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25 November 2015, Volume 35 Issue 6 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

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The Political Turn and Rational Return of Critical Discourse in Its Localization in China Yao Wenfang 2015, 35 (6):  6-13.  Abstract ( 201 )   PDF (321KB) ( 52 )   The term "critical discourse" was not indigenous in China, and Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei were believed to bring it as a Kantian concept into Chinese knowledge and discourse system. But Liang gradually strayed from the neutral and rational Kantian concept to relate it with negative political nuance. The denunciative negative nuance was increasingly reinforced in the years from the May 4th New Culture Movement to the 10-year Cultural Revolution. The 1980s saw the return of the implications of the term from the highly political to the rational and neutral, with significant flexibility and tolerance. This return helped to redress the tendency of criticism toward the popular culture in the 1990s. In the current context of market economy development and more interdisciplinary studies, the term may be seeing greater potential and future. Related Articles | Metrics

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What is Narrative Ethic Criticism? Wang Hongsheng 2015, 35 (6):  14-21.  Abstract ( 441 )   PDF (321KB) ( 242 )   This paper probes into the origin, significance and problematic of narrative ethic criticism, and demonstrates narrative ethics can be approached from three aspects. Firstly, narration and ethics are indivisible in that there has been for a long time an intertwining and mutually generative relationship between them. Secondly, narration may be characterized to be moral or immoral as well as ordered or unordered, which means there exists non-ethical or even anti-ethical narration. Finally, narration itself may have ethical nature, and this nature is very likely to be under tension due to the possibility of constructing multiple value orders by way of narration. This paper maintains a rigorous distinction between narrative ethics criticism and conventional moral criticism and proposes some fundamental critical scales for narrative ethnic criticism in terms of critical grounds, approaches, perspectives and attitudes. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Structure of Narrative Dynamics in Lyric Poetry: Exemplified with Classical Chinese Lyric Poems Tan Junqiang 2015, 35 (6):  22-28.  Abstract ( 272 )   PDF (293KB) ( 120 )   As a product of author-reader communication, lyrical texts, like narrative texts, have internal narrative dynamics to push the narrative progression. The structure of the dynamics shows as the three relations of time, logic and space in the texts. These relations exist in the combination of events and development of plots in narrative texts, but in lyrical texts they show in different ways. The fusion of narrative dynamics and reader dynamics pushes the narrative progression and realizes the communications between the author and the reader. This paper takes classical Chinese lyrics as examples to illustrate the analysis. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Redefining Art Chen Anying 2015, 35 (6):  29-35.  Abstract ( 248 )   PDF (318KB) ( 318 )   This paper tries to present a new definition of art on the basis of contemporary Western philosophy of art. William E. Kennick's and Arthur Danto's definitions are sophisticatedly open, but they fail to take into account of the dimension of value in art. This paper proposes that art is both a production and a culture, which means that art is the production of cultural value through artisanship. The definition of art in the classical aesthetics has defined art as craftsmanship plus aesthetic value and defines artworks as the product with aesthetic value, while this paper defines art as craftsmanship plus various cultural values and defines artworks as the product with various cultural values. The comparison can show that the definition porposed in this paper goes beyond specific cultural understanding of art so that it is possible to compare artworks in different cultures and to write a world or general history of art. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Re-Examination of "Imagistic Thinking": With a Focus on Zhu Guangqian and Li Zehou  Cao Qian 2015, 35 (6):  36-44.  Abstract ( 156 )   PDF (356KB) ( 293 )   Zhu Guangqian's and Li Zehou's concepts of "imagistic thinking" were formed in the 1950s and the Post-Mao Period, with each having distinctive characteristics and both having common ground. While both equal "imagination" with "imagistic thinking," Zhu had always been taking them as the same and Li’s concept has evolved into using imagination to replace imagistic thinking. Although imagistic thinking is a transitional concept in the history of contemporary Chinese aesthetics, its theoretical value and significance are highlighted in the present context of  linguistic turn and visual culture. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Politics of Technology: Reflections on Overseas Modern Chinese Visual Cultural Studies Yu Xiayun 2015, 35 (6):  45-51.  Abstract ( 180 )   PDF (293KB) ( 59 )   The dialectical relationship between words and images is an important issue of modern Chinese literary studies. Although the interpretations from the overseas, especially Rey Chow's "technologized visuality," highlight the key position of visuality in the making process of modern Chinese literature, they exaggerate the opposition between words and images, and this exaggeration implies a colonial thinking of technology which sets the relationship between China and the Western as that between the primitive and the modern through its emphasis on Western-ownership of technology. Thus, technology becomes not only a state of matter but also a structure of ideology. If the emphasis lies on only one of the two aspects, the Cold War mentality may be resulted. Only through the promotion of the interaction between the aspects of technology, the tendency of pan-words in the visual studies can only be prevented, and thus the historicized understanding of "China" and "modern" can be achieved. Related Articles | Metrics

