A Study On The Chinese Images In The French Novels Of The 20～(th) Century

In recent years, researches on expression of Chinese image in foreign countries have been in the ascendant in China, with both a lengthways pectination of image history and a transverse research of countries. Focusing on the 20^th century , this essay analyzes the otherness of Chinese images in four novels: Rene Leys (Victor Segalen), La Condition Humaine (Andre Malraux), Comment Wang-Fo fut sauve (Marguerite Yourcenar) and L'Amant and L'amant de la Chine du Nord (Marguerite Duras), and then expatiates on the cultural backgrounds of Chinese images above.Introduction, by means of putting forward questions, presents the actuality of Chinese image research in China, and illuminates the reason for choosing the topic of the essay. Chinese image research actually turns out to be plentiful and substantial, yet it has not clearly differentiated such confusable concepts as "Chinese image", "China view" and Sinology. Meanwhile, researchers have divergent opinions about true-and-false criterions of Chinese images in western texts and the value judgment as well. This essay uses for reference the new harvests of research on study of images in France, and evades probing into authenticity, thus to made a breakthrough to unscramble Chinese images in novels from incentives and cultural demands of image builders.Chapter One analyzes the "city-people in the city" pattern adopted in figuring Chinese image in the novel Rene Leys, and the cultural motivation of the author's metaphor that the Forbidden City is Heterotopies of the author's inner empire. Segalen opposes assimilation or obliteration of exotic cultures, and he puts forward exoticism and taste. The novel centralizes the description of Chinese women in San Dao City of Beijing, by setting the entire character in advance and then overthrowing with individual characteristics. In this way, the novel blocks the narrator's interposition and ensures the unearthliness and close-down of the Forbidden City, thus to realize the author's literal affirmation of emphasis on non-ego individuality and spiritual exploration of otherness in different cultures.Chapter Two analyzes new Chinese images correspondent with time backgrounds in the novel La Condition Humaine and author's deep-seated...