De-anthropocentrism in the Contemporary Chinese and German Bildungsroman: Schalansky's The Giraffe's Neck and Wang Anyi's Anonym

ZHENG Jiaxin

doi:10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225208

Volume 5 Issue 2

Jun. 2022

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ZHENG Jiaxin. De-anthropocentrism in the Contemporary Chinese and German Bildungsroman: Schalansky's The Giraffe's Neck and Wang Anyi's Anonym[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2022, 5(2): 146-166. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225208

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ZHENG Jiaxin. De-anthropocentrism in the Contemporary Chinese and German Bildungsroman: Schalansky's The Giraffe's Neck and Wang Anyi's Anonym[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2022, 5(2): 146-166. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225208

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De-anthropocentrism in the Contemporary Chinese and German Bildungsroman: Schalansky's The Giraffe's Neck and Wang Anyi's Anonym

doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20225208

ZHENG Jiaxin^,

Sun Yat-sen University

Received Date: 2021-12-28
Accepted Date: 2022-01-17

Abstract

Abstract

The main plot line of the classical Bildungsroman is that the protagonist develops into a "universal man" by self-cultivation through his experiences in different fields of society, which corresponds to the idea of New Humanism and Enlightenment. German writer Schalansky's The Giraffe's Neck:Bildungsroman(2011) and Chinese writer Wang Anyi's 王安忆(1954-) Ni Ming《匿名》(Anonym, 2016) subvert the classical narrative mode of traditional Bildungsroman. Both novels describe the protagonist's "degeneration" process with an ending of failure, which represents the latest characteristics of contemporary Bildungsroman. This article compares the narrative characteristics of the two novels in terms of time structure, figure configuration and space writing. In this analysis, it discusses how the two writers reflect on the realistic validity of evolutionism and re-examine the historical view of Enlightenment and the ideal of New Humanism in different cultural contexts. Both novels use biological discourse to explain evolutionism, observe the history of civilization from the viewpoint of natural history and discuss the modernity problematic from the perspective of the history of philosophy. Both reveal the operation of modern human mechanisms in the place where some people are traditionally identified as "non-human" or "savage" and challenge the human ideals of the New Humanism through reference to animality. Furthermore, both writers write about "unhistorical history" by describing the survival plight of small historical figures in the crevices of civilization and inquire about history in a unique place of memory. In the criticism of the concept of civilization evolutionism, the standpoint presented in Anonym is more ambiguous than that in The Giraffe's Neck, which reflects the efforts of contemporary Chinese literature to seek cultural totality in the fragmented art world. This article attempts to use the genre of Bildungsroman as a platform for transcultural dialogue, so as to explore the aesthetic characteristics of Chinese Bildungsroman and to reflect on the validity and applicability of genre theory by textual criticism. Deciphering the "subjective myth" of Western literature also shows that the debate on the existence of Bildungsroman caused by the narrative characteristics of modern Bildungsroman actually highlights the inherent reflection mechanism of this genre and the paradox of modern subjectivity it embodies.
- Bildungsroman,
- Schalansky,
- WangAnyi,
- de-anthropocentrism

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References(41)

References

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