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25 January 2016, Volume 36 Issue 1 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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Issue in focus: Do We All See the Same Artwork?

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The Function of Generalization in Art History: Understanding Art across Traditions David Davies 2016, 36 (1):  8-19.  Abstract ( 261 )   PDF (1344KB) ( 99 )   The paper considers how one might assess the adequacy of art-historical accounts that exemplify what Michael Baxandall terms the 'inferential criticism' of paintings, where the latter is an instance of what Wollheim called 'criticism as retrieval'. The problem is to reconcile the interpretive nature of such accounts, and their claims to provide us with trans-cultural and trans-historical understandings, with more general 'scientific' constraints on explanation. I draw a parallel with a problem in interpretive ethnography considered by Clifford Geertz, and sketch the latter's claim that the former involves 'generalising within cases' rather than 'generalising across cases'. I offer a 'pragmatic' reading of what Geertz means by 'generalising within cases': on this reading, the goal is to provide an 'intelligible frame' in which we can locate a set of presumptive signifiers, one whose justification resides in its serving the cognitive interests that ground our interpretive practice. I then argue that Baxandall's defence of 'inferential criticism' should be seen as adopting a similar 'pragmatic' approach to defending 'inferential criticism'. In arguing for this, the paper gives an analysis of Baxandall's account in terms of a range of heuristic principles that are justified through serving our interests in art history. Related Articles | Metrics

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Aesthetics in Cross-Cultural Perspective Stephen Davies 2016, 36 (1):  20-25.  Abstract ( 388 )   PDF (1377KB) ( 88 )   In this paper I attempt reconcile two apparently opposed views: artworks are embedded in culturally relative art-historical contexts and cannot be fully understood without an awareness of these contexts, yet artworks trade in themes that are universally and perennially of human interest, such as war and peace, and shape these to cater to shared, biologically based perceptual systems. The first explains some of the difficulties we face in understanding and appreciating art cross-culturally. The second indicates why, nevertheless, a degree of cross-cultural artistic appreciation is possible. As well, our grasp of the challenges and possibilities of the media from which art is constructed help us to comprehend the art of other cultures. It is possible to improve one's understanding of the art of another society by reading about it, and to go yet further via more radical cultural immersion. Because of our ignorance of its wider context, the cave art of the Upper Paleolithic is an extreme case: we can locate the art and some of its content but are denied a deeper, more appreciative grasp of it. Related Articles | Metrics

Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism

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On Auscultation Fu Xiuyan 2016, 36 (1):  26-34.  Abstract ( 494 )   PDF (1806KB) ( 148 )   The absence of auscultation, listening for precise judgement, in the perceptual experience entails the phenomenon of the employment of eyes for ears in the present "era of pictorial-reading." Listening has been entrusted with the power to resist the increasingly noisy self-talking in modern life. The earliest literary activity in mankind history is story-telling through listening, and due to the absence of auscultation, some important information only available to listening has been unrevealed from literary works. The paper argues that to re-read literary works from the perspective of listening facilitates to offset the perceptual imbalance caused by visual hegemony. Related Articles | Metrics

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An Exploration into the Logics of Language Construction during the May Fourth Period Deng Wei 2016, 36 (1):  35-44.  Abstract ( 304 )   PDF (1819KB) ( 220 )   In his History of National Language Movement, Li Jinxi discussed the process of language construction in the May 4th period with a focus on the pronunciation while putting the vernacular movement into his narrative of the national language movement history. On the other hand, Hu Shi paid high attention to written language and tried to construct the national language with "vernacular literature," hoping to use "a literature of national language" to create "a national language of literature." Hu Shi's endeavor showed the general logic of language construction during the May Fourth period, that is, to construct a modern national language with a modern vernacular written language. The public opinion on dialects and dialectal literature during the May Fourth period reflected the issue of seeking external resources for constructing the national language and literature of national language. The logic of language construction during the May Fourth period lies behind the development of modern Chinese literature language, and ever since, there would be only minor and local changes without any revolutionary transformations. Related Articles | Metrics

