China And West: A Comparative Study Of The Lord Of The Rings And Journey To The West

This thesis tries to make a comparative study of the British writer Tolkien's work The Lord of the Rings and the Chinese writer Wu Cheng'en's work Journey to the West in the light of myth and archetypal criticism. It is focused on the fantastic features of the two works in order to discuss and reveal their cultural and literary features.The whole thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 generalizes the uniqueness of Chinese and Western typical fantastic works The Lord of the Rings and Journey to the West, by comparison, it is found that these two works have not only many similarities but also have difference because of the different cultures. Chapter 2 introduces Fantasy in The Lord of the Ring and Journey to the West. Chapter 3 analyses Mythic Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings and Journey to the West. Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn play the role in different archetypes, and they are very important in the story. However, there are more mythic archetypal elements in Journey to the West, such as Monkey Born from a Stone—Ancient Spiritual Stone, Discover the Secret of Eternal Youth—Ancient Soul Worship, Animals and Plants Fantasized Images—Ancient Totem Worship of Animals and Plants, Immortals of the Azure Vault of Heaven—Ancient Star and Moon Myth and Archetypal Images. Chapter 4 Compares The Lord of the Rings and Journey to the West in protagonists, plots, themes and styles in order to dig the different cultural features of the two works. Chapter 5 concludes the whole thesis. Though the two works belong to the fantastic literature, both stress differently and reflect more about their different cultural and literary features.In a word, I intend to study The Lord of the Rings and Journey to the West from a new angle, and meanwhile, compare and analyze Chinese and Western fantasy literature to dig their own features and the deeper cultural connotation.