Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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Issue in Focus: Theoretical Studies in the Context of Contemporary Art

Contemporary Chinese Art and Western Theory: The Question of Hospitality

Hagi Kenaan

2015, 35(2): 7-16.

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The paper takes a philosophical instead of a historical perspective to look at contemporary Chinese art, concerned with the relationship between contemporary Chinese art and "Western" theory. In the attempt to articulate the relationship between contemporary Chinese art and "Western" theory, the paper proposes "the question of hospitality" as its approach to the issue, asking who exactly the host and the guest are and what kind of dynamics is suggests by a relationship of hospitality. It begins by proposing a brief sketch of a philosophical theme or dilemma that is supposed to be crucial for the development of "theory" in the 1980 and reflects on its relationship to developments in contemporary Chinese art. The paper maintains that the "contemporary" implies a new position, a new orientation in relation to the circumstances and events of the present.

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Issue in Focus: Theoretical Studies in the Context of Contemporary Art

Image and the Intrusion of Antinarrative: Rosalind Krauss' Structuralist Criticism

Shen Yubing, Tao Zheng

2015, 35(2): 17-24.

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During the late 70's to 80's in the last century, Rosalind Krauss had a structuralist turn of mind which had brought image into "structural" system, and she emphasized the difference and the synchronicity within formal system of images. Her discussions were quite distinct from the modernist narratives of Clement Greenberg, extending to the field of postmodernism. Krauss tried to detach image from the concepts such as "intention", "origin" and "authorship" so as to promote the status of structuralism criticism. If Krauss' research is viewed not from the essentialist perspective that views antinarrative to be a kind of narrative, Krauss' approach of criticism may exhibit some value in the consciousness of historical instant.

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Issue in Focus: Theoretical Studies in the Context of Contemporary Art

A Last Blow? T. J. Clark on Pollock and Abstract Expressionism

Zhu Geyi

2015, 35(2): 25-31.

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T. J. Clark carries forward the logic of social history of art which he developed and operated in his study of Courbet and Manet into his analysis of Pollock and Abstract Expressionism. Clark argues that Pollock continued the radical tradition of modern art by resisting similarity and metaphor while Abstract Expressionism continued it with its 'vulgarity' quality. However, their resistances were devoured by the totality of capitalist culture. Clark's pessimistic conclusion is that the modernist tradition of 'negativity' can't continue.

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Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

The Influence of Hu Yinglin's Shi Sou on Emura Hokkai's History of Japanese Poetry

Hu Xin, Yan Ming

2015, 35(2): 32-40.

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When writing The History of Japanese Poetry, the Mid-Edo Japanese scholar Emura Hokkai (1707-1782) was deeply influenced by Shi Sou (An Anthology of Poetry) compiled by Chinese Ming-Dynasty scholar Hu Yingling's (1551-1602). In compiling method, Emura's History of Japanese Poetry was written in the way that integrated narration of history through poetry commentaries with biographical history. In thematic treatment, Emura developed Hu's concept of "qi yun" (spirit-mores) and proposed the concept of "shi dao" (generation-way), claiming that Hu's concept of "qi yun" was inherited by the Japanese and became the fundamental reason for the Japanese to develop its own poetics that grounded in "shi dao". In terms of poetic aesthetics, Emura integrated Hu's idea that tonal pattern and rhyme scheme represent the spirit with Japanese aesthetic concept of "aware (哀れ)" and proposed his criteria of poetic criticism. In conclusion, Hu Yinglin's Shi Sou provided a norm for Emura Hokkai to write The History of Japanese Poetry.

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Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

On Wang Youpu's Criticism on the Ancient-Style Prose and Its Value

Yu Zukun

2015, 35(2): 41-49.

