Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:09:11.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Constructing Chinese History: Kafka's and Dittmar's Orientalist Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Rolf J. Goebel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When read in the context of the European discourse on China since the Enlightenment, Kafka's “Constructing the Great Wall of China” (1917) and one of its likely sources, Dittmar's travelogue In New China (1912), reveal their political and cultural significance as early-twentieth-century conceptualizations of China during the late Ch'ing dynasty. Caught in the conflict between empirical observation and textual preconceptions, Dittmar manipulates orientalist discourse in his colonialist construction of Chinese progress guided by the Western powers. Surpassing his precursor in self-reflective insight into the rhetoricity of orientalism, Kafka appropriates the recurrent topoi of this field for an ironic exploration of the interactions among power, language, and sociopolitical stagnation. Kafka's story can be read as an intertextual subversion of Dittmar's Eurocentric ideology, as a response to the shattered hopes for revolutionary change after the fall of the Ch'ing dynasty, and as a critique of orientalist discourse in general. (RJG)

Type
Special Topic: Literature and the Idea of Europe
Information
PMLA , Volume 108 , Issue 1: Special Topic Literature and the Idea of Europe , January 1993 , pp. 59 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Aurich, Ursula China im Spiegel der deutschen Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1935. Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1967.Google Scholar
Avineri, Shlomo Hegel's Theory of the Modern State. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beicken, Peter U Franz Kafka: Eine kritische Einführung in die Forschung. Frankfurt: Athenaion, 1974.Google Scholar
Bethge, Hans, ed and trans. Die chinesische Flöte. 1907. 9th ed. Leipzig: Insel, 1919.Google Scholar
Binder, Hartmut “Eins gibt das andere—nicht! Kafka und die Geschichte(n).” Jenseits der Gleichnisse: Kafka und sein Werk. Ed. Lamberechts, Luc and Vos, Jaak De, with Verhofstadt, Edward. Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, ser. A, no. 17. Bern: Lang, 1986. 27–44.Google Scholar
Binder, Hartmut Kafka-Kommentar zu sämtlichen Erzählungen. 2nd ed. München: Winkler, 1977.Google Scholar
Birnbaum, Jesse, and Chua-Eoan, Howard G. “Despair and Death in a Beijing Square.” Time 12 June 1989: 24–27.Google Scholar
Corngold, Stanley Franz Kafka: The Necessity of Form. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988.Google Scholar
Curtius, Ernst Robert European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Bollingen Series 36. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1953.Google Scholar
Dawson, Raymond “Western Conceptions of Chinese Civilization.” The Legacy of China. Ed. Dawson, Raymond. Oxford: Clarendon-Oxford UP, 1964. 1–27.Google Scholar
Dittmar, J[ulius] Im neuen China: Reiseeindrücke von J. Dittmar. Schaffsteins Grüne Bändchen 24. Ed. Nicolaus Henningsen. Köln: Schaffstein, [1912].Google Scholar
Emrich, Wilhelm Franz Kafka. 8th ed. Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1975.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, C. P The Chinese View of Their Place in the World. 1964. London: Oxford UP, 1967.Google Scholar
Franke, Wolfgang China and the West. Trans. Wilson, R. A. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1967.Google Scholar
Fuchs-Sumiyoshi, Andrea Orientalismus in der deutschen Literatur: Untersuchungen zu Werken des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, von Goethes West-östlichem Divan bis Thomas Manns Joseph-Tetralogie. Germanistische Texte und Studien 20. Hildesheim: Olms, 1984.Google Scholar
Gasché, Rodolphe “Hegel's Orient; or, The End of Romanticism.” Occasional Papers III by Members of the Program in Literature and Philosophy: History and Mimesis. Ed. Massey, Irving J. and Lee, Sung-Won. Buffalo: State U of New York, Buffalo, 1983. 17–29.Google Scholar
Gilman, Sander L “Lam Qua and the Development of a Westernized Medical Iconography in China.” Medical History 30 (1986): 57–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodden, Christian “The Great Wall of China: The Elaboration of an Intellectual Dilemma.” On Kafka: Semi-centenary Perspectives. Ed. Kuna, Franz. London: Elek, 1976. 128–12.Google Scholar
Günther, Christiane C Aufbruch nach Asien: Kulturelle Fremde in der deutschen Literatur um 1900. München: Iudicium, 1988.Google Scholar
Hegel, Hegel Georg Wilhelm Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte. Vol. 12 of Werke. Ed. Moldenhauer, Eva and Michel, Karl Markus. 20 vols. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1970.Google Scholar
