比较斯威夫特和鲁迅使用讽刺手法的异同.doc

Comparison of the Adoption of Satire between Swift and Lu Xun Hu AnyiA Graduation Thesis Submitted toForeign Languages Department of Tangshan Teachers CollegeIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of B.A.Tutor: Li JianhuaSpecialty: EnglishDirection: Literature Tangshan, Hebei provinceMay, 2008摘 要 鲁迅和斯威夫特都是文学巨匠, 都为本国文学乃至世界文学做出了杰出贡献。本文试把他们作品的讽刺艺术作比较。首先, 本文从讽刺内容上对鲁迅和斯威夫特的作品进行了比较。他们不仅讽刺了统治阶级, 揭露了社会的黑暗, 并呼吁人们对社会进行革命性的变革, 而且还讽刺了人性的弱点，对人性提出了疑问。接着本文比较了两人的文章中的表达技巧。他们都使用了夸张, 鲜明的对比和强烈的反讽。最后, 对他们讽刺的措辞进行了比较。他们文章中的语言都是诙谐幽默, 尖锐泼辣, 简洁而又质朴的。分析和总结二人讽刺艺术相同点, 有利于我们体悟讽刺艺术的特点，加深对讽刺艺术的理解。中西方文化在激烈的碰撞中演进，出现了很多难以克服的问题, 讽刺艺术仍有极强的生命力。两人的讽刺艺术对于我们认识和书写现实社会和现实人生不乏启迪意义, 作品中显露出的思想也仍有着很强的现实意义, 这些都值得我们去深思和研究。 关键词：讽刺 比较 内容 表达技巧 措辞 Abstract Both Lu Xun and Swift are the most renowned writers; both of them had contributions to national literature and even the world literature. This paper has carried on the comparison from the satire angle to their works. First of all, this paper compares the works of Lu Xun with Swift from satirical contents. They not merely satirize the ruling class, reveal the darkness of the society, urge for revolutionary changes to the society, and have exposed the frailties and weakness of human beings and questioned the human nature. Next, this paper compares the techniques of expression between this two writes. This part analyses the utilization of exaggeration, distinctive contrast and sharp irony. Finally, it compares their satiric dictions. They have both used humorous, sharp and simple language. Through analyzing and summarizing the similarities of their satire art, it helps us to comprehend the characteristic of art, deepen the understanding to art of satirizing. Now the culture of Chinese and Western are evolving in the mutual exchange, many difficulties questions appeared; therefore satirical art still have very strong vitality. The thoughts displayed in works of Lu Xun and Swift still have singularly practical significance. All these are worth our thinking and studying. Key words: Satire；Comparison；Contents；Techniques of expression；DictionContents Introduction1 Chapter One Comparison of satirical contents31.1 The adoption of satire to condemn the social evils and urge for social revolutionary3 1.2 The adoption of satire to expose the frailties and weakness of human beings.4Chapter Two Comparison of the techniques of expression 6 2.1 Exaggeration6 2.2 Distinctive contrast7 2.3Sharp irony. .8Chapter Three Comparison of their satiric dictions.10 3.1 Humorous dictions10 3.2 Sharp and bitter dictions11 3.3 Concise and simple dictions133.4 The use of serious dictions to describe petty characters and trivial stories 14Conclusion15Notes16Bibliography18 IntroductionSwift, Jonathan（1667-1745）is Anglo-Irish satirist and political pamphleteer. He is considered to be one of the greatest masters of English prose. He was born in Dublin. He wrote many works which were very rich in satire, but he was famous for his prose The Tale of Tub(1704), which satirized and attacked the shame and impudicity of British various denominations. His earliest prose was The Battle of the Books，which points out the poor academy at that time, shallow literary criticism and various bad social habits, and proposes criticism to the academic research which loses contact with reality at that time. In 1710 a Tory government came to power in England，and Swift turned his biting satire against the Whigs. He defended the Tory administrations policies. Swifts pamphlet The Conduct of the Allies (1711) charged that the Whigs had prolonged the War of the Spanish Succession out of self-interest. In A Modest Proposal（1729）, Swift ironically suggests that poor Irish children should be sold as food to wealthy English, thus turning an economic burden to general profit. For his championship of their cause in these essays, Swift became a hero of the Irish people. Swifts masterpiece，Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, more popularly titled Gullivers Travels, was published anonymously in 1726 and met with instant success. The satire is an attack on human society. Lu Xun, chief commander of Chinas modern Cultural Revolution，was not only a great thinker, but also the founder of modern Chinese literature. In the May 1918，Lu Xun published one of his best stories A Madmans Diary on the magazine New Youth. This was his “declaration of war” against Chinas feudal society，and the first short story in the history of modern Chinese literature. Thereafter he continues to write a variety of stories such as The True Story of Ah Q, which cut through and sharply attacked the reality in the dark old society. This book makes Lu Xun a well-known author throughout the world. Lu Xun wrote nearly thirty fictions, which were later classified into two volumes: Call to Arms, Wandering, and became wealth in the Chinese peoples literary heritage. Lu Xun was the first person in China to write fiction in colloquialism. These short fictions show clearly that his method in this period of writing is using satire to condemn the reality. William also mentions that Lu Xuns purpose in writing each one of the fiction was that he wanted to transform the Chinese psyche. In his foreword to Call to Arms, Lu Xun stated that his motive in choosing literature is to use it as a weapon of struggle. Thus he demanded his readers approach his work with an active attitude of participation, and he disdained the traditional Chinese concept of novels, which allowed the work only a limited role as a form of entertainment.1 Chapter One Comparison of Satirical ContentsThe works of Swift and Lu