Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just a technical tool created by humans; it exhibits non-instrumental characteristics that transcend its tool-like nature. The question of how to describe and theorize the “non-instrumentality” of such technological objects is profound and worth contemplating. To emphasize the autonomy and subjectivity of technical tools, Don Ihde introduced the term “quasi-other” to describe AI's features that transcend instrumentality. However, the concept of “quasi-other,” based on technological fantasy, may inadvertently reshape the relationship between humans and technology into a new form of confrontation. The French philosopher Gilbert Simondon's assertions about the relationship between humans and technology, along with his concept of the “technical individual”, help us objectively understand AI's non-instrumental characteristics, preventing us from subjectively attributing signs of life or “quasi-other” attributes to AI. This provides significant insight into a deeper understanding of the specific roles and functions of AI systems in artistic creation.

The discussion about arts and thinghood has been a long debate. In this highly digitalized age, while this discussion serves as a continuation of the theoretical exploration of classical aesthetics and formalism, it also generates many brand-new conceptualizations following the material turn and the beginning of the posthuman era. This phenomenon is rooted in the questioning of digital arts' thinghood as well as new interpretations of thinghood. When things have their unique agencies, how do digital things exhibit and operate their agency? What is the relationship between digital arts and things? This key question also relates to more cutting-edge discussions, including more contemporary views of media, a re-understanding of AI art. With such a theoretical view, a grander conceptualization of Zoe dissolves some traditional debates on art ontology and ethics concerning AI, and turns our focus towards the non-anthropocentric assemblage.

In a sense, Paul Virilio and Donna Haraway represent the pessimistic and optimistic wings of posthumanist attitudes toward technology, respectively. Analysis shows that both perspectives are determined to varying degrees by a mythos of technicism and fail to relate technology to specific socio-historical contexts and fundamental modes of production. Both thus reflect forms of technological determinism, albeit in different ways. In comparison, Haraway, who synthesizes technology and hope into a utopian vision, actually embodies a “cultural pessimism” (as described by Williams) and represents a “post-revolutionary atmosphere.” In contrast, Virilio's technological pessimism is more likely to be absorbed by Marxist critical techno-aesthetics, because vigilance against technicism can contribute to the production of class consciousness, which serves as the basis for Marxist revolutionary optimism.

As a key concept in digital media art, “interactivity” involves both participation and automation. However, the dominant narrative—shaped by political hopes and technological optimism—has obscured the theoretical potential of the “interactivity” concept for explaining the predicaments of art. Interactive art succeeds where participatory theatre fails because computers avoid performer fatigue and disrupt habitual human patterns through randomness. This reshapes experience and supports experimental artistic environments. In this context, automation has been used to seek aesthetic expression beyond human experience, while “interpassivity” describes how artistic creation and enjoyment can be delegated to machines. Yet fully automated art often leads to breakdown or stagnation, revealing that automation also produces a kind of art fatigue. By framing the human–machine relationship as an interaction between heterogeneous agents, interactivity resists this fatigue of homogeneity. Human significance lies in the capacity to preserve interpretive and active freedom beyond systemic feedback loops, ensuring that experiential difference cannot be fully assimilated into reflexive systems.

In the German Romantic approach to poetics pioneered by Friedrich Schlegel, traditional linear deduction is replaced by a circular, intersecting hermeneutic cycle in which poetic philosophy unfolds in fragments. Through this distinctive mode of writing, Schlegel seeks to demonstrate that the constructive metaphor arising from by the interplay of multiple paradigmatic ideas reveals a continuous process: the mutual affirmation of individual fragments. This process leads to an indefinite approximation of “true love” as truth forming a non-systemic systematicity. This Romantic system of fragmentation is as organic and harmonious as nature or music. Yet, unlike the dialectical unity found in idealism, the differentiated Romantic individual can never attain systemic inevitability within the modern flow of fragmentation. This very inaccessibility, or non-closure, is where a greater hope lies, embedded in modernism's infinite perspective. In this sense, the early Romantics' quest for systemic truth becomes an effort toward aesthetic modernity that infinitely approaches the fragmented system.

In his Hamlet or Hecuba, Carl Schmitt continues his long-standing interest in the problem of the Romantics. According to Schmitt, the intrusion of time and reality into the dramatic stage is the source of the Hamlet myth, which challenges the ideas of the artwork as an organism and artistic sovereignty established since Romanticism, and aims to oppose the aesthetic politics of the Romantics. His critique of William Shakespeare implies the intrinsic connections between modern political representatives and literary representation. But in the post-romantic context, it is difficult for universal ideas to attain a public image, and even the public to which Schmitt appeals has become a differentiated multitude. Schmitt's critique of the Romantics is less a solution to the modern political crisis than a symptom of the crisis into which modern aesthetic politics has fallen.

