Divergence From Convergence & Convergence At Divergence

Thomas Hardy and Shen Congwen are remarkable writers for their regional novels. Hardy has a worldwide reputation for his "Wessex novels" and Shen Congwen's "world of Xiangxi" symbolizes the modern Utopia. In their novels, the genuine and profound love for their homeland, the eulogy of the unsophisticated humanity and the agony over the clash between the old orders and the modern civilization echo each other, which constitute the basic points for a comparative study.By analyzing Thomas Hardy and Shen Congwen's representative regional novels, the author intends to show the identical thinking trend in their creations.In the early stage of their writing careers, Thomas Hardy and Shen Congwen write their novels light-heartedly. However, after experiencing the social upheaval and the personal misfortunes, they gradually add somber elements into their cheerful novels; consequently, the basic tone of their works start to change from pastoral to tragic. This change, shared by the two writers, suggests the convergence in their literary courses.Owing to the influences of different religion, philosophy and culture, the tragic senses of Thomas Hardy and Shen Congwen's later tragic novels are different. The writers' works diverge from the same developing course and embody their distinctive characteristics.Although in the process of writing the regional novels, Hardy and Shen Congwen land themselves in the same predicament, that is, they swing between optimism & pessimism, realism & nostalgia and provincialism & universalism; they show accordance with each other in their inherent concern for humanity: by exposing the destruction of the goodness, the trample of the human nature, they want to awake the readers and to lead the society to develop in a correct and healthy direction. Their basic tenet is also the same: to improve the world through the sympathetic balance of love and loathing, and happiness and pain. Thus the regional novels of Thomas Hardy and Shen Congwen finally converge at the same point and their thinking trend can be summarizedas divergence from convergence and convergence at divergence.