Exploring with Temeraire: Naomi Novik's Poeticization of a Chinese Dragon

• Main Authors: Yen-Hsien Liu, 劉彥賢
• Other Authors: Fanfan Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4bmrpf

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 創作與英語文學研究所 === 96 === Since antiquity, the Chinese have developed dragon beliefs and imagination in their culture. Chinese dragons are constructed through many images whether from animals or natural phenomena. These elements help the Chinese invent their imaginary Lung (dragon) as well as the abundant myths and legends about this mysterious creature. The imagination and creation throughout this draconic mythopoeia enrich the meanings of Chinese dragons and inspire Chinese people to respect and worship dragons. On the other hand, western dragons are widely and historically influenced by Christianity, so that the images of dragons are close to a homogeneous and evil image. Yet Naomi Novik, a new author in our time, combines the features of both East and West to write an interesting series of novels, which provides new perspectives on the literary imagination and poeticization of dragons. The present thesis focuses on the dragons in Novik’s novels and attempts to explore how the author combines and contrasts western and eastern/Chinese dragons in her fiction. First of all, Chapter One discusses the main dragons and their actions in the text world. Chapter Two investigates the characterization of Novik’s dragons in reference to the traditional dragon features in Chinese culture. Chapter Three studies the foundations of dragon imagination in western mythology and literature that underlie Novik’s novels. Finally, Chapter Four extends the dragon narrative to different layers of discourses such as linguistic, political, historical, and eco-critical. This thesis starts with the surface level like dragon-characters and recurrent draconic motifs of East and West to reach a more complete understanding of Novik’s dragon writing. The dragons, literally with various dispositions and vividness and figuratively with diversity and imbrications in meanings, are the center of the plot.