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The Relationship Between Language and Culture —— in the Perspective of Chinese and English Idioms

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THE BIBLE’S INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE

by
Zhang Lanlan

June, 2007
Xiaogan University

Abstract

As the sutra of the Christianity, the Bible has a great influence on both English and American literature and offers an eternal theme of their literary creation .English and American writers use stories of the Bible by three main methods. First, they quote person's names or stories of the Bible as the characters' names or plots of the creations from the Bible directly. Sometimes they make some changes on the original stories. Sometimes they quote stories directly from the Bible as the writing materials. Second, they make use of symbolic meaning of the Bible by some technical such as simile, metaphor and symbolism, so that the stories could exert a great influence on contrasting with the new products. Third, they merge the plots of the Bible to give connotative efforts to the readers. Exploring the methods helps us know the western culture and consciousness, have a good appreciation and study for the English-American literature.

key words: English-American literature ; the Bible; methods

《圣经》在英美文学作品中的影响

摘要
作为基督教的经典,《圣经》对英美文化影响深远,为英美文化创作提供了永恒的母题。英美作家化用《圣经》故事的主要方法有:直接引用《圣经》中的人名作为作品的人物名称,或直接引用《圣经》故事或对原型故事进行变形或处理,作为创作素材;通过比喻,隐喻或象征等手法,把《圣经》故事的寓意融汇到作品情节中或人物性格里,使这些故事发挥有力的陪衬作用;使作品中的人物,故事和情节与《圣经》故事大体对应,让《圣经》能穿越时空的限制,从而发挥隐含的参照作用。
探讨英美作家化用《圣经》的方法,有助于我们了解英美文化的思想意识,更好的学习,欣赏乃至研究英美文学作品。

关键词:英美文学;《圣经》;方式

Contents
1.Introduction………………………………………………………………..……1
2. The Bible's Influence on English-American literature
2.1 Quoting the Bible directly………………………………….………………2
2.2 Using the symbolic meaning of the Bible…………………..……………....3 2.3 Merging the plots of the Bible………………………………………….…..5
3. The reasons of the Bible’s influence on English-American literature………....7
4. Conclusion

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