A Comparative Study Of Chinese Novels And British And American Folk Tales

The study on Storytelling Script Novel has become a fully developed subject since last century.Researchers have written many a book from all aspects of historical or aesthetic view,of traditional critical way,and or macro-micro method.However,due to the language obstacles and cultural differences,it is hard to make comparisons between the different national oral literary works with same storytelling’s characters.The national and artistic characters of Chinese Storytelling Script Novel would be easily overlooked as similar works compared,only if comparing works of different national cultural backgrounds and contexts by their origins and developments etc.,which also obtain similar characters,the unique charms and values possibly be found that is the target and focus of this thesis.The thesis mainly focuses on two aspects:firstly,the characters and variations in themes,thoughts,image figuration,literary form and narrative skills would be highlighted and found by analysis on the national cultures,psychological accumulations and literary values of the two separately,as indicating different times,additionally,different thoughts and moralities’ developments of regions and cultural backgrounds.Secondly,the wisdom of life and the popular view towards world lying in vernacular literature is of exploration by cultural traditions and value concepts of Chinese Storytelling Script Novel,and of the attachment for the analysis on it,which is different from British and American folk story on themes and forms.The style of both refined and popular has its own cultural value,which ensures its profound legacy,and it is one of the basic reasons for its widespread till present.The thesis adopts the Chinese,British and American works which are popular,influential and authentic.Relations in between the Chinese Storytelling Script Novel and American-British folk story analyzed from macro angle,while characters of their developments and variations revealed,furthermore,the comparison shows their artistic and cultural values and Chinese Storytelling Script Novel’s status and value in other aspects.Methods are taken for analysis,including macro-micro angles,and the detailed comparison would be the main content of it.Culture,literature and history are main factors concerned during the comparison,and attention are paid to the mutual influences.The thesis includes seven chapters.Chapter I is the introduction,which mainly discusses on the range of the research objects and content.Related to the reference and present researches,the ranged is discussed in details in the chapter;furthermore,the chapter sorts the researches on this field and states the present situation of the studies,including the research space.At last,the chapter discusses on the possibility of the comparison and the meaning of it.Chapter II originated back to the forms of Chinese Storytelling Script Novel.Firstly,the historical themed novels are compared with British-American folk stories.The form of historical themed novels is influential yet British-American folk stories are from myths and epics,however,the application of the history background is the similarity of the two.Secondly,the Buddhism scroll’s storytelling novels are related to the British-American religious storytelling.The religious story is special to some extent by its duality of morality-education and story-told contradiction.At last,the chapter adopts the daily-life themed works,for daily life has been the most familiar content of citizens and the majority of the Chinese Storytelling Novels relates to it more or less,so happens in British-American folk story.In this theme,the marriage and love story occupied a lot,which is the reason that chosen to discuss in this chapter.And the different concept on love and affection could be found in it.Chapter III chooses different themes of Chinese Storytelling Novels and British-American folk stories for comparison.Following the pre-analysis,the chapter makes the comparison from the micro angle.The first segment concerns the case judging and detective theme and gothic novels,which the both related to the cultural essential effects although they are different in forms.The second segment is about hero and chivalry,which carries separately their national spirits.Chapter IV mainly discussed other classical works.The first segment is about adventures and exploration stories.The theme is related to the economic life and influenced deeply to people’s life chronically.The second segment is about the ghost and fairy stories.The difference of the image figuration comes from the aesthetic principles towards evil and kind.The third segment is about the trusty and contract stories.These stories mostly directly expresses the morals and beliefs in life,still,difference lies in both.Chapter V turned to the image figuration with skills and characteristics.This chapter mainly discusses the different ways of figuration.In the first segment,the historical reality and artistic reality,hero and antihero are considered as the contradictions for discussion.The second segment is about the complexity and simplicity.The flat and round image of the characters are to be considered in this segment comparing with the Shu-Jing and Shu-Dan in Chinese storytelling art.The third segment focuses on the details of the daily life,which is the continuance of the first chapter.The fourth segment is about the language description.It mainly discusses on the character’s language and descriptive language on characters.The last segment of this chapter is on the contradiction and complicated nature of the characters.Chapter Ⅵ is on the narrative skills.The first segment is about the time and narrative applications of time.The second segment is mainly on the space and image panning and focusing.Chapter Ⅶ is the attachments and problems left in the thesis,it is mainly about the difficulties in the comparison and analysis,which left a further research in the future.