A Study On Orientalism In Jack London's Works

Jack London is a f_aTllous American writer who lived in the 1ate 19m and e．drlv 20'hcentury and has his own weight in American literature In spite of a short lifespam,hecreated many splendid pieces of writing His works are characterized by various themes,laconic wording,compact plot,vivid depiction and expressive force He usually put thecreated figures into an extreme environment to show their true personality through theiractions Comparatively speaking,his short stories axe regarded better,which help readersknow his country and his countrymen better．London'S writings are often uninhibited andheroic as he is adventurous,which greatly influenced writers of the following generationHe praised vitality and fortitude,but meanwhile he showed his firm belief in the"survivalofthefittest"Edward W Said is a famous literary and cultural critic of the 20'"century．HisOrientalism provoked great responses at home and abroad and is considered thecornerstone of post-colonial theories According to Said,Orientalism is a branch oflearning,a way of thinking and a discourse Based on binary oppositions,it is developedby the West to construct and describe the East The East here is not the real one,it iscreated through imagination and is belittled to further emphasize and highlight thecotemporary WestThis paper analyzes Jack London'S White and Yellow,Yellow Handkerchief,TheChinago,Chun Ah Chun,The Tears ofAh Kim and The Unparalleled Invasion from theangle of Orientalism in order to find out how China as an Oriental Other is created,watched and manipulated when it encounters and communicates with the West It furtherexplores how Orientalism works in the text and what leads to the emergence ofOrientalism in London'S writingsStudies in this paper find that the Occident'S construct of the Oriental"Other"likeChina is realized by differentiating the Orient from itself This in fact is an alien complexand an Orientalism ideology of the West As cultural communication becomes morefrequent,the West faces conflicts between its native culture and other cultures,culture identification and culture conffontation,modernity and tradition,Self and Other,etc So itis necessary to confirm its identity from time to time And the Orient was created As an"Other"．it is a mirror image of the West and exists for the West 111is paper also revealsthe hidden discourse of Orientalism and finds that London did not treat the Chinese asequN human beings,but took an overlooking posture to imagine and portray the Chinesewith a strong sense of national pride He wrote about China and Chinese to satisfy theAmerican taste by distorting the Chinese image and publicizing"Superiority of theWhiteness"and"Yellow Peril"His works about Chinese are filled with racialism andcolonialism The relation between the West and the East in his writings is'"to watch"and'to be watched"or'"to dominate"and'"to be dominated"Based on this．the author makesfurther exploration into factors generating London'S Orientalism It is found that London'SOrientalism is not only related to his own life experience and thoughts,but also hassomething to do with the American society he 1ived in...