On P.G. Wodehouse’s Ironic Humour And Its Acceptance In China

P. G. Wodehouse is the most famous British humourist in20th century, and his writing style, somewhat out of tune with the trend of Modernist literature, not only won him great reputation and wealth, but also caused heated debate far and wide. This thesis aims to discuss the features of Wodehouse’s ironic humour and the reason for its unpopularity in China during the twentieth century. The thesis mainly consists of three aspects:First, by analyzing the researches on Wodehouse and the theory of humour, the features of Wodehouse’s humourous texts are summarized:it can be defined as, in the narrow sense, a kind of ironic humour whose focus is the aesthetics and gameplay of the form rather than the external meaning.Second, the features of the ironic humour employed by Wodehouse in his Bertie-Jeeves series are analyzed:on the one hand, the form is highlighted in the aspects of the overall narrative strategy, structure and language while the importance of the content is dissolved; on the other hand, the features of Camp, resulted from the great tension between the elaborated form and the meaning-dissolved content, can also be discovered in the author’s attitude and the story’s characters.Third, from the viewpoints held by Wang Guowei, Lin Yutang and Lu Xun on humor, it may be concluded that the literature of humor, especially ironic humor, is a manifestation of pure literature, which went against the historical background of the first half of the20th century in China that laid much emphasis on the practical use of literature. With the development of the "Literature of the New Period", the introduction of the ironic humor was restricted by ideology, sponsors and the poetics. Though the rise of mass culture provides an opportunity for ironic humor, it also hinders its thorough understanding.