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How Consumer Phenomenon Enters Literary Writing Wang Changzhong 2016, 36 (1):  45-52.  Abstract ( 237 )   PDF (1274KB) ( 196 )   Representation of consumer culture is universal in literary writing and consumption has contributed an extensive content for literary works. When writing about consumer culture, literary production becomes an integral part of the culture. The paper argues that the consumption of literary writing implies an essentially literary discourse instead of consumer culture discourse. Literary writing about consumption shows distinctive characteristics of discursive presence: common and widespread capacity, localized and fragmented modality, and penetrative and interspersed mechanism. In view of the features such as the value, attributes, discursive features, it may be argued that the narrative strategies in literary writing about consumer culture shows in such aspects as time, distance, voice and projection in the narrative. Related Articles | Metrics

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Qian Gurong in Literary Criticism from 1949 to 1966 Xu Jianjun 2016, 36 (1):  53-63.  Abstract ( 319 )   PDF (1830KB) ( 208 )   The first seventeen years from the establishment of P. R. China to the Cultural Revolution (1949 to 1966) is a special period for literary survival. In this period, the constraints and restraints of politics on literature co-exist with literature's rebellion against and escape from politics, which are intertwined with the dialogue and communication between the "integrated" literary norms and the heterogenic literary criticism. Under this historical context, Qian Gurong went through three important stages in his life, namely, the anxiety of political identity, the return to literary identity, and the adherence to "humanistic study." In each stage, Qian Gurong managed to maintain an integrate self-identity of a humanistic scholar. Related Articles | Metrics

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Wen Yiduo's Translation and the Formation of Metrical Poetics Chen Liming 2016, 36 (1):  64-75.  Abstract ( 315 )   PDF (1849KB) ( 227 )   Wen Yiduo translated English poems with different metrical forms, and consciously applied English metrical poetics in his poetry writing and the theoretical configuration of new Chinese poetry, as an attempt to resist the prevailing poetic trends during the May 4th New Poetry movement predominantly spoken vernacular in nature and to promote the modern Chinese poetics with contemporary metrics and prosody. Through an examination of Wen Yiduo's long neglected translation of Byron's "Isles of Greece," the paper demonstrates his metrical poetics was constructed in and by his practice of translation and creative writing. The paper argues that Wen's practice helped to redress the prosaic trend in the early period of vernacular Chinese poetry and led the New Chinese Poetry on the way to metrical patterns integrated with both Chinese and Western traditions. Related Articles | Metrics

Issue in Focus: Science Fiction Studies

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Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem and the Desire to the Future Wang Feng 2016, 36 (1):  76-83.  Abstract ( 332 )   PDF (1272KB) ( 230 )   Science fiction is a description to the possible world of the future, and the future is a special time dimension which cannot be reached but can only be treated as a vision upon reality. Liu's The Three-Body Problem provides us with the possibility of the evil in the future. The description of the future reveals in words a future not yet experienced, and it does so in a way that treats the unexperienced as a world already in existence, and therefore it is more an interpretation than factual description. The interpretation of the future in such description operates on the following levels. Firstly, in the liner time, the future is the yet-to-come dimension of the time passed, which points to the flowing of time and the time to be flown away. Secondly, the future is the desire in which the imagination of utopia is housed. Thirdly, the future allows for a narrative structure through which the text brings the future to the present. Finally, the future realizes the hermeneutics (archaeologies) of the future by way of functional explanation of the future through the opposition between narrative and desire, and this is the essential significance of science fictions with Utopian edge. Related Articles | Metrics

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Singularities of The Three-body Problem, or Chinese Logic in the Era of Science Fiction Globalization Zeng Jun 2016, 36 (1):  84-93.  Abstract ( 417 )   PDF (1820KB) ( 172 )   This paper aims to analyze the singularity event of why Liu Cixin's Three-body Problem can single-handedly upgrade Chinese science fiction literature to the world prominence in the era of science fiction globalization. The paper argues that the scientific imagination in The Three-body Problem starts at the scientific frontier of "singularity" and expands on the spectacle of singularity. In The Three-body Problem, the essentialism of identity politics is transcended, which allows for the conceptualization of internal diversity of the post-human and the establishment of a cosmetic sociology on the principle of the dark forest. Therefore, it is possible for an analysis of singularity politics of the novel. The aesthetics of singularity in the novel shows in its construction of a concept system of multi-dimensional time and in its choice of different narratives based on that time. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Clash of Civilizations and the Culture Self-Consciousness: Science Fiction and Social Reality in The Three-Body Problem Chen Qi 2016, 36 (1):  94-103.  Abstract ( 672 )   PDF (1305KB) ( 418 )   From the perspective of the relation between science fiction and social reality, the core question of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem Trilogy is the clash of civilizations between human and Trisolaran, which causes the future possibility of the end of human history. The narrative perspectives of the trilogy are the intelligentsia narrative of Wang Miao (Book I), the heroic narrative of Luo Ji (Book II), and the narrative of "the last man" of Cheng Xin (Book III). If the future civilization of the human beings is likely to encounter the cosmic catastrophe caused by the clash of civilizations between human and aliens, contemporary human elite strata has to reflect on the values of morality and civilization, and dare to create a new history of human. Related Articles | Metrics

