Abstract
Robert Musil’s Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (1906) and Yu Dafu’s “Boundless Night” (1922) adopt similar plots about homoeroticism between the protagonist and an effeminate teenager, but for different purposes. For Robert Musil’s protagonist, his effeminate classmate is a sexual object that he momentarily uses for his sensual urges and as a means of resolving his anxieties about his sexual fantasies, identity and the link between subjective confusion and objective environment. However, Yu Dafu’s protagonist takes both the effeminate teenager and homoeroticism more seriously and sincerely, because in his anticipation, a carefree future with the feeble teenager will alleviate the frustration induced by his ungratified emotional and erotic desires, and relieve the pain of China’s vulnerability to foreign powers at the beginning of the twentieth century.
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Notes
Unless otherwise indicated, all English translations of the German quotations in this article are mine.
All English translations of “Boundless Night” in this article are mine.
Translation mine.
The source text: “正在那裡想的時候, 他覺得有一個人鑽進他的被來, 他閉著眼睛, 伸手去一摸, 卻是吳遲生。他和吳遲生顛顛倒倒的講了許多話。到了第二天的早晨, 齋夫進房來替他倒洗面水, 他被齋夫驚醒的時候, 才知道是一場好夢, 他醒來的時候, 兩隻手還緊緊的抱住在那裡。” (Emphasis mine). The Chinese expression 顛顛倒倒 (diandian daodao) literally means “upside down” or “rolling up and down,” but can also indicate confusion or derangement. In this context, it can be interpreted as a double entendre. It may mean that Yu Zhifu and Wu Chisheng have a drowsy, meandering conversation, and meanwhile it suggests sexual intercourse.
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Jiang, X. Effeminate Bodies, Individual Confusion and National Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of Robert Musil’s Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß and Yu Dafu’s “Boundless Night”. Neophilologus 108, 261–277 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-023-09797-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-023-09797-2