A materialism of entangled corporeality: Hu Feng in a modern world

Chen, Eliot

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120587 Copy

Description

Title

A materialism of entangled corporeality: Hu Feng in a modern world

Author(s)

Chen, Eliot

Issue Date

2023-05-03

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Chen, Jingling

Committee Member(s)

• Persiani, Gian-Piero
• Tierney, Robert

Department of Study

E. Asian Languages & Cultures

Discipline

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Hu Feng
• modern Chinese literature
• Marxism
• literary theory
• critical theory

Abstract

This thesis studies the modern Chinese literary theorist Hu Feng (1902-1985) and aims to particularly grasp the intricate entanglements of the subjective and the objective in Hu Feng’s theoretical writings. I contend that Hu Feng’s theory constitutes “a materialism of entangled corporeality,” a materialism where Chinese thoughts and Western philosophies converge to make a distinct and original theoretical and political contribution to the modern world. My central argument in this thesis is that Hu Feng’s theory of materiality hinges upon a radical reimagination of the body and its relation to the social world, where the boundaries between the two melts into a web of entanglements. In this first chapter, I investigate how Hu’s unique materialism both resonate and diverge from the dialectical tradition from Hegel to Feuerbach to Marx and Hegel. I argue that “blood and flesh” for him configure a fluid and immanent mode of materiality that inform both the subject and the social world. And in the second chapter, I further think with Hu Feng on the concept of “subjective fighting spirit,” and how it echoes the method of intuition of Henri Bergson (1859-1941). However, Hu injects Bergson’s “positive metaphysics” with the negative affect of struggle, battles, a fighting. He thus envisions a political agency fueled by negative affects within this ontology of entangled corporeality. In this chapter, I trace the history of how such a politics came to be by combing through Hu’s reception of the Japanese literary theorist Kuriyagawa Hakuson (1880-1923) and Lu Xun (1881-1936). This thesis is first of all an exploration of the historical complexity of the mid-twentieth century, a moment in history that Hu Feng himself pronounced as the “beginning of time” (Shijian kaishi le) a threshold in history where past, present and future converge into an ocean of entanglements. By engaging deeply with Hu Feng’s vision, I hope to show that ii at this moment in time, during the Communist Party’s rise to power, there was intense contestations and negotiations on the vision of future, on the problem of subjectivity and nationhood. And it is precisely from this moment that we can imagine what China could have become, had it not been for the historical atrocities; what aesthetics and/or political visions could have come out of the Chinese revolution. At the same time, this thesis is envisioned to be an active intervention into contemporary theory and politics. By putting Hu Feng into conversations with a variety of thinkers from Hegel to Fredric Jameson, I want to show that Chinese thoughts have a lot to offer to contemporary global theoretical and political questions.

Graduation Semester

2023-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Eliot Chen

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