Xun have much the same or similarities in satirical contents. They mercilessly revealed and condemned to the dark society, when being deeper, they also satirized human nature directly.1.1 The adoption of satire to condemn the social evils and urge for revolutionary changes of societyThe works of Swift and Lu Xun have one distinctive common characteristic, that is, they enlarge，twist，extend the funny，ugliness, cruelty and darkness of actual life, and make it unbelievable and more absurd with the tactics of satire. While giving reader strong shaking，the works achieve the goal of condemning strongly and castigating mercilessly. Swift wrote two satiric works The Tale of Tub and The Battle of the book in early days in 1696 and 1697. This is his first time to represent satiric talent. On the surface, The Tale of Tub speaks a story that three brothers abandon the testament of died father, in fact it imitates bitingly to the religious demonstrations, satirizes the sham of those who consider themselves traditional Christ. The Battle of the Book points out the poor academy at that time, shallow literary criticism and various bad social habits, and proposes criticism to the academic research which loses contact with reality at that time. Gullivers Travels is the masterpiece of the satiric works of Swift. It exactly likes magical and humorous book for children on the surface; in fact, it is a realistic work that exposes deeply to Britain society, politics, law and custom. 2 Lu Xun criticizes the reality, reveals the social evils and ingrained habit of the people. For example, in The True Story of Ah Q and A Madmans Diary, Lu Xun uses satirical tactics to criticize grade autocratic system of old Confucian sharply and deeply. Lu Xun has condemned the ignorance and passive thoughts which were existed in some heads of the nationals. For example in The True Story of Ah Q, the festival woman watches of Hsiang Lins Wife, ignorance and lazy of Kong Yiji and other behavior that under the control of the Odd-shaped psychology. 1.2 The adoption of satire to expose the frailties and weakness of human beingsThe works of Lu Xun and Swift not only condemn current social situation, but also satirize the weakness of human beings. In Gullivers Travels, Gulliver comes to the country of Houyhnhnms, where are no money, army and the police. He explains to the horse master: Therefore since money alone was able to perform all these feats, our Yahoos thought they could never have enough of it to spend, or to save, as they found themselves inclined, from their natural bent either to profusion or avarice; that the rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor mans labor, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former; that the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by laboring every day for small wages, to make a few live plentifully.”3 Swift tells the weakness of human beings from Gullivers mouth. It shows that Swift has already discovered the greedy desires of people and social gap between rich and poor which are prominent in the realistic society day by day. He also has satirized the rich people at that time. Lu Xun devoted all his life in transforming the national. He thought not only the ruler should be transformed, but also the lower level populace should be transformed. Among Lu Xuns works, The True Story of Ah Q is the most famous story and Ah Q is the most vacuous “typical character” Lu Xun has ever invented.The story traces the adventures of Ah Q, a man from the peasant class with little education and no definite job. Ah Q is famous for “psychological victories”，Lu Xuns euphemism for self-talk and self-deception even when faced with extreme defeat or humiliation. Ah Q is a bully of the less fortunate but fearful of those who are above him in rank, strength or power. Lu Xun exposes Ah Qs extreme faults as symptomatic of Chinese peoples state of mind in his time. The ending of the piece, where Ah Q is carted off to execution for a crime that is not actually committed by him, is equally acridity. He criticizes the ignorant and stupor of human nature. Chapter Two Comparison of the Techniques of Expression There are various expression skills in their satirical articles. Satire often combines with exaggeration, contrast, irony, etc. They use them ingeniously to express the deep reason and high thought. 2.1 ExaggerationTo satirical art, exaggeration is one of the most important artistic techniques of expression. In order to strengthen the result of transmitting, writers especially emphasize some personalities, behaviors or psychologies to personages. It can assault readers emotion, increase the contents temperament and interest, thus strengthen the impression. This kind of writing technique is named exaggeration.Swift is good at using exaggeration. Take Gullivers Travels for example. In Lilliput, some of the inhabitants “were hurt with the falls they got by leaping from my side upon the ground”.4 I ease myself with making water, as this to them, “its the torrent which fell with such noise and violence”.5 The chains“which were locked to my left leg”6 like those that hang to “a ladys watch in Europe.”7 In Brobdingnag, “the corn rising at least forty foot”. 8 The purring of the cat “likes that of a dozen stocking-weavers at work”. 9The dog can equal to “four elephants”. 10A handkerchief is“large and coarser than the main sail of a man-of-war”. 