| This dissertation explores the grounds of comparison, and what makes comparison meaningful, through an encounter between Paul Celan (1920-1970), the pre-eminent post-war poet of the German language, and Wang Wei (701-761), one of the master poets of the Tang Dynasty when classical Chinese poetry was at its peak.;A traditional approach to comparison would seek to establish certain "common denominators" by applying pre-given historical, cultural or linguistic influences as commensurable categories of analysis. However, the aesthetic qualities of both Celan's and Wang Wei's poems resist reduction to categories in common and thus defies the very notion of commensurability. I have instead employed insights from the phenomenological tradition -- ranging from Husserl to Heidegger, Gadamer and Merleau-Ponty -- to illuminate the complexity of the poets' similar positions, specifically their non-metaphorical poetics, resulting in contrapuntal dialogues between different ideas and expressions that are grounded in their respective cultural background. Developing from Husserl's "transcendental inter-subjectivity", my approach in particular applies Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of body to comparison.;I, therefore, pursue three phenomenological concepts derived from Celan's poetics: Begegnung (Encounter), Ort (Site), and Licht (Light). Begegnung calls for an immanent alterity that formulates the condition of comparison; Ort indicates the site of Begegnung i.e. its context and circumstances, and Licht illuminates the consequences. Establishing counterparts from Chinese literary aesthetics in a dialogical analysis, I examine the poets' deep affinities in their poetic landscapes. Despite the separation of these literary works across epochs, continents and cultures, comparison in a phenomenological paradigm allows us to see more about these works than if they were regarded in isolation. As comparison and translation are intricately related, I include multiple translations and conclude with a discussion of how my phenomenological approach to comparison can be applied to the practice of translation as well. |
