A Study Of Wolf’s Image In Chinese And Western Literature

Wolf is an animal which is both familiar and strange for human. At the presentday, people are familiar with the Wolf’s evil, cunning, but they feel strange about itsfidelity, brave. However, Wolf was closely related to ancient human’s life, whether inmyths and legends, or as a totem worshiped by some of the ancient tribes. So it usedto occupy a very important position in human’s heart. But with the progress ofcivilization, the relation between man and nature was broken, and the Wolf alsogradually faded out of sight of people. But the Wolf’s influence on the human did notdisappear; it went into literature and art by way of myths and legends. From thebeginning, wolf was a god with great reputation in stories, and then it became theenemy of human. The Wolf had been established into literary imagery as a symbol of"evil", and neglected in the field of literature and art. Until today, the Wolf literaturereturns from the forgotten corner and catches the eyes of public again. The Wolfimage found its value of the survival in literature and art with new symbolism.The thesis is divided into three chapters totally. The first chapter which discussesthe origin of the Wolf image both in Chinese and western myths and legends of thetwo cultures and totem culture, and also its change and subsidence in the literature,then make a comprehensive comparison and generalization. The second chapter is adiscussion about Wolf literature’s resurrection in the Chinese and westernmodern-contemporary literatures, then analysis the symbolism meaning of thecontemporary Wolf image through literature works. The third chapter disserts on thedevelopment of Wolf literature and its core spirit-Wolf doctrines in the future.