Intercultural Analysis On The Good Earth By Pearl S.Buck From The Perspective Of Orientalism

This thesis aims to apply the theoretical framework of Said's Orientalism to analyze how Pearl S. Buck deconstructs the Orientalism in Western literature and constructs the image of genuine rural China in the novel The Good Earth.For Edward W. Said, Orientalism is essentially a Western discourse over the East. Said treats Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and imposing authority over the Orient. Based on the binary opposition of the Orient and the Occident, the West views the Orient as the "Other" opposite to the Occident "Self". The Occident distorts and derogates the Oriental "Other" image in Orientalist works so as to highlight the Occidental self-superiority. This epistemological system is closely connected with the Western colonialism and imperialism; actually Orientalism is a reflection of colonialism and cultural hegemony.This thesis analyzes The Good Earth by Pearl S.Buck from the perspective of Said's Orientalism. The Good Earth is constructed in the context of colonial China. In the semi-feudal and semi-colonial China, the feudal political culture with Confucianism as its core value provided social and psychological sources for the farmers'life which was vividly depicted by Pearl S.Buck in The Good Earth. Since the Opium War, Western imperialists aimed to subjugate China as their colony and carried out the cultural domination in various forms, including Western missionary activities. Before 1930s, the West distorted the image of China with bias as primitive, backward, barbarous and weak and regarded Chinese culture as mysterious and weird. In the context of colonial China, Pearl Buck deconstructs Orientalism in The Good Earth from two aspects: 1) Buck deconstructs the Western stereotype of China image as Orient "Other" through humanization of the image of Chinese farmers and normalization of the image of Chinese females, Olan and Pear Blossom; 2) Buck subverts the superiority of American image in Western literature through shaping the image of strange American Missionaries and abject American people in the eyes of Chinese farmers. Pearl S.Buck further constructs the image of rural China from two aspects:1) Buck constructs the image of Chinese farmers' passion for Land and the image of Positive Chinese people, Wang Lung and Olan as the representatives; 2) Buck constructs the independent image of Chinese culture through the demonstration of traditional Chinese culture in terms of the patriarchy clan system, the Confucian culture and social and religious customs in The Good Earth.By the intercultural analysis on The Good Earth based on the theoretical framework of Said's Orientalism, the thesis finds that Pearl S. Buck in the novel depicts objectively the life of Chinese farmers and presents the genuine Chinese culture to the West. Buck subverts the stereotype of China image in the western history, deconstructs Orientalism and constructs the image of rural China independent from Western epistemological system.