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Hermann Hesse’s concept of world literature and his critique on Chinese literature

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Abstract

Hermann Hesse drafted in 1927 an outline of world literature in his article Eine Bibliothek der Weltliteratur (A Library of World Literature) in which he took Chinese literature as one of the important sources. In 1935, from German translation of historical novel Water Margins (水浒传) Hesse gave a response to Goethe’s ideal of world literature and defined it as the last common spirit “through empathetic translation, to broaden and enrich one’s own language and literature”. Chinese literature playing this landmark role in Hesse’s world literature is not groundless, but closely related with his continuous reading, commenting on a variety of Chinese literature for 30 years in his early career. He praised the perfect form of Chinese poetry, and ascribed Chinese drama to a treasure of stage art. He argued Chinese short narration with the magic to transform freely and broke through reality and illusion. Hesse also evaluated three Chinese romantic fictions The Fortunate Union (好逑传), The Wonder of the Second-Plum (二度梅) and The Plum in the Golden Vase (金瓶梅). He commented twice on the masterpiece Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦), initially criticized it was not a classic because it embodied no Chinese wisdom, only afterwards reaffirmed that it was a masterpiece depicting “a mood of decline and fatigue”. Hesse’s critique on Chinese classical literature not only provides a vision of literary communication between the East and the West, it is also closely related with his cultivation of world literature, which greatly enriches the construction of “world literature” in the early twentieth century.

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Notes

  1. See Marco Schickling, Hermann Hesse als Literaturkritiker. Heidelberg: Universtätsverlag, 2005, S. 8.

  2. See Adrian Hsia, Hermann Hesse und China. Frankfurt/M:Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974, S. 54.

  3. Richard Wilhelm in Qingdao has translated and published some Chinese poems which describe four seasons. In 1922, he followed the name of Goethe’s famous poems Chinesisch-deutsche Jahres- und Tageszeiten and published the book in Jena.

  4. Hans Böhm from Arthur Waley’s English version of A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems translated into Lieder aus China, Nachdichtungen chinesischer Lyrik (München 1929, p. 62).

  5. In 1913, Kafka wrote in the letter to his girlfriend Felice Bauer that the book was wonderful (“prachtvoll”). Franz Kafka: Briefe an Felice und andere Korrespondenz aus der Verlobungszeit. Hg. von Erich Heller und Jürgen Born. Frankfurt/M: Fischer, 1967, S. 252.

  6. Wang Guowei in his famous monograph Comments on Dream of the Red Chamber (1904) wrote: “The spirit of this book greatly contradicts the nature of our people […] the spirit of our people is secular and optimistic”, “therefore, in the literature of our country, with the spirit of the world-weariness and relief are only Peach Blossom Fan (桃花扇) and Dream of the Red Chamber.” See Wang Guowei literary essays. Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1997, p. 358.

  7. Marco Schickling, Hermann Hesse als Literaturkritiker. Heidelberg: Universtätsverlag, 2005, S. 161.

  8. The German writer Luisa Linsell (1911–2002) who had long contact with Hesse wrote in her article in memory of Hesse: “Hesse belongs entirely to another world, which is in contrast to the world of fascism and the non spiritual world; we young people think of ourselves belonging to the spiritual world, so Hesse is almost our mysterious leader.” Volker Michels(Hg.), Über Hermann Hesse (2), Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977, S. 298.

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Acknowledgements

I would especially thank the outstanding interdisciplinary scholar Prof. Frank (Ding-Ping) Qian whose suggestions and modifications in language for the paper make it hyperchromic. Derrick Catling and Dr. John Patrick McCumiskey also participated in the revision of my article. I’m grateful for what everyone has done for me! This paper is a part of the Chinese National Social Science Fund Project “The study of Hesse and the Chinese spiritual resources under the perspective of world literature” (15BWW012).

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Correspondence to Chunhua Zhan.

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Zhan, C. Hermann Hesse’s concept of world literature and his critique on Chinese literature. Neohelicon 45, 281–300 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-017-0406-9

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