The poetics of early Romanticism were influenced by the history of both European philosophy and literature. At present, studies respectively on these two dimensions are comprehensive, but studies focusing on their interaction remain relatively limited. This essay focuses on the mutual influence between philosophy and literature in the poetics of early Romanticism and is mainly divided into two sections. The first section explores the impact of European intellectual traditions, particularly metaphysics, on early Romantic poetics through an analysis of the core concepts of the Jena School, namely “irony” and “fragment.” The second section investigates how the Jena School's understanding of history and fiction informed its creation of “universal poetry,” paving the way for Hegelian phenomenology of spirit and postmodern philosophies, including those of Nietzsche. This exploration of the interplay between “thought” and “poetry” in the Jena School contributes to existing research on early Romanticism and offers new perspectives for the study of literary and intellectual history in related fields.

Since the second half of the twentieth century, a key academic paradigm in Western scholarship has been to approach literary research with the conceptual framework of world literature, while world literature may be viewed as the global market of the global literary system. However, the core-periphery model — widely adopted in world literature studies, tends to oversimplify the field and fails to accurately reflect its complexities. In reality, multiple regional literary markets exist within the global literary market. These regional markets, or semi-peripheral zones, serve a crucial role in mediating between the European and American cores and the broader peripheries. The two semi-peripheral regions most closely linked to China are East Asia and the Eastern Bloc. In the twentieth century, China's narrative of world literature began with an East Asian perspective, mediated through Japan, before gradually shifting toward the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe, with the Soviet Union becoming central by the 1950s. China, situated in East Asia, exerts a unique and irreplaceable influence on the cultural and literary dynamics of the region. A more pragmatic and sustainable strategy for China is to shape the world literary system by fostering the development of an East Asian cultural community and literary market. This approach would lay the foundation for a differentiated narrative of world literature. In the post-decentering era, China can leverage the semi-peripheries of East Asian literature to challenge the dominance of the Western core and contribute to a more balanced global literary map.

Qian Zhongshu criticizes Wen Yiduo's argument “poetry is history” in Notes on Literature and Art, thereby initiating an academic debate on the origin and essence of poetry. Previous scholarship has largely overlooked Giambattista Vico, a shared intellectual resource of both sides of the debate. As a result, the origins and nature of this “poetry-history” controversy, which spanned nearly 4 decades (1948-1984), have not been fully elucidated. This article examines Manuscripts of Qian Zhongshu: Foreign Language Notes and related academic notes, and reveals Qian's keen interest in Vico in the 1960s and 1970s. In Principi di Scienza Nuova, Vico discusses caratteri poetici and universali fantastici, and considers fantastici as a form of thought. These concepts have deeply influenced Qian's poetic interpretation of the image in The Book of Changes and the metaphor in The Book of Poetry.

Bertolt Brecht exemplifies the deep engagement of of German writers with Chinese culture in the twentieth century. Upon his return to the GDR in his later years, Brecht's appreciation of Chinese literature focused particularly on Yan'an literature. In addition to reading Yan'an literature and writings published overseas, he wrote and staged plays about contemporary China. After the partial publication of Mao Zedong's “Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art” in a German journal in 1951, Brecht was inspired to advocate for new principles for German writers and artists. Under his direction, the Berliner Ensemble staged the Chinese one-act play The Grain, which addressed the theme of resistance against Japanese aggression. The play not only provided historical context on China's war of resistance against Japan but also incorporated ancient Taoist philosophy to illuminate the wisdom of modern Chinese people, becoming an important resource for Brecht to construct the theory of “dialectical theatre.” The impact of Yan'an literature on Brecht is evident in his play Turandot, where implicit references to Mao Zedong, the Land Reform, and revolutionary triumph reveal the author's optimism and confidence in China's future. Brecht's affinity with the representations of people in Yan'an literature ultimately made it a valuable resource in his later years.

Scholars generally agree that Treatise on Poetry from the Chu Bamboo Slips in Shanghai Museum discusses poetry in terms of emotion and regulates emotion with ritual. However, this interpretation lacks comprehensiveness and a systematic approach, as emotion and ritual only constitute part of its framework. Upon integrating all bamboo slip texts, it becomes evident that Treatise on Poetry centers on the concept of “resentment”, sequentially critiquing “Lessons from the States” (“Bangfeng”) “Minor Odes of the Kingdom” (“Xiaoya”), “Major Odes of the Kingdom” (“Daya”), and “Odes of the Temple and Altar” (“Song”). Based on this, the slips can be reorganized according to a thematic progression: “resentment of the lower class” → “discord between rulers and subjects” → “harmony and achievements between monarchs and ministers”, all of which fall within the realm of politics. Additionally, politically oriented discourses are interwoven throughout. These texts exemplify the tradition of interpreting poetry through political discourse and serve as foundational sources for the formation of both the “Greater Preface” and “Minor Preface” to Book of Songs.