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Unfinished Subject: Empathy and Subject-Construction in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep？ Miao Simeng 2016, 36 (1):  104-111.  Abstract ( 551 )   PDF (1791KB) ( 271 )   Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? not only invites us to think about the problems of androids' identity, but also forces people into rethinking the existence of ourselves. As the subject, a man recognizing himself is firstly concerned with "identification/distinction." In the constructed world of the novel, the core of identification/distinction lies in the identification between a human being and an android. Empathy plays an important role in subject construction, which indicates that the subject can grasp others through bodily experience to achieve self-construction. However, it is merely imaginary to grasp the subjectivity of others through empathy, and it is still impossible to break away from solipsism; thus, we must be subjected to the ideological construction. Although problems exist in the Mercerism ideology in the novel, it is probably where we are really going to as an individual life. Related Articles | Metrics

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Deconstructing Utopian Imagination: The Allegory of Solaris and Others Chen Dan 2016, 36 (1):  112-119.  Abstract ( 298 )   PDF (1281KB) ( 114 )   Utopia is a socio-economic sub-genre of science fiction. The question of how to imagine a utopia is actually an issue of how to write out the image of a utopia. In Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, there is a formal strategy of "double inscription," which turns the limitation of utopian genre into allegory and critical merits. Thus, it is possible to refute it from the inside of its anthropocentric totality and to divert the interpretation into the field of political ethics. As a result, the surface binary opposition between self and the other is nullified, and the imagination of a zero-degree Utopia, with minimum requirements, falls prey to the practical power field of ideology. It is in this sense that Stanislaw Lem's skepticism deconstructs the utopian imagination. Related Articles | Metrics

Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

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A New Discussion on Kuang Zhouyi's Ci-Poetry Criticism Sun Keqiang 2016, 36 (1):  120-127.  Abstract ( 220 )   PDF (1790KB) ( 233 )   Some new findings about Kuang Zhouyi's critical materials on ci-poetry enable us to review and re-evaluate Kuang's theoretical contribution to ci-poetry criticism which include his explorations into the ci-poetry in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties and his theoretical explanation of the concept of "big." The paper claims that Kuang should be given full justice as an important ci-poetry scholar in the late Qing dynasty. Related Articles | Metrics

