“Anti-order” is an important theoretical category in Chinese traditional culture, often compared with the category of “fro-order.” As the categories of “anti-order” and “fro-order” develop, two value orientations are formed in the process, that is, the orientation that favors “fro-order” over “anti-order” and that puts more merit on “anti-order” than “fro-order.” The preference to “anti-order” has exerted greater influence and given rise to the concept of “anti-order writing” in theoretical criticism of classical Chinese literature. It is a common aesthetic aspiration in literary criticism of the Qing Dynasty that values the “anti-order.” The Tongcheng school, for instance, makes detailed comments on the use of the “anti-order writing” through anthologies and commentaries to emphasize its important meaning. Their creative interpretation by means of metaphor enriches the criticism of the anti-order writing. Tongcheng scholars’ criticism of anti-order writing is a concrete reflection of their literary thought. Moreover, their works not only reflect the profound understanding of Tongcheng school’s creative view on anti-order writing, but also embody the mindset of favoring the aesthetics of twists over smoothness.

The stage design of traditional European and American theatre belongs to the “visual field,” while the perceptual revolution of contemporary scenography aims to break the visual dominance and devise multi-sensory experiences. Behind the traditional scenography dominated mostly by vision and secondly by hearing is the perceptual hierarchy of Western civilization, hammered in especially by rationalism in modern times. Since the 1990s, however, contemporary theatre has turned to touch, smell and taste to provide embodied experiences that are inaccessible through virtual media such as film, television and the Internet. Considering the recent revival of “lower senses,” this article focuses on the perceiving body’s sensory experiences of touch, smell, taste and synaesthesia in contemporary theatre environments. Exploring tactile/haptic experiences from human touch to post-human touch, relating olfactory experiences to emotion, memory and urban smellscape, staging gustatory experiences through taste, cooking and rasaesthetics, and devising synaesthetic experiences to understand (syn)aesthetics and the “weather world,” contemporary theatre has effectively appealed to “lower senses” in both theory and practice through its expanded multi-sensory scenography.

 As a mainstream conceptualization of Chinese literature and art since the 20th century， the popularization of literature and art has produced profound influence on the development of Chinese literature. The 20th century saw three dominant patterns of discourse： the “enlightenment discourse” during the May Fourth Movement， the “discourse of the masses” in the 1930s， and the “discourse of the people” established by the two Speeches. As the three modes evolved， they witnessed the exchange and adjustment of practical subject and object as well as the conflict between literary ontology and functionalism. The popularization of literature and art was not only a product of the twentieth-century political revolution， but also a process wherein the aesthetic principles of “human literature” and “people's literature” constantly conflicted and intersected with each other. Therefore， it can be concluded that the transmutation of the discursive modes of popularization of literature and art since the twentieth century was both politically and aesthetically engaged.

 As transmedia storytelling prevails， narrative gradually becomes an art of world-building. A storyworld is an expandable fantasy world aroused by narration. The construction of a storyworld involves precise creation， continuous expansion， and narrative coherence. A storyworld， following the principle of “fantastic realism，” normally consists of a long history， current events， and shared values. Such a world unfolds thanks to the shift of the characters' point of view， the expansion of the space， and the generational developments， three devices used in the narrative like three “searchlights” in the exploration of an unknown world. The popularization of the storyworld is underlined by the rise of a “re-enchanting” world as a result of the dissatisfaction with the society of “disenchantment” and the desire for the resurgence of fantasy. With imminent threats and pressing missions， “re-enchantment” suggests a turbulent and imaginary world， where the participants of the re-enchanting storyworlds manage to escape from the daily life， search for meaning， and establish a sense of identity.

In essence， the metaverse can be regarded as a time process， which will magnify and refine the jump， reversal， and delay of the subject against the flow of time， so as to show the intervention of non-linear time in the subjective perception. Secondary to time， speed generates and presents the synthesis of its internal dynamic relations based on time. As a mirror presentation of the temporal logic of modernity， slow time in the metaverse not only inverts the modern cult of speed， but also resists algorithmic time and its determinism. Slow time acts simultaneously as a new mode of perception and memory， allowing the subject to perceive the heterogeneity of time. In addition， the perspective of media archaeology displays the dual pressure of earlier media on fracture and speed， and later media's re-examination of temporal reflexivity. Therefore， slow time reveals a confrontation with historical totality and its pressure， as well as the pressure of globalized temporal imagination on the other， the pressure of chronological hegemony on individual authenticity， and the pressure of time on space. A reflection upon such will become another path to reexamine the question of contemporaneity.