In the realm of ghostwriting official papers, the owner establishes the theme while the ghostwriter crafts the text. The literary significance of this practice, in terms of the ghostwriter's reputation and achievements, gradually emerged during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. During the Jian'an era, through the employment of rhetorical devices in military correspondence, ghostwriters drew attentions within literary circles due to the literary qualities of their compositions. In the Western Jin Dynasty, literary theory began to focus on the disjunction between expression and intention, leading to the recognition of the literary merit inherent in ghostwriting. Authors began incorporating their ghostwriting into their collective works during the Southern Dynasties. Building upon this, Liu Xie introduced the concept of Fu-hui (fluency and coherence), while Xiao Tong defined literature by expression rather than intention. Their ideas laid the groundwork for subsequent literary theories in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The impact of Gu Kuang's retrospective poetics on his creative work is evident in his emulation of ancient musical bureaus and poetic themes, as well as in his pursuit of the tonal and emotional resonance of the Han and Wei Dynasties. His retrospective poetics are most distinctly reflected in his thirteen chapters of Supplementary Elegies, in which he studied the creative methods of Book of Songs and Shu Xi's elegies. In his work, Gu developed new modes of composition, particularly the method of exegesis. His poetic philosophy and creative approach were derived from the Minor Odes (xiaoya), characterized by admonitory satire and a pursuit of elegance and propriety. He advocated for literature from before the Jian'an and Zhengshi periods, aiming to promote national stability and wise governance by the monarch. As a result, Gu Kuang became an important figure in the development of retrospective poetics from the High Tang to Mid-Tang periods.

Chen Wenzhu was an important writer in the literary circles from Jiajing Reign to Wanli Reign in the Ming Dynasty. Initially influenced by the retro theory of the “Seven-Scholar School,” he later reevaluated its limitations and advocated for a literary evolution perspective that “literature should change in accordance with the times.” He emphasized the significance of innovation and change in literary creation, viewing them as a crucial elements in developing a distinctive style. This proposal not only broadened the narrow connotation of the retro school's theory, which held that poetry creation must draw from the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties, but also exemplified a more inclusive approach to learning from diverse sources. Drawn on Yang Ming's theory of mind and the trend of “divergence from retro,” he explored the interplay between personality and emotion, talent and discipline, as well as knowledge and action. Consequently, he formulated his literary theories about “the authenticity of temperament,” “the potency of talent and discipline,” and “the engagement of mountains and rivers.” These ideas transcended the theoretical framework of the retro school, laying the groundwork for literary transformations from the Jiajing to Wanli period and for the subsequent “spiritual nature” trend. Through an examination of Chen Wenzhu's evolvingliterary thought, we can not only gain insight into the process of literary transformation and continuity in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but also discern the shifts that shaped the “mainstream discourse” in the literary landscapae.

The rise and development of fiction commentary were inseparable from the flourishing of publishing houses in the late Ming dynasty, and their developmental timelines were largely concurrent. As an early center of block-printing, the Jianyang publishing house was the first to apply commentary to the commercial publication of fiction, which was a pioneering contribution in the history of fiction commentary. With the continuous development of the publishing industry, the Jiangnan publishing houses gradually became the new center for block-printing. Owing to the publishers’ high level of education and the participation of literati, the quality of fiction commentary greatly improved. In addition, the advancement of editorial methods and printing technology also contributed significantly to the development of fiction commentary, ushering in its golden time during the late Ming.

In the 1950s, Jacques Lacan joined the great discussion on the “Ding” and the sublimation of art within the framework of psychoanalytic ethics and aesthetics. This discussion began with Martin Heidegger's reflections on the nature of the “Ding” and art, and could be traced back to the theoretical history originating with Immanuel Kant's doctrine of the “Ding-ansich”. Building on his own early theory of the Real, Lacan takes the positioning of the human vis-à-vis the Real rather than reality as the starting point for ethical inquiry, foreshadowing the mutual opposition and prominence of Kant and the Marquis de Sade. At the same time, he refined a new theory of sublimation based on the characteristics of the inaccessibility and irrepresentability of the “Ding” in the Real, and used courtly love and chivalric poetry as examples of sublimation, which he interpreted by means of “Anamorphose”. His combination of the theory of the “Ding” with the system of the signifier is distinctly contemporary and it can open a theoretical dialogue with the new materialism of the twenty-first century.

