Chinese Subtext in Yu. Buida’s Story China

Affiliation:
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Shenzhen MSU-BIT University
Address: 1 Leninskiye Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119991; No. 1, International University Park Road, Dayun New Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 518172, PRC

Journal name

Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka

Edition

Volume 81 Issue 2

Pages

65-70

Abstract

The article explores the Chinese subtext of Yu. Buida’s fantastic story “China” (1998) for the first time. The purpose of the article is to explain the role and function of Chinese cultural reminiscences and allusions in this work. The research adopts the historical-cultural, intertextual, and hermeneutic methods. In the story Yu. Buida refers to the fundamental images and concepts of the Chinese literary tradition: the theme of “ghost marriage&8j1;, the paradise image of the “Peach blossom spring&8j1;, the fairy-tale land of “winged people&8j1;, etc. In total, these elements form the implicit intertextual field of Buida’s story, help the writer mythologize Chinese geography, show the metaphysical, but not the topographic significance of China. As a result of intertextual analysis, the author concludes that another culture (foreign cultural images and motives) becomes a metaphor for another world, from which the protagonist comes: the revived dead, who for a short time stays among the living people, returns to his homeland – to “China&8j1;, otherworldly realm, located “outside the human world&8j1; (according to the Chinese idiom). During the research, the author refers to the texts of Gan Bao (“In Search of the Supernatural”), the ancient Chinese treatise “Classic of Mountains and Seas”, the novel by Li Ru-zhen (“Flowers in the Mirror”), and others, which formed the Chinese subtext of the story.

Keywords

Chinese culture, otherworld, peach blossom spring, mythology, Chinese literature, intertextuality, paradise, ghost marriage

Received

24.12.2021

Publication date

25.04.2022

Number of characters

16587

Cite

GOST	Li G. Chinese Subtext in Yu. Buida’s Story “China” // Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka – 2022. – V. 81. – Issue 2 C. 65-70 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://izv-oifn.ru/S160578800019455-6-1 (circulation date: 30.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S160578800019455-6
MLA	Li, Gen "Chinese Subtext in Yu. Buida’s Story “China”." Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 81.2 (2022):65-70. DOI: 10.31857/S160578800019455-6
APA	Li G. (2022). Chinese Subtext in Yu. Buida’s Story “China”. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 81(2), pp.65-70 DOI: 10.31857/S160578800019455-6

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