Since the 1970s, Darko Suvin's “cognitive estrangement” has been widely considered the starting point of science fiction (sf) studies. It argues that the “estranged” narratives of sf need to be validated by empirical, positivist “cognition”, thereby justifying the novum and the sense of newness in sf stories. This article, however, denies the “neutral” status of cognition, as it can only produce the politicised knowledge endorsed by a certain authority. Through a close interrogation of an emerging literary genre termed “the New Weird” — one that combines both science fictional and fantastic characteristics and thus questions the ideological bias of cognition — I will draw upon Quentin Meillassoux's speculative materialism and Gilles Deleuze's conceptualisation of becoming and nomad, proposing a post-humanist epistemology that opens itself to contingency and may transcend any territory constrained by binary logics.

Recently, “immersion”, a technical term in virtual reality, has gained attention in narratological studies and has been applied to the construction of multimedia theories. While the emphases and interpretations of different immersion theories are diverse, they share the focus on readers' and/or users' narrative experience and cognitive process, in order to break away from classical narratology and herald the digital turn. Among all these theories, Janet H. Murray, Marie-Laure Ryan and Michael Heim exemplify three approaches to exploring immersive experience in the digital world. Among them, Murray investigates immersion in “low-tech” narrative, Ryan constructs a general poetics of immersion beyond media, and Heim explores “ultimate display” from the unique sensory experience of “high-tech” narrative. Immersion is pivotal to the understanding of narrative cognition in the digital age. Clarifying different approaches is the premise of understanding the technological intervention and aesthetical change in contemporary narratological theories.

Starting with Eve Sedgwick's shame theory, this paper examines queer theory scholars' explorations into shame in the United States and their continuing dialogue on the political potential of this particular form of affect. The paper argues that the theorization of shame has left a distinct mark on affect theory. The notion of shame has provided impetus for reflecting on queer politics, ethics, historiography and aesthetics, and its intersections with categories such as gender, sexuality, disability and race also offer new points of depature for social and political analyses.

Embarking on the paradox of the imagination, Schelling elaborates on its creative and intuitive nature. He regards the intellectual intuition of the Absolute as the transcendental foundation of imagination, thus elevating the latter from the level of epistemology to that of ontology, and making it a kind of creativity rooted in the divine Creation that establishes the fundamental relationship between human and the being of the world. The poetic imagination is the objectification of the divine imagination in the empirical world. It communicates the finite and the infinite through the aesthetic action of “Ein-bildung,” and achieves the realization of the Absolute's self-production and self-intuition. The integration of imagination and the metaphysical construction principle of the whole philosophical system is essentially a poetic creation. The inherent structure of imagination contains a contradiction between freedom and necessity. Schelling believes that the real imagination should be free creation constrained by systematic inner necessity. He reveals the real human imagination as the combination of divinity and poetry based on human freedom. The three-dimensional theoretical structure of imagination—divinity, poetry and freedom—runs through the three human spiritual fields, reason, sensibility and will, which correspond to the triple meta-value of truth, beauty and goodness, prompting people to achieve an overall harmonious state of life.

Heidegger's discussions of Hölderlin's poetry plays an important role in his philosophy of existence. However, it also sparks great controversies, which mainly focus on whether the Heideggerian interpretation implies Heidegger’s “Fighting Spirit” of devoting himself to reality. This article does not view such controversy as a theme of significance, but examines how such a convoluted thought in Heidegger’s philosophy of existence is related to the historical depth as he’s perceived., The relation is expressed through the interpretation of poetry, and the philosophy of existence places Hölderlin’s poetry in the same critical temporal point when a nation faces a decisive historical moment for a new prospect. At this juncture, poetry is related to history, philosophical thinking and even politics, to construct a “historical Dasein” within this world. The paper explores the implications of how historical consciousness permeated with philosophical thinking is thoroughly combined with poetic understanding. This article also tackles the issue concerning Derrida’s deconstruction of Heidegger’s thoughts on “spirit,” claiming that this action of Derris’s has so incisively and subtly penetrated Heidegger’s “historical consciousness.” 

