Abstract
The article presents a comparative analysis of feline images in the novel Cat Country by Lao She and the book of verses Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by Thomas Stearns Eliot. Lao She and T.S. Eliot created their works in the 1930s, which was a favorable period for artistic understanding of the interaction between nature, animals, and humans. The age of key social changes as well as the influence of the evolution theory often made fiction writers turn to anthropomorphic characters to portray the contemporaries. The writers under analysis represent human types using feline images, which have been ambiguously interpreted in Chinese and English cultures for centuries. Western literature traditionally depicted cats as principal book characters, as distinct from Chinese literature. Cat Country is by far the most famous Chinese novel where cats have salient anthropomorphic features. This brings it closer to Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, where T.S. Eliot seamlessly fits his feline characters into an urban context, thus creating an entire society with its hierarchy, laws, and problems. The comparative analysis of the two works, representing different national cultures, aims to determine the specificity of their feline images. First, differences in interpretations can be explained by the specificity of mythology and folklore, which shaped the concepts of anthropomorphism and system of anthropomorphic images in English and Chinese cultures. Second, the difference between the feline characters in Lao She and T.S. Eliot is determined by the cultural and historical background. Lao She wrote his novel in the period of global changes in China and pondered over the drawbacks of society. T.S. Eliot also raised some socio-cultural issues. Both works are rich in allusions to historical events and facts, which highlights the connection with the historical and cultural background. The comparative analysis has shown that the anthropomorphic characteristics of Lao She’s and Eliot’s cats (speech behaviour, dressing styles, gastronomic preferences, gender stereotypes, habitat) demonstrate the specificity of feline images in the context of a certain historical era. The feline images in Lao She and T.S. Eliot reflect not only the sociopolitical and cultural situation of China and England in the 1930s, but also the writers’ personalities as well as their attitude to their characters, social problems, morality, and human nature. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.
Published Version
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