Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Transforms of linguistic literary theory by Media Literary Theory

Shan Xiaoxi

2016, 36 (5): 6-20.

Abstract ( 235 )

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If the 20th century is a century of language and linguistic literary theory, then the 21st century is a century of new media and media literary theory. Media literary theory, as a form of the post-linguistic literary theory, represents the sublation and transformation of linguistic literary theory. Linguistic literary theory occurred in the context of "the linguistic turn", while media literary theory is the outcome of "the media turn". Literary form is not only of linguistic structure but also the structure of the media system. The literary world is not only the real world constructed by language but also the virtual reality constructed by the literary media. The practice of literary language has occurred in the context realistically where the media take part in the construction of the text, scene, and culture. Literary activities rely on the existing realities in which four elements in the literary tradition have been integrated by the media. That the media literary theory transforms linguistic literary theory accords with the inner requirement of the development of culture in the era of new media, the reality of literature and the development of literary theory.

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Literary Consumption in the Era of Electronic Media

Hu Youfeng

2016, 36 (5): 29-37.

Abstract ( 203 )

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Literary consumption in the era of electronic media is characterized by technological, symbolic and entertaining inclinations. Literary consumption and literary production are mutually reactive, and this mutual reaction has been reflected by the synchronization of image production and omnimedia publishing, the medialization and literary consumption, the idolization of literary production and fans-based consumption, and the marketization of literary production as entertainment. The typical mode of literary production in the era of electronic media is the film adaptation of internet literature. Internet literature provides scripts for films and TV series, and, on films and TV programs help to spread Internet literature to some extent. When set in literary history, literary consumption in the era of electronic media has reason of its own.

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Espen J. Aarseth's Thought on Hypertext Aesthetics

Nie Chunhua

2016, 36 (5): 38-45.

Abstract ( 208 )

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Espen J. Aarseth's reflections on popular theories about the hypertext have primarily led to his distinction between the structure and the reading of the hypertext, since, for him, it is the hypertext' nonlinearity rather than multi-linearity that determines the real differences between the hypertext and the traditional text. He analyzes the power relation between the author and the reader of the hypertext, and criticizes some popular claims about the hypertext such as "reader-as-writer", "de-centralization", and "interactivity". On the basis of the distinction of the structure and the reading of the hypertext, he poses that the hypertext is of non-narrative structure by which readers can obtain a subjective sense of narrative during reading.

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Consumption of Celebrity and the Republican Apparatus: Lu Xiaoman, Xu Zhimo and Tabloids in Late 1920s Shanghai

Chen Jianhua

2016, 36 (5): 46-60.

Abstract ( 206 )

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In late 1920s Shanghai tabloids flourished. With sensational news reports and literary narratives, they catered to urban readers' needs for daily emotional and cultural consumption. Due to their involvement in the Yunshang Company and theatre performances, Lu Xiaoman and Xu Zhimo became foci of Pictorial Shanghai and other major tabloids. Numerous news or rumors about their activities revealed different values, tastes, and commercial strategies among the tabloids, which told the game rules, ethics, and cultural politics of various communities and strata in the civil society. To a certain extent, the tabloids not only helped the masses know more about power relations but also mediated between the civil society and the state apparatus.

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A Critique of the Three Approaches to Studying Liang Qichao's Aesthetic Thoughts

Mo Xianwu

2016, 36 (5): 61-70.

Abstract ( 242 )

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There are three academic approaches to Liang Qichao's aesthetic thoughts: political criticism of Cai Shangsi around 1949, enlightenment criticism of Li Zehou in the new period, and aesthetic criticism of Jin Ya in this century. In spite of their varying attitudes towards politics, they all endorse the division of politics and aesthetics. The difference is that political criticism sees aesthetics attached to politics, enlightenment criticism distances aesthetics from politics, and aesthetic criticism sets aesthetics against politics. In fact, the relationship between politics and aesthetics is not merely one of separation or antithesis, but also one of consistency in terms of the envisioning of a better life. Liang Qichao's aesthetic thoughts are based on the fusion of politics and aesthetics. The approaches based on politics-aesthetics division cannot do justice to the unique nature of Liang Qichao’s political aesthetics.

