A Study On The Image Of The United Kingdom In Lao She's Works

Lao She is a famous author known for "Jingwei" cultural personality in Chinese Modern and Contemporary literature history. However, we can not ignore the influence and impact on Lao She from the Western culture, especially the English culture. From 1924 to 1929, Lao She lived in Britain for nearly five years, nearly five years live experience to become his indispensably creative material. The thesis attempts to use the theories and methodology of the Imagology of Comparative Literature study the image of the United Kingdom described by Lao She. The Imagology is a research branch of the Comparative Literature, it is different from the study of image generally, what it focuses on is "the other ", is focuses on the alien image in a work or the literary in a county. The image in the Imagology is "the image come from a nation (a social and a culture)", is a symbolic performance of a culture, it is an overall cultural image, not only to include the alien character, but also include the alien scenery, cultural landscape and so on. According the basic theory, for the deficiencies in previous studies that only concerned with the image of Englishman, the thesis study the scene, custom, urban of the United Kingdom, in addition to the image of Englishman described by Lao She. By expanding the area of study, we can comprehensively understand the English image, and discover the cultural difference in "the self" and "the other". The thesis includes four parts:Chapter one sketches the three times background characteristics and the British image, since westernization movement, the reform movement to the "May 4th" movement, established "the social collective imagines things" for the British image shaped by Lao She. Chapter two respectively discussed the British natural scenery, urban image and custom image, they all belong to utopian image. Chapter three focuses on the Lao she's image of Englishman. From the positive image, the negative image of the Englishman and the British "Chinese", we can find that the British image depicted by Lao She belong to "Utopia" and "Ideology" dual fusion, the British "Chinese" is a kind of special "the other" image, it puts "the other" into "the self, thus disintegrate "the other", integrate "the self, it is a "utopian" ideology image. Chapter four analyzes the image of the United Kingdom written by Lao She is a kind of expression of the self. The first quarter exposes the Chinese incorrigbilities by the advantages of the English nationality and reflects the Chinese culture. The second quarter analyzes Lao She's thought of reconstructing the ideal human nature and seeking the power of the road.