纪人间变异 : <<西游记>>的讽刺艺术探究 = THE ART OF SATIRE IN JOURNEY TO THE WEST

Abstract

Reputed as one of the greatest novel, Journey to the West (西游记）is brilliant in its crafting of an imaginary world of fantasy characterized by a host of vivid and interesting deities and devils penned under a comedy coat. Precisely because readers are simply captivated by the unpredictable story line and the humorous or witty descriptions, they easily missed the parable impact on the ways of world in the Ming dynasty. More so when we found the author, Wu Cheng’ en (吴承恩)(1504? -1582?), did not mean to be satirical and the technique of irony deployed tend to be disguised. It follows that the aim of this thesis is to unveil the satirical art in Journey to the West, digging deep to uncover the motives and intentions in the employment of irony, parable and allegory techniques in jocular mask. The thesis is organized into five chapters. Following a literature review and an overview, Chapter two analyses the features identifying the irony, parable and allegory techniques used in the novel. Chapter three explores the artistic qualities of the techniques of satire employed, bringing to light the motivation governing the use of such techniques. These findings are further attested in Chapter four that closely examined the manners and morals of the time through historical and societal perspectives. Chapter five concludes that Wu Cheng' en did not use satirical techniques to mock; rather, it was a mean to reflect social realities.