following the theory of equivalence) (Hereinafter translated by Chai Li) and "风格有有" (ensuring the reproduction of the original style in the translated text). There is also a dissertation by Zhan Yulin "Literary translation from the point of view of the theory of relevance - on the example of the translation of V.S. Tokareva's story "Between Heaven and Earth"^[27], which is devoted to the study of the method of translating Tokareva's works based on the theory of relevance. In the dissertation "Translation of emotional and psychological descriptions of a literary text - on the example of V. Tokareva's story "The Old Dog"" ^[23]Wang Haozhang classified the emotional and psychological descriptions appearing in the works of the writer, and drew attention to the rhetorical means of the original work and the preservation of their artistic impact in translation.

Chinese Russian scholars believe that all the plots of V. Tokareva's work are taken from life, this is one of the reasons why the writer can be loved by readers in Russia and abroad. According to the literary critic P. Nikolaev, "all the works of the writer became bestsellers" ^{[2, p. 686]}. Since V. Tokareva's works gradually became part of translated women's prose, the researchers turned not only to the problems of translation, but also to the analysis of the creative method of the writer. The following three areas of research can be distinguished.

(1) Research on the subject of works. The analysis of the topic helps to interpret the subtext of the work and allows you to explore the social significance and cultural value of the author's work. For example, Pan Xuetin, in his article "Analysis of the theme of V. Tokareva's story "Happy Ending", analyzes the themes of love, family, life and death in V. Tokareva's works. These topics "cause people to think about women, and are also associated with social problems, such as problems of morality and human relations" ^{[18, p. 22]}. In his dissertation "Themes and images in V. Tokareva's feminist stories"^[26], scholar Yuan Yuan argues that the themes of love, family and existence are typical of V. Tokareva's work. And Liu Zhongxiu in his work "The theme of loneliness in the stories of V. Tokareva" comes to the conclusion that social and cultural changes lead to a conflict of moral values, which causes mental loneliness. According to Liu Zhongxiu, "in her works, Victoria Tokareva expresses the idea that striving for independence, showing love for others and humbling loneliness are positive ways to overcome loneliness" ^{[16, p. 4]}.

(2) Research on linguistic features. Most Chinese scientists study the linguistic features of V. Tokareva's works from the point of view of lexicography, rhetoric and pragmatics. In his work "The Study of Russian novels and short stories of the 1980s and 1990s" ^[22], Sun Chao summarized the creative features of V. Tokareva: bright and humorous language, frequent use of aphorisms, historical and religious allusions. In his work "The study of linguistic features of V. Tokareva's works" ^[19] Qiu Shuwen analyzes the linguistic features of Victoria Tokareva's stories at the levels of word formation, vocabulary, syntax and rhetoric. The scientist Wang Juan in the monograph "V. Tokareva's work in the context of linguistics" ^[24] takes pragmatics as a theoretical guide to study specific means of expression and their functioning in V. Tokareva's works.

(3) Research from the point of view of the reflection of feminist ideas in the work of V. Tokareva. As a representative of Russian modern women's prose, V. Tokareva describes real life and encourages women to free themselves from the negative influence of life circumstances and strive for the best. Chinese researchers analyzed from the point of view of feminist criticism the spirit of women's independence and feminist thoughts reflected in the works of V. Tokareva. For example, Fu Xinghuan, in his article "The Clash of the two sexes – an analysis of feminist thought in V. Tokareva's novel "Avalanche" ^[11], argues that the writer emphasizes the need for women to increase their self-esteem; the author of the article also explores complex gender relations in the work. Shi Jinzhu in his dissertation "Analysis of two female images in the works of V. Tokareva" ^[20] analyzes such female images as Elena Kudryavtseva in "Smooth Face" – "slave of beauty" and in Artamonov's "To say – not to say ..." – "mistress of fate". Guo Yue, in her dissertation "The Study of the female spirit in the works of V. Tokareva", used "spiritual ecology" (Spiritual ecology is a developing field in religion, nature conservation and scientific circles, which assumes that in all matters related to nature protection, environmentalism and land management, there is a spiritual aspect) as a theoretical basis for studying the image of a woman in the works of V. Tokareva and "a deep understanding of the influence of traditional values on the spiritual world of a modern woman" ^{[12, p. 43]}. The author of the dissertation notes that the works of V. Tokareva have a positive impact on the construction of the modern spiritual world of women.