Herder, Johann Gottfried Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit: Dritter Theil. 1787. Vol. 14 of Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Suphan, Bernhard. 33 vols. Hildesheim: Olms, 1967.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Werner “Ansturm gegen die letzte irdische Grenze”: Aphorismen und Spätwerk Kafkas. Bern: Francke, 1984.Google Scholar
Howard, Jean E “The New Historicism in Renaissance Studies.” English Literary Renaissance 16 (1986): 13–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsia, Adrian, ed Deutsche Denker über China. Insel Taschenbuch 852. Frankfurt: Insel, 1985.Google Scholar
Kaes, Anton “New Historicism and the Study of German Literature.” German Quarterly 62 (1989): 210–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kafka, Franz “Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer.” Sämtliche Erzählungen. Ed. Raabe, Paul. Fischer Bücherei 1078. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1970. 289–28.Google Scholar
Kafka, Franz Briefe, 1902–1924. Gesammelte Werke. Ed. Brod, Max. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1958.Google Scholar
Kafka, Franz Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande und andere Prosa aus dem Nachlaß. Gesammelte Werke. Ed. Brod, Max. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1953.Google Scholar
Keller, Karin Gesellschaft in mythischem Bann: Studien zum Roman “Das Schloß” und anderen Werken Franz Kafkas. Athenaion Literaturwissenschaft 7. Wiesbaden: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1977.Google Scholar
Koelb, Clayton Kafka's Rhetoric: The Passion of Reading. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1989.Google Scholar
Kopper, John M “Building Walls and Jumping over Them: Constructions in Franz Kafka's ‘Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer.‘” MLN 98 (1983): 351–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehring, Franz “Kiautschou.” Hsia 269–26.Google Scholar
Meng, Weiyan Kafka und China. Studien Deutsch 4. München: Iudicium, 1986.Google Scholar
Montrose, Louis “Renaissance Literary Studies and the Subject of History.” English Literary Renaissance 16 (1986): 5–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muir, Willa, and Muir, Edwin, trans “The Great Wall of China.” By Franz Kafka. The Complete Stories. By Kafka. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. New York: Schocken, 1971.235–48.Google Scholar
Nicolai, Ralf R Kafkas “Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer” im Lichte themenverwandter Texte. Würzburg: Königshausen, 1991.Google Scholar
Pechter, Edward “The New Historicism and Its Discontents: Politicizing Renaissance Drama.” PMLA 102 (1987): 292–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rignall, J. M “History and Consciousness in ‘Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer.‘” Paths and Labyrinths. Ed. Stern, J. P. and White, J. J. London: Inst. of Germanic Studies, U of London, 1985. 111–11.Google Scholar
Robertson, Ritchie Kafka: Judaism, Politics, and Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985.Google Scholar
Rohrbach, Paul “Deutschland und das chinesische Geistesleben.” Deutschland und China nach dem Kriege. By Rohrbach and Wolf von Dewall. Berlin: Curtius, 1916. 9–42.Google Scholar
Rose, Ernst Blick nach Osten: Studien zum Spätwerk Goethes und zum Chinabild in der deutschen Literatur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Ed. Schuster, Ingrid. Kanadische Studien zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur 26. Bern: Lang, 1981.Google Scholar
Said, Edward W Orientalism. 1978. New York: Vintage-Random, 1979.Google Scholar
Sansom, G. B The Western World and Japan. 1950. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1977.Google Scholar
Schlegel, Friedrich Fragmente zur Geschichte und Politik, 1820–1828. Ed. Ursula Behler. Vol. 22 of Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe. Ed. Behler, Ernst with Anstett, Jean-Jacques and Eichner, Hans. Paderborn: Schöningh; Zürich: Thomas, 1979.Google Scholar
Schlegel, Friedrich Philosophie der Geschichte. Ed. Jean-Jacques Anstett. Vol. 9 of Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe. Ed. Behler, Ernst with Anstett, Jean-Jacques and Eichner, Hans. München: Schöningh; Zürich: Thomas, 1971.Google Scholar
Schuster, Ingrid China und Japan in der deutschen Literatur, 1890–1925. Bern: Francke, 1977.Google Scholar
Whitlark, James Behind the Great Wall: A Post-Jungian Approach to Kafkaesque Literature. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson UP; London: Associated UP, 1991.Google Scholar
Zhang, Longxi “The Myth of the Other: China in the Eyes of the West.” Critical Inquiry 15 (1988): 108–10.Google Scholar