A Study Of Chinese Images In Alice Munro’s Short Stories

Alice Munro(1931-),a well-known Canadian female writer,winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature,is known in the literary world for her outstanding short story achievements,and is known as the "master of contemporary short stories".China is one of Monroe’s subjects,and there are many Chinese elements in his collection of 13 short stories.At present,domestic research on Monroe’s novels mainly focuses on narrative art,feminism and regional background,and there is not much research on the Chinese image in Monroe’s novels.Based on the existing research results,this paper takes the Chinese image portrayed in Monroe’s novel as the research object,and discusses the manifestation and causes of his Chinese image with the help of the relevant theoretical knowledge of comparative literary iconology.The existence of the Chinese image in Monroe’s novel as a cultural other raises many questions: what kind of Chinese image appears in Monroe’s novel,whether it has changed,and what factors determine how Monroe writes about China.This article is to sort out the Chinese image in Monroe’s novel and reveal the complex factors that influence Monroe’s Chinese image creation.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the main body of this thesis consists of four parts.The introduction introduces the origin and research significance of the topic of this paper,sorts out the research status of Monroe,"Western Chinese Image" and Monroe’s Chinese image,and puts forward the research methods and overall research ideas of this paper.The first chapter of the paper introduces the relevant theories of image studies,defines the concept of "Chinese image",and then clarifies that the research object of this paper is the sum of Monroe’s cognition of China,which includes not only the Chinese and Chinese artifacts in Monroe’s novels,but also Monroe’s understanding and interpretation of Chinese culture.Chapter 2 focuses on Monroe’s writing of Chinese artifacts.The Chinese artifacts in the novel carry Monroe’s utopian imagination of China,a combination of reality and fantasy,and carry her reflections on class division.Chapter 3 explores the ideologized image of China in Monroe’s novel.In the context of Western history and culture,Monroe’s image of China inevitably has distortions and exaggerations.Then,with the formation of Canada’s multicultural context and the change of Monroe’s own cultural cognition,she broke free from the shackles of Western ideology,examined herself and others with equal eyes,and wrote China in a friendly consciousness.Finally,there is a summary evaluation of the Chinese image in his novel.Monroe’s Chinese writing,with both illusory utopian imagination and ideological bias,eventually turned to egalitarian writing.This also has certain enlightenment significance for the reshaping and dissemination of China’s image.The image of China created by Monroe contains multiple meanings,which not only conform to the basic logic of Western ideology,but also are the product of the special collective experience of Canada,and are also the result of Monroe’s own cultural cognition and judgment,showing dynamic development and change.