The study of "To Say – not to say..." by V. Tokareva in Chinese literary studies

The story "To say – not to say ..." was published in 1991 and is still one of the representative works of V. Tokareva for translation. The first translation ("表白,还是是......") of this work into Chinese was published in the second issue of the journal "Russian Literature" in 2008, the translator is Wang Hongchang. Since then, three more publications of the translation have appeared, which are shown in the table below (the time of the author's search is April 2024).:

Table 1

Publications of the translation of "To say – not to say ..." in Chinese

谷羽，王红厂

(Gu Yu, Wang Hongchang)

Translations of the story "To say – not to say ..." have attracted the attention of Chinese readers, and Chinese scientists are constantly turning to the study of this work, finding new meanings in it. A search on the Chinese academic platform CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) shows the number of studies devoted to the work of V. Tokareva and the work "To Say, not to say...", which are shown in the table below (search time is April 2024):

Table 2

The number of results of Chinese scientists studying the story

"To say – not to say..." and the work of V. Tokareva (CNKI website, 2024)

As can be seen from the table, Chinese scientists are gradually paying more and more attention to the work of Victoria Tokareva.

The first article about the story "To say – not to say..." – "V. Tokareva, a representative of Modern Russian Women's Literature" was published in the twelfth issue of the World Literature magazine in 2009. Its author Shi Wei, who considers V. Tokareva a representative of Russian women's prose, briefly introduces the biography of the writer and analyzes her two stories "Instead of me" and "To say – not to say". Shi Wei also summarizes the features of the writer's unique creative style, i.e. the use of humorous language, the disclosure of problems, and those close to real life. The author of the article believes that "although the work of V. Tokareva shows the longing of life, but at the same time full of good hopes for the future" ^{[21, p. 13]}.

In 2012, the article "Peculiarities of the style of Russian postmodern writers" was published in the magazine "Writer", issue no.2. The author Ma Xiaohua analyzes the features of V. Tokareva's work using the example of "To say – not to say ...". The conclusion is that "no matter what type of main character, what plot, the ending of the story written by Victoria Tokareva is always happy" ^{[17, p. 85]}.

These studies mention the work of the writer as a whole. In the works after 2015, a more detailed analysis of the artistic method is already given. Many articles, monographs and dissertations have appeared. The studies of this period, in comparison with the previous ones, are characterized by the following two features.

(1) The expansion of research directions – from a simple acquaintance with the writer and the peculiarities of her work to such a deep analysis of her works as research of theme, style, plot, research of creativity through the reflection of feminist ideas in the works of V. Tokareva and others. It is worth noting the development of the study of "To say – not to say ..." from the point of view of feminist criticism, to which almost half of the works among the studies of this period are devoted.

For example, Zhang Kun and Guo Yue in the article "The study of female images in the work of V. Tokareva from the point of view of spiritual ecology", published in the seventh issue of the journal "Theoretical Observation" in 2000, analyzed the process of awakening self–awareness and the search for self-worth of Artamonova, the heroine of the story. Scientists divide women in the works of V. Tokareva into three main types: women living for love; women striving for happiness; women living through difficulties. They believe that Artamonova belongs to the second category: this is a woman whose consciousness changes in the face of adversity and who continues to strive for happiness. It is believed that "To say – not to say ..." "depicts a woman of an advanced way of thinking who has experienced unhappy love and marriage, but has a positive and enthusiastic spirit, she is still full of hopes for life and has an independent consciousness" ^{[28, p. 122]}. The authors of the article argued that V. Tokareva always described women with an independent personality and a strong inner world, and focused attention on the fate of ordinary women.

In the work "Themes and images in V. Tokareva's feminist stories", Yuan Yuan alizes Artamonova's character in "To say – not to say..." and concludes that "in the writer's work for modern women, love gradually moves to the periphery and is no longer the center of their lives in the process of self-development" ^{[26, p. 32]}. Yuan Yuan classifies the images of women in V. Tokareva's work as follows: women of the new generation; women who treat life as a game; women who are not content with what they are. Artamonova is considered a woman of the new generation. After analyzing the image of the heroine Artamonova, Yuan Yuan comes to the conclusion that with the help of expressive female images, the writer encourages women to free themselves from attachment to men, strive for independence and establish their value for society.

