A Comparative Study Of The Emotional Tragedy Of The Protagonist’s In Dancing Girl And Home

Love tragedy is a long-lasting theme in both Chinese and foreign history ofliterature, and the essence of Chinese and foreign literary works as well.Moriougai(1862-1922), a literary giant in the Meiji era, and Ba Jin（1904-2005）, alsoa literary giant in Chinese contemporary literary world, had created a number ofliterary works, with love tragedy as their themes. Among them, Dancing Girl, themagnum opus of Moriougai, is regarded as his autographical masterpiece. Home isthe first part of The Torrent Trilogy, which was based on years of life experience andthe emotions accumulation, and was also named as one of the most brilliant familynovel in the twentieth century. Although the two works differ in contents, publishingtimes and literary influence, they both reflect the same theme in the transitionalperiod of the modern and contemporary times---the emotional tragedy of theProtagonists are affected by the external factors. Therefore, on the basis of specificreading, the two works are analyzed by the parallel research method in comparativeliterature study, and from the perspective of the famous French philosopher JacquesLacan’s the other theory, in order to obtain more profound understanding of the twoliterary works.As a literary giant in Japanese contemporary history of literature, manyresearches about Moriougai and his masterpiece, Dancing Girl, have been done. Theperspectives are switched from one another. Being a famous work of contemporaryliterary work, the studies about Home and its author are fruitful. Most scholars andcritics have analyzed it from the scopes of feminism, realism, ethical literarycriticism，and studies have been done from the following aspects: the characters’personality characteristics and self-awakening, the tragedy of feminism etc, so as todiscuss the theme of anti-feudalism. According to the researches about these twoworks, the author finds that the parallel studies about the two from the perspective ofthe other are quite few. Based on the other theory, guided by parallel study, takingthese two literary works as examples and objects and by collecting the related materials of cultural background, personal relationships and images, this thesis isattempted to analyze the similarities and differences of he emotional tragedy in thetwo works, and also the causes of these differences and similarities, which is guidedby the influence of the other.This thesis falls into five chapters. The introduction part is the introduction ofthe two literary works, including the background information of China and Japanese,the topic basis and the significance of parallel study. The first three chapters willfocus on the analysis of the two literary works，discussing how emotional tragedy isreflected in the two literary works.Chapter One mainly discusses the “social environmental influences” of the twoliterary works in the transitional period, including the “social environment” and “theinfluences of times”. Here, the environmental influences of the main characters areanalyzed. In addition, the young intellectuals’ inner wounds in the changing times ofnew countries and nations will be reflected through the emotional tragedy of thecharacters.Chapter Two mainly analyzes the “other’s influence of interpersonalrelationship” between human beings. To be specific, they refer to “the alienation ofaffection”，“frustrations of love （marriage）”and “the imbalances ofrelationships”.From the perspective of personal relationships, it is demonstrated thatthe external influences is universal phenomenon in the transitional period. What’smore, the contradictions between the innate old thoughts and new love thoughts willbe pointed out from the perspective of the other, and the difficulties new love outlookencounters in its process of localization in both China and Japan will be summarized.Actually, these encounters are the opposition among fortune and fame, systems andlove.Chapter Three is set in the examples of Houtayiroota and Gao Juexin, and Ailisand May, who are similar to each other. In this chapter, the main objective is to study“the Emotional Tragedy of the Protagonists”. By comparing the different points of theothers’ influences of the protagonists, further understanding of the differences of thelove tragedy between Chinese and Japanese young intellectuals in the transitionalperiod are achieved, the root cause of which is the cultural and literary traditional differences between China and Japan.The last part is the conclusion part. Through comparison of the two literaryworks, it can be summarized that the love tragedies of the characters are affected bythe external factors in both works. The external factors’ influence is the universalphenomenon in the development of human beings and society, and it may lead toserious consequences. Both works have reflected the love tragedy of the intellectures,but the two differ in themes: Dancing Girl places emphasis on the study of thecomplexity of young intellecture’s ideological change, while the theme of Home is toagainst the old feudal culture and old principles through the male character. Bycomparison and analysis of Home and The Dancing Girl, it may make peopleunderstand the influence that the other theory has to the love view from an objectiveangle, thus reflecting that author has paid attention to human nature and the survivalof human spirits, and it is helpful for the author to appreciate the anxiety, confusionand spiritual crises of modern people as well. It is also hoped that the author woundprovide a new research perspective for the social issue which is focused on theconflicts between traditional systems and modern love view.