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Imagining and Constructing "Popular Literature": the Popularization of Literature and Art in China since the "May Fourth" Movement

Zhang Zhiping

2016, 36 (5): 71-80.

Abstract ( 259 )

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Since the May Fourth Movement, enlightenment became the basic strategy and approach by which the literary and art circle participated in politics; thus the movement of the popularization of literature and art was a by-product of this enlightenment strategy. The purpose for the movement of the "popularization of literature and art" was to construct "popular literature" that appealed to both the more and the less cultured, a modern genre in accordance with the new vision of literature. The road map of "popular literature" imagined and designed by the literary and art circle comprised three steps: 1. writers devoted to popularizing the Europeanized Chinese literature and art by writing popular works which were easily understood; 2. the literary and art circle helped to train and bring up writers from the workers, peasants and soldiers so that the masses could write the works by themselves; 3. the masses wrote modern literary works with thoughts and artistry. The basic value was approaching the masses and becoming one of them. So far the literary and art circle has not finished the third step. The road map is one of the results achieved by the literary and art circle in pursuing, constructing and confirming the modernity, globalism and humanness of modern Chinese literature, which comprises the dream, regret, gain and loss, glory and disgrace of the literary and art circle for the past century. The road map is also an important blueprint to revive Chinese literature and art.

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Lu Xun's Idea of Fiction Writing and His Brief History of Chinese Fiction

Wen Qingxin

2016, 36 (5): 81-89.

Abstract ( 269 )

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Lu Xun's idea of fiction writing was deeply influenced by his conceptualization of the book A Brief History of Chinese Fiction. Lu Xun initially read fictions as a historical phenomenon while currying the ancient Chinese fictional writings, and his lectures on the topic showed that he intended to take the perspective of nationalist critique. These showed that Lu Xun's guiding idea for writing the history of Chinese fiction was the cultivation of integrate men. The literary idea of "writing for life" (as contrary to "writing for art") was reflected in Lu Xun's own fictional writings, and the idea behind the "Brief History" helped him to take the two perspectives of objective description and creative subject and his focus in writing was shifted from the deities to the common people and he gradually became a conscious fiction writer. The idea of "writing for life" became his criterion in judging the values of Chinese ancient novels, such as The Outlaws of the Marsh which Lu Xun believed to be a work about the ordinary people's life and mentality.

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From Saturday to the "Saturday School": A Discussion on the "New/old" Debate in the Early 1920s

Luo Meng

2016, 36 (5): 90-98.

Abstract ( 491 )

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This article sheds light on the sharp confrontation between New Culture intellectuals and the popular literati from 1921 to 1923. As a key word, the term "Saturday School" is derived from Saturday, an influential popular periodical in early Republican Shanghai. And in fact, the production process of "Saturday School" was intensely bound up with the "new/old" debate in modern Chinese literary history. Based on close reading of historical material and contextual analysis, the article concludes that the debate between "new" and "old" was concerned more with the competition over the discourse power of defining "what is new", which directly led to the control of "symbolic capital" of the era. Additionally, popular literati's experiences of the debate in the early 1920s gave them the motivation for self-positioning and self-presentation.

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Statistical Literary Theory: New Literary Research Paradigm in the Era of Big Data

Zhou Caishu

2016, 36 (5): 99-107.

Abstract ( 256 )

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The advent of the Big Data era highlights the importance of statistical methods. Franco Moretti and Stanford Literary Lab try to use some quantitative methods in literary researches. Their qualitative analysis on the data from books discovers some facts about literature that may challenge some established literary theories, and scholars are also trying to adopt the statistical methods to literary study in China. Statistical literary theory is literary research methodology with mathematical logic and empirical data, which comprises such methods as quantitative analysis, regression analysis, hypothesis test, and time series analysis. In term of its combination of aesthetics characteristics with scientific logic, it is revolutionary.

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Esteeming the Poetic Style: Yan Yu's Theory of Bense and Its Four Elements

Shang Yongliang, Duan Yaqing

2016, 36 (5): 108-116.

