The contemplation over existence has always been a major motif in Virginia Woolfs literary creation, in which she struggled with the need to find significance and beauty in the transient living experience. With an int...The contemplation over existence has always been a major motif in Virginia Woolfs literary creation, in which she struggled with the need to find significance and beauty in the transient living experience. With an inter-textual analysis of her renowned novel Mrs. Dalloway, this thesis makes a tentative exploration into the writer＇s consciousness of existence and its influence on the characters＇ personalities and their spirit of life and death, as well as the ultimate understanding of the transparency, fragility and ecstasy of human existence.展开更多
The period from 1680 to 1730 witnessed the creation of a wealth of women＇s fiction that has long been ignored or dismissed by historians and literary critics. Although the women writers in question were best sellers ...The period from 1680 to 1730 witnessed the creation of a wealth of women＇s fiction that has long been ignored or dismissed by historians and literary critics. Although the women writers in question were best sellers at the time, they were still not accepted within the traditional literary categories. This paper intends to doubt the appropriateness of the term ＂amatory＂ as a description of women＇s writing at the time as it is not proper to entitle them as ＂amatory＂ fiction only for the reason that they adopt similar amatory plot and write fictions about love.展开更多
In eighteenth-century Britain, knowledge about animals from around the world was rapidly increasing. This paper focuses on what the British knew and imagined about the animals of China from reading the works of Europe...In eighteenth-century Britain, knowledge about animals from around the world was rapidly increasing. This paper focuses on what the British knew and imagined about the animals of China from reading the works of European travellers and natural historians. Whereas the animals of Africa and America served to foster a growing sense of European mastery of less civilized parts of the world through trade and possession, those of China were understood as embedded in a highly advanced civilization and therefore as sources of knowledge about that civilization. This paper examines the way in which British understandings of China were mediated through accounts of Chinese animals and of human-animal relations in China. Looking at works of popular natural history and at Oliver Goldsmith＇s fictional letters of a ＂Chinese philosopher＂ in The Citizen of the World （1762）, I argue that the animals of China bore several messages about their country. Focusing on the particular examples of the golden pheasant, the horse, the cormorant, and the cat, I suggest that British writing about Chinese animals served as a way of expressing mixed feelings about the value of advanced civilizations, whether Chinese or European.展开更多
文摘The contemplation over existence has always been a major motif in Virginia Woolfs literary creation, in which she struggled with the need to find significance and beauty in the transient living experience. With an inter-textual analysis of her renowned novel Mrs. Dalloway, this thesis makes a tentative exploration into the writer＇s consciousness of existence and its influence on the characters＇ personalities and their spirit of life and death, as well as the ultimate understanding of the transparency, fragility and ecstasy of human existence.
文摘The period from 1680 to 1730 witnessed the creation of a wealth of women＇s fiction that has long been ignored or dismissed by historians and literary critics. Although the women writers in question were best sellers at the time, they were still not accepted within the traditional literary categories. This paper intends to doubt the appropriateness of the term ＂amatory＂ as a description of women＇s writing at the time as it is not proper to entitle them as ＂amatory＂ fiction only for the reason that they adopt similar amatory plot and write fictions about love.
文摘In eighteenth-century Britain, knowledge about animals from around the world was rapidly increasing. This paper focuses on what the British knew and imagined about the animals of China from reading the works of European travellers and natural historians. Whereas the animals of Africa and America served to foster a growing sense of European mastery of less civilized parts of the world through trade and possession, those of China were understood as embedded in a highly advanced civilization and therefore as sources of knowledge about that civilization. This paper examines the way in which British understandings of China were mediated through accounts of Chinese animals and of human-animal relations in China. Looking at works of popular natural history and at Oliver Goldsmith＇s fictional letters of a ＂Chinese philosopher＂ in The Citizen of the World （1762）, I argue that the animals of China bore several messages about their country. Focusing on the particular examples of the golden pheasant, the horse, the cormorant, and the cat, I suggest that British writing about Chinese animals served as a way of expressing mixed feelings about the value of advanced civilizations, whether Chinese or European.
