The Thematological Study On The 18～(th) And 19～(th) Century Chinese And British Ghost Fiction

"Ghost" is a fictitious image. As far as the number of historical records and literary works on ghost is concerned, needless to say, it is usually beyond our imagination. For example, literary works on ghost abound in China and Britain. Ghost is what man imagines in the mind on the existence after death before presenting it in the form of fiction. Fiction is a genre that creates a new imaginary world. When the fiction is on the purpose of depicting or portraying a ghost image, its double-scale will provide the readers with a free and broad space for imagination. Ghost fiction is a mirror of human society, which can reveal some basic problems of human existence. In Chinese and English literature, the 18th and 19th centuries witnessed the prosperity in the creation of novels. There is no exaggeration in the least in saying that the two centuries mentioned above were the heyday of maintaining the features of traditional literature and culture that were unique. This doctoral dissertation takes the ghost image, motives, situations and themes in the ghost fiction of that period as the studying objects. By means of comparison and analysis, I will not only pick out the differences and similarities of the ghost fiction, but also explore the religious, philosophical and social causes and features that lead to these differences and similarities.To make a comparative study of ghost fictions is a new and challenging task. In the 18th and 19th centuries, ghost fictions belong to a subgenus form in both Chinese and English literature. In China, it pertains to Zhi Guai, while in Britain it belongs to supernatural fiction. Neither Zhi Guai nor supernatural fictions are in the mainstream in the literary history. Since 1980s, study on supernatural fictions in Britain becomes more and more popular, while today in China, the study of Zhi Guai is just at the beginning. Due to the influence from the old political criteria as well as the restriction in the mode of reading, less attention has been paid to ghost fictions in China and thus study books on ghost fictions both at home and abroad are very few. Some critics have made a new interpretation and annotation to Liao Zhai Zhi Yi and other works, but their visual field is normally confined to the national literature, and there seems to be a lack of depth and width in their study, in which gaps expected to be filled. So far, a comparative study of "ghost fictions" between Chinese literature and Western literature is still a virgin land, by scholars. Therefore, this dissertation is to make a tentative study on the "ghost fictions" inthe Chinese and British cultural systems from the perspective of comparative literature and try to fulfill the exploration into a profound cultural analysis from the superficial cultural similarities and differences.This dissertation will make a parallel study on the ghost fictions of the 18th and the 19th centuries between China and Britain by adopting the ways of comparative literary theory, namely, thematology, theory on the relation of religion and literature etc, along with hermeneutics, reception aesthetics, so as to construct a possible "dialogue platform" for the two culturesThe whole dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter I identifies and justifies the intension and extension of the ghost by means of the different evolutions and different definitions in Chinese and British cultures, in order to make a further attempt to define the term "ghost fiction" and specify its scope as well. Chapter II is an analytical study on the common ghost images that described in both Chinese and British fictions and the unique ones and point out their characteristics. Then it focuses on the vampire motive in British fictions. In Chapterlll, I will discuss the relation between the human and ghost in the ghost fictions, compare the different themes expressed in "Is ghost exist" motive and "the fight between human and ghosts" motive. Then I will analyze mainly the unique situation of love of human and ghosts in Chinese ghost fictions. In chapter IV...