This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Western Influence and the Place of Music in the Works of Shen Congwen Qianwei He PhD in Comparative Literature The University of Edinburgh 2016 2 3 Declaration I declare that this thesis was composed by myself, that the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, and that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or processional qualification. I have published an article, ‘Sing a Soundless Song for Beauty: Beauty in Literature and Music through Shen Congwen’s Fengzi’, in Beauty: Exploring Critical Perspectives, ed. by Pierre Wilhelm (Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2016), pp. 105–13, which includes some content in Chapter 3. Signature: Date: Qianwei He 4 5 Abstract Shen Congwen [沈从文] (1902 – 1988), the famous Chinese writer most active from the late 1920s to the end of the 1940s, took particular interest in music throughout his literary career. From Shen’s earliest works, folksongs feature in his regional stories about West Hunan, his home region. These songs not only provide the stories with a special local colour, but also indicate Shen’s strong connection with Western anthropology and psychology. From the mid-1930s, Shen developed a passion for Western classical music. He stated on several occasions that he wished he could use the method of musical composition in his writing, even though he never attempted to learn to compose. This thesis will investigate Shen’s insistence on the assumption that the method of musical composition – especially the use of ‘harmony’ – would make literary works more beautiful and infinite. Shen’s discussion of Western classical music also points to the connection between music and abstraction. In Shen’s later career, he seems to be consistently pursuing the beauty of abstraction. At the same time, he writes about ‘soundless music’, which goes beyond concrete music such as folksongs or Western classical music. In the analysis of Shen’s ideas on music, one question remains: what are the possible sources of these ideas? Shen started writing after May Fourth Movement, a movement that massively involved learning from the West. His career thrived while socialising with a group of Chinese writers whose works bear evident marks of Western literature, and some of whom were also the translators of many Western works. Furthermore, Shen’s ideas on music appear to reflect those of Western literature, especially modern literature. This thesis will consider possible influences on Shen, starting with an examination of what Shen might have read or known about Western literary ideas. Finally, according to the evidence uncovered in my research, this thesis will propose a comparative study between possible Western sources of influence and Shen’s ideas on music, focusing on the influence of Western anthropology, psychology, Goethe (1749 – 1832), French Symbolism, Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), and Joyce (1882 – 1941). 6 Table of Content Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 9 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 11 0.1 Research Questions ............................................................................................ 11 0.2 A Brief Biography of Shen Congwen .................................................................. 11 0.3 Literature Review on Shen and Music ................................................................ 13 0.4 Literature Review on Shen and Western Influence .............................................. 16 0.5 Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................................... 18 0.6 Methodology ...................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 1: Folk Music ........................................................................................... 21 1.1 Folk Music and Primitivism ................................................................................ 23 1.1.1 Against Sexual Repression ................................................................................................... 24 1.1.2 Country Life and Vitality ..................................................................................................... 28 1.1.3 Ritual Music and Mythology ................................................................................................ 31 1.2 Folk Music and Shen’s Memory and Imagination of West Hunan ...................... 36 1.2.1 Eternal Music and the Living Memory ................................................................................. 36 1.2.2 The Poetic Character in the Identity of West Hunan – Folk Music, Dream, and Poetry ....... 40 Chapter 2: Composed Music ................................................................................ 49 2.1 A Country Man against City Music ..................................................................... 52 2.2 The Beauty of Harmony ..................................................................................... 65 2.3 New Inspiration ................................................................................................. 74 Chapter 3: The Concept of Music ......................................................................... 83 3.1 Music and Nature............................................................................................... 84 3.2 Music and Abstraction ....................................................................................... 92 Chapter 4 Historical Evidence of Western Influence .......................................... 107 4.1 Western Anthropology ...................................................................................... 112 4.2 Freud and Western Psychology ........................................................................ 117 4.3 Western Philosophy .......................................................................................... 121 4.4 Western Literature ............................................................................................ 126 Chapter 5: Analysis of Western Influence in Shen’s Writing ............................... 141 5.1 Anthropology and Mythology ........................................................................... 141 5.2 Western Psychology ......................................................................................... 151 5.2.1 Sexual Repression .............................................................................................................. 153 7 5.2.2 Conscious, Preconscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious ................................................ 155 5.2.3 Collective Unconscious ..................................................................................................... 158 5.2.4 Jung, Libido, and Life Force .............................................................................................. 161 5.2.5 Daydreaming, Art Creation, and Appreciation of Art ......................................................... 163 5.3 Goethe ............................................................................................................. 177 5.4 French Symbolism ........................................................................................... 183 5.5 Nietzsche ......................................................................................................... 198 5.6 James Joyce ...................................................................................................... 208 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 217 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 223 8 9 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Peter Dayan, for his intellectual inspiration and his dedicated and patient guidance through my PhD study. My deep gratitude must be expressed for the fact that he has not only showed me a clear path of how to conduct research, but also led me to think and develop my very own ideas. I also want to thank my co-supervisor, Dr. Julian Ward, for helping me with my research, and giving me opportunity and guidance in teaching, as being a good teacher has always been my goal. Secondly, I must thank my parents, for being my biggest support, mentally and financially, and most importantly, for believing that their daughter can pursue whatever she wants. Last but not least, my most sincere thanks must be given to my friends in Edinburgh, because, with them, Edinburgh has