Abstract ( 293 )

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Unlike the literary trend in the Song Dynasty that good poetry is believed to consist in good diction, the poet's talent and learning, and ideas, Yan Yu's employment of "bense", or the fundamental quality, to define the nature of the poetic style and the boundaries of poetry so as to esteem the poetic style. The connotation of bense is related to four major elements, namely, the expression of xingqing (disposition) as the main pursuit, miaowu (subtle enlightenment) as the way of realization, xingqu (the evocation of interests) as the character of expression, and rushen (entering into a realm of supremacy or divinity) as the ultimate purport. Among these four elements, xingqing is the basis for xingqu and miaowu, and rushen is the top criterion of poetry as pursued by Libai and Dufu. The theory of bense is a cure for the disadvantage of the Song poems' tendency to poti, or diverge from the poetic style, thus clearly defining the essence of poetry. Through this, Yan Yu has managed to help people understand what poetry is by returning to canon. At the same time, his theory also offsets the inclination toward extreme divergence from the poetic style, which demonstrates the law of affirmation-negation-the negation of the negation.

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The Literary Criticism of Records of History in the Song Dynasty

Zhang Xinke, Li Hong

2016, 36 (5): 117-128.

Abstract ( 272 )

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There is plenty of literary criticism over time of Records of History as a fine example of the combination of literature and history. From a literary perspective, this paper discusses the contents and the significance of literary criticism of Records of History in the Song dynasty. Touching upon the political and cultural backgrounds, the paper analyzes the outreach as well as the cause and methods of literary reception in order to show the solid cultural foundation for Records of History’ literary criticism in the Song dynasty. With their narrative and characterization as core, the paper analyzes the main content of those literary criticisms. On this basis, the paper summarizes the main characteristics, forms and value of literary criticism of Records of History in the Song dynasty, as well as its influence on later dynasty's literary criticism of Records of History.

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The Construction of Orthodox Order and the Canonization Process in the Ci-Poetry Circle of the Qing Dynasty

Cao Mingsheng, Sha Xianyi

2016, 36 (5): 129-138.

Abstract ( 297 )

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The two Ci-poetry schools of Zhexi and Changzhou constructed their orthodox order by focusing on Ci-poets in the Song Dynasty, who became canonized in the Ci-poetry circle of the Qing Dynasty and underpinned the claim of orthodoxies and theories of their Qing descendants. The rank of these model Ci-poets would vary with the adjustment of the orthodox order during school competition and theoretical debates, which demonstrated how Ci-poem's popularity among schools had tremendous impact on their canonization. In order to display the continuity and vitality of their own Ci-poetry schools, school successors supported their own outstanding Ci-poets to carry on the orthodox order of Ci-poetry in the Song Dynasty or to reconstruct the orthodox order in their own dynasty. Such was an attempt to canonize the Ci-poetry in the Qing Dynasty. Thus, the construction of orthodox order and the canonization of model Ci-poets were simultaneous and interlinked. By constructing the orthodox order with model Ci-poets of past dynasties, from them scholars in the Qing Dynasty not only inherited the artistic traditions of Ci-poetry, but also discovered the ingenious and innovative aspects of contemporary Ci-poetry. These model Ci-poets were praised and used as examples for Ci-poetry learners, effectively contributing to the development of Ci-poetry art and its flourishing in the Qing Dynasty.

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The Experience of Adapting and Creating Story-telling and Singing Literature of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms since the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Ji Dejun

2016, 36 (5): 139-147.

Abstract ( 259 )

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Many folk story-telling and singing works have been adapted from The Romance of The Three Kingdoms since the Ming and Qing dynasties. During its adaption and performance, the folk artists have accumulated plenty of general art experience. Firstly, they change the the novel, which is to be read, into a performing art on the stage. Secondly, they reconstruct the plots or create new ones. Thirdly, they enrich the mentality and personality of the main characters, probing into the personality and psychology of the minor characters, and sometimes creating some new roles. Moreover, in order to get close to the public and cater to their tastes, the artists would secularize the characters and stories in accordance with the times and circumstances, and increase the entertaining appeal of the narrative. To sum up, it is these artists' adapting and creating experience that transforms The Romance of The Three Kingdoms to various forms of popular literary works.

