Salvatore Giuffré German Literary and Philosophical Influences on the Chinese Poetry of Feng Zhi: The Sonnets Influences littéraires et philosophiques allemandes sur la poésie chinoise de Feng Zhi (1905-1993) : les sonnets ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GIUFFRÉ Salvatore. German Literary and Philosophical Influences on the Chinese Poetry of Feng Zhi : The Sonnets, sous la direction de Gregory Lee. - Lyon : Université Jean Moulin (Lyon 3), 2018. Disponible sur : http://www.theses.fr/2018LYSE3026 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Document diffusé sous le contrat Creative Commons « Paternité – pas d’utilisation commerciale - pas de modification » : vous êtes libre de le reproduire, de le distribuer et de le communiquer au public à condition d’en mentionner le nom de l’auteur et de ne pas le modifier, le transformer, l’adapter ni l’utiliser à des fins commerciales. N°d’ordre NNT : 2018LYSE3026 THÈSE de DOCTORAT DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE LYON opérée au sein de l’Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 École Doctorale ED 484 Lettres, Langues, Linguistique et Arts Discipline de doctorat : Études de l’Asie et de ses Diasporas Soutenue publiquement le 04/07/2018, par : Salvatore GIUFFRÉ German Literary and Philosophical Influences on the Chinese Poetry of Feng Zhi: The Sonnets Devant le jury composé de : JIN, Siyan Professeure des université Université d’Artois Rapporteure TAMBURELLO, Giuseppa Ricercatore (HDR) Université de Palerme Rapporteure MACDONALD, Sean Professor State University of New York at Buffalo Examinateur COAVOUX, Sophie Maître de conférence HDR Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 Examinatrice LEE, Gregory Professeur des universités Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 Directeur de thèse Acknowlegdments First and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my doctoral supervisor, directeur de thèse, Prof. Gregory Lee, for his continuous support, guidance throughout the entire course of my doctorate, patience and immense knowledge. I could not have imagined a better mentor for this specific research project on modern Chinese poetry. I am also pleased to acknowledge my gratitude to the University of Malta for the continuous financial support and to my colleagues of the Department of Oriental Studies for their constant unfailing moral and intellectual support throughout these intense years. I would also like to thank the various panels in which I presented parts of my research and all academics I have met around the world for their precious encouragement and advice during this quest for knowledge. Last but not least, I would like to thank the biggest source of my strength and motivation, my family, most of all Abigail, my beloved life companion, Joel and Caleb, my amazing children, for never failing in believing in me and supporting me spiritually throughout this intense period of study, research and writing. This work is for you. Summary INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE FENG ZHI’S DOCTORAL DISSERTATION: THE ANALOGY OF NATURE AND SPIRIT AS A STYLE PRINCIPLE IN THE POETRY OF NOVALIS ................ 67 CHAPTER TWO IMAGINATION: SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL INFINITY ................. 95 CHAPTER THREE LONELINESS AND COLLECTIVENESS ..................................... 142 CHAPTER FOUR PERMANENCE AND MUTABILITY ......................................... 192 CHAPTER FIVE NIGHT AND DEATH ................................................................ 207 CHAPTER SIX TRACES OF ORPHIC MYTH ....................................................... 229 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 257 ANNEX 1 ......................................................................................................... 278 ANNEX 2 .......................................................................................................... 305 INTRODUCTION The research conducted in this work focuses on the intertextuality between German philosophical and literary works and the poetic creativity of modern Chinese writer and translator Feng Zhi 冯至 (1905-1993), original name Feng Chengzhi 冯承植, from Zhuo 涿, modern Hebei Province. The study explores the transtextual relation between Feng Zhi’s mature lyrical production, notably Shisihang ji 十四行集, hereafter The Sonnets, and select texts of Novalis and Rilke. The purpose of this critical study is to analyse and appreciate the extent to which transtextual elements travel between the primary literature, Feng Zhi’s own doctoral dissertation defended at Heidelberg in 1935 and his later sonnets. In fact, the innovative contribution of the research to the current state of scholarship is the critical demonstration of how Feng Zhi’s thesis played a vital role in the development of his poetic voice. The poet’s thesis represents one of the most influential primary sources that ultimately also contributed to the making of his post- Romantic lyrical production that additionally gives new insights into the transtextual relationship between the German sources and the Chinese poet’s modern examples of writing. The texts analysed in this study will attempt to demonstrate how given transcultural cues in Feng Zhi’s poetry define the writer’s apparent poetic tendency as a post-Romantic, Aesthetic and metaphysical lyricist from the one hand, whereas other closer investigations and pieces of transtextual evidence frame his work among the first examples of Chinese modernist literature. In fact, it is one of the aims of this study to also elucidate the post-Romantic and pre-Modernist approach in the lyricism of the sonnets of Feng Zhi, and to show the poet’s tendency towards an enigmatic and existentialist attitude that addresses the close and mutual relationship between the individual and the surrounding community as well as a pre-Modernist idea of self-completion achieved through the full aesthetic realisation of the individual and of his position within a systematic community. 1 To this end, particular consideration will be given to the transcultural convergence of philosophical and ontological traits pertaining to studies on metaphysics and aesthetics and existentialism, which emerged from significant European intellectual debates and criticism on literary works of Romanticism and Symbolism. In fact, as it will be demonstrated, being Feng Zhi inspired by the mystic poetry of Novalis, the philosophy of idealism and existence of Karl Jaspers as well as by the poetry of aesthetical experiences of Rainer Maria Rilke, the Chinese lyrical voice taken here into exam expresses a peculiar sense of modern awareness: a modern awareness of independence, tenacity and self-reflection that is also in line with the ideals of the new national spirit that characterised the modern Chinese literary arena during the first half of the twentieth century. The critical appreciation of The Sonnets and their thematic allegories put forward in this study will demonstrate Feng Zhi’s poetic shift from Romanticism to pre-Modernism as being mainly triggered by the cult of Rilke in Germany and Europe during the poet’s visit in the West. To exacerbate the radical change in Feng Zhi’s poetic orientation were also the existentialist theory of Karl Jaspers and the question of communication in the new individualistic and alienated world animated by modernity in China. Essential to the critical outcome of the research is the analysis from a comparative perspective of connections among various kinds of literature, philosophical works and cultural traditions in a global way: connections between past and present, across different academic disciplines and modes of intellectual inquiry. The texts, both German and Chinese, are analysed so as to seek a comprehensive understanding of how rhetorical and aesthetic elements of these given texts shape social values and beliefs that are relevant to Feng Zhi’s sonnets. Questions related to the historical gaps between the European texts and authors analysed in this work must be clarified right from the beginning in order to comprehend how elements pertaining to various historical stages simultaneously appear in Feng Zhi’s work. In fact, all German texts taken into close examination in this study are regarded as cultural expressions whose reception and intertextual convergence go beyond linguistic, social and historical boundaries. Such an approach 2 is fundamental to clarify some issues that may arise if one considers the historical gaps and relative features of the time between authors, such as Novalis, a philosopher of the early German Romantic Movement who lived during the second half of the seventeenth century; Goethe, an intellectual and man of letters of the Sturm und Drang and Weimar Classicism who lived between the second half of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century; Reiner Maria Rilke, symbolist and modernist Austrian-Bohemian poet who lived between the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century; and finally Karl Jaspers, a philosopher contemporary with Feng Zhi. Therefore, the proposed study seeks to bridge geographical and temporal distances between languages and periods of time in order