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Critical practice on the ancient-style prose is an important part of the literary activity of Tongcheng School in the Qing Dynasty, and due research attention should be paid for understanding their prose theory. Wang You-pu (1681-1760) was one key figure in developing the school's prose theory. As a disciple of Fang Bao, the founder of the school, Wang developed Fang's notion of yifa (meaning-method) by expanding on the relationship between meaning (yi) and method (fa). Wang You-pu had also combined Fang's notion of meaning-method with Jin Shengtan's (1608-61) literary critical practice and vision, which not only sharpened his perceptive and analytical capacities concerning the meaning and method and provided better perspectives for him to probe into the author's mentality and psychology but also enabled him to take on extra passion, distinct personality and exceptional literariness in his critical writing. Wang You-pu's prose criticism revealed much about the meaning-method in the works of Mencius and Records of the Grand Historian, which could help to deepen the understanding of the two books. His critical approach and practice are valuable for contemporary research in the classical studies and literary theory.

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Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

The Zen Buddhism's Thoughts of No Difference between Form and Empty in Dream of the Red Chamber

Wang Ranran

2015, 35(2): 50-57.

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Zen Buddhism's idea of form-emptiness has often been viewed as "nothing," although form-emptiness means "no distinction between form and emptiness." The great wisdom in this notion is that on the one hand Zen Buddhism views things as dreams so man can't and shouldn't attach to any of things and on the other hand Zen Buddhism realizes that although the insight may help man cleanse of vain and evil thoughts it can remove the good in thoughts such as vitality and creativity, resulting in poverty of the good provided by things. Therefore, Zen Buddhism emphasizes that man should understand meaning of "emptiness-in-itself" to stimulate the good from thoughts. This paper tries to investigate how the notion of no distinction between form and emptiness is embedded and embodied in Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber so as to reveal the life wisdom in the novel.

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Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

On the Modern Transformation of Ancient Literary Theory

Wang Yun

2015, 35(2): 58-67.

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Focusing on the contemporary research of the modern transformation of ancient literary theory in China, the paper intends to expose the implied cultural orientation behind the different ideas of and approaches to the modernization of ancient literary theory. This paper points out that, on the one hand, the approach to the modern transformation take the route from construction in the 1980s to deconstruction in 1990s and that, one the other hand, in terms of methodology, the need for an open system is widely accepted and the discursive power of closed conceptual system is undermined and dissolved. As a result, pluralist and dialogic perspectives and attitude are taken into the thinking and the various cultural resources prompt the scholars to find ways out of the theoretical dilemma of modern transformation of ancient literary theory by way of freedom and commensurability of individuality.

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Studies in Chinese and Foreign Aesthetics

On Some Issues Neglected in Modern Chinese Aesthetic Studies

Gu Zuzhao

2015, 35(2): 68-80.

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The paper argues that aesthetic studies in new China belongs to modern aesthetics as it has followed the basic research modes of Western mainstream aesthetics that has involved conceptual hypothesis, presupposed system and logocentric argumentation. The paper takes for examples the debates between the four schools of aesthetics and examines some important issues overlooked in modern Chinese aesthetics. In the context of deconstructionism and postmodernism, against the background of the rich resources of Chinese classical theories, aesthetic studies in new China has gradually exhibited their overly subjective speculation, detachment from practice, and self-closure. These deficiencies show in following aspects: limitedness in research methodology, neglect to Chinese ancient critical resources, negligence of aesthetic principle of life, overlook of the duality of aesthetics or inter-subjectivity, and inattention to the formal diversity of aesthetic existence. The paper maintains that Chinese aesthetic studies may be rejuvenated only through putting sufficient attention to the significance of Chinese ancient aesthetics and critical resources.

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Studies in Chinese and Foreign Aesthetics

Re-evaluating "Foregrounding": The Prague School's Contributions to Aesthetics

Yang Lei

2015, 35(2): 81-88.

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"Foregrounding" is a key term of the Prague School, and due to its similarity with "defamiliarization," "foregrounding" has caused some misreading, which further leads to the misunderstanding of the relationship between the Prague School and the Russian Formalism. Starting with this term, the Prague School constructed a sophisticated system of structuralist aesthetics and literary theory, which surpassed the Russian Formalism. The concept of "foregrounding" foretells a contextualist aesthetics, which pointed to the contextualist turn of aesthetics in the 20^th century.

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Studies in Chinese and Foreign Aesthetics

The Category, Complexity, Starting Points and Methodology of Image Studies

Chen Jirong

2015, 35(2): 89-94.

