A Comparative Study Of The Cultural Poetics Of Dream Of The Red Chamber And Anna Karenina

As classic literary works in the history of human literature,Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina have attracted much attention from the academic community,and numerous studies have been conducted on them in China and abroad.On the basis of previous studies,the author places the two works in a specific cultural context and,using cultural poetics as a theoretical basis,attempts to dialectically compare how they appropriately deal with reality and fiction,fact and story,literary and artistic value and cultural meaning from the perspective of "the textuality of history" and "the historicity of the text".This thesis is divided into the following sections:-The relationship between the text and fiction,fact and story,literary and artistic value and cultural meaning.The thesis is divided into the following sections:The introductory section provides a brief introduction to the theoretical basis of the thesis,i.e.cultural poetics;it reviews the research results on Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina in the context of cultural poetics and the current status of the comparative study of the two works;and it explains the significance and methodology of the comparative study of the two works in the context of cultural poetics.The first chapter,from the perspective of cultural identity,focuses on Cao Xueqin’s dual identity as a "nobleman" and "clothier" in the context of the Manchu-Chinese unity,and Tolstoy’s transgression and rebellion against the symbolic circle of noble identity in which he lived.It further analyses the wedging influence of both writers’ cultural affiliation with the aristocracy on the production of narrative texts.The second chapter compares the shifting traces of socio-historical and cultural contexts in the texts of the two works from the perspective of the historicity of the texts within the framework of cultural poetics theory,as well as the similarity of the contradictions between the writers’ own will and social constraints in the specific texts.Through the intersection and circulation of cultural contexts and the writer’s selffashioning,the attempt is made to unravel the links between the historical and cultural contexts and the literary texts produced by Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina.It is thus shown that the texts are ultimately descriptive constructions of historical practices formed in a multidimensional and complex historical and cultural context.The third chapter focuses on the textuality of history,another point of cultural poetics theory,to argue that history cannot be entirely presented by the text,but is rather a fictionalisation and subversion of authority by the text.Both Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina contain fictions of history and reality,state and individual,tradition and change,as well as ’subversion and containment’ of the dominant ideology of society.These subversive elements or questioning voices are often subsumed within the structures of power,keeping them within the limits of what is permissible.The fourth chapter analyses the two authors’ thinking on ’what the literati do in the face of the evils of reality’ and the value of their works for life from the perspective of the history of human spirituality and culture.The concluding section summarises the whole piece and reiterates the significance of the study.Neo-historicist cultural poetics asserts that the text receives social history while at the same time influencing it.There is a two-way interaction between the text and the historical and cultural context.The inseparable organic unity of Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina with their respective Russian and Chinese historical and cultural counterparts,and the comparative study of the two in the context of cultural poetics,allows for a complex interplay of history and text in circulation,which will bring about a strong interdisciplinary dimension.At the same time,in the process of civilizational evolution between Russia and China,and in the face of the treacherous development of reality,people’s so-called perceptions of the world and of themselves all stem from one question.What is the meaning of the world and of human existence? How should people view and adapt to the world? This article compares the cultural poetics of the two classic works,Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina,in order to get a glimpse of what the two authors offer us in terms of "what the literati should do in the face of reality’s mourning".In addition,the comparative study of Dream of the Red Chamber and Anna Karenina has been conducted from a single perspective,only in terms of characterisation.Therefore,this paper focuses on the cultural poetics of the two novels,which is pioneering.In the context of an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective,this paper examines the convergence and subversion of the culture of power in the production of the novel’s text through a close reading of the text and an intertextual reading of the work,while taking into account the relevant cultural contexts.This study examines the similarities and differences between the two works in terms of textual construction,spiritual values and cultural systems,and "rereads" the classics as a whole.The aim is to make a modest contribution to the promotion of a healthy exchange and interaction between Russian and Chinese literature and culture.