The Study On China Images Of Hermann Hesse' Fiction

This paper, focused on the 20th century German writer Herman Hesse'fiction, analyzes China images in Hesse'fiction through a comparative study of the typical Chinese stereotypes in European literature especially German literature so as to reveal the special features which can be summarized as "retro-stereotypes".In Herman Hesse'fiction, there is an obvious oriental complex, especially the China images, which reveal a peculiar reality-imagination tension. On the one hand, Hesse'praise of Chinese culture is incompatible with the contemporary European trends at that time; on the other hand, there also exists a gap between his imagination of China and the real china. Research on this dual tension is helpful for us to understand Hesse'works and reconsider the cultural development and transformation on the metaphysical level.This paper, based on the internal and external aspects of imogolagy in comparative literature, aims at a case study of imagology concerning Hesse'fiction. It comprehensively analyzes China stereotypes in Hesse'fiction and other images resulting from the transformation and the internalization of China images like wise men, mothers, and homosexuals. These images reflect Hesse'overall consideration of eastern and western cultures or symbolize the complex relationship and mutual influence of eastern and western cultures.The first chapter studies the "stereotype" as a literary phenomenon, summarizes the "China stereotypes" inwestern history, and then outlines Hesse's distinctive "Chinese stereotypes"; The second chapter analyzes three kinds of images related with China:the wise man image which symbolizes Hesse's unconditional praise of the east especially China and the idealized images; the mother image, a hearty appreciation of the Oriental properties, representing negative, life, tolerance, death, nostalgia, etc; homo-sex love, a more metaphysical and symbolic image, which is a metaphor of the east as negative, weakness, and spirituality, and of the west as positive, progressiveness and rationality. Hesse also uses homo-sex love relationship and the development of binary opposite characters to imply his judgment of the fate of the eastern and western cultures. The third chapter summarizes Hesse's distinctive "Chinese stereotypes" and concludes the whole paper.This paper, combining China's images in Hesse's works with Chinese classical culture, intends to be a mutual and creative analysis of both. Thereby, this paper tries to build a new culture evaluation system surpassing the constraints of nationalism, eurocentrism and post-colonialism, and with a comprehensive comparative literature view, to provide useful thinking for the modern transformation of Chinese traditional culture.