A Comparative Study Of Sula And Big Breasts & Wide Hips From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

As the winners of Nobel Prize, both Mo Yan and Toni Morrison enjoy a highly literary reputation around the world. Since they are the distinguished contemporary writers, their works always remain hot topics in the field of literary criticism. While the publication of Morrison’s Sula and Mo Yan’s Big Breasts & Wide Hips had achieved a profound success, these two novels also arouse critics’ criticism due to the vivid description of illogical plots and deviated themes such as incest, murders, selling daughters, the distortion of humanity, the lack of dignity and masculinity. However, these two novels have entailed a series of ethical knots and taboos, which make it possible for conducting a comparative study of Sula and Big Breasts & Wide Hips from the perspective of ethical literary criticism. According to the ethical circumstance, this thesis attempts to reveal the similarities and differences that exist in “survival ethic”, “sexual ethic” and “interpersonal ethic” by exploring the interconnection between nature, human society and human beings.In structure, this thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, main body and Conclusion.The introductory part briefly introduces Toni Morrison, Mo Yan and their works, offers the literature review on Sula and Big Breasts & Wide Hips, gives a brief interpretation of ethical literary criticism.The main body consists of three chapters, which mainly focus on the analysis and interpretation of these two novels from the perspectives of “survival ethic”, “sexual ethic” and “interpersonal ethic” respectively. Chapter One indicates that survival ethic holds life above principles by comparatively analyzing the distortion of humanity and kinship caused by hard ethic circumstance; Chapter Two reveals the theme of the loss of masculinity and authors’ appealing for sexual equality, by analyzing the similar characters of irresponsible and dispirited men and rebellious women. Chapter Three examines the twisted interpersonal relationships. Through the analysis of different forms of domination which is bound up with racial discrimination, sexism, classism, and mutual repulsion between the week presented in Sula and Big Breasts & Wide Hips, this chapter reveals Morrison and Mo Yan’s heartless criticism towards national deep-rooted depravity and their ethical demand for harmonious coexistence between human beings.The final part is Conclusion. Through the analysis of the different cultural systems, ethical circumstances, and sexual ethical identities that the two novelists belong to, this thesis further uncovers that Morrison and Mo Yan are different on the aspects of feeling expression and standpoint writing. As a black woman, Morrison’s dual identity gets her to be resolute and determined in dispelling the racial discrimination and overthrowing man’s supremacy. While as a male writer, Mo Yan’s identity indicates that the male chauvinism has deeply rooted in his mind, he can’t and won’t overthrow male authority with resolution though he always show his worship or sympathy to women in his novels. On the contrary, he attempts to encourage man to get their masculinity back and maintain the patriarchal values by beautifying female characters.