11 Swift uses exaggeration to describe some weird things. He writes incredible things as true, as if he telling the joke. There is no doubt that this kind of description strengthens satires dynamics. Lu Xun also adopts exaggeration to condemn the society or people. In The True Story of Ah Q，chapter nine The Grand Finale，it describes that Ah Q was dragged into town. It happened to be a dark night. A squad of soldiers, a squad of militia, a squad of police, and five secret servicemen made their way quietly to Weizhuang and, after posting a machine-gun opposite the entrance, under cover of darkness surrounded the Tutelary Gods TempleThe captainoffered a reward of twenty thousand cash. Only then did two militiamen summon up courage to jump over the wall and enter. 12 People want to catch Ah Q. It is very easy for them to do that. Although they, a squad of soldiers, a squad of militia, a squad of police, and five secret servicemen, hold the machine- gun, they still dare to do. It is not necessary for them to take so many people. Even though it is an easy thing for them, nobody of them have the courage to catch him. Only when the captain offered cash, did two militiamen summon up courage to do it. Lu Xun satires those people with those exaggerative scenes. 2.2 Distinctive ContrastSwift uses distinctive contrast to satirize. That is a main character of techniques of expression in his works. In the fourth part of Gullivers Travel, he divides the population of that country into two kinds: one kind is Yahoos repellent creatures with the outward appearance of human beings. They possess every conceivable evil. They only pay attention to their own benefits. Contrary to the yahoos, the rest of the population of that country is made up of Houyhnhnms-horses, endowed with human intelligence and a virtue much superior to that of men. They do not oppress their like and are completely ignorant of such vices as stealing, lying etc.By using this distinctive contrast, Swift satirizes those people who are envious and selfish. In A Modest Proposal, he also uses contrast. At first, Swift gives us a picture: everywhere are crowed with beggars, many young man leave their dear native countryBut the landlords spend luxurious lives. On one hand, he writes that the poor have to sell their children to earn little money. The other hand, he says that the rich people can buy children to eat and the skin can make admirable glove for ladies and summer boots for fine gentlemen. Author describes Englands social present situation at that time vividly.In The Happy Family, Lu Xun compares confused and poor actual life with personages fantasy everywhere, therefore it formed the strong satire: “Writer” want to write “happy family”, but chaos caused by war rise from all around, robbers are everywhere, he has no place to live; “author” imagines protagonists noble and beautiful life, but his own life is full with masses of Chinese cabbages, the firewood,the crying sound of the daughter Strong contrast, not only has strengthened the comedy color of the work, but also deepened the tragic effects of the work. Although the author has not commented on it more, he pungently satires the dreamers and merciless reveals the repulsive society at the same time, by using comparing tactic and tralatitious pictures. 2.3 Sharp IronyThe irony is a very frequent and important rhetoric means of narration in the novel. Its mean purpose is to broaden the arts space of the works and to develop the implication of the work. The Chinese and foreign researchers pay an extensive attention to it because of its subtle description, deep influence and affording for thought in narrating the events, shaping the character and showing the authors emotional attitude.A Modest Proposal is Swifts most famous political prose, whose most outstanding artistic achievement is the tear absurd concealed in the flowery “Loftiness” and the trembling irony art produced by it. Lets look at the title at first. Swift seem to use humble tone to give a good idea, which can prevent the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and make them beneficial to the public. But after reading it, well find that it is not a modest proposal, but a cruel proposal. For example: Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.As to our city of Dublin, although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs. 13 Here the skin of the children will make gloves and boot, and the author suggested that wed better to buy the children alive and kill them like pigs. Each person who reads here may send out such feeling: how cruel this suggestion! But Swift says it a modest proposal. Is this his true thought? No! He just proposes the opposite of what he really believes. In fact he uses irony with the exploiter and oppressors logical, to expose all sorts of falsely in the capitalist society. Lu Xun is good at utilizing irony to rant and rave to the dark society, ugly person or thing. Look at the title of novel The New Years Sacrifice, Lu Xun curses the feudal ethical codes of people eating people actually, but miserable final result has used nationalitys traditional joyous term: The New Years Sacrifice. In novel The True Story of Ah Q, Lu Xun uses the mouth and soul of Ah Q to write that Ah Q regards all defects as his own specialty, says others advantage which is better than him is not worth a pin, this work has used irony in the whole text. Even the so-called “Happy Reunion” end is also a tragic result. The meaning of satire tends to strengthen by using effectively of the irony. Chapter Three Comparison of Their Satiric Diction The languages of Swifts satire are humorous, sharp and concise. His masterpiece Gullivers Travel is a good example. Lu Xuns satire is forceful and irresistible, calm yet full of passion, sharp yet strong. I