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What is a Literary Text? A Deleuzean Approach

Kenneth Surin

2016, 36 (5): 147-155.

Abstract ( 272 )

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In recent decades radically historicist perspectives on the natures of the text and the author have emerged. Aceording to these historicist perspectives, pioneered by Barthes and Foucault, text and author are properly to be viewed as the realizations of many different kinds of functions, with history supplying the conditions of possilbility for the realization of these functions. Withoult the author, interpretation becomes impossible (this was the aim of Barthes and Foucault). Against Barthes and Foucault, Alexander Nehamas has provided an account of text and author which avoids the strictures of Barthes and Nehamas. Using the work of Gilles Deleuze, and discussing Mo Yan. I view text and author in a radically different way which allows the text to have sense but without the need for interpretation.

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How Horizontality Became a Medium: Rosalind Krauss on Pollock's All-over Paintings

Shen Yubing, Mao Qiuyue

2016, 36 (5): 156-163.

Abstract ( 424 )

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Art historian Rosalind Krauss argues that Jackson Pollock has introduced a new medium in art practices by creating horizontal space in his all-over paintings. Such a medium has transcended the physical dimension of the object and become a persistent model, which greatly illuminated the subsequent minimalism and pop art. While setting out from a classic modernist approach, Krauss's criticism takes on a Structuralist outlook different from modernism. Centering on the co-participation of the artist, the environment and the work, her observation is more inclusive and powerful as a method of interpretation than modernist theories.

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Constructivism and Its Discontents?: the Philosophical Origin of "Science Wars"

Feng Qing

2016, 36 (5): 164-170.

Abstract ( 302 )

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Contemporary humanists tend to consider scientific truths as artificially constructed opinions. Once the causes for the "Science Wars" between postmodern humanists and scientists are revealed, one will realize that the real target of anti-scientism is the modern scientific approach based on Cartesianism. It is because of the acceptation of this approach that modern Western sciences have a visible character of pragmatism and that what is to be pursued in sciences are specific and casual certainties instead of absolute truths. "The linguistic turn", as the foundation of modern constructivism and the beginning of literary and cultural theories, is actually a critical response to this modern scientific culture. However, the latter is also a resource of the former. Modern sciences and critical theories are therefore proved to be derived from the Enlightenment philosophy.

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The Becoming of Literary Significance: A Review of the Debate Jakobson vs. Riffaterre and Culler

Jiang Fei

2016, 36 (5): 171-189.

Abstract ( 292 )

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Although the critical methods and practices of Roman Jakobson's linguistic poetics made great achievements during the 1960s-1970s, Michael Riffaterre and Jonathan Culler, as representatives in the structuralist camp, successively introduced the criticisms of Jakobson, the former espousing the theory of "reader-response" and the latter that of the reader's "literary competence". Jakobson strives and keep fighting for research on "poetry of grammar" and "grammar of poetry", counter-criticizing from the perspectives of linguistics, reader expectation and competence development, the legitimacy of studies of linguistic structure, the dominance of poetic structure, and the objectivity of poetic analysis. The focus of the both sides' arguments is the function and sequence of reader interpretation and linguistic interpretation in the becoming of literary significance. In the post-structuralism times, reflections on this argument may help better understand the need for interdisciplinary research and the inevitability of the cultural turn in linguistic poetics.

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The Turn of Heidegger's Thought and the Structure of His Inquiries into the Problem of Being

Zhang Yunpeng

2016, 36 (5): 180-185.

