The Common Pursuit Of Natural Humanity

Since the late 19 th century and early 20 th century,industrialization and capitalistic civilization have gradually destroyed the traditional agricultural economic structure and social structure that lasted through the ages.Myriad scholars at home and abroad tried to establish in modern civilization an ideal society where human could develop healthily and naturally.D.H.Lawrence and Shen Congwen are both illustrious writers in English and Chinese literary arenas.They had a surprising resemblance to each other in creation background,personal experiences,image building,process of acceptance in ethnic literature history and other aspects.By way of sorting out and studying their novels,the author has found that in the different literary contexts,Lawrence and Shen Congwen shared a common theme of creation-the pursuit of natural humanity.Through textual reading and analyses of social-cultural backgrounds of Lawrence and Shen Congwen,this thesis aims to elucidate similarities and differences in their exploration of natural humanity from three levels: harmony between man and nature,harmony between the two sexes,and harmony in the real self.Thus,from this point,the thesis further examines their commonalities in this creation theme,providing a new perspective for studies on the two writers.The first chapter of this thesis compares and analyzes the images of non-natural and natural persons created by the two writers,and gives a summary of how harmony between man and nature is realized in their writing.The second chapter discusses the three layers of connotation of natural sex the two writers simultaneously extolled.The third chapter digs into the three stages of human true self abstracted from their novels.The final conclusion reveals that influenced by common world culture D.H.Lawrence and Shen Congwen shared common poetic and literary ideas in their creation,and points out their commonalities: the necessary direction toward natural humanity is to harmonize man and nature;the most powerful manifestation of natural humanity lies in natural sex;the final destination of natural humanity is the real self’s awakening and transcendence over the confine of individual life.Due to their different social and historical backgrounds,there are inevitable differences that set them apart.By dint of the power of natural humanity,Shen Congwen tried to revitalize a strong and vigorous national character while Lawrence hoped to awaken the Englishmen’s blood consciousness and to balance modern gender relations.But after all,they both anchored their hope in activating natural humanity to infuse individuals with powerful strength to counterbalance the alienating pressure by modern civilization,which reflects their ultimate concerns for the nations and human life.