| Sakaguchi Ango(1906-1955)is one of the main representative writers of Japan’s"rogue faction" literature.In 1931,with his novel Dr.Wind published,he began to draw attention from the Japanese literary.In 1946,he published a literary criticism Depravity Theory,putting forward the view of "falling for survival",which subverted Japanese mainstream concept and caused a great shock to Japanese who were in the period of chaos.In June of the same year,Sakaguchi Ango published the novel The Idiot,called as the novel edition of Depravity Theory,which gave interpretation to the depravity consciousness of Depravity Theory,so that his position in Japan’s "rogue faction" literature got ensured.One year later,Sakaguchi Ango published his novel Under the Blooming Cherry Forest in the Journal of Flesh in the June 1947,known as the highest achievement of his whole life.The novel was published at that time when Japan’s politics,economy and ideology were in post-war transition period.Through the symbolic figure of speech,this novel applealed for getting rid of the restraint of feudalism system and morality,and for getting complete liberation of humanity,which temporarily found a way out for the lost Japanese.We could say that Sakaguchi Ango’s literary concept formation was inseparable to the social status of Japan at that time.The time of study on Sakaguchi Ango in China is 1990’s,which is relatively late compared with that in Japan.The study of the works of Sakaguchi Ango in Japanese and Chinese academic circles both mainly focused on the discussion of the theme.The research on his masterpieces The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest mainly concentrated on the "loneliness and nihility" reflected by the novels and the thought of rebelling against tradition.Sakaguchi Ango clarified his own view of literature in the literary criticism of the Hometown of Literature that the "home" of literature and human is the absolute loneliness and irremediable survival reality.However,the art symbols implied in The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest are unique and cannot be ignored.The story of The Idiot revolves around two art symbols "the idiot woman" and "EZ",while the story of Under the Blooming Cherry Forest takes the three art symbols of "Sakura" "woman" "bandit" as the center.However,no matter in Chinese research community or Japanese research community,based on the information collected from CNKI and CiNii,the theory of works studied for symbols reflected in these two works has not been found and also neither from the view of semiotic aesthetics.Therefore,the author decided to do the analysis and interpretation from the semiotic aesthetics perspective on The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest.At the mention of semiotic aesthetics,American female philosopher Susanne Knauth Langer defined artwork as the creation of the symbolic form of human feeling in her semiotic theory of art---Feeling and Form,believing that art is produced from the need of the emotion.So,through the analysis of the five art symbols of "the idiot woman","EZ","Sakura","woman" and "bandit",we can not only find that the two works reflected "absolute loneliness" and the rebel thought against the tradition,but also find that the human emotion and the meaning of intrinsic symbol in the two works the novels want to convey,as well as the intrinsic symbol of the two works of significance.Based on the theory of Susanne Knauth Langer ’s artistic symbol,this paper researches the function of the five art symbols mentioned above on The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest.This paper consists of four chapters.Chapter I outlines the theoretical foundation of Susanne Knauth Langer’s theory of art symbol at first,then explains the reasons why semiotic theory of art is applicable to the analysis of literary works of Sakaguchi Ango.Furthermore,chapter I points out the relevance between them.The remaining three chapters mainly study from three aspects of "art symbol representation" "symbol of human feelings" and "internal symbol" in the two novels,analyzing the significance of the art symbols in the two novels.First of all,the "art symbol" in the works is not a substitute to the expressing object,but a representation of it.The reason why representation in art is so important is that it releases the perception from the practical purpose,lingered thoughts above the appearance of things.Five symbols such as "the idiot woman","EZ","Sakura","woman" and "bandit",are represented in The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest.Based on the analysis of the five symbols of art appearance,we can get rid of the inertia of thinking to judge the two novels causally.Representation is an abstract thing and a symbol.Furthermore,it is also the ideological carrier of artistic works.The five art symbols reflect the deep thought of the two artworks from the representation aspect.Secondly,art is the creation for the expression of human emotional symbol.Art comes from the need of emotion,and emotion is reflected in the art form.The actual meaning of works presented by art often causes the changes in our emotions,which often hides the emotional content of art form.The emotion between "the idiot woman" "EZ" and "woman""bandit" is the main emotional content of The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest.Out of the fear of the society and the traditional morality,"EZ" continued to hide his true inner thoughts,so his feelings for "the idiot woman" changed often;in face of "the woman’s" willfulness and cruelness,the"bandit" got domesticated,and his feeling for the "woman" got changed again at the same time.The emotional evolution process between men and women in the two works shows real human emotion.Finally,through the analysis on the appearance of five art symbols and the emotional changes between men and women in the two novels,we can understand the inner spiritual form of two works.The so-called "internal symbol" in the works of art is different from the external material form,expressing the significance of the essence of art works.The internal symbols of The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest are represented by "life symbols" and "cultural symbols".The "idiot woman"and "EZ" went far away from the world to the parking lot to find a new life.Through such a "life symbol",The Idiot reminds the Japanese who were struggling in World War II and the Japanese society to get rid of the secular concept to seek a new life.In Under the Blooming Cherry Forest,the "Bandit",the tool to satisfy the "woman’s"desires,killed the "woman" in her awakening".At this time,the cherry blossomed in full bloom,and the horrors of the past also completely disappeared.As a kind of"cultural symbols",Under the Blooming Cherry Forest indicated that after World War II,the Japanese should get rid of the old social system and get national awakening from aspects of society and culture,so a new Japanese spirit could exist then.Through the use of semiotic theory and the analysis of The Idiot and Under the Blooming Cherry Forest,this paper not only have values in exploring the human emotion embodied in Sakaguchi Ango works,interoperating the reference value for the inner symbol of these two novels,but also has a certain practical significance to the function of symbols found in Sakaguchi Ango’s literature. |
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