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The development of imagology can be traced back to the study of literary imagery, comparative studies and iconology, which covers early research on literature and society, the study of image and illusion, and contemporary study of image and discourse. Imagology has developed through the three stages develop from literary history, poetics and power discourse, while the focus of its content balances between holistic analysis and textual studies, and its methodology makes use of the models of culture studies and also tries to highlight the relation between image construction and power discourse. Therefore, the remarkable aspect to be noted in image studies is the topological nature of the categories, complexity, starting points and methods in imagology.

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Studies in Chinese and Foreign Aesthetics

The Concept of Image in Chinese, Western and Japanese Cultures

Xi Haohui

2015, 35(2): 95-102.

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Global multicultural interaction accommodates the conflict between monism and pluralism. The paper examines the three different forms of beauty as reflected in the different concepts of image in Chinese, Western and Japanese cultures as art symbols of expressing feelings and ideas. The concept of image as a Western concept finds its counterparts in Chinese phrase of "xingxiang" (形象 form-image) and Japanese "sugata" (姿 idea-image). "Image" in the ancient Greece referred mainly to the exterior form, which in turn pointed to the "body" and highlighted in the geometrical "form." The concept of "form-image" in Chinese emphasizes the image over the form, aiming at the vision through the shape, which eventually reached the "spirit" in the identification between the subject and the object and enacted in man's presence in the world. The concept of "idea-image" (sugata) in Japanese culture is not the form of reason but the form in the intuitive experience. The "idea-image" is formless and shows in both the still motion and the moving stasis, and the idea-image formed in an instant suggests the fluidity of the world.

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

The Public Nature and the Governance of Contemporary Visual Culture

Min Xueqin, Zheng Liyong

2015, 35(2): 103-109.

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Contemporary visual culture is encroaching on daily, social and political lives of the public with diversified content and in hi-tech forms. The public nature of contemporary visual culture brings much convenience for itself to integrate into public space, guide public value and participate into public governance. Empirical investigations show that visual culture representing everyday life tends to provide entertainment and interest, and visual culture reflecting social life is hypersensitive to the public nature, while visual culture referring to political life is becoming more pronounced for its remedying social inequality and nurturing participation habits. Visual culture is provided with an unprecedented opportunity to participate into public governance. From the top-design, platform construction and public awareness, the mutual benefit of visual culture and public governance will bring new changes for human civilization.

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

Traumatic Memory: Psychic Reality and Cultural Representation

Zhao Jingrong

2015, 35(2): 110-119.

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Traumatic memory exhibits three fundamental features, namely, the individualistic nature, personal experience, and emotional nature, among which personal experience is the most important because the subject of traumatic memory has a pre-privilege of emotion and ethics. The ultimate goal of the subject with traumatic memory is to get through the negative effects of trauma on the subject and make him cope with the real life. Traumatic memory can be studied from the perspective of its origin in the reality and its cultural representation. Trauma in the form of individual suffering could become collective crisis only when it is studied in the context of the collective and universal world, and the theme of trauma can then become from literary theme to the issue of philosophy, ethics and culture. The trauma of body, spirit and society can then become cultural trauma. Nowadays, media have turned personal memory into the public discourse and at the same time turned traumatic memory into everyday life. The paper suggests three attitudes, namely, paying sympathy and respect for sufferings, keeping a vigilant eye on the writing of memory, and differentiating objective truth from subjective truth and the constructive context of correct memory from that of wrong memory.

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

Representation, Working and Imagination of Power: A Study on "The Young Newcomer to the Department of Organization" and other "Against-Current Novels"

Cao Qinghua

2015, 35(2): 120-129.

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One important aspect of Wang Meng's novel The Young Newcomer to the Department of Organization and other so-called "Against-Current (Niliu) Novels" is the questioning, exposing and challenging of the way power is represented and worked and the way power is related to its representation and working in these novels, but this has been overlooked for quite a long time in the research scholarship. The paper argues that these novels call into interpellation the representation and working of power in reality while the imagination of power permeated in these novels performs the function of interpellation similar to the in-practice power interplay. What is more, the powerful institution put the novels into the purging system of power while the novels are not accommodated by the power system and become the target of re-purging.

