The Tragedy Of Life Or The Sublimation Of The Soul

Aristotle, one of the most famous ancient Greek educators, philosophers and scientists, who worked as the founders of western aesthetics, has firstly put forward a systematic theory of tragedy in Poetics on the basis of the predecessors and his own further studies. In the field of Chinese and Western literature, there are a lot of literary works expressing their thoughts by using the theory of tragedy. Sister Carrie written by Theodore Dreiser, who is the famous American realism novelist in the 20th century, and The Abandoned Capital by the celebrated Chinese contemporary writer Jia Pingwa are such two examples.Sister Carrie is an American graffiti with realism at that time. And a century later, Jia Pingwa’s The Abandoned Capital, which describing the 1990s’ China and is filled with spiritual decadence and desperation of modern people appeared. Based on comparing, it becomes explicit that The Abandoned Capital and Sister Carrie share the same creation background since they both happened in the period of the rapid development of social economy. But unlike the prosperous economy, people didn’t get the spiritual abundance at that time. On the contrary, they suffered from the tragic consciousness.This thesis proceeds from the theory of tragedy, and compares the two novels from the aspects of social background and tragic signs by parallel comparative study and uses case study to illustrate the main heroes’characters. Meanwhile, it emphasizes on the exploration of the catharsis in the society and the character themselves. Finally, the thesis puts forward a question of the real meaning of tragedy.On the basis of case study and parallel comparative study of the characters’ tragic fate, this paper spots that in the turbulent transitional period, the high-speed development did not fulfill people’s spiritual emptiness, and their tragedy can’t be avoided. However, the tragedy also holds the catharsis function. Only by taking full advantage of the catharsis and getting the real needs, will people gain the sublimation of the soul and the development of the whole society.