Abstract: Since the 1990s, in the context of globalization and postmodernism, a reorientation is emerging in contemporary literary studies from intellectual interpretation to knowledge reconstruction. The reorientation both promotes contemporary literary studies as a discipline and helps to contextualize and theoretically endorse the historicization of the studies. The reorientation is an emerging phenomenon, which is further complicated by the ambiguity of the concept of "historicization." Unlike the earlier endeavor of "rewriting of literary history," this reorientation, in terms of its scope of research and its conceptual evolution, is both influenced externally by Western Marxist theories through such theorists as Fredric Jameson and internally stimulated by the interpretive systems of the textual study developed in the Han dynasty and the neo-Confucianism developed in the Song Dynasty. Given the historical context of the Greater China, the reorientation is also complicated by the issue of "Literary China," and the interaction between the internal stimulation and the issue of Literary China in the process of the "historicization" deserves more attention than the current neglect.

Key words: historicization, concept definition, current research, genealogy, Literary China