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2024, Volume 7,  Issue 1

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World Literature as Discoveries
ZHANG Longxi
2024, 7(1): 5-17. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247101
Abstract:
Given the geopolitical reality of the imbalance of power between the West and the Rest, there is also the imbalance of cultural capital and knowledge. The currently circulating works of world literature are by and large canonical works of the major European and Western literary traditions, while non-Western and even “minor” European literatures remain largely unknown, untranslated, and unappreciated beyond their culture of origin. Even today, traces of Eurocentric biases can still be influential in the study of world literature, as can be seen in Pascale Casanova’s book, The World Republic of Letters. Therefore, world literature should not be just returning to the reading of literature, but to the discovery of many of the world’s yetunknown literary classics, the canonical works that have long been recognized in different literatures but not yet introduced to the global readership beyond their original scope of native readers. It is now the task of literary scholars of the world’s different literary traditions to bring those works to the global critical attention and expand the canon of world literature. World literature in its true sense will be the discovery of the yet-unknown canonical works from the world’s different, especially non-Western and the “minor” European, literary traditions.
[Abstract](40) [PDF 1624KB](12)
Toward a Minor Literature——On the Contemporary Significance and Causes of Kafkafieber
ZENG Yanbing
2024, 7(1): 18-38. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247102
Abstract:
Franz Kafka was relatively unknown in his lifetime. However, it seems that he is too famous nowadays. Even though it cannot be said that the world has become Kafkaesque,Kafkaesque has become part and parcel of the world. The profoundness, philosophical and prophetic nature of Kafka’s thought, the originality, pioneering and paradox of his artistic expression, as well as the broadness of his works, have made him a focus of academic and research. Kafka is a writer admired by many famous writers who would openly express their zeal for him. Yan Lianke is considered a contemporary Chinese writer who is next to Kafka in terms of creative ideas and techniques. He holds Kafka in high esteem, pointing out that Kafka invented the creative method named zero causality, leading the trend of literary creation in the 20th century. Kafka’s works predict the Kafkaesque era which we live in. Hillis Miller believes that it is imperative to study Kafka’s works and Holocaust fiction in the current era. Those seemingly unrelated details in Kafka’s works are actually delaying the upcoming Holocaust.Kafka’s works represent the dystopian facets of modernity, which are constantly interpreted while resisting interpretation. What’s more, Kafka’s works are also the focus of interest of many thinkers and philosophers. In particular, Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of and study on Kafka influenced many later thinkers, philosophers and writers. Hannah Arendt regards Kafka as a humorist and critic of all realities, while Giorgio Agamben explores and analyzes Kafka’s works in light of an integrated perspective that combines the philosophy of law and linguistics.Kafka’s works have opened a unique door for all readers around the world.
[Abstract](65) [PDF 1676KB](10)
The Tangle of “Chineseness” and “Modernity”:On the Practice of Chinese Christian Painting at Fu Jen Catholic University (1929-1949)
CHU Xiaobai
2024, 7(1): 39-67. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247103
Abstract:
Christian art has a long history in the West, but it has not formed a fixed pattern in traditional Chinese painting. Artists from Fu Jen, then commonly known as The Catholic University of Peking during the Republic of China era, attempted to combine the themes of Western Christian painting with Chinese painting traditions, creating religious paintings with a distinctive "Sino-Western fusion" style. These works displayed a blend of Eastern and Western elements in composition and the use of conventional visual symbols, while also reflecting the characteristics of traditional Chinese meticulous brushwork and literati ink wash painting in terms of subject matter, painting medium,techniques, and spatial arrangement. This leads to a double paradox between form and content, visual modernity and theological connotations in these paintings, due to which they were praised in the West but faced a dilemma in Republican China. This paradox reflects the tension between the pursuit of visual modernity and an attempt at inculturation in the context of semi-colonial China, as well as the complex attitudes of Chinese society towards modernity, national identity, and religious art. The work Suffering China (1943) by the missionary painter Mon Van Genechten from Fu Jen University, with its profound touch of social realism, touched upon the universal human experience of suffering,thereby transcending the boundaries of art to some extent and exploring the possibilities of localizing Christian art amidst the entanglement of "Chineseness" and "modernity." The practice of Chinese Christian painting at the Fu Jen Catholic University of Peking was not only an attempt at artistic innovation but also an important case of cultural exchange between China and the West and inculturation.
