A MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS OF ATTACHMENT, SELF-SACRIFICE AND ECOCRITICISM OF DENG YEGUANG'S WOLF AS A TRANSITIONAL WORK IN CHINESE LITERATURE

Abstract

In this study, the text is analyzed as a transitional text, connecting the traditional image of a Han Chinese wolf as a treacherous villian with a wolf as a heroic, dignified being influenced by the West. This research uses a qualitative, multidirectional approach to literature that combines attachment theory, the self-sacrifice schema, ecocriticism, Aristotelian tragedy, and Marxist criticism, seeking to examine the symbolic aspects of the wolf pair's relationship and their tragic lives. The analysis shows how John Bowlby's attachment theory can be used to explain the secure-base attachment between the wolves, and the development of reciprocal, conditional and self-sacrificial love patterns leading to their deaths. The story illustrates the elements of hamartia and catharsis in Aristotelian drama, making the wolves into a tragic hero that inspires pity and fear and confronts the negative stereotypes of Chinese culture stemming from Confucianism. Ecocritical reading reads the narrative as an attack on human exploitation, destruction of forests and extinctions of species, which is symbolically a criticism of the negative effects of modernization and capitalist growth on wildlife and ecological systems. The wolves' relationship is also a commentary on the dynamics of gender, social systems, and how it affects the mind of a breadwinner in the modern world. The study places Deng's work as an important piece of Chinese literature dedicated to environmental protection, questionably anthropocentric views and urging the intrinsic value of wildlife.