Since 1997， narrative research in China has entered the stage of Sino-Western dialogue， which is manifested as not only a dialogical spirit in specific cases， but also a dialogical stance in the research of narrative forms. On the basis of such dialogue， some Chinese studies have played a leading role in the development of narrative theories. Narrative studies in China have either advanced original research output recognized by Western scholars as representing “Chinese voice，” or engaged in expanding the field in terms of methodology or scopes of research， or displayed the Chinese characteristics of traditional Chinese narratives. However， as Western narratology remains dominant， still more needs to be done to change this dynamic through such approaches as promoting the researches of indigenous narratology， enhancing translation and comparative studies of between Chinese and Western narratology， and reinforcing the studies of traditional Chinese narratives.

Centering on the conceptualization of “subjectivity,” this article first traces the post-structural theories’ impact on as well as their complex relationship with Western feminism. It then explores the development of the theorization of “women’s subjectivity” in academic research on Chinese women and gender discourses in socialist China from the 1980s. By examining the application of three influential theorists, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler, in the Chinese context, this article intends to show the complex genealogy of “appropriating” post-structural theories for different agendas of contemporary Chinese feminist criticism. Some scholars integrated post-structural ideas into liberal-humanist discourses; some employed post-structuralist feminism to de-essentialize and historicize the analysis of “subjectivity” and “agency” of socialist Chinese women; some questioned the effectiveness of post-structural theories in studying the Chinese socialist culture from the perspective of historical materialism. Different research paradigms of theorizing “female subjectivity” have proven to be influenced and informed by the changing ideologies and social discourses in China since the 1980s.

Mikhail Bakhtin sensitively pointed out the demand for an exact place and time in eighteenth-century European sentimental novels. This article argues that the emphasis on specific time and place is only one aspect of the artistic pursuit of sentimental novels. In terms of time, sentimental novels abandon objective time that is linear, uniform and measurable and instead extend some moments in accordance with the inner feelings of characters. In terms of space, authors of such novels prefer pastoral and lake areas with picturesque scenes and sentimental feelings. The time and space in sentimental novels do not, as Bakhtin said, intend to deliberately create a sense of reality as demanded by early naive realism, but are often a precursor to romanticism that integrates emotions and imaginations. The fragmented and ruined spatial form of sentimental novels deeply reflects the rise of emotional culture in the mid- and late-eighteenth century. The idea of time and space in sentimental novels not only reveals the critique of modernity in the romantic movement but also implies the exploration of the inner space and time of modernist fictions. Their fragmented narrative is also a valuable attempt to explore the relationship between readers and works.

Stanley Fish diagnoses a fundamentally antidisciplinary impulse in the interdisciplinary project of theory， which is barely possible in Fish's view. Although interdisciplinary cooperation seems an ideal goal， it is unrealizable to replace drastically academic disciplines with a system based on undisciplined or antidisciplinary principles. While the interdisciplinary impulse of theory had been more politically motivated around the 1980s， interdisciplinary practices since the 1990s are increasingly focused on methodological innovation and disciplinary re-justification. When interdisciplinarity is becoming a new hot topic， it is of great significance to re-examine Fish's proposition about it， which will help us keep sober about the hope and potential implied in interdisciplinarity.

Since the beginning of the new century， Western popular culture has been haunted by a ghost — zombie — which increasingly demonstrates its attraction and potential for interpretation in Hollywood genre film. First of all， at the image level， the image of zombie is a metaphorical representation or symbolic critique of such important concepts as capital， the proletariat， and the subject of consumption under the umbrella of capitalism. These critical values of zombie are closely related to the “negative dialectics” implied in its definition. Therefore， it points to an alternative to the post-human vision of cyborg. Secondly， the commercial success of the zombie film is rooted in the plundering and appropriation of images from former colonies on the one hand， and a compromise with the logic of local consumerism on the other. This holistic process is itself an expression of the problems including postcoloniality in the capitalist world system. A theoretical identification of the local metaphor as well as the holistic allegory presented by the zombie film allows us to understand the main aspects of the capitalist cultural logic that underlie these films as well as their future developments.

