A Comparative Study On The Writing Features Of Fortress Besieged And The Castle

Franz Kafka, an Austrian novelist in 20th century, often uses allegory as his writing style that profoundly expresses his cynical determination and courage, opening up a novel way of writing which makes all schools consider him as their forerunner. Joyce Oates, a British poet, quotes Kafka as a heroic and legendary writer who can be comparable with Dante and Shakespeare and Goethe. Kafka was also considered as the forefather of modern school literature and exerted a significant influence upon the schools of symbolism, absurdism, stream of consciousness, black humor, and surrealism. The Castle is one of his few novels in his works. Through a means of odd and fable style of writing the novel describes a land surveyor K. who tries all his best to access to this castle that symbolizes authority and the noble in order to show us a mysterious image of the castle.Qian Zhongdshu is a famous Chinese scholar, modern literature researcher, writer, literature historian and classical literature researcher. In the field of Chinese literature, he is called"strange man"and"weird man". Fortress Besieged is the most important work in his lifelong time. As it is known to all, there is a famous saying in Fortress Besieged: Shenming said,"Marriage is just like a gilded birdcage, the birds outside want to fly in; while the birds inside want to flee away, therefore, people get married and divorced, then remarried and divorced endlessly."Miss Su said,"There is still a famous saying in France. But it is not referring to a birdcage; it talks about a besieged fortress: Those who are outside want to come into, and those who are inside want to come out."Henceforth, Fang Hongjian takes this attitude towards everything in his life.Of these two writers, one is the forefather of modern literature; while the other is the leading authority in Chinese modern literature field. Although they experienced different nationalities, times and living backgrounds, the thoughts reflected in their works are extremely the same. Kafka's The Castle tells about a protagonist K. who is so eager to"come into"the castle, while Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged describes a hero Fang Hongjian's strong desire to"come out"of the besieged fortress of marriage."Come into"and"come out"forms a flagrant contrast. Through the description of the protagonists'inward world to show us their solitude and sadness, readers will know that it is the society that pushed them to their tragic lives.Moreover, there are still some other similarities and differences between these two writers. For example, on writing style, they both use satire to express comprehension of their lives; in theory, Kafka's self-creative expressionism and Qian Zhongshu's modernism resemble each other in ways of writing; on effect, these two works both exert a great influence upon the time. That is the reason why this thesis chooses Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged and Kafka's The Castle to make a comparative analysis.This thesis consists of three parts, namely introduction, main body and conclusion. The main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which mainly introduces writing backgrounds of two works and styles of writing of the two writers as well as the previous research of these two works both at home and abroad. Lastly, it is pointed out that studies of these two works are significant.The second part is the main body part, including three chapters.Chapter One is the writing theoretical part of two writers'works, which mainly illustrates writing skills of Kafka's expressionism and writing styles of Qian Zhongshu's modernism. In respect of thought, expressionism is relatively intricate to reflect sorts of defects of capitalist society, which witness ridiculousness and alienation of human as an inevitable phenomenon in human society that embody the works of strong senses of nihilism and pessimism; in respect of art, expressionism is good at taking use of ways of expression of absurdness and symbolism, especially writing in an expressive method to tell an abstract feeling. On the other hand, modernism takes more weight on reflecting modern life and objectiveness. Modernism prefers to spectacle real life in an objective and calmed way, according to the original mode to describe, and try to truly reappear typical characters in a typical environment. Furthermore, in view of Kierkegaard's and Schopenhauer's theories, the influences upon these two writers are analyzed. Finally, on the viewpoint of existentialism, the thesis tries to compare the common thoughts of"absurdity","nihility"and"man is free"in these two works.Chapter Two lays emphasis on the theme of"pursuit"to have a comparative analysis. In Fortress Besieged, there are four steps for Fang Hongjian's pursuits: education, love, business, and marriage (family). However, these pursuits are seen as anti-pursuits since it is an escape for the traditional pressure of education, love, business, and marriage. There exists an attitude of spirit of revolt in no choice and living for fun. In The Castle, the land surveyor K."pursues"of reaching the holy land in his heart, taking every effort to pursue it regardless of individuality and dignity. Both Fang Hongjian and K. are constantly trying to be hard-working, diligent, and struggling which is the common features between Eastern and Western people and the similarities and differences of them two are analyzed. However, in view of two styles of satire, these excellent skills of satire that originates from Qian Zhongshu's self-sarcasm and contemplation of the senior intellectuals. Under the analysis of some details, it shows the feeling in a besieged fortress of these senior intellectuals that Fang Hongjian is a typical example and a kind of rootless characteristic. Qian Zhongshu by taking use of his unique humorous satire expresses their solitude and pains in heart. In The Castle, Kafka by using of fable style of writing writes his style of satire. In public eye, the castle represents a superior bureaucratic society by a description of absurd behaviors of"the officers"in the castle.Chapter Three is talking about the different"struggling spirit"and"national awareness"in China and the West of these two works. Of Fortress Besieged, the writer wants to tell about Fang Hongjian this character who is distorted by traditional culture but meanwhile not grasped of the Western culture, which made him a man in a besieged fortress in order to express his desire of"saving the country"as an senior intellectual himself as well as a perplex sense in Fortress Besieged. Of Kafka's The Castle, the author also expresses his strong"national awareness"—Kafka's"Jew complex", which is seen as the symbol of seeking their hometown for Jewish people. Kafka not only writes about human's common tragedy, but also lays more efforts on depicting his unfortunate ethnic.In a word, these two works arouses different thinking on all levels; they both enlighten people in different stages of life; they both form a great influence upon the development of the time.The third part is conclusion. This thesis tries to analyze the writing features of Fortress Besieged and The Castle in different levels in order to reveal the similarities and differences of these two works. Although the writers lived in two different backgrounds, these two works showed many points alike such as theoretical foundation of creation, theme of novel, usage of writing skills, and national feelings. In the course of analysis and discussion, it can help readers have a comprehensive understanding of these two classic works, and acknowledge the differences of society and life and pursuit in every aspect.