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Some Distinctive Features of the Literary History of the East
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
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In the course of the last few centuries the evolution of literature has been marked by the entry of Eastern countries into the system of social and spiritual relationships which came into being in the West at the beginning of the 17th century. This evolution is linked with the changes which have been grouped together as “modernization.” The content of this modernization coincides, more or less, with what Marx and Engels described, in the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto, as the expansion of the bourgeoisie. However, in the 20th century, the possibility of a non-capitalist path has become apparent, and therefore the theory of modernization gives a wider sense to the character of the ruling class (which, in the 19th century, was the European bourgeoisie), and emphasizes changes of a general nature: the differentiation of the social structure, the birth of new institutions and new roles, economic differentiation, industrialization, urbanization, increased vertical and horizontal mobility, cultural differentiation, the birth of a science independent of religion, the substitution of a businesslike, rational attitude to life for a religious one, the development of civic awareness and of civil rights. The cradle of modernization (England, Holland, France) is conventionally called “the West.” Other countries, including those situated to the west of France (e.g. Spain, Portugal) are considered as “the non-West.”
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- Copyright © 1975 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 To use Bazarov's words: "nature is not a temple but a workshop."
2 See S.N. Eisenstadt, Comparative Perspectives on Social Change, Boston, 1968; J.W. Hall, Changing Conceptions of the Modernization of Japan, "Changing Japanese Attitudes toward Modernization," Princeton, 1965; G. Myrdal, Asian Drama, Vol. 3, New York, 1968; Studies on Modernization of Japan by Western Scholars, Tokyo, 1962.
3 There is a certain analogy with the equally simple dichotomy of the paths of development taken by Prussian and by American capitalism.
4 A.N. Tolstoy calls on us to reject the assertion of bourgeois science that the East did not have its own Renaissance; at the same time he convincingly demonstrates the part played by foreign settlements (the German suburbs) in the formation of Peter the Great's ideas. In our opinion, this is irrational.
5 N.I. Konrad, West and East, Moscow, 1966.
6 J. Huizinga, Herbst des Mittelalters, Munich, 1931.
7 If there is a period when, as with Salinger (see E.V. Zavadskaya and A.M. Pyatigorsky, Echoes of Eastern Culture in Salinger, "The Peoples of Asia and Africa," Moscow, 1966, no. 3), the Upanishands, Zen, Russian "starchestvo" and R.M. Rilke, or (for me) Bassio and Mandelstam all come together, it is, in my eyes, the present—a time when a single world culture is in the process of coming into being. See my article, "Bassio and Mandelstam," in Theoretical Problems of the Study of the Literature of the Far East, Proceedings of the Fourth Scientific Conference, Leningrad 1970, Moscow, 1970.
8 As described in Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto.
9 N.I. Feldman, Preface to "Akutagawa Riunosuke," Rashomon, Leningrad, 1936; G.D. Gachev, The Formation of Artistic Consciousness under Conditions of Accelerated Literary Evolution, Moscow, 1958.
10 Ibid.
11 V.G. Belinsky, A Survey of Russian Literature in 1847, Moscow, 1960.
12 T.P. Grigoryeva, The Lone Traveller, Moscow, 1967.
13 V.I. Semanov, "The Works of Tsen Pu and the Formation of Artistic Methods in Chinese Literature," in Theoretical Problems of the Study of the Literature of the Far East, Proceedings of the Fourth Scientific Conference, Leningrad 1970, Moscow, 1970.
14 In Bulgakov's novel, The Master and Margarita, they are represented by the characters Berlioz and Bezdomny.
15 Outside influence and spontaneity must not be considered as alternatives. Where there is no spontaneous aspiration towards novelty, outside influence, however strong, remains powerless. On the other hand, the most powerful spontaneous movement can seldom win over without the support of examples from outside. See P.F. Tolkayev, Saïki-monogatari, Moscow, 1970; Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 1, New York-London, 1964.
16 However, one must not relate practically the whole of satirical literature to it. The choice of documents made by those in favor of the concept of a Chinese Enlightenment gives the impression, for the moment, of being preli minary, and requires that the criteria be rendered more precise; cf. the works of Fishman (The Chinese Satirical Novel of the Enlightenment, Moscow, 1966) and M.I. Nikitina ("The Medieval Korean Concept of the Personal and the Due Reflected in Literature," in Theoretical Problems of the Study of the Lite rature of the Far East).
17 H. Nakamura, A History of the Development of Japanese Thought, Tokyo, 1967.
18 The problem of the stages of the Enlightenment has already been posed more than once by N. Konrad (op. cit.), V.I. Semanov (The Evolution of the Chinese Novel from the Late 18th Century to the Beginning of the 20th Century, Moscow, 1968) and others. I would tend to distinguish the Enlightenment (professed Westernism) from the pre-Enlightenment (the beginnings of the changes towards modernity from a predominantly traditional background).
19 We leave aside Italy, whose romanticism was intermediate in character. It is not possible to go into this question here.
20 In the early 1860's; cf. Dostoyevsky's and Strakhov's argument in the journals "Vremya" (Time) and "Epokha" (Epoch).
21 A few years ago in South Africa, those taking part in a religious procession carried a banner bearing the slogan "The White man crucified Jesus").
22 J.K. Nyerere, Socialism and Rural Development, Dar es Salaam, 1967.
23 A difficult phrase to translate, as it is associated with the tea ceremony, Zen Buddhism, and the love of nature and of art. See Okakuro Kakuzo, Das Buch vom Tee, Leipzig (undated).
24 N.I. Strakhov, The Struggle against the West in Russian Literature, St. Petersburg, 1882.
25 L.S. Senghor, "On Negritude," Diogenes No. 37, 1962.
26 Myrdal, op. cit..
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