摘 要

幻想文学是一种极富想象力的文学表现形式，同时也是一种可以让人置身其中，难以忘怀的文学形式。

本论文通过对比研究的方式，立足于中西方幻想文学在社会历史大环境和宗教文化根源，对比中西方的幻想文学。从而使读者可以更好的理解中西方幻想文学以及他们的文化背景。

随着现代科学技术的发展，人们已经不再仅仅满足于书面形式的幻想文学，所以越来越多的幻想文学被改编成影视作品搬上大银幕或者以电视形式播放，甚至以幻想文学为基础， 创造了相连的衍生产品和周边工业，这也使得如今幻想文学已经有了特殊的文化价值。

关键词：幻想文学；文化差异比较；文化

Contents

1. Introduction 6
2. Demonstration 7
   1. The Definition and Cultural Sources of Fantasy Literature 7
      1. The Historical Sources 7
      2. The Religious Background 7
      3. The Reflection of Social Reality 8
   2. The Cultural Representatives of Fantasy Literature 9
   3. Chinese and Western Folk Literatures 9
      1. Chinese Folk Literatures 9
      2. Western Folk Literatures 9
      3. A Summary of Chinese and Western Folk Literature 12
   4. Chinese and Western Classic Fantasy Literature 12
      1. Chinese Classic Fantasy Literature 13
      2. Western Classic Fantasy Literature 13
      3. A Summary of Chinese and Western Classics of Fantasy Literature 14
   5. Films and TV Works Adapted from Fantasy Literature 15
      1. Chinese Films and TV Works 16
      2. Western Films and TV Works 16
      3. A Summary of Adapted Works from Fantasy Literature 17
3. Conclusion 18

Works Cited 19

Bibliography 20

A Comparative Study on the Fantasy Literature in Chinese and Western Cultures

Introduction

Fantasy literature is a literature form, quite different from main stream literature, such as biography, realism literature and romanticism. It is one of the thought trends in non-mainstream literature, on which there have been many controversial comments.

It is not necessary to conform to the rules of the actual life and logic in fantasy literature. In other words, fantasy literature is to create a visionary space, and then throw the characters into the space to look at how they reach the goals. It was born with fascinating and stimulating features. We do not need to know what it really is, so it is often very strange but attractive.

In recent years, fantasy literature gradually comes into our view with the “trend of fantasy”. However the cultural disparities between China and western countries made the diverse development and expression forms.

This paper makes comparative analysis on Chinese and western fantasy literature from the following three aspects: historical sources, religious background and the reflection of social reality. This paper is divided into three sections: Chinese and western folk fantasy literature, Chinese and western classic fantasy literature and works adapted from Chinese and western fantasy literature.

In each section, representative works will be chosen from Chinese and Western fantasy literatures respectively as the subjects of comparison. The paper takes Classic of Mountains and Seas as an example to represent Chinese folk literature. Classic of Mountains and Seas is more like collection of folk legends and encyclopedia while the Greek Mythology is pure mythical stories based on fantasy. As to the classic fantasy literature, Chinese Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and western Grimm’s Fairy Tales are typical works that express emotion by means of fantasy stories. Apart from the different objects and social backgrounds, both of the two

works use stories to criticize social phenomenon and praise good morality. As to works adapted from fantasy literature, the author adduces Chinese Paladin for Chinese works, a Chinese works adapted from a game, which perhaps is the earliest fantasy game of Chinese style. As to the western works, Harry Potter is adduced as an example for its representativeness and its various derivatives are comparable with Chinese Paladin.

This paper illustrates differences between Chinese and western fantasy literature from the aspects of history, society and religious background by means of background comparison and adduction of examples. Fantasy literature to some extent represents people’s different imaginary thoughts in different eras, which can more effectively express the characteristics of times and people’s reflection on society in combination of history, society and religion. As to modern works adapted from fantasy literature, the two representative works can reflect people’s attitudes toward fantasy literature in contemporary society and technology development. The popularity of the two works also reflects people’s like of fantasy literature.

Demonstration

2.1 The Definition and Cultural Sources of Fantasy Literature

Fantasy literature utilizes a surreal way to describe things. Taking science fiction as example, as a typical form of fantasy art, it shows that science and technology have significant influences on human social development. As Xu Qingwen described in the opening ceremony of Miaosi House, “We need the imagination, which is not to escape from reality, but to encourage us to transform our vision and extend our mind.” Fantasy literature has its own mysterious essence—the illusion of infinite space is the

source of the imagination.