Rebellion And Redemption

William Somerset Maugham is a famous British novelist and playwright of the 20 th century.Wang Shuo is one of the controversial writers in the contemporary Chinese literary arena.Both writers have created the rebellious characters in their writings,who do something unnatural and rebellious according to the present social values.By depicting such characters,both writers intend to expound the reasons for rebellious actions from the perspective of history,society and individual,and endeavor to provide a way out for the modern people who survive in modern society facing various absurd situations by breaking through the predicaments.A lot of studies have been made respectively on the two writers,yet the comparative research between them has rarely been conducted.Based on the existentialist theory of Sartre and Camus,the liberal philosophical theory of Isaiah Berlin and the sociological theory of Norbert Elias,this thesis intends to conduct a parallel study on the rebellious characters in the writings of Maugham and Wang Shuo.The author plans to compare and analyze several typical texts of the two writers,including Maugham's the Moon and Sixpence,the Razor's Edge and Wang Shuo's the Hooligans,You Are Not Mediocre Person and other hooligan series.By exploring the similarities and disparities between the two writers in their expression of the theme of rebellion,the article discovers that the two writers embrace a deep concern for people who are suffering from life predicaments and pursuing self-values.In the first chapter,the thesis commences with a general introduction of the historical and temporal background of Chinese and Western world.From the perspective of the causes of rebellious behaviors,the paper analyzes the reasons why Maugham and Wang Shuo create the rebellious characters.They are confronting with similar life predicaments: the absurdities for loss of faith,social disciplines and individual anxiety,which raise inside people the doubts on the established social values,and trigger their consciousness and awareness.The second chapter expounds in detail on the rebellious characters and the manifestation of the rebellious behaviors: deconstruction of sublimity and subversion of conventions.The carnival of language is applied to disintegrating the standards of people in the secular sense,and emphasizing the true value of individuals themselves.The third chapter employs redemption as a keyword to explore the post-rebellion.The destination of rebellion is their reconciliation with everydayness and the construction of individuality.Yet the construction of individuality leads to subtly different directions: existentialism attaches great importance to the free choice of human beings;the freedom is illustrated in two forms,positive and negative respectively in Maugham's and Wang's writings.Based on reality,Maugham is in the pursuit of ideals and transcendence over the predicaments.While Wang Shuo tends to reflect on history by recalling the past and to achieve a tinge of criticism on the present situation.Despite various contradictory comments on both Maugham and Wang,what lies deep in their rebellious characters uncovers their serious meditation on reality.Rebellion is not for rebellion's sake,but the cover of the humanistic pursuit of both writers.In the visualizing process of rebellious characters,Maugham and Wang provide readers with different life paradigms,and reveal different possibilities of life,which,may act as enlightenment for readers to re-examine the contemporary state of being,contemplate on the true meaning and values of being themselves.