The artistic experience of Western European literature in the reception of Can Xue: a reading of Kafka

Abstract

Can Xue is a unique writer whose prominent place in the history of modern Chinese literature is due to her peculiar artistic style, in which the sphere of the irrational (dreams and dreams of the characters, their delusions and illogical perception of the world) and existential issues (suffering, fear and death of the characters) are framed in a special style characterized by fragmented narrative, symbolism and philosophical images. Among the factors that formed such an author’s handwriting is Can Xue reinterpretation of the artistic experience of Western European artists. The article attempts to investigate the influence of their work on the stylistic «portrait» of the Chinese writer. The purpose of the study is to determine the sources and factors of dialogism as a characteristic feature of Can Xue’s work. Applying historical-literary and comparative research methods, Can Xue’s work is defined as a kind of sabotage and innovation in Chinese literature in the form of self-expression. At the same time, the use of various images-symbols and metaphors for the study of the human subconscious testify to the durability of the national tradition in the author’s writing of Can Xue. One of the sources of such an artistic synthesis is the reception of the work of Western European writers – Dante, J. V. Goethe, F. Kafka, H. L. Borges. The article focuses on the “Kafkaesque” trace in the “small” prose of the writer, whose interest in the works of the Austrian expressionist manifested itself in two forms. In the literary and critical section, these are essays on Kafka’s work, where the consonance of the ideological motives of both authors is outlined (“The Origin of the Castle”, “The Will of the Castle”). In the artistic form – in the reception of such typical “Kafkaian” motifs in one’s own texts as oneiric motifs, ideas of absurd reality, artistic dichotomy, a specific chronotope, etc. (the stories “The Оx”, “The Hut on the Hill”).