Les Images Differentes De La Chine Sous La Plume D’alain Peyrefitte Et Sa Vision Sur La Chine

Alain Peyrefitte is a man of extraordinary influence in the history of France. Being the longest-serving Minister since the founding of the Fifth Republic of France and General de Gaulle’s right-hand man, he is successful not only as a politician, but also as a scholar, with more than20literary, historical, and economical works published throughout his life, and two titles----Academician of the College de France, Academician of the French Moral and Political Science Institute. under his name. Always tireless in his pursuit of his political career and academic research, Peyrefitte also showed great interests in China, paying it18visits in his lifetime. He also published8great works on Chinese history, culture and society which caused a strong reaction in the Western world. Among them, Quand la Chine s’eveillera... le monde trembler a, The Collision of Two Civilizations: Immobile Empire and La Chine s’est. eveillee prompted him into a position that cannot be ignored in the field of Chinese Studies.In view of the fact that there have been few studies done in China on this scholar, this thesis aims to fill that blank through reviewing and presenting his life and works. By applying the methods of imagology of comparative literature, the author analyzes the three selected representative works----Quand la Chine s’eveillera... le monde trembler a, The Collision of Two Civilizations: Immobile Empire and La Chine s’est eveillee and the Chinese images in these books. At the same time, by comparing Peyrefitte with other French writers of the same period who also paid attention to China, the author gets a clear idea of Peyrefitte’s understanding of and attitude to China, and thus sums ups his unique view of China. The analysis of Peyrefitte’s Chinese images and his views of China allow us to get a deeper understanding and grasp of China’s exotic image for the last two centuries, and at the same time, to get a better understanding of the position and role of Chinese culture in the international cultural exchange through another point of view.The main body of the thesis is further divided into three chapters:The first chapter consists of three sections. The first section introduces the life experience of Alain Peyrefitte and his China-related works; the second one analyzes the cause of his affinity with China; the third section is divided into two parts: the first part gives a brief. introduction to Peyrefitte’s three masterpieces and an explanation why these three are selected, and the second part is an overall analysis of the characteristics of these works, for these three works have similar features in the,way they are created, i.e. travel and report type of literature, which make them Peyrefitte’s " Chinese Trilogy ".The second chapter summarizes the Chinese images in Peyrefitte’s "trilogy". These three works give different images of China in three different eras:the image of stagnation and backwardness of the Imperial China at the end of the Qing Dynasty; the image of China’s developing from the chaos and poverty in the late nineteenth century and the first half of twentieth century to the confidence and vigorousness after the founding of New China; and the image of China’s groping forward after its reform and opening-up. His works focus on social changes in China, and cover many aspects from the Chinese people, geographical differences, local customs, religious beliefs, social systems, to education, science and technology, trade, economy, industry, agriculture, etc., constituting a grand picture of modern China.Based on the previous chapters, the third chapter analyzes the building process of the Chinese images in different periods, thus getting a clear idea of Peyrefitte’s views of China. This chapter consists of three parts. The first part focuses on the building process of an ever-changing image China in modern times and the reason behind it. Exotic from the Western perspective, China can never escape the transformation process of being either this or that in the binary relationship between the Chinese and Western culture. The changing of the Chinese image in the "trilogy" is the perfect embodiment of this law. The second part compares Peyrefitte’s writing characteristics with that of Andre Malraux, another French politician and writer of the same time who also showed great interest in China, in order to highlight the fact that Peyrefitte’s knowledge and appreciation of China are built on his site visits and his rigorous studies on Chinese history and culture. The third part is a summary of Peyrefitte’s views of China. These three works present clearly how Peyrefitte’s view of China develops from the initial stage to further understanding and at last, to deep appreciation. And his view of China has always guided his literary creation. It is not hard to see, through his works, that Peyrefitte is full of admiration for China’s long history and its culture, and that he always regarded China with understanding, appreciation and trust.The conclusion is a summary of the whole thesis, which shows the rationality of its structure and content. As a witness to China’s image transformation in the last two decades, Peyrefitte participated in the building process of China’s exotic image, and the positive Chinese images he created in his books and his view of China have made great contribution in reversing the ingrained negative image China has on the West.