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Reading the Short Stories of James Joyce and Lu Xun Nationalism as Dilemma in (Semi)Colonial Contexts: Reading the Short Stories of James Joyce and Lu Xun Politically ZOU, Meiyang A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in English (Literary Studies) © The Chinese University of Hong Kong August 2008 The Chinese University of Hong Kong holds the copyright of this thesis. Any person(s) intending to use a part or whole of the materials in the thesis in a proposal publication must seek copyright release from the Dean of the Graduate School. ^^X^BSSem/M Thesis/Assessment Committee Professor Timothy Francis WEISS (Chair) Professor CHING Mimi Yuet May (Thesis supervisor) Professor LI Ou (Committee Member) Professor WONG Pui Ling Linda (External Examiner) Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv 翻 vi Abbreviations viii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Nation and nationalism: problems and dilemmas 2 James Joyce and Lu Xun 10 Critical / ironical nationalism? 16 Chapter Two: Negative Images of the Homeland 21 Haunting death and insanity 22 Problematic national identity and "backward" national character 33 Chapter Three: Doubts Towards the Foreign Powers 39 Criticizing the self-imposed inferiority 42 Failed intellectuals 53 Chapter Four: Rescuing the Nation Through Language 63 Disillusionment with political revolutions 63 Literary experimentations as alternative salvation 76 Chapter Five: Conclusion 83 After the short stories 83 Exile and role of the intellectual 89 Literature and politics 96 WORKS CITED 99 ii Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by the tremendous generosity, encouragement and patience of my supervisor, Prof. Ching Yuet-May. I have benefited enormously from her passionate and unfailing support. I am grateful to Prof. Li Ou, who has taken great trouble to attend my oral defence, and taught me a lot with her editorial advice and teaching skills. Special thanks must also go to Prof. David Heywood Parker, Chair of Department of English at CUHK, for having constantly encouraged me with his warmth and thoughtfulness, and to Prof. Timothy Weiss for kindly reading and commenting on this thesis. And I am deeply indebted to Prof. David Huddart and Prof. Julian Lamb for their generous devotion of time and energy to teaching us. Without their inspiring seminars and friendly assistance, I would not be able complete this thesis. And I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Prof. Lee Leo Ou-fan from Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, whose intellectual vigor has greatly influenced my growth in the last two years. I am also deeply grateful to my friends at CUHK: Aileen Zhou, Yvonne Wong, Chris Tsang, Tara Coleman, Lily Liu, and An Ning. These and many other friends have been my sources of support and inspiration. And I am always grateful to my parents for their love. Finally, I'd like to thank Dr. Amy Goldman, who taught me to "claim life, not success." iii Abstract This thesis examines how the nation and nationalist thought are represented and transgressed in the short stories of James Joyce and Lu Xun. Texts studied in this thesis include Dubliners by Joyce, and Call to Arms and Wandering by Lu Xun. All the stories were published between 1914 and 1926, presenting vivid images of Ireland and China at the turn of the twentieth century. In order to "write a chapter of the moral history of [his] country" and to destroy the "iron house", both writers create negative images of the life in their homeland. At the same time, they are rather suspicious of the standards set by the imperial powers and their influences, keeping a critical distance from those who advocated the "global standards" set by the imperial powers. Another remarkable similarity between Joyce and Lu Xun is that they leave gaps, ambiguities, and conflicting messages in their writings, which serve as a power of critique and questioning. The introduction briefly summarizes the concepts of nation, nationalism and the dilemmas in the nationalist thought, providing a theoretical framework for the later analyses. Key theorists that are discussed in the introduction include Benedict Anderson, Homi Bhabha, Partha Chatterjee，Fredric Jameson and Edward Said. The first chapter also offers basic information on the two writers and the major discussions on their nationalist stance. The three chapters in the main body present respectively the three dimensions of the issue: the self-image of the nation, the imperial nations as the alluring other, and iv the space of language in literature. Chapter two explores the plight of the "living dead" in the stories, showing how the homeland is haunted by death and insanity. It also investigates the historical and theoretical backgrounds of the national identity in negativity. Chapter