The Adaptation of James Joyce and Ulysses in the Hong Kong Novel Jiutu by Liu Yichang: The Comparative Adaptative Approach

This thesis is the first full-length comparative literary study of James Joyce and Liu Yichang. It delves into the adaptation of elements from Joyce’s life and his Ulysses into Liu’s Jiutu, acknowledged as the pioneering stream-of-consciousness novel written in the Chinese language. The study embraces historical information and factual evidence to authenticate the crucial influence of Joyce on Liu’s literary composition and elucidates the potential thematic and technical connections between Jiutu and Ulysses including elements such as alcohol, dreams, and the stream-of-consciousness technique. The study illustrates the contributive functions of these Joycean artistic elements in the representation of the modernist Hong Kong writers and the cultural milieu of 1960s Hong Kong in Jiutu.
Addressing recent challenges to assumptions in comparative literary theory, the thesis draws on Linda Hutcheon’s theory of adaptation to analyse the specific characteristics of the literary relationships between Joyce and Liu, as well as between Ulysses and Jiutu. In the contemporary discourse on comparative East-West studies, the primary focus is on the paradigms of imitation and opposition. Parallels between modern East Asian and Western modernist literature are often interpreted as instances of self-motivated emulation within East Asia, while distinctions are typically seen as indicative of an ‘othering’ imagination. However, both imitation and opposition prove insufficient in fully elucidating the intricate dynamics between Hong Kong modernist literature and Western modernist literature, given the unique context of 1960s Hong Kong as a ‘public space’ filled with pluralistic cultures. Jiutu serves as a prime exemplar of the resonances within this ‘public space’, embodying the amalgamation of traditional Chinese and Western modernist literary elements. This thesis strategically incorporates Cao Xueqin and his The Dream of the Red Chamber as an additional comparative touchstone, juxtaposed with Joyce and Ulysses in Jiutu, clarifying the distinctiveness of Hong Kong modernist literature from a pan-Asian context. The literary relationship between Liu and Joyce as writers is found to be neither imitative nor oppositive; rather, it is adaptative and Jiutu in several significant aspects emerges as an adaptation of Ulysses. The synthesis of established approaches in comparative literature and adaptation theory that constitutes the methodology for this study, I call a ‘comparative adaptative approach’.
This study proposes to enrich existing literary criticism on Joyce and Liu and reveals potential relations between European modernist, Chinese classical, and Hong Kong modernist literature. By delineating the unique characteristics of Hong Kong modernist literature and dissociating them from a pan-Asian context, it introduces a promising research approach for the comparative study of modernist literature between Hong Kong and the West.