Literary creation and cultural understanding: Reflections on Chinese culture in Andre Malraux's works and its influence on Malraux's career
Song, Ning
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/21689
Description
Title
Literary creation and cultural understanding: Reflections on Chinese culture in Andre Malraux's works and its influence on Malraux's career
Author(s)
Song, Ning
Issue Date
1996
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Popescu, Nicolae
Department of Study
French
Discipline
French
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Biography
Literature, Romance
Anthropology, Cultural
Language
eng
Abstract
This thesis attempts to investigate the relationship between Andre Malraux's literary creation and Chinese culture, especially Chinese philosophy and art. Malraux's appreciation of Chinese art was closely related to his knowledge of Chinese philosophies. For instance, in Chinese painting, he saw a philosophy of communion between man and the universe.
In this thesis, we first discuss Chinese art, such as painting and sculpture, in Malraux's writings. We then analyze the contrasts between Taoist, Confucianist massification and European individualization, along with some other ideological differences between Chinese culture and European culture such as they appear in Malraux's works. According to Malraux, Chinese culture and European culture were clearly distinguished by their respective positions, and by their respective passiveness and activeness. We present our criticism of this extreme view.
Finally we discuss the three stages of Malraux's literary creative cycle, and their relations with Chinese culture. Malraux's creative cycle and novels start off with individual adventure, go through collectivist commitment, and return to individual ideals. Throughout this evolution, we analyze the influence of Chinese culture during the transitions.
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