The aesthetics of existence is at the core of Foucault's later ethical genealogy, in which the superiority of the free subject in the self-construction over power can establish the superiority of the ethical subject over the moral subject and that of the governance of the self over the governance of others. Agamben's concept of the “form-of-life” in Part IV of the Homo Sacer is developed from his reflections upon Foucault, which suggests that Foucault's aesthetics of existence does not attain what he expects because of its association with tekhne or power. Therefore, Agamben critically inherits Foucault's thought from an ontological perspective and develops his existential aesthetics of the self of eros.

According to Eliot Deutsch's studies in Comparative Aesthetics, the four dimensions of cross-cultural aesthetic appreciation are Cultural-Authorial Weltanschauung, Cultural-Authorial Aesthetic Preference, Formal Content and Symbolic Values. We will encounter many difficulties when appreciating the works of art from other cultures because of cultural differences. However, the four dimensions can help us overcome these obstacles, thus making possible our better understanding of the aesthetic features of the works of art. Comparative aesthetics is not to weigh the supremacy of the Chinese art or the Western art, nor to take the work of art as proof to cultural differences, but to find some methods with which we can shift from the physical object to the aesthetic object in the process of appreciation. In cross-cultural aesthetic appreciation, the appreciator is not required to identity entirely with the values of other cultures, but expected to understand the four dimensions in the least. It is quite common that in cross-cultural aesthetic appreciation we understand cultural values different from ours but do not identity with them.

The existing discourse of Metaverse mostly adopts the methods of technicism and linear narration, and pays too much attention to the changes of the appearance of media technology, thus taking Metaverse as the culmination of the development of digital media. However, such discussion ignores not only the diversity of Metaverse in history and future, but also the users' aesthetic experience. And the problem can be corrected by means of media archaeology and body phenomenology. Through media archaeology, we find a repressed tactile media lineage in art history, which puts the body perception-kinesthetic sensation at the core, and so does Metaverse, which brings a more intimate way for the inter-subject interaction and distinguishes it from other digital media. Nowadays, Metaverse has taken a step further in the exploration of fusing technical prosthesis and body schema, greatly expanding the scope and freedom of coupling between human and technical environment. Metaverse is a kind of “mixed reality” rather than “virtual space”, which depends on people's physical activities and emotional memories in real space as its constituent elements.

Focusing on the paradox of modernity, Hans Blumenberg suggests that myth will not be transcended by reason, but he must defend the Enlightenment and the legitimacy of the modern it initiates. His studies of myth can be read as an alternative critical theory, or the disclosure of a heterogeneous aspect of critical theory. Enlightenment and myth are dichotomously connected, not so much in the sense that Enlightenment turns itself into myth, but in the sense that myth asserts itself through Enlightenment, or that subjectivity asserts itself through myth when it is in decline. The modern doctrine of political myth based on the dialectics of Enlightenment is a continuation of the classical humanist tradition, but gives myth a critical function. The key to understanding myth is that at any given moment, multiple myths must operate simultaneously, and that no one myth can override the others. Based on this notion, Blumenberg reads Goethe's singular aphorism—"Nemo contra deum nisi deus ipse” (no one can resist God but God himself)—in terms of a polytheistic aestheticism of new mythology, suggesting a new Enlightenment and calling for a new philosophy of hope. 

The Psychology of Tragedy (1933) by Zhu Guangqian is a monumental work in the history of Chinese theories of tragedy. Written from the unique perspective of a Chinese scholar and moving with ease among major Western theories of tragedy, its author had raised therein a good number of great insights that are still valid today. Zhu Guangqian's greatest contribution to the theory of tragedy lies in his modification of Aristotle's theories of "catharsis" and "hamartia", legitimating the plot of innocent suffering and introducing into the mix of tragic feelings such important concepts as love and regret. Probably due to his over-emphasis on the Kantian notion of the sublime, Zhu seemed to have neglected those tragic works that depict the passive suffering of ordinary men and women. As to the three classic German philosophers, Zhu Guangqian rejected both Hegel's theory of universal justice for being too optimistic and Schopenhauer's theory of resignation for being too pessimistic. Zhu's overall outlook on life and his aesthetic theory in particular find a close ally in Nietzsche who combined the ideas of his two German predecessors. Nietzsche, of course, erred miserably in his pronouncement on the death of tragedy in ancient Greece, and this had a negative impact on Zhu Guangqian in his own elaborations of the subject. Nevertheless, their similar effort to connect tragic art with cultural values constituted a great inspiration to later scholars.