Heidegger's reading of Georg Trakl, though not as well-known as his reading of Hölderlin, is an epitome of his later thought and reveals the underlying nature of his dialogue between “thinking” and “poetry.” From the standpoint of overcoming Western metaphysics, John D. Caputo finds in this dialogue a brutal quality that is rooted in the “myth of Being”: an obsession with “essence,” an indifference to suffering, a disregard for the weak, and an erasure of the body. Caputo calls Heidegger's view a “phainesthetics” of unsentimental essentialism, which replaces the “calling of suffering” with the “call of Being,” and focuses on the history of Being rather than on the historical being and its factual pain and suffering. For this reason, Caputo takes Heidegger's essentializing interpretation of Georg Trakl's poetry as an example. He demonstrates the specific mechanism of “phainesthetics” by revealing how Heidegger, through a metaphysical and allegorical reading strategy, sublimates factual pain and thereby transmutes a mourning for life into a celebration of the truth of Being. This critique highlights that the deficiency of metaphysics lies in its neglect of the factual suffering of the weak. It suggests that “thinking” may only truly listen to “poetry” when metaphysics is overcome, the metaphysical grammar of “thinking” is deconstructed, and the essentialism of “phainesthetics” is abandoned.

Contemporary critical theory, based on a critique of Kantian aesthetics, transforms the theoretical form and problematic logic of traditional aesthetics. It develops an aesthetic politics through the conditional mechanisms of the relationship between sensation and politics. Sensory politics, event aesthetics, and biopolitics, as three ways contemporary critical theory reshapes Kantian aesthetics, propel the transformation of aesthetics from an originally objective and valid form of cognition in the primary sense of sensibility to the basic logic of political power operation. Aesthetic politics, with the social generation mechanism of sensation as its fundamental thread, initiates reflections on such specific issues as aesthetic liberation, aesthetic community, and aesthetic equality, thus providing new understanding of the conceptual connotations of Kantian aesthetics. Contemporary critical theory drives the structural transformation of epistemological aesthetics in terms of theoretical form, research problems, and paradigms of reflections, which inaugurates a critical aesthetics of action-intervention and expands the theoretical space and interpretive power of aesthetics.

Early 2024, OpenAI's release of Sora sparked a wave of sensational discussion. The arrival of this high-quality “text-to-film” model has been dubbed “another industrial revolution.” However, like any generative AI systems, Sora is built upon a raw training dataset, therefore its novelty is rooted in the past. This self-sufficient, self-producing-and-selling operation inevitably results in a recycling of mediocrity; Sora, therefore, is ultimately a product of the digital capitalist system. If the future were liberally shaped by digital capital, Mark Fisher's diagnosis of Western socio-culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century would remain relevant: “the slow cancellation of the future.” Jacques Derrida asserted in the 1980s that “the future belongs to ghosts,” and for him, the future is the ultimate destination of hauntology. Derrida's hauntology points to the political responsibility from the Other that persistently returns to haunt the present, while Fisher deploys it to unearth the latent “not yet,” opening up the possibility of an alternative future. With the concept of futures at its center, this article attempts to map the contours of hauntology in the works of Derrida and Fisher. Specifically, it examines how hauntology offers new ways of conceptualizing futures in an age dominated by digital capitalism, data monopolies and algorithmic logic.

Lacan identified the voice as an independent dimension from one's mutism by backward induction. He marked the object a with mutism, thus exposing the symbolic rift in the unsymbolized real. The language system builds a wall between the subject and the other, which impedes the actual expression of one's will. However, in the structural sense, obstacles also imply the possibility of future solutions. Compared with the obstruction resulting from the wall of language, voice can overcome the barrier between subjects and confirm each other's existence as well as intervene the plights of the subject through its presence of “listening.” The desire to listen to the mutism and the recognition of the wall of language signify humanity's ongoing pursuit of knowledge. Voice centesis fosters connections between subjects, maintained through physical embodiment. These two dimensions underscore the significance of the real body amidst the overwhelming flow of digital simulacra.

Weimar Classicism was not only a literary movement, but also a movement of education, because education as an issue of modernity received an in-depth discussion by key figures of Weimar Classicism such as Goethe, Schiller, and Wilhelm Humboldt. Being concerned about the condition of fragmentation in modernity, Goethe, Schiller, and Humboldt referred to the development of harmonious personality of the ancient Greeks with the hope of attaining the perfection of human beings. While Goethe and Humboldt aimed to achieve the goal of a harmonious person through aesthetic education, Schiller, besides the goal of individual improvement, had a more ambitious political plan, which was to create an aesthetic kingdom through the aesthetic person in the state of play. These differences in their educational goals also manifested the ideological tension between the core members of Weimar Classicism.