(2) Deepening the research of a particular area. As for the creative style, the research has moved from a simple generalization of the writer's linguistic and creative features to a deeper study of the traditions of classical literature, for example, an analysis of the influence of the Chekhov text on the works of V. Tokareva, and an analysis of precedent phenomena in the writer's story.

The work of A.P. Chekhov, according to Chinese literary critics, had a huge impact on the work of V. Tokareva. The writer herself told in an interview: "I also remember, when I was twelve, my mother read Chekhov to me, and it turned some kind of key in me. As it seems to me now, this was, of course, laid down from the very beginning, as information is embedded in a computer. I was born with a writer's floppy disk, and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov pressed the right button" ^{[6, p. 4]}. The influence of A.P. Chekhov on V. Tokareva's work was studied in detail by Liu Mengjing, who in her dissertation "Tragic motives in V. Tokareva's work" analyzes the similarity of the two writers' creations and states: "... both in Chekhov's stories and in V. Tokareva's works, music plays an important role. Both authors adore Tchaikovsky's music" ^{[14, p. 37]}. For example, V. Tokareva in "To Say – not to say ..." wrote that Kireev comes to Artamonova and asks if she has a "Children's Album" by Tchaikovsky, which serves as an excuse for the meeting of the two main characters.

In research, scientists note that one of the main features of V. Tokareva's work is the use of a large number of historical and religious allusions. In the article "Precedent phenomena as representatives of the concept of "love" in the stories of V.S. Tokareva" ^[25] Yan Guoqin examines allusions in the works of V. Tokareva more deeply and conducts further study of the manifestation of the creative style of the writer. She believes that the writer often uses precedent phenomena to build a plot, describe characters and interpret the theme of love, which is a characteristic theme in the writer's work. For example, the reason for the divorce of the two main characters in "To say – not to say ..." is aptly explained by a line from Lermontov's poem "The Contract": "There was love without joy, separation will be without sadness."

The expansion and deepening of research into the story "To say, not to say ..." can be explained by two reasons. The first reason is that Russian women's prose has begun to occupy an essential place in the Chinese literary process. At the end of the twentieth century, outstanding female writers began to appear on the Russian literary scene, as well as a large number of works of women's prose. "Women prose writers such as L. Petrushevskaya, V. Tokareva, T. Tolstaya, L. Ulitskaya and others also began to publish their collections more often in the 1990s" ^{[9, p. 33]}. In the new century, writers turn to the sewer of social and historical themes in their work. "The new women's prose has become not only a familiar and noticeable fact of the literary process, but has entered the literary and even academic process" ^{[1, p. 76]}.

During the feminist movement since the 1990s, the cultural revolution in China has ended. After China's reforms and openness, the country has undergone great changes in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres, and the social status of Chinese women has changed again. With the resumption of cultural exchanges between China and the West, foreign feminist thought has once again flooded into China. In 1995, the World Conference of Women was held in Beijing, where the motto was presented: "To look at the world through women's eyes" ^{[13, p. 91]}. At this conference, the research of works written by women reached a climax. Since then, the relevant works have been translated in large numbers. Russian women's literature has also gradually attracted the attention of Chinese readers and researchers.

According to the information collected on the Internet, the number of publications of the works of the main Russian writers in China looks like this: V. Tokareva – 25, L. Ulitskaya – 9, Petrushevskaya – 6, T. Tolstaya – 4, O. Slavnikova – 2, G. Yakhina – 2, D. Rubina – 2. With the translation and distribution of the works of these famous writers, Russian women's prose has attracted the attention of researchers. Over the past 30 years, the scientific works on Russian women's prose published by Chinese Russian scholars have amounted to 67. Currently, many scientists have appeared in this field who actively introduced Chinese scientific circles to the work of specific modern Russian writers, including V. Tokareva.

The second reason why the story "To Say – not to say" is very popular in China is as follows: in the process of perceiving the works of writers abroad, translation and research are inseparable from each other. The quality of the translation, its fidelity to the original and the disclosure of the writer's style largely determine whether the authors' works can be successfully perceived by foreign readers and researchers.

