Second, this book is also studied from the view of history by Chinese scholars。 For a writer who experienced a dark period of time, history is not only Mo Yan’s resources but also his purpose of writing。 Bi (2006) raises that Mo Yan’s history depiction is the embodiment of historical philosophy which is not only the counteraction and deconstruction of the mainstream history narration but also a strong reveal of the changing factors of history。论文网

Life And Death Are Me Wearing Me Out is also studied by many foreign scholars。 First, it is studied from the view of Buddhism。 Samsara is not only the important support of the book’s structure but also an essential part of Buddhism theories。 Akhavan (2015a) combines the book with Buddhism theories and raises that Mo Yan illustrates the Karma philosophy of self-realization or self-enlightenment through Ximen Nao’s samsara, as well as his family’s ups and downs, and gives a Buddhist way to comprehend the incredible question of the cause of miseries and inequalities among human beings。

Cognitive linguistics is a new angle to study the book。 It is a trend to apply linguistics into literature critics and analyses。 Being a part of cognitive linguistics, conceptual integration is first raised by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner in 2012, which is crucial to human thinking process and is meaningful for literature understanding。 Akhavan (2015b), from the view of cognitive linguistics, tests the theory of conceptual integration in Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out and puts forward that Mo Yan expresses his dissatisfaction of the times and government through personification and conceptual integration。

As a book translated from Chinese, Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out has also attracted attention from many foreign scholars of Chinese origin。 From the perspective of history, Chan (2011) says that though Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out describes the abuses of animals in the appearance, it actually reveals the darkness and ugliness of humanity。 It is the evil humanity which arouses and amplifies the ideology fight that leads to the heaviest period of Chinese modern history。 

Trauma is another important perspective of these scholars to study the book。 Mo Yan, born in 1950s, experienced the darkest years of China and that period had become a common trauma of writers from that generation。 From the view of trauma, Li (2015) puts forward that in the book, Mo Yan turns the violent events happening through the Chinese modern history into inpidual’s memory of historical traumas, so as to emphasize the historical violence and traumatic consequences of people by blurring the boundaries between human and animal, life and after-life and to show how is the trauma healed。

1。3 Theoretical Framework

1。3。1 Previous Studies on Animal Studies or Zoo-criticism

Since 1990s, a new trend has appeared in the research of Humanities and Social Sciences in the western society, which is the animal turn。 Zoo-criticism, as a special term, is first raised by Huggan and Tiffin, referring to the cultural study of animals in literature works (Huggan & Tiffin, 2012)。 Scholars in the west continue to integrate zoo-criticism with other subjects and theories, accomplishing a deeper development of zoo-criticism。 For example, Donovan and Adams (2007) compiles The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics: A Reader, in which they combine zoo-criticism with feminism and put forward that woman’s secondary status is related to mans’ conquest of nature and we should use ethical care as well as sympathy to deal with the relation between human beings and animals。 Meanwhile, zoo-criticism also integrates with other theories of literature criticism, like eco-criticism or post-colonialism, so as to provide new views and dimensions for literary study。文献综述

In China, zoo-criticism also has aroused huge interests among scholars。 Jiang and Meng (2013) say that zoo-criticism is to discuss the deep meaning of animal imagery and animal-human relation under different political, historical or cultural context by combining with different courses, theories or concepts。 In another essay, Jiang (2010) points out that zoo-criticism means that authors pay special attention to the animal itself or create some animal imagery in the literary or non-literary works to reveal the complicated relations between human and human, or human and animal。 Chinese scholars also try to figure out the realistic meanings of zoo-criticism。 It is species discrimination (the oppression of one species to another) that explains human beings’ violent behavior on animals and the idea of anthropocentrism (Singer, 1975)。 Based on Singer’s theory, Yuan (2014) says that species discrimination, as a form of oppression, supports and strengthens other forms of oppression, like gender oppression and class oppression。 Li (2014) raises that to realize the true equality and harmony of human society, we must abandon the idea that humans are superior to animals。 Animal studies or zoo-criticism can help us break anthropocentrism and reach the real harmony between human beings and animals。