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On the Significance of "Bone" and the Unique Connotation of Liu Xie's Concept of "Wind and Bone" Yao Aibin 2016, 36 (1):  128-139.  Abstract ( 351 )   PDF (1858KB) ( 543 )   In the structure of life, "bone" is positioned between the inside and the outside of life structure, taking the special position of the inner side of the outside and the outer side of the inside. In The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, Liu Xie's concept of "wind and bone" is composed with multiple combinations of analogies of bone to analog different forms of the overall structure of writing. Main types include the following. First, "bone and flesh-skin (or hair)" is used to refer to the duality of "intent (concept) and words (language)," with "bone" indicating the concept of writing. Secondly, in the writing structure of "spirit, bone-marrow, flesh-skin and voice-air" which is used as an analogue to "emotions, literary quotation, diction and rhythm," "bone" refers in particular to "literary quotation" which is on the outside of affections. Liu Xie was the first to combine the two words "wind" and "bone" into one phrase in the section "Wind and Bone." In the section "Wind and Bone," where the two characters "wind" and "bone" are combined into a phrase for the first time, Liu Xie put forward the combination "wind, bone and embellishment" to refer to "emotions, unadorned words and figurative language." In this combination, "bone" refers to unadorned words. Therefore, Liu Xie could promote his ideal literary writing that had unadorned words to convey the theme as the "bone," emotions to carry the "wind" and embellished words to achieve the style. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Distinction of Han and Wei Dynasty's Poetry and Its Poetic Significance Wang Honglin 2016, 36 (1):  140-147.  Abstract ( 266 )   PDF (1789KB) ( 75 )   Poetry critics from the Ming and Qing dynasties explored the different features of the Han and Wei poetries, which resulted in the distinction between the poetries of the Han and Wei dynasties. Their explorations also indicated that the stylistic principles of poetry began to take shape. Wang Shizhen first claimed that Cao Zhi's achievements were lower than Cao Cao's, while Hu Yinglin examined the differences between the Han poetry and the Wei dynasty poetry, maintaining that Han poetry was unadorned and elegantly simple while Wei poetry was embellished with rhetorical strategies. These claims about Han and Wei poetry influenced the selection principles of many poetry anthologies such as Gu Shi Gui (principles of ancient poems) and Gu Shi Yuan (Ancient Poetry Source). Compared with Ming-Dynasty critics, poetry critics of the Qing dynasty highly value the new features in the Wei poetry, because of their wider array of canonical poems and because the promotion of the officials began to be based on the candidates’ poems. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Audience Awareness in the Self-Annotations among Mid-Tang Poets such as Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen Yu Zhiyue 2016, 36 (1):  148-156.  Abstract ( 277 )   PDF (1804KB) ( 263 )   In Mid-Tang dynasty, self-annotations to poems were frequently practiced in Bai Juyi (772—846), Yuan Zhen (779—831) and other poets. This act as an extension of literary creation became an important means to assist their poetic expression, and it showed strong audience awareness. This act was especially practiced when poets edited their works for an expected interpretation of their works in later reading. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen's desire to be memorized by later generations appeared to be stronger than other poets of their age. Bai Juyi assumed a relatively lower expectation of his readers, so he made many annotations to familiar literary allusions. The method of self-annotations, while facilitating the understanding of poems, narrowed down the space of interpretation. Related Articles | Metrics

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On the Stylistic Construction of Wang Guowei's History of Traditional Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties Xu Yanlin 2016, 36 (1):  157-165.  Abstract ( 323 )   PDF (1813KB) ( 674 )   Wang Guowei's pioneering work History of Traditional Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties is both a theoretical summarization of his studies on opera and a systematic exposition of his stylistic thoughts. Influenced by Western studies and inherited from Chinese academic tradition, the book reviews the classification, naming, features, origins of this genre and the debasing social attitude to it, and proceeds to highlight the genre with a strong consciousness of stylistics. It delineates the evolution of Chinese opera from the perspective of stylistics, and proposes that Chinese opera has integrated features of patterns, observable stylistic development from narrative to speech-acting, and unique combination of acting, speech and singing. It argues that Chinese opera may be called as opera in its truest sense as it presents the story through singing-dance, the language form of speech-acting, and natural and significant style, and eventually it presents a pure opera with logical construction and realistic theme. Wang Guowei's book started the writing of Chinese opera history, built the framkework of Chinese opera research, defined the stylistic features of Chinese opera, determined the stylistic implications of Chinese opera, and founded the discipline of Chinese Opera studies. Related Articles | Metrics

Studies in Western Literary Theory

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The Power of Image: Medieval Debate on Icon and Its Theoretical Value Wu Qiong 2016, 36 (1):  166-176.  Abstract ( 273 )   PDF (1822KB) ( 260 )   The debate on icon was an important event in the theological and visual cultural field in the Western Medieval era, and it exerted a profound influence on Western visual culture. This paper examines the theological and cultural context of the debate, and with a focus on the relationship between invisibility and visibility, the paper discusses the paradoxical value of representation and its effects on visual cultural field. Related Articles | Metrics

