Travel As Other-Awareness And Self-Awareness In Adolf Muschg’s Novel Baiyun Oder Die Freundschaftsgesellschaft

With the development of transportation in the modern society traveling becomes the life style,learning style and experiencing style of modern people.Various fictionalized travels in works of literature have a common characteristic:the culture and history of others are demonstrated through the travel and experiences of others are conveyed.The confrontation of travelers with foreign culture and their contact with the cultural other encourage them to reflect on their own culture and their life.Furthermore,the travel serves as an important way to break away from the tense and boring rhythm of life temporarily in our modern society.In the current globalized world,it is not hard to find travelers like the Swiss delegation in the novel Baiyun of the Swiss writer Adolf Muschg,which comes to China,and a variety of crises in life,which often come into discussions of the Swiss travelers,also have timely significance for our modern society.Hence,it is of great significance not only for exploration of the basic concepts of Intercultural German Studies as well as the dialectic relation between self and the other but also for research on crises of modern civilization to analyze the travel theme in Baiyun.With the help of theories of Intercultural German Studies it will be discussed in this paper how come die figures in Baiyun during their travel in China closer to Chinese culture,which is considerably different from Europe culture,how are the travelers influenced by Chinese culture,what experience the travelers about themselves while exploring Chinese culture.According to the questions above,the second part of the paper introduces the definition of self and the other within the scope of Intercultural German Studies and explains the dialectic relation between self and the other.Because the focus of this paper is laid on self-awareness and other-awareness,Bernhard Waldenfels’ theories about experience of the other are highlighted in this part and serve as theoretical basics of the following text analysis.Lastly,the meaning of space as a cultural dimension will be introduced for further text analysis.The third part concentrates on awareness of the other during the travel.In this part four Chinese cities:Chengdu,Peking,Anshan and Shenyang,which play an important role in other-awareness of the travelers,will be taken as examples to interpret how they achieve a picture of Chinese culture and the Chinese society by sightseeing in these cities.The fourth part takes a close look on self-reflection of the figures during their travel in China.Firstly,it will be analyzed with Bernhard Waldenfels’ theory about other-awareness how the travelers in Baiyun are unsettled while confronted with a different culture.The travelers’insecurity while faced with the other will bring their own cultural identity into question and promote their self-reflection.The last part of the paper’s core section focuses on self-development of the figures,which is made possible by their travel in China.The travel is not only for the Swiss travelers but also for the Chinese accompany persons an encounter with the other,so the travel in Baiyun enables both sides to develop themselves.Baiyun is not only a novel about China,but also a novel about the travel in China and travelers.The travel in China enables the Swiss delegation to get closer to China,makes possible a critical reflection on themselves with distance and finally supports their self-development.