The Defamiliarization Embodiment Of Fortress Besieged And I Am A Cat

Qian Zhongshu and Nasmasusak are two representative figures in Chinese and Japanese literary field. Although they lived in different nations and times, their masterpieces named Fortress Besieged and I Am a Cat share quite a lot of similarities either in terms of theme or language. Thus according to the theory of parallel study in comparative literature, these two famous sarcastic novels, to some extent, are of comparability. On the one hand, as for the theme, Fortress Besieged and I Am a Cat, these two great realistic works, both truthfully reflect the corruptness and darkness of the society that the authors lived in, especially exposing and criticizing the life and thinking state of the intellectuals of the time that they are familiar with. On the other hand, as for the technique of expression, Qian Zhongshu and Nasmasusak both can be called the masters of language, having an excellent command of the rhetorical device. In that case, they are able to involve the reader into a marvelous travel to the place different from the world that they are familiar with.and convey what they really want to say to them in a more vivid way.Both Fortress Besieged and I Am Cat are artistically distinctive and skilful——using humorous language to display a serious theme. So the usage of this new expression technique which is called Defamiliarization theory in Russian formalism, seems to be able to make the reader comprehend the theme of the works in a different and unfamiliar manner. Thus, besides making comparison between the two novels in the way of close reading, the writer of this thesis intends to point out how the expression technique is used in the two works by Qian Zhongshu and Nasmasusak to manifest their themes.This thesis consists of the following four chapters:Chapter One is the introduction to this paper. It mainly introduces the background, meaning, purpose, theory, method and literature review of this research.Chapter Two and Chapter Three are the main parts of this thesis. Chapter Two mainly aims at showing, from the angle of the living state of human beings and the thinking state of the intellectuals, the differences and similarities of the two works, and the Defamiliarization manifested in the two novels. In their works, both the two authors fight with the corrupting darkness of the contemporary society with a strong sense of responsibility for their motherlands. To further display the theme, Qian Zhongshu and Nasmasusak make up many effective writing techniques in their works, setting up lots of plots and event, using different rhetorical devices to break the stereotyped consciousness of the reader.Chapter Three emphasizes analyzing the expression techniques used in the works. It consists of three sections. In these three sections, the author of this thesis intends to analyze the Defamiliarization of the various characters in Fortress Besieged and I Am a Cat. Then according to the features of these characters, this thesis categorizes these characters into groups including "the caricature-like characters" and "the complicated characters". What's more, the Defamiliarization of the writing point of view of the novels will be discussed in Section Two.In Fortress Besieged the narrator who is placed beyond the whole story seems to be omniscient, but it's quite another story in I Am a Cat; in order to shock the reader, Nasmasusak appoints a cat as the story-teller, because it proves to us that something we regards as natural in fact is incorrect, or illogical. Section Three discusses the Defamiliarization of the language in Fortress Besieged and I Am a Cat. Though the language characteristics of Fortress Besieged and I Am a Cat are different, the premise of the Defamiliarization of art is the Defamiliarization of language, and particulality of literature works lies in their language. These two works have one similarity:their language is humorous, and their new and unique expression technique and rhetorical device like metaphor, overstatement and dialog making, and so on can also be regarded as a kind of Defamiliarization theory manifestation, which shows the beauty of simple and unique language with philosophic maxim.Then the fourth chapter serves as the conclusion of the whole thesis, making a general analysis of the research result of the first three chapters, attempting to list the differences and similarities of the two satiric works, and pointing out again how the Defamiliarization theory is applied to the novels.Generally speaking, according to the theory of parallel study in comparative literature, this thesis not only analyzes the differences and similarities of the two novels from the part of theme, point of view and language, but also aims at discovering how the Defamiliarization theory is applied to Fortress Besieged and I Am a Cat. In one word, this thesis is not only another comparative research between a Chinese novel and Japanese one, but also a new trial of the application of the Defamiliarization theory to classical novels.