Issue in Focus: Image and Memory

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Foucault and Damnatio Memoriae: An Introduction to the Mnemo-Government of Cinema Li Yang 2015, 35 (6):  52-60.  Abstract ( 252 )   PDF (358KB) ( 79 )   Foucault published several interviews and articles about cinema in 1970s, and he took the cinema as one of the dispositifs codifying the popular memory. The working class in 19th century invented many ways to write their own memory, but the cinema, by way of popular historical narration, ended the history of the people from the lower depths to write their memory. Foucault analyzed how the controversial (retro and erotic) films in 1970s represented desire and power in historical narration. This paper tries to combine Foucault's "dispositif of popular memory" with the biopolitics, and claims that the memory is also the object of biopolitics and the mnemo-government is part of biopolitic government. The mnemo-government can be traced back to the damnatio memoriae in Roman times, and there are two important  forms of mnemo-government in the time of cinema according cognitive science: Orwellian government and Stalinesque government. After all, the cinematic art can invent many ways to resist the mnemo-government. Related Articles | Metrics

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Between Medusa and Nymph: On Agamben's Theory of Image Lan Jiang 2015, 35 (6):  61-68.  Abstract ( 297 )   PDF (322KB) ( 207 )   Image is born as a technology of memory, that is, the image realizes the possibility to access a disappeared past from the perspective of our finite present. However, the original image, as an object petrified by Medusa, has frozen a past which we cannot penetrate from our finitude. Indeed, Agamben doesn't think that the existence of image will thoroughly petrify our past; on the contrary, there are crevices between the petrified stones. It is in these crevices that lies the possibility to dialectically articulate the images, that is, Walter Benjamin’s dialectical image. Nevertheless, what fascinates Agamben most is not the articulation of images, but the poeisis that sutures those crevices, a Nymph-like possibility. Only in this way can we find under the eyes of Medusa an image of future for our singularity. Related Articles | Metrics

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Ironical Appropriation of Revolutionary Signs: For Memories Buried in Forgetting Zhou Jiwu 2015, 35 (6):  69-75.  Abstract ( 182 )   PDF (284KB) ( 134 )   The ironical appropriation of revolutionary signs is a visual representation strategy widely used in contemporary art practice of China, with the purpose to transform invisible cultural trauma into visual text of remembrance. Amid the textual and visual narratives, hierarchical order of symbols and signs meets its deconstruction. Appropriation of revolutionary signs in contemporary art practice is evident in three aspects: 1) appropriation and contra-appropriation of visual signs; 2) displacement and transformation of visual images; 3) parody of visual texts. However, not all appropriation of revolutionary signs is ironical, and the criteria for irony should include semantic polysemy, contextual sharing, and alienation effect. Related Articles | Metrics

Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

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A Philosophical Discussion on Liu Xie's Concept of Literary Talent Mindset Zhao Shugong 2015, 35 (6):  76-84.  Abstract ( 147 )   PDF (349KB) ( 67 )   The idea of literary talent mindset was epitomized in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons in the period of Wei-Jin and Six Dynasties. The book contained the most comprehensive and profound knowledge of literary mind as an aptitude, which was seminal to almost all the later discourses on the issue of literary talent, and its theoretical insight remains unsurpassable in many aspects. Liu Xie's philosophical view of the nature and human is reflected in this concept of literary talent mind, which gave both weight to gift and diligence, and the equal emphases on human efforts and born gift are shown especially in his theorization of talent, method and thinking. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Qi-Liang Poets' Rediscovery and Imitation of the Han Dynasty Music Bureau and Ancient Style Poetry Zhong Yao 2015, 35 (6):  85-92.  Abstract ( 224 )   PDF (317KB) ( 200 )   The Qi-Liang Period was an important phase in the acceptance history of the Han Music Bureau Poetry and the ancient style poetry. The Qi-Liang poets rediscovered and imitated the Han poetry and through this they had developed a reflective relationship with the Han poetry in terms of technique, style and criticism. Their emphasis on the folk song tradition and on the Wu-dialect ballad (Wu Sheng Xi Qu) had not only highlighted the folk song features but also the lyric genre in the Music Bureau poetry, while their pursuit for lyricism, individualistic style and the expression of personal sentiments led to various styled compositions on love and leave-taking. The new styles of poems become the examples for the Tang-Dynasty poets and provide a point to trace the artistic system and ancient lyrical tradition in the Han-Wei poetry. Related Articles | Metrics

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Style-Breaking in Song-Dynasty Ci-Poetry and Its Acceptance in the Context of "Flexible Method" Wang Xiaoli 2015, 35 (6):  93-101.  Abstract ( 204 )   PDF (362KB) ( 268 )   The idea of "flexible method" in composting ci-poetry in the Song Dynasty has two essential elements of "rule" and "change," and this idea embodies the pursuit of literary innovation in the Song Dynasties. It is an important part of the poetic theory and has profound influence on the literary evolution in the Song Dynasties. The style-breaking methods such as "composing ci-poems like regulated poems" and "composing ci-poems like prose" were in effect the proliferation of the idea of "flexible method" in the field of ci-poetics. There has been much elucidation in the Song and Yuan commentaries on ci-poetry that echoes the idea of style-breaking, and those ci-poets who excelled in style-breaking were mostly influenced by the idea of flexible method. Style-breaking not only raised the artistic realm but also enriched the means of artistic expression of ci-poem, corresponding to the "flexible method" in terms of conception and practice of ci-poem composition, while the acceptance of the idea reflected the its influence in poetics in the Song Dynasty. Related Articles | Metrics

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On Liu Shipei's "On the Difference of the Southern and the Northern China's Literature" Wu Jian 2015, 35 (6):  102-109.  Abstract ( 675 )   PDF (326KB) ( 328 )   Traditional distinction between the Southern and the Northern China's literature were made on historical specificities, while Liu Shipei in his pioneer essay in modern literary criticism "On the Difference between the Southern and the Northern China's Literature" took a theoretical perspective that viewed the distinction as an ahistorical literary framework a priori. Liu's argument may be read as a point for a paradigmatic breakup, but Liu did not push forward his idea in his practice. Instead, he attached more weight to the essence (zhi) over the literary (wen) in this traditional pair of concepts, and his contribution in the history of literary theory, due to the interaction between his literary criticism and the intellectual-political history, was beyond the conventional scope of literary criticism. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Duality of Expressive Rhetoric: The Intention of Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon as Investigated from "Casting and Paring" Li Baojing 2015, 35 (6):  110-120.  Abstract ( 200 )   PDF (415KB) ( 96 )   On the basis of a global reading of Liu Xie's Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon, this paper proposes a link between the section "Casting and Paring" and the other sections in the book, and maintains that only through such a link can the structural features, cultural efficiency and Confucian responsibilities in Liu Xie's expressive rhetoric. The parallelism in argumentative mode between the section "Affections and Coloration" and the section "casting and paring" informs a two-sided rhetoric with affection as the subjective quality and casting as the textual quality. "Casting and paring" (argumentation and writing) is realized as a primary mode in the sections of "The Source in the Way," "Learning the Sages" and "Revering the Classics." Therefore, the intention of writing Literary Mind shows in its argumentation. First, rhetoric is an unnatural generating mode, and it shows a nature of duality of good and evil because its internalization separates itself from nature. Secondly, Liu Xie's writing mode shows that the unique function of expressive rhetoric suggested by his writing practice of parallel prose lies in both the breakthroughs in rhetoric by way of alluding to classical texts and in the reader's existential experience by way of calling the readers to participate in the transcendental Confucian ideals to change their lives.   Related Articles | Metrics

