英文摘要 |
The contents of “Yingning” and “The Little Mermaid” are both adapted from the traditional love story between the human and the non-human. They both also contain a sensibility of problems in their deep structure. This article compares the two works from four perspectives—gender, soul, communication and marriage—and points out the similar or different ways they offer to solve the problems. (1) The erotic imagination of patriarchal society is expressed in the love between human males and non-human females, which also reflects insights into the human female situation and what constitutes a growth to maturity. (2) As the non-humans associate with the humans in order to get salvation for their souls, the common goal of the Chinese and European nonhumans is to sublimate their original animalness. (3) The main communicative means for the protagonists of these two works is not language, but laughter and dance respectively; their success or failure results from the differences in their external conditions and the efforts they spend oncommunication. (4) In the courtship plot, which is a symbol for inner development, there is a triangular relationship which implies human fear of nature. All in all, the different endings of the two works are to be explained in terms of their different attitudes toward the Others. |