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On the Aesthetic Significance of Kant's Concept of Schema Su Hongbin 2016, 36 (1):  177-182.  Abstract ( 298 )   PDF (1745KB) ( 258 )   Schema is an important concept in Kant's philosophy, but Kant delimited it to the territory of epistemology. This paper argues that schema is also an important aesthetic concept. Schema is grasped through intuitive activities, and it follows that schema has certain aesthetic value. Schema is an object of aesthetic activity, but most often it also participates indirectly in aesthetic activities as the source of artistic images. The homogeneity between cognitive schema and aesthetic schema shows the homology of cognitive activities and aesthetic activities. Related Articles | Metrics

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Reflections on the Literariness in the Post-Theoretic Era: The Dispersion of Meta-Narration and the Plight of Essentialist Poetics Li Yanfeng 2016, 36 (1):  183-192.  Abstract ( 299 )   PDF (1311KB) ( 122 )   In the context of the dispersion of meta-narrative and the break-up in modernity, the paradigm of essentialist thinking faces the increasing crisis of representation of knowledge. The history of "big theory" is coming to an end, and the "post-theory" emerges as a new paradigm of discourse and system of knowledge. Post-theory takes on an anti-essentialist, non-centralist, pluralistic and historized standpoint of knowledge to reconstruct the validity of legitimacy, opposing rigid essentialism, logocentrism and the logic of totality and identification. With the advent of post-theory, the discourse paradigm of essentialist literariness and the essentialist poetics are faced with the question over the legitimacy of knowledge. This paper aims at a reflective critique of the discourse of literariness and attempts to anticipate some possible developments of literary theory in the era of post-theory. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Event-Truth and Literary Criticism: On Badiou's Reading Beckett Tan Cheng 2016, 36 (1):  193-200.  Abstract ( 312 )   PDF (1791KB) ( 80 )   Alain Badiou rejects the conventional idea that Samuel Beckett was a playwright associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. He points out that, in Beckett's writing, there is ideological transfer from "solipsism" to "event." As has been shown in Beckett's later works, he devoted himself to his reflection about "event," thus creating a text of "truth." Badiou, through his idea of Inaesthetics, attempts to understand Beckett in Beckett's own way. From the inherent ideological structure of the text, Badiou constructs critical concepts for the text, and consequently makes the truth of text appear in the form of concepts. He succeeds in projecting the image of Samuel Beckett as one that awaits the event, intervening in it by means of literary creation and having eternal hope for it. Badiou's interpretation of Beckett’s works significantly enlightens literary critics in that literary criticism should not merely interpret the text but also capture the event-truth in the text, so as to achieve innovations in literary creation and criticism. Related Articles | Metrics

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Reflections on the Post-Modernist Concept of Literary History in A New Literary History of America Li Song 2016, 36 (1):  201-208.  Abstract ( 373 )   PDF (1792KB) ( 153 )   Greil Marcus and Werner Sollers' New Literary History of America from Harvard University Press sets a new paradigm for literary history writing in the aspects of style, organization and methodology. It has the following major features. First, it holds a literary view of culture vision. Therefore, the connotation of literature is expanded greatly and the boundary between literature and culture is blurred. Secondly, it embodies the principle of dedifferentiation in post-modernism culture. Thirdly, it advocates a constructional view on literary history. Fourthly, it disassembles the meta-narrative of an ontological history and emphasizes on the micro-narrative of history transection. Lastly, it values the investigation of literary acceptance. Examining the intellectual foundation of the concept of literary history in this book will enable a deeper understanding of its knowledge background and historical context. Related Articles | Metrics

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Literature and History: On Hayden White's Theory of Tropology and Its effect Yang Zilu 2016, 36 (1):  209-216.  Abstract ( 337 )   PDF (1291KB) ( 115 )   The paper focuses on Hayden White's theory of tropology, and tackles the issue of trans-boundary between literature and history. White's discourse upon the poetry of history relies on the revelation of the mechanism of tropology. This paper demonstrates the four key concepts, namely, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony, comprising in the connotation of tropology. This quadruple structure points to a certain internal continuity in human consciousness, and constitutes the main mechanism of historical discourse in meaning-production. Classical historians establish the basic forms of writing by way of tropology, and then influence the three layers of writing, namely, weaving of a plot, formal argumentation and ideology. The three layers of historical writing not only demonstrate the explicit content of tropology but also serve as the generative effect of historical discourse realized by tropology. Thus, theory of tropology argues strongly for historical poetics and presets a greater ground for the writing discourse. Related Articles | Metrics