A Comparative Study Of Dickinson’s And Li Qingzhao’s Poetry From The Perspective Of Natural Archetypal Imagery

Emily Dickinson(1830-1886) is the pioneer of imagistic verse of America. She is a recluse poetess, who has not been recommended by the world at her time, but she was deemed as a wonderful litterateur after her death and she created at least 1775 poems during her life. Her works are filled with natural images which are vivid and particular. Those images fly into the readers’ head with wings that are made out of imagination.Li Qingzhao(1084-1156), her alias courtesy name is Yi An. And she was born in Xiu Shui of Ji Nan in 1084 of Song Dynasty. As the representative graceful and restrained female poet in the Song dynasty, she is regarded as the most prominent female poet in the history of China. Her work style is plain and simple. With peculiar diction, she is regarded as a unique poetess in the history of Chinese literature.Emily Dickinson and Li Qingzhao are the most representative female litterateur in their own country. Their works are filled with beautiful maverick images that attracted the eyes of the readers’. The study about them at home and abroad is quite sufficient, but a comparative study between them is an area that rarely to be trod upon let alone from the perspective of Natural Archetype Imagery point of view. So this thesis will proceed from this point of view.There are three perspectives when it comes to the Natural Archetypal Imagery: the imagery of animals, the imagery of plants and the imagery of the celestial phenomena. The celestial phenomena exhibit to the readers through the images of plant and animal. Because of the limitation of the length of this thesis, the celestial phenomena will not be discussed solely, but will be discussed in the process of discussing the images of plant and animal. Through the analyzing of the imagery of plant and animal, this thesis will find out the similarities and dissimilarities of the natural archetypal images in the Dickinson’s and Li’s works.As a new literature criticism, archetypal criticism influenced the East and the West greatly and it is a quite important genre. The founder of this theory Jung is, yet Frye did his great contribution to this theory in an indelible and extremely great way.Through the comparative study of the natural archetypal imagery in Dickinson’s and Li’s works, this thesis gets conclusions as follow: with bold imagination, Dickinson and Li transcend the self and the constraint from the society. With magnificent and peculiar natural images, they commit to the construction of their own natural kingdoms. And because of the different influences like cultural and geographical backgrounds, times, ethnics, life experiences, religions and characters, their images emerges different kinds of color.Dickinson’s is more colorful, bold and more emphases on the questioning to the soul. Li’s is more mild, gentle and emphases on the express her emotions through the natural images.