《天路历程》与《西游记》宗教元素比较

A Comparative Study on the Religious Elements of The Pilgrim's Progress and Journey to the West

纵观世界文学的发展进程,无论是中国还是西方的文学著作,都像一面镜子一样,映射出当时的社会状况和宗教内涵。作为东西方宗教理想主义文学的经典杰出的代表作,约翰·班扬的《天路历程》和吴承恩的《西游记》虽然出现于不同的社会和宗教文化背景下,但是同样作为具有浓厚宗教色彩的文学作品,在很多方面二者都存在着相似性。文章将从宗教根源出发,对这两部著作进行文学对比研究,着重分析两位作者在创作过程中对宗教模式、原型以及典故的运用等方面的共性。

Throughout the history of world literature, literature works both written by Chinese and westerners reflect the so- cial conditions and religious connotation of that period,like a mirror. Respectively, John Bunyan＇ s The Pilgrim＇ s Progress and Wu Cheng＇ en＇ s Journey to the West are classical and outstanding masterpieces of religious idealism in eastern and western literature. Although created in different social and religious culture background, as religious allegories, they show glaring similarities in such forms as subject matters, narrative models, the idea of redemption and atonement and the struc- ture of plot. This paper makes a comparative study on religious elements of the two allegories.