人性中的本我之探寻—《少年“派”的奇幻漂流》的隐喻研究The Exploration of the Id in Human Nature– The Study of Metaphors in Life of Pi开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

life of pi, written by yann martel,is a canadian fantasy adventure novel published in 2001. the novel has soldmore than ten million copies worldwide. in 2012 it was adapted into a survivaldrama film directed by ang lee. it was nominated for three golden globe awardsand won the golden globe award for best original score. at the 85th academyawards, life of pi had elevennominations, including best picture and best adapted screenplay, and won four awardsincluding best director for ang lee. this paper aims at analyzing metaphorsused in the film life of pi andexploring how these images reflect the id in human nature. searching on cnki,calis and proquest, there are 15 relative references found. among thesereferences, there are 10 journals, 3 dissertations, 1 monograph and 1conference proceeding.

life of pi received highly positivereviews worldwide. however, there are few academic researches concentrated onthe metaphors in life of pi abroad.most of the praises directed towards the visual effects: ang lee’s life of pi achieves the near impossible — a 3d adaptation of a supposedly “unfilmable” book. it’s an astonishingtechnical achievement which is also emotionally rewarding. insteadof metaphors, only some comments about the 3d technology can be found. in aninterview with the los angeles times, the famous director cameron highlightedthe film's use of 3d, noting that “lifeof pi breaks the paradigm that 3d has to be some big, action fantasyspectacle, superhero movie. the movie is visually inventive and amazing. ittakes you on a journey, and unless you've read the book, you have no idea wherethat journey is going. it does what good 3d is supposed to do, which is, itallows you to forget you're watching a 3d movie.” from which it can be inferredthat foreign researchers have not paid much attention to metaphors in life of pi.

onthe contrary, more domestic researches have done about metaphors in life of pi. an yang studied this moviefrom the view of id, ego and superego. li lixia explored the images of animals,especially the image of tiger in life ofpi. dong xun pointed the implied meanings of water and ocean in this film.nevertheless, there is no such a study which explores all of the metaphors in life of pi systematically. as a result,it is necessary to understand more about metaphors and their meanings thatcorrelate with western religion and culture.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Thestudy analyzes systematically the metaphors in Ang Lee’s movie Life of Pi, and summarizes the humannature expressed in this film. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi"Patel, an Indian boy living in Canada, explores issues of spirituality andpracticality from an early age. He tells a novelist about his life story andhow at 16 he survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboatwith a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker in the Pacific Ocean.

Theresearch is based on scientific methods, such as looking over relevantdocuments and papers, textual analysis, and comparative analysis to exploremore about the metaphor as a figure of speech and its significance in the film Life of Pi. The paper summarizes brieflythe development of metaphors in linguistics, rhetoric and image. Then itcombines with the specific texts of Ang Lee’s film to analyze the metaphors ofimages in Life of Pi and how theseimages reflect about human nature. Some compares between the traditional meaningsof images and the meanings in the film will be conducted. Many of thesemetaphors are thought-provoking. To discuss about religions and culturalbackgrounds, more about the implied meanings of the metaphors in Life of Pi can be learned and the id in humannature can be explored.

3. 研究计划与安排

before20th march:submission of the outline

before 25th april: submission of the first draft

before 24thmay: revision of the draft

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1] ghosh, monica g. tiger files: textualand visual representations of tigers in south asian contexts [d]. manoa:university of hawaii at manoa, 2013.

[2] grabow, brandy l. expanding the metaphor: apragmatic application of hospitality theory to the field of writing studies [d].greensboro: the university of north carolina at greensboro, college ofarts sciences: english, 2013.

[3] lee, jocelyn. the role ofreligion and morality: survival in yann martel’s life of pi [j]. education,2013, vol.3, no.6: 340-343.