The Ballad of Mulan: Edition, Spanish Translation and Literary Interpretation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20420/Phil.Can.2024.689

Keywords:

Ballad of Mulan, Chinese poetry, epic poetry, Castilian romance, Confucianism

Abstract

The Ballad of Mulan is an anonymous Chinese text, belonging to the yuèfǔ genre. It consists of 62 lines. It was probably composed during the Altaic, non-Han Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 d. C.). The Ballad narrates the adventures of the Chinese girl Mulan: she decides to enroll in the army on behalf of her old father. In this article, a revised edition of the Chinese text is offered, accompanied by a Spanish translation with a very detailed literary commentary. The stylistic procedures of the poem are analyzed, especially the parallel structures and the emphasis on sounds. Some folk motifs in the Ballad are also detected and commented on. It is concluded that Mulan’s main motivations are filial devotion and patriotism. The individualist motivation is not represented in the text. The final simile could be interpreted as a feminist claim, but it is really an invitation to fulfil one’s filial and patriotic obligations, regardless of genre.

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Author Biographies

Yunjin Tian, Universidad de Córdoba

Yunjin Tian completed undergraduate and master studies in Design and Fine Arts from the Hangzhou Dianzi University (2011-2015) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2016-2017). She has completed doctoral studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Univerdad de Córdoba, where she is currently working on her doctoral thesis within the “Languages and Cultures” program. She is an expert in oriental languages and cultures and intermedial relations. Her thesis deals with the reception of the myth of Mulan in contemporary culture, with attention to the rewritings made in different discursive media (literature, art and cinema) and their interrelationships. She has presented papers in several scientific meetings, addressed to young researchers, and published articles derived from her doctoral research.

Gabriel Laguna Mariscal, Universidad de Córdoba

Professor of Latin Philology at the Universidad de Córdoba. He has been a visiting professor or researcher at the American universities of Cornell, Indiana and Harvard. His three main fields of research are Latin literature (with special attention to the Latin poet Statius), the study of literary topics and the reception of classical literature and philosophy in modern culture. He has been literary co-editor of the following books: Visitors from beyond the Grave: Ghosts in World Literature (2019), Dioniso, el vino y la música: Divino frenesí, de ayer a hoy (2019) and Marco Aurelio y la Roma Imperial: las raíces béticas de Europa (2018).

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Published

2024-06-22

How to Cite

Tian, Y., & Laguna Mariscal, G. (2024). The Ballad of Mulan: Edition, Spanish Translation and Literary Interpretation. Philologica Canariensia, 30, 527–548. https://doi.org/10.20420/Phil.Can.2024.689

Issue

Vol. 30 (2024)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2023 Yunjin Tian, Gabriel Laguna Mariscal

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