[Abstract](55) [PDF 1822KB](13)
Lyu Liben’s Yijing Ben Zhi Analysis on Understanding between Catholicism and the Book of Changes
LAI Kuei-san
2024, 7(1): 68-92. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247104
Abstract:
In the middle of Qianlong’s reign, a book with Catholic ideas as its main interpretation appeared, namely Yijing Ben Zhi (The Original Intention of the Book of Changes)written by Lyu Li-ben (life unknown). The manuscript of Yijing Ben Zhi is collected in the Xujiahui Library in Shanghai. It was edited and compiled by Nicolas Standaert, Adrian Dudink,and Wang Renfang, and was later published by the Ricci Institute in Taipei, included the first and second volumes of Xujiahui Catholic Documents of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The interpretative structure of the Book of Changes in Yijing Ben Zhi mainly focuses on the hexagrams, lines and texts. At the same time, it is based on the pre-understanding of Catholic thought, Catholic teachings and mythological stories, therefore it is full of strong Catholic flavor and demonstrates a tendency of divine interpretation. This article mainly compares Yijing Ben Zhi with the Holy Bible, which focuses on four aspects: the theme and style of the Yijing Ben Zhi,the relationship between heaven and man, King Li born of the Xun woman (superior woman),and the views of heaven and earth in the Holy Bible and the Book of Changes, thus explores and analyzes the unique connotation of Yijing Ben Zhi influenced by Catholic teachings. In short, Lyu Liben’s adoption of Catholic ideas to annotate the Book of Changes contains the religious significance of defending the original Catholic scriptures. This method is similar to the categorical method commonly used when Buddhism was first introduced to China; however,during the transformation process, the teachings to be conveyed are likely to be limited by the context, causing the teachings to deviate from the original scriptures. Furthermore, the academic values of the similarities and differences between the study of the Book of Changes by Western Jesuit (Figurism, Societas Iesu) missionaries such as Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) and Lyu Liben’s interpretive stance, approach and content as a Catholic are somehow understudied and remain an area yet to be explored.
[Abstract](44) [PDF 1772KB](8)
The Bidirectional Adaptation of Ricci’s Image in the Late Ming Dynasty and Its Methodological Significance
CHEN Enwei
2024, 7(1): 93-110. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247105
Abstract:
Matteo Ricci's image in late Ming China is not the product of unilateral cultural adaptation, but the result of a bilateral interpretation of Chinese and Western cultures. Matteo Ricci’s entry into China as a Western monk was based on advice from Chinese officials and was directly inspired by the experience of the early Jesuits in Japan, which was actually expedient. Upon his arrival in Shaozhou, Matteo Ricci took the initiative to change the attire of Confucian scholars and at the same time tried to write books in Chinese, thus constructing his image of a “Western Confucian.” This, too, was suggested by the Chinese literati and, of course, approved by the Jesuits. The selfimage that Ricci intended to create was literally that of a monster, a freak or freakish person. This image contains the connotations of Christian theology and astronomical calendar, and in fact, is also the product of a dialogue between Ricci and Catholic Chinese literati. Chinese orthodox Confucians and Buddhists regard Matteo Ricci as a demon, their writing of “otherization” highlighting Matteo’s self-image as non-Confucian and non-Buddhist. The image of Ricci, as a cultural symbol representing the “rites of Matteo Ricci,” still has important methodological significance in the context of contemporary cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and the West.
[Abstract](54) [PDF 1676KB](6)
The Transformation of Peripheral Narratives and Multiple Modernities——Reconstructing the Relationship between The Sound and the Fury, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Red Sorghum
WU Mengyu
2024, 7(1): 111-123. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247106
Abstract:
Peripheral narratives are featured by a twist of perspective in the binary framework of modernity/center-tradition/periphery opposition, which reconstructs the local culture while complementing the unitary modernity. The literary relationship between William Faulkner, García Márquez and Mo Yan demonstrates the communication between West-centric modernity and locality as well as the transition from unitary temporal narratives to diverse spatial narratives. Proceeding from the perspective of literary geography, their relationships can be defined as rheological relations in a trinity framework of borderland, narrative, and imagination.Relying on local geography and family destiny, their works employ various techniques, such as the spatialization of time, the integration of fiction and reality, and scattered narratives, in order to tend to the complicated relationship between geography and history, character and locality as well as nationality and worldliness, and thus portraying different national imaginations. The reconstruction of the relationship among the three writers reveals the role of peripheral regions in deconstructing West-centric modernity, triggers multiple modernities and unfolds a differential space that respects cultural diversity and honors multiple modernities.