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

Changing Authorship: The Evolution on Literary Practices and Theory

Xu Miaomiao

2015, 35(2): 130-137.

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Focusing on the changing concept of author, this paper tries to investigate the new demands posed to literary theory from the new media by contextualizing its argument in the combined development of literary theory, literary history and new media. The paper claims that literary theory, due to its development in the context of print culture, increasingly shows its deficiencies in the current media. In terms of the authorship, individual authors may not have been essential for literary creation, and the concept of determined authors is established in written system and the print culture and re-enforced with the regulations of intellectual property rights. Developed in the context of print culture, contemporary literary theory will surely collaborate with the power of the print-culture system, strengthening the link between the individual reader and the author by such concepts as "literary style" and "literariness." In the internet literature, the authorship changes and it may not point to a single author, and the production of literary texts may become a categorical concept. The paper claims that internet literature may provide a new perspective to view literary practice and review literary theory, and therefore the circle of literary theory should pay positive attention to internet literature.

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

The Sociality of the Aesthetic and the Reconstruction in Critique: From Zhu Guangqian's "Misreading" of Croce

Jin Lang

2015, 35(2): 138-146.

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This paper investigates the construction of sociality in Zhu Guangqian's aesthetics by analyzing his acceptance of Croce. Misreading is almost a consensus in the studies of Zhu Guangqian's acceptance of Croce, while this might also overshadow his aesthetics construction. When returning to Kant as his point of re-departure, Zhu Guangqian not only directed his critique toward Croce but also the western tradition of idealist philosophy in general, and it is his continuous concern of the sociality of the aesthetic that lies behind his critique. This concern of his starts with his critique of Croce's aesthetics and is realized when he complimented British empirical sympathy and the tradition of German empathy aesthetics.

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

Towards a Pluralistic Open System of Literary Theory Studies: A Survey of British and American Literature Theory Textbooks in Recent 30 Years

Li Hongbo

2015, 35(2): 147-153.

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In the past 30 years, the drastic changes in literary theories led to corresponding changes in British and American literature theory textbooks. Their textbooks focus on the study of the theories, closely related to literary texts, and exhibit the features such as the diversity of perspectives, openness of concepts, attention to the contemporary, and emphasis on practice. In comparison with them, Chinese course books of literary theories need to get rid of the constraints of essentialism in terms of literary concept and knowledge construction, and construct a student-centered system of literary theory studies that can tackle with the contemporary literary practice and criticism.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

How to Understand the Interdisciplinary of Cultural Studies: Taking Hoggart's Uses of Literacy as an Example

Yan Jia

2015, 35(2): 154-162.

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Richard Hoggart's Uses of Literacy established the basic paradigm for the interdisciplinary nature of the cultural studies, and its essential principle is to start from the "living culture" of social life, to study literary texts, especially the texts of popular culture rather than to study the texts of "classic literary works" determined by some experts and scholars, and to find how the texts influence and shape the everyday life of people (especially the working class). This purpose of cultural studies has entailed its genetic relationship with literature, popular culture and sociology, and in essence constituted a new way of literary studies quite different from the orthodox and classic way of literary studies. This way of literary studies has taken on its distinctive colors of class, politics, gender and ideology.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

The Ethical Responsibility of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenological Theory of Literature: On the Promoting Agency of Literary Language to the Formation of the Individual

Jia Wei

2015, 35(2): 163-170.

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Merleau-Ponty had revised Husserl's phenomenology of speech and Saussure's structuralist linguistics and developed his own phenomenology of speech, gaining insight into the intersubjectivity between speech and individual. His phenomenological research also shows that literary speech as a deviant form of everyday speech can not only boost the historical formation of the individual but also inherit something profound from the history.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

Terry Eagleton's Borrowing from Aristotle's Metaphysics Thought

Yin Zhike

2015, 35(2): 171-179.

