| Although China provides the stage for most of the action of La Condition Humaine, the presence of Europe is felt throughout the text. In this ostensibly historical novel, Malraux dramatizes the tragic events that took place in Shanghai in March and April 1927: a failed coup attempt by marxist revolutionaries and the bloody scission between general Tchang-Kai-Shek's Kuomintang and the communist party. Europe is thus present in the very premises of the story, through marxism. The influence of the Old Continent permeates all the characters in one way or another, even those from Asia, mainly China, who display this influence in their political, social, religious and artistic outlook or behavior. Malraux uses the characters of the story to deliver a subtle though scathing critique of Europe, in sharp contrast to the traditional, pre-World War One depiction of the continent as the center and provider of culture for the whole world. Europe was the center of the universe, the source of all solutions and explanations in all fields of endeavor, solidly established on the concepts developed since the Renaissance: rationalism, materialism, and individualism. These concepts, which also gave birth to capitalism, were all present in the European colonial system imposed on the new territories and are the object of Malraux's critique. |