[Abstract](68) [PDF 1584KB](8)
An Anomaly in the Matrix——An Analysis of The Matrix from the Perspective of Love
YE Xiaolu
2024, 7(1): 124-136. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247107
Abstract:
The article first explains what the Matrix is and its history. The Matrix is a computer-manipulated dream world opposite to the real world. Its purpose is to control humans and provide energy for the machine world. In the eponymous film, the Matrix had gone through seven generations in total, and was constantly renewed by the One (the promised, or prophesied Savior). The ultimate controller of the Matrix was the Architect. Starting from the third generation onward, the Oracle appeared again. The Architect and the Oracle played the roles of the father and the mother in the Matrix, representing rational principles and emotional principles respectively. By the time the sixth Savior Neo arrived, the Oracle specially assigned the element of “love” to Neo. This decision led Neo and Trinity, who followed the principle of love, to overturn the fixed structure set up by the Architect and make a completely different choice from the previous five Saviors, embarking on a new path to save humanity and achieve peaceful coexistence between the machine world and the human world. In the seventh-generation Matrix,the Analyst, the ultimate controller of the Matrix, assumed an integrated role of the Architect and the Oracle. In order to provide energy for the machine world, the Analyst resurrected Neo and Trinity who had sacrificed themselves in the sixth-generation Matrix and controlled them with human emotions separately. Neo and Trinity, who had been immersed in the Matrix for years, were inspired by the memories of love in their past lives. After a difficult struggle, they finally defeated the Analyst and returned to the real world. The article ends with the character Sati, exploring open-ended topics triggered by love between programs, and the importance of emotions for humans with the development of artificial intelligence and the advent of “humanmachine society”.
[Abstract](43) [PDF 1576KB](8)
Group Identity and Urban Writing of Chinese Intellectuals Who Studied in France:Taking Hsu Sung-Nien’s Literary Works as an Example
JIA Mingyu
2024, 7(1): 137-152. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20247108
Abstract:
Representative of a new generation of Chinese intellectuals cultivated under Sino-French cultural and educational exchanges, Hsu Sung-Nien not only absorbed experience from traditional Chinese culture, but was also influenced by the spirit of the Enlightenment in French culture, shaping his unique perspectives on learning and thinking that integrate both Chinese and Western visions. He is among the first cohort of overseas students to study at the Lyon Sino-French Institute in France. While completing the construction of his intellectual identity and practicing social responsibility, he was also a prolific author of original literary works. Unlike the reformist students who participated in the work-study program, Hsu, as an intellectual of the Enlightenment, mainly produced writings that feature realism, autobiographical style and writing characteristics exclusive to the “twin cities” (i.e. Shanghai and Paris). The content of his literary work reflects his pursuit of social enlightenment and literary freedom, as well as his high sensitivity to foreign cultures, morality,literature and art, which always leads to emotional and spiritual anxiety. Hsu Sung-Nien accomplished the transformation of his intellectual identity in France, where he met emotional needs primarily through artistic creation and literary salons, and the Enlightenment values in French culture cultivated his tendency to advocate practicality. Upon his return to China, he continued to express his feelings through urban writing, fulfilling his social responsibility as an intellectual. On the one hand, he made a considerable contribution to disseminate new literatures and technologies. On the other, he also criticized the urban desolation in modern culture and disapproved of the utilitarianism in new literature and art. After the January 28th Incident, Hsu Sung-Nien participated in the mobilization of anti-Japanese resistance art through realistic literary creation, which recorded the details of urban life and culture in Shanghai, Chongqing and other places from a critical perspective. After China’s victory in the Anti-Japanese War, he devoted himself to rebuilding Shanghai's cultural circles. Hsu Sung-Nien’s urban writing demonstrates his strong identification with the modern intellectual community and his endeavor to organically combine Chinese and French cultures, serving as a typical example for observing the thoughts of young intellectuals in that era.
[Abstract](56) [PDF 1630KB](5)
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