| This paper concerns with the comparative study with an archetypal approach on Journey to The West by Wu Chengen and The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien. Although many scholars have done lots of studies about these two great works, blank spots still exist in this field. Among those studies, there is not any systematic and comparative study between the archetypal structure, motif and heroes of them.Based on the studies on Journey to The West and The Hobbit inside and outside of China, the author thinks that the two works can be defined as the genre of "Mythology", and further points out the practicability of analyzing the two with archetypal criticism. By discussing the "Quest", "U-shaped" structure and the psychological motif in the two works, the author intends to show that although there are strikingly differences in national identities and linguistic qualities, Journey to The West and The Hobbit, the two high fantasies present glaring similarities in forms of structures, narrative models, and motifs, and literature, as a social ideology, undergoes similar or identical development patterns in different areas and nations, no matter how different the cultures are or how distant they are from one another in time. And hence, it will demonstrate that while there is huge time and space distance and the isolation between the two cultures the two works based on, on the stage of the literature the curtain of the immortal mythology will never fall. In addition, by exploring the "Hero" archetypes in the two works, the similarities and differences of the definition of "Hero" under Oriental and Western cultural backgrounds will be discussed. Similar archetypal heroes as they are in the two works, based on their own cultures, these archetypal heroes are entrusted to the culture specific expectations and values. By doing the tentative comparative analysis with the archetypal approach, the author would like to do some active exploration for the pattern of the development of literature. |
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