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Gao Ershi's Concept of the Refined and the Mundane in Calligraphic Art Zhou Bin, Cui Shuqiang 2015, 35 (6):  121-128.  Abstract ( 163 )   PDF (323KB) ( 93 )   The concepts of the refined and the mundane are a pair of important category in calligraphic aesthetics and Gao Ershi's ideas on this are reflected in three aspects. The first is to regard the classical as the refined and the contemporary as the mundane. This is realized by reviving and studying the cursive style for official writing. The second is to regard the cultured to be refined and the crafted as the mundane. This emphasizes the cultural and aesthetic implications and attributes of calligraphy. The third is to take the clear to be refined and the turbid to be mundane. This points to aesthetic taste and the view of life, and it is realized through the solid thin line of strokes with strength and the gentle empty state of mind for the spiritual freedom. Related Articles | Metrics

Studies in Western Literary Theory

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Narrative, Situation and Metaphor: How Plato's Republic's Opening Paragraphs Are Written and Read Zhu Linfang 2015, 35 (6):  129-141.  Abstract ( 276 )   PDF (292KB) ( 299 )   Plato's Republic is both a philosophical and a literary text. Plato had kept revising the opening of The Republic till the end of his life. The Republic has a structure of dual narrative, with the man called "I" also playing a double role in this book. The time, the place, the order of appearance and the unfolding of the events all correspond to the theme. The genre of dialogue and narrative saves this philosophical text from being trapped too deep into the metaphysical mire, but too many symbolic metaphors make the interpretation of the text an attempt to solve mysteries. Thus, prudential reading and restrained interpretation may more align to the style of Platon's philosophy. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Logical Progress of German Idealist Aesthetics: With a Discussion on the Aesthetic Historical Significance of Schiller's On Beauty Li Wei 2015, 35 (6):  149-160.  Abstract ( 246 )   PDF (496KB) ( 73 )   The trajectory of German Idealist aesthetics form Kant to Hegel revolves around the developmental process from philosophical analysis of psycho-aesthetic structure to dialectic examination of aesthetic object down to critical aesthetics and philosophy of art, with a knowledge background of modern European intellectual climate or the pursuit of determinacy. Schiller's On Beauty (Kallias, 1793), by exhausting the research methods of beauty, constituted an intermediary link in the advancement in German Idealist aesthetics and established its inerasable significance in the history of aesthetics. Related Articles | Metrics

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On Beauty: Its Naming and Reference Li Hongxiang 2015, 35 (6):  162-168.  Abstract ( 344 )   PDF (290KB) ( 177 )   What is beauty? This is the first and an everlasting question in aesthetics. However, there is no clear definition about beauty so far in aesthetic history because of the confusion of name and reference. Beauty is often interpreted as the beautiful thing or the beautiful attribution of thing. This paper aims to delineate the problematic of the naming and reference of beauty by putting the problem back to the context of Plato's time and tracing the process of the formation of this philosophic concept. The paper falls into three sections, which first problematizes the naming of beauty and the reasons behind it, explores the specific characteristics of beauty as a noun and the approaches to name beauty in the light of contemporary naming theory, and clarifying the referential object of beauty in the context of ancient Greek. This paper concludes that beauty in ancient Greek refers to the state of ecstasy in religious activities and that it is then conceptualized by Plato as the ideal of pure form. Related Articles | Metrics

