Eva
2008-01-21 03:25:56 UTC
The foreign images exist both in literary works, such as novels, short stories, diaries, travel essays, and in non-written texts such as various kinds of customs, objects and even artistic crafts. But imagology in the sense of comparative literature mainly focuses on the images in literary works. Daniel-Henri Pageaux defines image as “the general knowledge of a foreign country formed in the process of literaturization and socialization” (Menghua 154). As a matter of fact, image is closely related to the writer’s own idiosyncrasies, the social collective imagination, the culture background and other factors. Thus, “image in the sense of comparative literature is not the copy of the reality. It is reformulated according to the writer’s cultural mode” (Chendun 168). According to imagology, the foreign image formulated by the writer is not the copy of the true foreign image and it is not necessary to prove whether it is true representations of the foreign image or not. What imagology mainly concerns is how and why the image is created and disseminated as well as what social and cultural background lies behind the image. Moreover, the writer’s self-image is often projected on the foreign image and the writer’s needs and desires can also be shown in the foreign image. So imagology concerns not only the image itself but also the interaction between the image and its creator.