Abstract ( 250 )

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In his inquiries into the problem of Being, there was an obvious shift between the earlier and later periods of Heidegger's thought. Heidegger himself and the academia have different opinions on the shift in question. From the perspective of structure, the so-called "turn" of thought was essentially the transformation of the structural pattern of his inquiries. The period of Being and Time belonged to the pattern of the binary structure of "Dasein (being-there) to being"; when shifting from Dasein (being-there) to Being per se, the binary structure was turned into a unitary structure, that is "Being", which was an orientation of pure thinking. The orientation of poetry which paralleled the foregoing turns was the transformation from the binary to trinary structure, that is "Dasein (being-there) to - beings - Being". The "Beings" in the structure hereof particularly referred to aesthetic object, including artistic works, poetry, languages (as the origin of poetry), and objects of materialization. However, "Da-sein" was quite different from "Dasein (being-there)". The main distinction was that "being-there" was concerned much more about Dasein itself, which was the "for the sake of (um...zu)" to be "there", while "Da-sein" was "there" focusing on "the cause of which (um...zu)" for the sake of Being. It was exactly the original idea of Heidegger that Da-sein was the guardian of Being and responded to the calling of Being.

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On Kant's "Problem of Ugliness"

Pan Daozheng, Li Jinchao

2016, 36 (5): 186-194.

Abstract ( 299 )

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First Book of Kant's Critique of the Power of the Judgment ("Analytic of the Beautiful")opens with an argument that feeling combined with representation can be pleasure or displeasure, then with a discussion of the aesthetic judgment of pleasure, but it says nothing about the aesthetic judgment of displeasure. Furthermore, there is only a short paragraph dealing with ugliness in Critique of the Power of the Judgment. Why is there no"Analytic of the Ugliness"? Can Kant make a pure aesthetic judgment of ugliness? Questions like this have been attracting academic attention from the end of the 20th century. In our opinion, it is very important to distinguish th "‘judgment of appreciation of ugliness" from the "judgment of ugliness". According to Kant's aesthetics, it is impossible to make a "judgment of pure ugliness", but possible to make a "judgment of the appreciation of ugliness". On the other hand, the "judgment of the appreciation of ugliness" is identical with the "judgment of the Sublime" in Critique of the Power of the Judgment, so it's unnecessary for "Analytic of Ugliness" to re-do it since there is already "Analytic of the Sublime".

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The Shaking Continent: A Metageographical Critique of Eurocentrism

Xu Yujun

2016, 36 (5): 195-200.

Abstract ( 277 )

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Eurocentrism refers to both a system of values and a space-time mindset. Modern space-time ideology and geographical knowledge are characterized by objectivity and neutrality, which is usually ignored by postcolonial criticism. However, the divisions of continents and the boundary between the west and the east tend to betray subjectiveness and randomness, which sheds light on the interests of culture and geopolitics. The deconstruction of Eurocentrism does not necessarily imply a replacement, but an alternative mindset.

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Intercultural Theatre under the Lens of Cultural Appropriation

Feng Wei

2016, 36 (5): 201-209.

Abstract ( 399 )

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The concept of "intercultural theatre" has been under debate since the birth of this neologism. In theory, the content of intercultural theatre has varied several times, with expanding forms of intercultural theatre practices. The interweaving of theories and practices in recent decades has caused confusion and misinterpretation in academic discourses. Re-categorizing intercultural theatre practices with the term "cultural appropriation" into text appropriation, form appropriation, motif appropriation, and subject appropriation is effective to clarify meanings and forms of intercultural theatre, as well as the object of ethical, political, and aesthetic discussions, so that indiscriminate use of concepts can be avoided during evaluating various types of intercultural theatre.

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Reflections on Forgery in the Context of Art Institutions

Li Sujun

2016, 36 (5): 210-216.

Abstract ( 317 )

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In the world of art, the forgery has generally been considered inferior to the original. Through a thought experiment comparing a perfect fake with the original which cannot be differentiated in appearance, it is revealed that they are alike just in external aesthetic features, but for the intrinsic aesthetic values, the differences are tremendous. The forgery is void of two essential properties of art: the authenticity which emphasizes the uniqueness of the artwork, the originality which focuses on the creative process. As a historical concept, the idea of forgery is established along with the development of the institutions of art. Consequently, both authenticity and originality are not intrinsic requirements of the artwork itself, but measures by which art institutions take to dispel forgery.

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