three demonstrates Joyce and Lu Xun's doubts towards the cultural and ideological influences from the imperial powers, which present themselves not only in the form of political entities in Western Europe and Northern America, but also as an imaginary entity that represents Reason, Progress, and Modernity. For them, the lure of the foreign nation is only an illusion. Chapter four analyzes these two writers' disillusionment with the political revolutions and how their literary creations become an alternative salvation. The last chapter supplements the above discussions with a look into the development of Joyce and Lu Xun after the short stories. The conclusion also looks into three other important questions: the identity of being an actual or metaphorical exile and its significance in the role of the writer as an intellectual in the (semi)colonial context, and the difference and interaction between literature and politics. By showing the critical consciousness of Joyce and Lu Xun, the thesis attempts to demonstrate how literature exhibits nationalism as dilemma and turns that dilemma into meaningful creation. V 摘要 本論文研究詹姆斯•喬伊絲和魯迅的短篇小說如何表現以及逾越國家與國族 主義思想。所選取的文本主要包括喬伊絲的《都柏林人》和魯迅的《呐喊》與《彷 徨》，這三部短篇小說集發表於1914年與1926年之間，生動地展現了十九世紀 末二十世紀初愛爾蘭和中國的社會風貌。兩位作家為了 “替祖國譜寫道德史”和 打破“黑屋子”，從否定的角度表現家國形象。而與此同時，他們對殖民列強的 影響及其帶來的“全球標準”也抱著批判態度。此外，兩人作品中的含混與矛盾， 也成為一種質疑的力量。 第一章導論簡要總結了國族、國族主義的概念和國族主義思想中的悖論，為 後面的討論奠定了理論基礎。被考察的理論家主要有班納迪克•安德森、霍米• 巴巴、帕沙•查特吉、弗雷德裏克•詹姆遜，以及愛德華•賽義德。第一章還包括 喬伊絲和魯迅的基本情況以及學界關於他們的國族主義立場的主要討論。 論文主體部分的三個章節分別從以下三方面入手：家國的自我形象，作為他 者的殖民國度，以及文學中語言的空問。第二章探討小說中“活死人”的困境和 繁繞著死亡與瘋狂氣息的家國，以及用否定的形式表現國族身份的歷史與理論背 景。第三章旨在證明喬伊絲和魯迅對殖民帝國在文化與意識形態上的影響所持的 懷疑態度。這裹的帝國主義勢力不僅以西歐北美政治實體的形式出現，也是一種 代表理性、進步、現代性的想像實體。但對于這兩位作家而言，來自異域的誘惑 不過是一種幻影。第四章則分析兩位作家對政治革命的幻滅和他們如何將文學創 作轉化為另一種救亡行動。 最後一章補充說明喬伊絲和魯迅在短篇小說創作之後的文學發展，並探討以 下三個重要的問題：實際的或隱喻的流亡身份、這種身份與作家作為知識份子在 (半）殖民語境中所扮演角色之間的聯系，以及文學和政治有著怎樣的差異和相 互作用。本論文通過表現喬伊絲和魯迅的批判意識，闡述文學如何展現（半）殖 民語境中的國族主義困境，以及如何將此困境化為意義深遠的藝術創作。 vi ABBREVIATIONS James Joyce D Dubliners CW The Critical Writings of James Joyce SL Selected Letters of James Joyce Lu Xun C Nahan (Call to Arms) W Pamhuam (Wandering) SW Selected Works of Lu Xun vii Chapter 1 Introduction The idea of nation has been extremely important in discussions of colonialism and in what we call post-colonial studies. This concept and many other words that are closely related to it, such as nation-state, nationality and nationalism, are very difficult to define. It is so not only because endless work has been done by scholars and critics to define the terms, but also because they have long been adopted into the common language without fixed meanings, and they are able to arouse strong emotions in people across the world so much so that intense social movements and even military actions have been conducted in their names. Yet since these notions are almost indispensable when we try to position many literary texts in the modern world, especially in my comparative study of Joyce and Lu Xun, even a crude differentiation of the terms is very necessary and helpful before turning into specific theoretical discussions and textual analysis. In the OED, the word "nation" carries many definitions, among which the idea of nation as "a distinct race or people ... occupying a definite territory" comes as the core one. "Nation-state" refers to a particular kind of sovereign entity, which is associated with the sense of "government and constitution". Nationality commonly describes a relationship between an individual and his / her state and community, e.g. a legal membership and a cultural association. And the concept of nationalism refers roughly to an ideology, mentality, or the political movements supported by this ideology. In this sense, nationalism can be taken as a set of understandings of the 1 nation-state, international relations, and individual-community relations, as well as a stance in action following those understandings. Surely these definitions are far from enough for us to understand how literary texts can be placed against a tangible reality of the modern world, in which nationalism seems to be associated in one way or another with almost all influential political events. To look into the territory where these terms are not or cannot be that well-defined, however, might be even more informative and illuminating than looking for "better" abstractions. Therefore, I'd like to go through some major theories on the idea of nation and on nationalism as a problem in the first part of this introduction. Next come the basic information of James Joyce and Lu Xun and their comparability. The third part of the introduction turns to two curiously paradoxical readings, namely "critical nationalism" in Joyce and "ironical nationalism" in Lu Xun, and discusses the potentials of reading these two great masters of modern fiction
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