Infinite Possibilities:Reconstruction Of "Mermaid" In The 19th-20th Century Western Literature

“Mermaid” has been an intriguing figure assiduously presented in multiple artistic forms.The mermaid is presented,directly or indirectly,through multiple literature genres including novel,fairy tale,and poem,etc.Unfortunately,studies on the mermaid are not enough.This thesis attempts to analyse the mythical mermaid character by comparing ten nineteenth to twentieth century Western literature works that concern the mermaid with references from books of critical literary theories,and primarily of structuralist and poststructuralist theories,aiming at demonstrating that in our ever-changing artistic intelligentsia the evolutionary examples of the mermaid are built upon preexisting semiotic examples.The first chapter centres on the ten nineteenth to twentieth century Western literature works in order to appreciate and analyse the characterisation,narrative perspectives and assigned roles of the mermaid.The second chapter analyses the mermaid’s multiple symbolic meanings in the different texts of the nineteenth to twentieth century Western literature.All these sometimes conflicting mermaid characters of distinctive personalities have brought more fascinating possibilities to the reconstruction of the mermaid.The third chapter gives an explanation of the multiple possibilities of the mermaid’s gender identity.The mermaid was originally the evil,inhuman “siren” in the Greek mythology but later reconstructed into a female “guardian” of love.The mermaid is also made a symbol of homosexual love and the corollary of marginalised silent femininity in a patriarchal society through different interpretations.The fourth chapter explicates the multiple possibilities of constructing the mermaid in view of morality.The mermaid can be constructed as a moral,immoral or amoral being.It can be illustrated as a righteous or evil existence.Wilde’s “amorality” in view of his aestheticism has reached a new height in reconstructing the mermaid for he discarded anthropocentric views,on which the moral system is built.The last chapter discusses the constructed mermaid in the context of different social patterns.The nineteenth to twentieth century Western mermaid literature works have primarily involved three social patterns,e.i.,the primitive,feudal and modern society.At the dawn of the twentieth century,Western modernisation has reached a fairly high level.Some authors have had their mermaid fantasies stuck to the patterns of the human society.The conclusion part concludes the whole thesis,further pointing out the significance of structuralism and postsructuralism in reconstructing the mermaid texts and the implications of the thesis,and giving suggestions for further possible studies on this topic.