Seminar. Helen Huiwen Zhang (University of Tulsa). Modern Europe Transreads Dao: Wilhelm – Döblin – Kafka.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Location: 
Dow 112
370 Temple Street
New Haven, CT

This seminar, at the intersection of German/Comparative Literature and East Asian/Chinese Studies, will challenge the audience to think about what drove modern European thinkers’ interest in Daoist philosophy and how they reimagined Dao as they pondered alternative solutions to 20th-century Western issues associated with modernism.

Using Dr. Zhang’s method “transreading” that integrates lento reading, poetic translation, creative writing, and cultural hermeneutics, we explore three distinct yet related instances of cross-cultural dialogue:

1. Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930) Transreads Laozi and Liezi
2. Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) Transreads Liezi
3. Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Transreads Laozi

Central texts (provided in the attached 3-page handout in German original and Dr. Zhang’s English translation):

  • Excerpts from Wilhelm’s Liezi and Laozi
  • Excerpts from Döblin’s “Appropriation” and two autobiographies, along with his open letter to Marinetti
  • Excerpts from Kafka’s Zürau collection comprised of 109 manuscript cards, along with relevant entries from his notebooks and diaries

Leading questions:

  • Why is it necessary and beneficial to differentiate between China and Dao when studying Döblin and Kafka?
  • How did Döblin and Kafka, through transreading Wilhelm’s Liezi and Laozi, reimagine Dao? In what sense can Döblin’s Wang-Lun Novel or Kafka’s Zürau collection be regarded as a modern German continuation of ancient Chinese classics? How are philosophy and literature, pondering and poetics concurrent in their writings?