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Terry Eagleton's attention to theology and metaphysical issues is not a theology turn, for his thoughts on theology is not fully explicable in religious sense. God, for him, is a substitution for "essence." He insists that the postmodernists who deny the essence are actually essentialists with masks. Eagleton believes that the ultimate reason for human being is man itself, that is, the essence of mall. Essence, for him, is not common feature but the nature, and the nature is the form. The paper therefore argues that Aristotle's teleology has greatly influenced Eagleton.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

Schapiro, Semiotics and Iconography

Gao Xin

2015, 35(2): 180-188.

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During the 20th century, a theory transformation brought about by semiotics has inserted profound impact on almost all the disciplines of humanities, including anthropology, literary theory and art history. Starting with the aim at theorizing these studies, the movement has evolved into a capitalized Theory during its development that shifts its focuses to the ethical and political functions of literature and art and sacrifices the aesthetic values of literary texts. When Meyer Schapiro introduced semiotic methods into his art history studies, he could avoid the hazard. His introduction of semiotics into art history study, by bypassing the essentialist or metaphysical claims, enriches and opens more alternatives in the analysis of artworks. Due to its foundation on the image-sign semiotics, it could also overpass the notion of meaninglessness of artworks and the idea of pure form, so that the iconological intelligibility from representational art to abstract art can be constructed. The introduction of semiotics into the study of art does not, however, mean to give up analyzing the aesthetic qualities and the formal aspects of artworks.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

A Study of the Prototypes of Romance

Li Limin

2015, 35(2): 189-196.

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As a genre, romance lasts for thousands of years, and it has fixed narrative modes, characters and situations. However, the genre cannot be long-lasting by its stable structure, characters and situations alone. By re-examining the definition, history, classification and stylistic evolution of the genre, and by way of the theories of structuralist narratology, the paper summarizes three romance prototypes, namely, structure prototype, character prototype, and situation prototype, and it proceeds to demonstrate that the changing of "satellites" which breaks the readers' expectation on romance provides the readers with reading pleasure. This explains the high popularity of romance since 12th century. The paper also maintains that the three types of prototypes may help to reveal readers' cognitive processes of romance narration.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Greening Studies of Postcolonialism

Miao Fuguang

2015, 35(2): 197-204.

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Postcolonial ecocriticism develops in the ecocrtitical turn of postcolonialism, and as the new development of postcolonialism, it is grounded on postcolonialism and ecocriticism, starting with and ending in the study of postcolonialism. This paper starts with a retrospective analysis of postcolonialism and then it examines postcolonial ecocriticism's theoretical sources in terms of ecological thoughts, history of colonialization, ecological imperialism and postcolonialism. The paper proceeds to summarize three main tasks of postcolonial ecocriticism, namely, tracing the historical connection between racism and speciesism, exposing the paradox between development and conservation of environment, and interpreting animal and environment writings in literary discourses, so as to expose the imperial hegemonic cultural grounds for the global deterioration of ecological environment. Postcolonial ecocriticism is still an emerging cultural and literary theory, and the study of which may bring inspiration for the balance between the conservation of ecological environment and economic development in China.

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Studies in Western Literary Theory

More Than Being Alive: On Albert Camus' Works of Absurdity from the Perspective of the Consciousness of Absurdity

Zhang Bo

2015, 35(2): 205-213.

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From the beginning of his writing career, Albert Camus had taken "the consciousness of absurd" as his fundamental guideline. Through a series of works, he explored how human-being with that consciousness lived in the absurd world and how they tried to redefine their meaning of life with their own forces. In L'Etranger and Caligula, Camus portrayed a picture of nihilism and despotism resulted from the consciousness of absurdity, while in La Mort heureuse and Le mythe de Sisyphe the same consciousness had led to the pursuit for happiness in the human world. This essay charts the trajectory of Camus' creative guideline and exposed the enlightening power and his sympathy towards mankind in his early works.

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Symposium Highlights

The Weapons of Criticism and the Criticism of Weapons: A Synopsis of the Symposium of "Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism Practice"

Wang Kaiguo, Niu Jing

2015, 35(2): 214-216.

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