According to the researchers, "reading original texts causes certain difficulties (as when reading any foreign language text) for a modern reader in China" ^{[4, p. 113]}, and "the otherness of the author and the reader turns out to be a significant barrier in understanding the work. The foreign-cultural reader has not formed or insufficiently formed linguistic and intercultural competencies responsible for the perception of a foreign language a literary text in the context of a picture of the world of another culture"^{[5, p. 53]}. The purpose of literary translation is not only to convey the information, thoughts and feelings that the author wanted to convey, but also to restore the style and beauty of the original text as much as possible, which places increased demands on translators. "Which works the translator chooses as a source of translation and to what extent he recreates them is determined by the cultural background of the translator. Cultural training is a synthesis of cultural education, taste, spiritual individuality and other factors" ^{[10, p. 138]}.Cao Minglun, in his article "A real translator should not be exempt," believes that "qualified translators should constantly improve their bilingualism and read a wide range of books, including masterpieces, historical and philosophical works, as well as astronomical, geographical and naturalistic works in both languages, in order to have great knowledge" ^{[8, p. 177]}.

Chinese scientists follow the path of combining translation and research. They have a high level of language proficiency, familiarity with the literature of the two countries and aesthetic perception, which will allow them to receive a high-quality translation. This is the main reason that the translated works have attracted a significant response from Chinese readers and researchers.

As can be seen from Table 1, Wang Hongchang is the translator of three of the publications of the translation of "To Say – not to say ..." into Chinese. Wang Hongchang is now an associate professor of Chinese language and culture at Nankai University. Thanks to the experience of practicing and researching two languages, his translations are highly appreciated. Most of the subsequent studies of this story by Chinese scientists were guided by Wang Hongchang's translation.

Another important translator is Gu Yu, whose original name is Gu Hengdong. He is a professor at the Department of Russian at the Institute of Foreign Languages of Nankai University, a member of the Tianjin Writers' Union and the St. Petersburg Writers' Union. Gu Yu has been engaged in translation activities for more than 50 years and has devoted his life to translating Russian poetry into Chinese, having deep knowledge of Russian and Chinese literature.

Both scientists have made great efforts to translate "To say – not to say...", and this is one of the reasons why this story has attracted the attention of many Chinese Russian scholars.

We note that although the study of the work "To say – not to say" in Chinese literary studies is continuously deepening, but to date, research in this area, as well as the study of V.S. Tokareva's work, has not yet been systematized. The story has only 4 Chinese translation publications. However, Yuri Nagibin, a classic of Soviet literature, said this about the writer: "Victoria Tokareva has no bad stories. Only good, very good and brilliant ones."^[3] In our opinion, the research value of V. Tokareva's works will be revealed to an increasing number of Chinese scientists.

Conclusion

V. Tokareva's work arouses significant interest among the Chinese audience, many of her works have been translated into Chinese. It is established that Chinese scientists have also conducted research on strategies for translating her stories, taking into account the peculiarities of the writer's work. It is noted that the research of the author's work focuses on three main aspects: research on topics; research on linguistic features; feminist critical studies. Among the translated stories by V. Tokareva, "To say – not to say ..." has 4 versions of translation in China. Chinese scientists are actively engaged in the research and development of translation principles, which ensures an improvement in the quality of translations. A high–quality translation of the work is also an important reason that Chinese readers and researchers are interested in the story "To Say, not to say ...".

V. Tokareva is a representative of Russian women's prose, in whose work the desire for independence and high social value of women has been highly appreciated and analyzed by Chinese scientists. A comparative analysis of the study of this story by Chinese researchers in different periods allows us to conclude that the study of the story "To say, not to say ..." is continuously expanding and deepening. The process is obvious from a brief acquaintance with the work and the writer to the study of themes, style, plots in her text, the analysis of the reflection of feminist ideas in her story. It is also worth noting the research devoted to the creative style of the writer, which also develops from simple generalizations to a deep analysis of the influence of classical literary traditions and specific manifestations of the style of V. Tokareva's creation. Here we should also mention the general trend of Chinese literary studies: having not such extensive experience of analysis as in European literary studies, Chinese literary studies comprehends and is just beginning to use the terminological apparatus, methods of analysis, general principles of interaction with the text, which have developed in European and Russian literary studies over the past century.

Prospects for further research are seen in a more detailed and in-depth study of the perception of V. Tokareva's work in Chinese literary studies, in revealing the specifics of Chinese criticism and its development on the example of the reception of Russian women's literature in a synchronic aspect, in an analysis from an interdisciplinary point of view to identify the influence of various socio-cultural conditions on the development of women's literature, as well as on the response about foreign women's literature prose from Chinese researchers and readers.