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Truth / Method: The Gadamer-Ricoeur Debate Qiu Jin, Du Fenggang 2015, 35 (6):  169-177.  Abstract ( 329 )   PDF (352KB) ( 316 )   There exist remarkable differences between Gadamer's and Ricoeur's understandings of the concepts "truth" and "method." Ricoeur believes that Gadamer's hermeneutics brings about the disjuncture of hermeneutic truth, while Gadamer holds that Ricoeur's structuralist method cannot integrate the conflicts of interpretations into a unified ontology. This paper points out that both philosophers develop their theories of truth on the basis of Heidegger's hermeneutical ontology, but in different ways. Gadamer focuses on the truth of understanding disclosed in the event of hermeneutic dialogue, while Ricoeur emphasizes the truth of self-understanding mediated by hermeneutic reflection. Both philosophers keep similar distance from the absolute truth by emphasizing the historiticity of understanding and the openness of hermeneutic experience, and neither stops at claiming himself to be a Hedeggerian only. Instead, both attempt to move from Heidegger's radical ontology back to different types of "the science of spirit" (Geisteswissenschaften), offering their own defense for the unique truth of the science of spirit.   Related Articles | Metrics

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Notes on Text Theory Tu Youxiang 2015, 35 (6):  178-184.  Abstract ( 200 )   PDF (292KB) ( 106 )   The conception of le texte scriptible (the writerly text) in Roland Barthes reveals the character of the text of undistinguished relation between subject and object. According to Barthes, "the text" is both an object and a subject, and if it is a pure object, it will be a work, while as a subject the text brings the author's role into play. The theoretical significance of the text is given not innate, and the pure plurality in Roland Barthes's theory does not refer to multiple meanings, because ambiguity can still lie in a unified structure, when pure plurality eliminates the centrality and unity. Related Articles | Metrics

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Is Queer Theory Equal to Gay and Lesbian Studies？ Du Lanlan 2015, 35 (6):  185-191.  Abstract ( 399 )   PDF (287KB) ( 566 )   Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of women's studies. Although it is related to gay and lesbian studies, it differs from and reacts to them. Since Chinese scholars tend to conflate queer theory with gay and lesbian studies, this essay hopes for a more accurate introduction of queer theory with an analysis of its main ideas. Related Articles | Metrics

Review

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Ideology in Narrative and the Surpass of It: A Discussion Based on Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia Liu Xin 2015, 35 (6):  192-200.  Abstract ( 305 )   PDF (381KB) ( 87 )   This paper bases its discussion on Paul Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia and investigates how Ricoeur proposes his own dialectical conceptualization upon his own reading of Marx's classical texts and constructs his dimension of reflection in his poetics of narrative. Narrative, when bringing logic structure into events, becomes a process of rationalization or legitimization, and in this process the reality is distorted. Before it becomes absolute distortion, Ricoeur claims, the representation itself is one part of the materialistic and linguistic activities of a human person, a language of real life existed before distortion. When narrative links to such function, it tends to become a Utopia which stands out from reality. Utopia does not necessarily become part of ideology, and literary utopia has a structure of reflexivity, which leads to reexamination of our identity and our role in the existing order and to the possibility of reveal the future events. This paper tries to present how Ricoeur arrives at his interpretation of ideology, utopia and narrative meditation via the long detour, and affirms the possibility of renewal and practice in ideology and utopia as long as a human person attains the ability to imagine, write, narrate and act. Related Articles | Metrics

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A Comparative Study of Deleuze's and Badiou's Theory of Cinema: Exemplified by Wim Wenders' False Movement Hu Xinyu 2015, 35 (6):  201-207.  Abstract ( 342 )   PDF (292KB) ( 296 )   Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou have different philosophical foundations constructed their own theories of cinema and applied them into the analyses of cinematic works. One of their intersections of analysis falls on Wim Wenders' False Movement. Through a comparative study of their analyses of the film, the paper tries to arrive at a deeper understanding of both philosophers' theory of cinema and a general survey of their similarities and differences. Through the analysis, the paper also hopes to expose the problem of the relationship of philosophy and cinema. Related Articles | Metrics