New York: P. Lang (
1984)
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Abstract
This Comparative Literature volume is the first major analysis of ideas in the work of Jean Giraudoux that have affinities with Chinese and Indian Philosophy. Giraudoux was well familiar with German Romanticism and Presocratic Philosophy. The German Romantics were interested in the Orient and in Shakuntala of Kalidasa; the philosophy of Heraclitus is similar to the philosophy of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. Oriental ideas in Giraudoux, then, may have developed from Giraudoux's readings in Novalis, in De la Motte-Fouqué, and in the Presocratics. Ondine is compared with Shakuntala--a possible link from the Orient through German Romanticism to Giraudoux. Analyses of Ondine, Intermezzo, Judith, Amphitryon 38, and other works reveal affinities of Taoism, Confucianism, and Indian Philosophy.