On the Methodological Evolution and its Limitation of Literature Anthropology

Abstract

Abstract: This paper is a critical survey of literary anthropology in Chinese context. In the early 20th century in China, the main areas of investigation of literary anthropology are myths and ballads; during the Post-Mao Period, literary studies from the anthological perspective expand to literary texts and cultural texts, due to the influence of experimental ethnography and postmodernism. Practices in the above two periods show a consistent interest of research in the approaches of literary anthropology which evolves into the methods of cross-cultural comparison, primitivism, contextualism and field study etc. The paper concludes with the reflection on the potentialities and limits of literary anthropology in Chinese literary theory.

Key words: literary anthropology, cross-cultural comparison, primitivism, contextualism, field study

Wang Daqiao. On the Methodological Evolution and its Limitation of Literature Anthropology[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2014, 34(2): 42-49.

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