An Archetypal Study Of Chinese-American Science Fiction Writer Ted Chiang's Works

Ted Chiang,as one of the most important Chinese-American science writers who has obtained many awards,has attracted more and more attention at home.This thesis seeks to apply Northrop Frye?s Archetypal Criticism to probe into the biblical archetypes of images,characters,narrative structures and motifs in Ted Chiang?s three novels,i.e.Tower of Babylon,The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gates and Hell is the Absence of God,so as to explore his inheritance and innovation of the Bible,and to guide readers to reflect on the modern spiritual dilemma.The thesis is composed of three parts.In the first part,Chapter One contains an overview of the previous studies on Ted Chiang,the purpose and significance of this thesis,and Chapter Two is the introduction of the Archetypal Criticism.The second part is the main body,which consists of three chapters.Each of the three chapters focuses on one science fiction of Ted Chiang to give progressive interpretations.To be more specific,Chapter Three analyzes the Babel Tower image,cyclical narrative structure and the degeneration motif in Tower of Babylon to suggest that modern people that too much dependence on technological rationality would lead to endless spiritual dilemma.Chapter Four focuses on the prophet archetype,embedded narrative structure and the quest motif in The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gates to encourage humans to find the different meaning of life out of the cycle of fate dilemma.Chapter Five is about the archetypes of Job,biblical U-shaped narrative pattern and redemption motif in Hell is the Absence of God to illustrate that to quest for real faith is the way out of spiritual dilemma.The last chapter is the Conclusion.It further states that Ted Chiang has skillfully borrowed from biblical archetypes in all aspects,such as characterization,image presentation,plot arrangement and motif demonstration,and explains the purpose and significance of Ted Chiang to imitate and rewrite myths.The author points out that to Ted Chiang?s use of biblical archetypes in his science fiction works is ingenious and complex.The biblical archetypes in Ted Chiang?s works not only enrich the connotation of his works,but also reveal his cyclical sense of literature,and humanistic concerns about the common dilemma of modern people.Through combination and displacement of biblical archetypes,Ted Chiang points out that to quest,reflect and return to faith is a way out of the spiritual wasteland caused by the development of the science and technology.Based on Northrop Frye?s Archetypal Criticism,this thesis conducts a progressive analysis of the different archetypes in Ted Chiang?s works,so as to achieve a thorough interpretation of the themes and provide a new angle for critics to appreciate science fictions as well as works of the Chinese-American writers.