Healing style (zhiyu xi 治愈系 ) media refers to the various products and services labelled with a promise to comfort consumers, and the media category has gradually become viewed as a way to cope with the omnipresent stress and anxiety of modern life. However, there are widespread criticisms of healing style media regarding creating the illusion of comfort for temporary relaxation to avoid facing and addressing the problems that cause discomfort. To counter such biased accusations this thesis examines two types of Chinese healing style media, fiction and anime, to address two main research questions: 1) Whether and how Chinese healing style media respond to the problems people face in real life? 2) How do Chinese healing style media present healing? The textual analyses of the novel Rushan, Gushu and Me reveal that Chinese healing style literature is not creating the illusion of comfort but focuses on the emotional relationship crisis suffered by Chinese people and offers practical solutions with four main steps that integrate the theory and practice of psychotherapy. In the presentation of healing, Chinese healing style writers are inclined to utilize some typical healing elements like character settings that resonate with most people and adequate sensory descriptions. Interpretations combined with screenshots of the anime film The Legend of Hei reinforce the argument that Chinese healing style is not just a comforting fictional world but very concerned with the living space and environmental crises caused by rapid urbanization and emphasizes the importance of reliable intimate relationships in coping with the crises in modern life. In The Legend of Hei, the use of healing elements like natural scenery and colors, resonant characters, delicious foods and positive attitudes all contribute to presenting healing and cater to the psychological needs of the target viewers. Through critically analyzing Chinese healing style fiction and anime, this thesis affirms that they are not escaping but actively presenting the collective crises and providing solutions. This study defends the rationality and effectiveness of Chinese healing style media as one of the many ways to cope with numerous pressures of modern life, thus contributing to a more comprehensive understanding and more appropriate application of Chinese healing style media. / Graduate

Toni Morrison reinterprets and reconstitutes American history by placing the lives, stories and experiences of African Americans in a position of centrality, while relegating white American history and cultural traditions to the margins of her narratives. She rewrites American history from an alternative - African American woman's - perspective, and subverts the accepted racist and patriarchally inspired `truths' about life, love and women's experiences through her sympathetic depiction of murderous mother love and complex female relationships in Beloved. She writes about oppression, pain and suffering, and of the need for the acknowledgement and alleviation of the various forms of oppression that scar human existence. Morrison's engagement with healing in Beloved forms the central focus of this short dissertation. The novel is analysed in relation to Mary Douglas's `Two Bodies' theory, John Caputo's ideas on progressive Foucaultian hermeneutics and healing gestures, and Julia Martin's thoughts on alternative healing practices based on non-dualism and interconnectedness. Within this interdisciplinary context, Beloved is read as a `small start' to `creative engagement' with alternative healing practices (Martin, 1996:104). / English / M.A. (English)

Toni Morrison reinterprets and reconstitutes American history by placing the lives, stories and experiences of African Americans in a position of centrality, while relegating white American history and cultural traditions to the margins of her narratives. She rewrites American history from an alternative - African American woman's - perspective, and subverts the accepted racist and patriarchally inspired `truths' about life, love and women's experiences through her sympathetic depiction of murderous mother love and complex female relationships in Beloved. She writes about oppression, pain and suffering, and of the need for the acknowledgement and alleviation of the various forms of oppression that scar human existence. Morrison's engagement with healing in Beloved forms the central focus of this short dissertation. The novel is analysed in relation to Mary Douglas's `Two Bodies' theory, John Caputo's ideas on progressive Foucaultian hermeneutics and healing gestures, and Julia Martin's thoughts on alternative healing practices based on non-dualism and interconnectedness. Within this interdisciplinary context, Beloved is read as a `small start' to `creative engagement' with alternative healing practices (Martin, 1996:104). / English / M.A. (English)