中美文学作品中动物意象差异对比研究

A Comparative Study on the Differences of Animal Images From Chinese and American Literature

1. Introduction

Animal image refers to the aesthetic image which take the animals as a carrier to convey the writer#8217;s emotion or to express a kind of social reality. Animal image has a distinct meaning in different cultures, so it is also an important aspect of intercultural communication. Because of the differences in geography and climate, and humanities, people#8217;s attitude towards in different periods are diverse. Similarly, people from different countries also have different attitudes towards the same animal image. In this paper, I will compare the animal image in Chinese literature with American literature.

1.1 research background

Since the ancient times, human#8217;s survival and development are closely linked with the animals#8217; development. In the long-term study process, people found that some of the animals#8217; habits and character are similar to human#8217;s character. These similar characteristics which possessed by animals make them constantly mentioned in literary works. Therefore, there is a large number of animal-related expressions in Chinese and American literature. Even they use the same word, the meaning and the emotion which they contain maybe different from each other. However, there is another situation in the literature. American and Chinese writer often extend the meaning in the same way with the different animal images. In the study of images, animal image is an important research object, but domestic and foreign scholars for animal imagery research is relatively small.

1.2 significance of the research

Through the comparative study of animal image in Chinese and American literature, we can see the similar or different understanding of animal image in different cultural backgrounds. Readers can have s better understanding of the animal image through the description of animal images in Chinese and American literature. If language learners have a excellent command of the ability to understand the meaning and the emotion which are conveyed by writer, they will have a deeper understand of the Chinese and American cultures and then they can use it in the cross-cultural communication better. It can also help to improve the cross-cultural communication skills.