Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1970. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Guo li Taiwan da xue. / Reproduced from typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-157).

The thesis links the writings of the Italian Italo Calvino and the Chinese Ma Yuan through the Taoist symbol of the Tao and the Borgesian concept of the Aleph, an imaginary point in space containing all points in space and time. Based on Zhuangzi’s parable of the Emperor Hun-tun (Chaos) who lost his original state of chaos when he had sensory openings poked into him, the vision of the Aleph/Tao represents the return to that chaotic state of undifferentiated knowledge one experiences when one closes all sensory perceptions. This unnameable vision allows one to transcend all apparent conceptual dichotomies as it lies in the realm of intuition rather than language. Calvino, like Borges, posits that the chaos of the universe cannot be represented through the sequential language system, but nevertheless demonstrates this ineffability through language. Ma Yuan celebrates the chaos of life by writing about a mythological Tibet, upholding the uniqueness of that culture as a subtle subversion to the Chinese political and territorial takeover. Chapter One and Two, respectively, discuss the “Overlapping Conceptual Spaces” in Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Ma Yuan’s ‘The Temptation of the Gangdisi’. Chapter Three looks in greater detail at the images of the Aleph and the Tao in the two main texts against the backdrop of Borgesian thought. In accordance with the concept of the Aleph/Tao whose definition is continuously unsettled by contradictory conjectures, the fourth chapter undoes the conclusions reached in the previous chapters. This chapter discusses Calvino’s Cosmicomics and Ma Yuan’s shorter Tibetan stories in the light of comic parody. That which was earlier posited as the ineffable in these stories is elaborated in a profusion of words. The Conclusion discusses from a Taoist point of view the predominantly male voice in the writings of the two authors. While both advocate the spiritual sameness of all phenomena in an undifferentiated knowledge of the world, they nevertheless write from the male perspective of the yang pursuing and wanting to possess the yin.

The thesis links the writings of the Italian Italo Calvino and the Chinese Ma Yuan through the Taoist symbol of the Tao and the Borgesian concept of the Aleph, an imaginary point in space containing all points in space and time. Based on Zhuangzi’s parable of the Emperor Hun-tun (Chaos) who lost his original state of chaos when he had sensory openings poked into him, the vision of the Aleph/Tao represents the return to that chaotic state of undifferentiated knowledge one experiences when one closes all sensory perceptions. This unnameable vision allows one to transcend all apparent conceptual dichotomies as it lies in the realm of intuition rather than language. Calvino, like Borges, posits that the chaos of the universe cannot be represented through the sequential language system, but nevertheless demonstrates this ineffability through language. Ma Yuan celebrates the chaos of life by writing about a mythological Tibet, upholding the uniqueness of that culture as a subtle subversion to the Chinese political and territorial takeover. Chapter One and Two, respectively, discuss the “Overlapping Conceptual Spaces” in Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Ma Yuan’s ‘The Temptation of the Gangdisi’. Chapter Three looks in greater detail at the images of the Aleph and the Tao in the two main texts against the backdrop of Borgesian thought. In accordance with the concept of the Aleph/Tao whose definition is continuously unsettled by contradictory conjectures, the fourth chapter undoes the conclusions reached in the previous chapters. This chapter discusses Calvino’s Cosmicomics and Ma Yuan’s shorter Tibetan stories in the light of comic parody. That which was earlier posited as the ineffable in these stories is elaborated in a profusion of words. The Conclusion discusses from a Taoist point of view the predominantly male voice in the writings of the two authors. While both advocate the spiritual sameness of all phenomena in an undifferentiated knowledge of the world, they nevertheless write from the male perspective of the yang pursuing and wanting to possess the yin. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Cette étude comparatiste porte sur le récit spéculaire chez Michel Butor et chez Ma Yuan. Dans l’objectif de mettre en lumière leur philosophie d’écriture romanesque, la fonction et les effets de miroir, nous cherchons à explorer les différentes sources et pratiques du récit spéculaire dans les contextes distincts français et chinois. À la lumière du procédé de la mise en abyme et des problématiques du récit qui en découlent (métalepse narrative, intertextualité, etc.), on se focalise sur L’Emploi du temps de Michel Butor et le Niugui sheshen (Fantôme à tête de taureau et dieu à corps de serpent) de Ma Yuan pour scruter les similtitudes et les divergences en matière de réflexivité, de miroir métaphorique, de recherche de formes nouvelles et de philosophie d’écriture. Pour ce faire, la thèse s’organise ainsi autour de deux thématiques majeures : d’un côté, les rapports entre les traditions chinoises (divination et taoïsme) avec les emprunts des modèles narratifs occidentaux, notamment français, dans le domaine culturel ou littéraire, et de l’autre, les rencontres franco-chinoises (sur le plan littéraire et surtout romanesque) source d’une interférence ou d’une influence croisée. / This thesis aims to study the embodiment of specular narrative in the novels of French writer Michel Butor and Chinese writer Ma Yuan. Based on this, we try to explore and then to discuss the common points of the two writers in their philosophy of writing and narrative innovation, such as the preference for metaphorical mirror and the mirror thinking applied in the novel. It can be seen that the origin and application of the mirror narrative is also different under the different background of the two countries. Based on the analysis of L’Emploi du temps of Michel Butor and Niugui sheshen (Bull-headed monster and half-serpent spirit) of Ma Yuan, we explore the similarities and differences about the reflexivity, metaphorical "mirror", narrative innovation and the writing philosophy. Specifically, this thesis focus on two central subjects: on the one hand, the relevance between the cultural tradition (divination and Taoism) and the borrowing occidental narrative forms in the field of literature and culture; on the other hand, it also reflects and discovers the mutual exchange and inter-influence between China and France. We focus on concept of specular narrative and related issues (such as narrative metalepsis and intertextuality) between the two representative writers. The thesis searches on the different application on the same specular narrative through vertical comparison, combined with the horizontal comparison, in order to ultimately reveal the real cultural code behind it.