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25 January 2020, Volume 40 Issue 1 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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Classical Literary Theory and Criticism

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"Imagery Beyond Images" in the Creative Process of Idea-imagery Zhu Zhirong 2020, 40 (1):  1-7.  Abstract ( 413 )   PDF (281KB) ( 144 )   Imagery beyond images (IbIs) evolves from the infusion of subjective affect into object or event images in aesthetic activities, during the process of which the subject perceives  object and event images in the form of imagination-ignited aesthetic experience. IbIs results from the subject's contemplation on physical images and therefore constitutes a creation out of the empty and an expansion of time and space. IbIs depends on transforms physical images. It shows itself as a symbiosis of emptiness and haveness and even goes beyond imagery per se to the extent of pointing to infinity. As IbIs is built on the subject's aesthetic experience, it influences the subject's perception of object and event images and contributes to the similitude in the representation of physical images. IbIs holdss rich expressivity in its free form. Artistic idea-imagery includes both perceptible physical images and the artist's imaginary IbIs, based on which the recipients may engender their own IbIs through imagination. Artists' creation relies on IbIs as a means to enhance imagery's communicative power, allowing space for re-creation. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Cataloguing Method  in The Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Anthologization Principles during the East Han Period Shi Yamei 2020, 40 (1):  8-17.  Abstract ( 266 )   PDF (382KB) ( 146 )   The cataloguing method in Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han Dynasty started the mode to categorize literary works on the basis of writing styles (genre) with author's names. This mode was not constructed by Fan Ye from his understanding of the concepts of literary styles and related written materials during the Southern dynasties; instead, it was a description of the configurations and concepts of literary styles during the Eastern Han Dynasty based on his mastery of related historical materials. Therefore, this mode was historically characterized. The historical specificities implied in the method encompass, the compiling status of various writing styles, the anthologization principles and examplification, etc. This mode can be argued as a proof that the practice of anthologizing literary works prevailing in the much later period had actually formed during the Eastern Han dynasty. It also implies a relatively conscious distinction between not only different genres but also between different subgenres within literary writing as the literary collections (ji) was distinguished from Confucian classics (jing) and historical records (shi) while within in literary collections rhymed and unrhymed writing had also been distinguished. Therefore, the paper maintains that the cataloguing method in The Book of the Later Han Dynasty marked the emergence of conscious conceptualization of literariness during the Eastern Han dynasty. Related Articles | Metrics

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Hong Mai's Experiences as Reflected in His Prefaces to Yijian Zhi Zhan Dan 2020, 40 (1):  18-26.  Abstract ( 239 )   PDF (348KB) ( 86 )   Hong Mai's prefaces to Yijian Zhi (Record of the Listener) are of great significance in ways that they not only help readers understand his conscious construction of novel theory but also enable him to develop strong vitality from the process of compilation. The interaction between the perspective of a historian and that of an allegorist reveals his life experiences and rational thinking during the process of compilation. The stories in Yinjian Zhi are legendary in nature, and so is the process of compilation as reflected in his series of prefaces. To a certain extent, this "double legendary nature" is a mirror of the social zeitgeist in Hong's time. Related Articles | Metrics

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Exemplary Principle and Personal Consideration: The Dilemma in Editing an Anthology of Contemporary Writers Liu Ren 2020, 40 (1):  27-35.  Abstract ( 218 )   PDF (351KB) ( 85 )   The detachment of literati's identity from scholar-officials became a turning point in literary anthology compilation as the compilation which had used to serve as a form of literary criticism began to take on an additional function of shaping social identity for literati groups. The principle of "excluding living people" was since abandoned and the compilation of works by contemporary writers started. As a result, the swaying power of interpersonal relationships excluded by the principle of "excluding living people" inserted itself into the selection process, thus undermining the exemplary principle as the only principle. The mutual restraint between the principle of exemplary texts and personal consideration became a dilemma in the process of compiling anthologies of contemporary writers, and the selection process of Yu Chu Xin Zhi is a typical example of this dilemma. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Origins of Yao Xie's Poetics and the Construction of the "Siming School" of Poetry in East Zhejiang Li Chen, Ma Yazhong 2020, 40 (1):  36-45.  Abstract ( 265 )   PDF (1350KB) ( 154 )   Yao Xie's early poetry activities in the Zhenhu Poetry Club of Ningbo reflected that Yao Xie, Li Zhi and Ye Yuanjie were all influenced by Wu Dexuan and had similar views in terms of poetics. Thus, a possible path to explore the origins of Yao Xie's poetics is to consult Li Zhi's Poetry Remarks by Baihua Hermit, then to trace to the theories of Wu Dexuan, Song Dazun and Yao Nai, and finally to refer to the works on poetics by other members of the Zhunhu Poetry Club, particularly Chen Jin's Answering Questions in the Bamboos. This reveals the generative context of the "Siming School" of poetics during the reign of Emperor Daoguang. The foundation of the Siming School of poetics lies in the study of antiquity, and its homogeneous characteristic was critical to the construction of the Siming School of poetry. As a result of the relationship between the Siming School of poetics and style poetics, the Siming School of poetry also had a clear position in the history of poetry of the Qing dynasty. Related Articles | Metrics

Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory

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Qian Zhongshu's Old-Style Poetry: A Case Study of his Collected Poems and On the Art of Poetry Qian Zhixi 2020, 40 (1):  46-58.  Abstract ( 264 )   PDF (1425KB) ( 184 )   Amongst modern Chinese scholars' writings in the traditional style, Qian Zhongshu's Collected Poems has the deepest affinity with the prevailing poetry schools in the late Qing period. In his early years, Qian learned extensively from the Qing poets, and later narrowed down on the Tong-Guang style while taking in the influence from the School of Poetry Revolution as well as the late Tang style. Qian excels in seven-character metrical poetry, and his ingenious prosody can be traced back to the poetry by the Jiangxi School, or even Du Fu's. Qian delved deep into the transformations of poetics from the Tang and Song dynasties onwards, and had original insights in his analysis of poetic arts of all the schools of Qing poetry. Taking the transformation from Tang poetry to Song poetry as the basic principle for his poetics, Qian developed his poetics that centered on the expressions of personal emotions and social concerns. Qian's primary concerns in poetry lie in artistic expression, andontological formulation that "poetry is about poise in" has unique significance in modern poetics. Related Articles | Metrics

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The May Fourth Movement and Tradition: Cultural Undertaking behind Fierce Rebellion Gao Xudong, Shi Tongwen 2020, 40 (1):  59-68.  Abstract ( 244 )   PDF (375KB) ( 119 )   This article primarily examines the cultural undertaking of the May Fourth Movement through analyzing the inner drive for its participants' fierce rebellion against Chinese tradition. In contrast to China, some Jewish and Islamic countries, having been confronted with more severe national crises since modern times, have preserved their religions and cultures. Therefore, the reason for the fierce revolt against tradition during the May Fourth Movement was deeply rooted in Chinese culture. Because Confucianism prioritized national revitalization over beliefs, traditional scholar-officials were motivated by an intense sense of mission and angst to rebel against tradition. The "new culture" created by the May Fourth Movement was thus a blend of East and West. The structural forces of tradition not only constituted the May Fourth Movement's anti-traditional motivation, but also latently regulated the development of new culture. With the construction of Chinese philosophical-cultural schema that incorporates Western learning, the revitalization of Chinese culture is expected in the near future. Related Articles | Metrics

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Ezra Pound's Poetry Translation and Stylistic Innovation Chen Liming 2020, 40 (1):  69-80.  Abstract ( 426 )   PDF (439KB) ( 379 )   Ezra Pound's (1885-1972) literary career consists of two mutually enhancing constituents: translation and creation, which, as a whole, serve as an experimental field that has enriched his imagistic and vorticist poetics, including his poetics of translation. These three dimensions are closely related to his (un)intentional creative transforming and misreading of classical Chinese literature and philosophy. Pound's poetry creation and free translation show strong stylistic consciousness and strategies, but this has largely remains largely unexplored by academic research. His stylistic strategies take such forms as English haiku, the defamiliarization or foregrounding of ideograms, and the stylistic collage, and these innovations not only set canonical examples for modern English poetry, but also  pointed to a rethinking of the nature of and the interrelation between translation, creation, and poetics. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Modernity and Dilemma of Art Revolution Zeng Xiaofeng 2020, 40 (1):  81-89.  Abstract ( 260 )   PDF (371KB) ( 92 )   Considering "art" as a dynamic discourse, this paper contextualizes the concept in the period of the late Qing dynasty through the May Fourth period in connection with its competitive and interactive notions. The emphasis will be laid upon issues such as the establishment of literary beauty, literature independent of arts, the relationship between picture and art, and the value crisis of Chinese painting. Rooted in the social current swinging between reform and revolution during the late Qing dynasty and the May Fourth period, the formation and disciplinization of "art" in the modern sense embodied a modern appeal of anti-traditionalism, which signifies a deeper relationship between art revolution and the New Culture Movement. Related Articles | Metrics

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Regarding the Naming of Things: Another Approach to Onomatology Yan Hong 2020, 40 (1):  90-98.  Abstract ( 308 )   PDF (1328KB) ( 240 )   Onomatology of things develops into a modern discipline through scholars such as Aoki Masaru and Yang Zhi Shui in the past decades. This new discipline is distinct from traditional onomatology in that it is guided by positivism and distances itself from the exegetical tradition of Confucian classics study, and its scope of study has expanded to cover such areas as everyday cuisine, clothing, and handicraft that had traditionally been considered as "trivial enquiries." Its methodological connection with the tradition lies in its philological and textual approaches with an emphasis on the study of "things." The discrepancy between traditional methodologies and modern focuses calls for a new approach to modern onomatological study of things, Aoki Masaru used novels and encyclopedia as raw material and Yang Zhi Shui probes into the relationship between onomatology and literary research, both of which reflect the call, while their focus on names points to the essential pursuit of onomatology. Furthermore, from the perspective of disciplinary autonomy, focusing on names while studying things helps establish the boundary of modern onomatology of things. Related Articles | Metrics

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Millet's Seeding: Form and Subject in the 1920s Evolution of New Literature Chen Yunhao 2020, 40 (1):  99-107.  Abstract ( 210 )   PDF (368KB) ( 126 )   Jean-François Millet, a French painter in the 19th century, was first introduced to China via New Youth (1919) as a representative of "Ibsenism". Millet was so influential in Chinese literary circles of the 1920s that he played a key role in the aesthetic enlightenment in parallel with the evolution of new literature. Millet's seeding in Chinese literary field witnessed the shifts from the "Renaissance" spiritual pursuit to the self-consciousness of the literary form, and from the construction of pure literature to the birth of artistic subjects in the late 1920s. During this process, Millet and the new literature formed a historical intertextual relationship between literature and fine arts, form and content, "cross street" and "ivory tower". Thus, the process of aesthetic enlightenment and the evolution of new literature together constituted a hidden thread of the 1920s. Related Articles | Metrics

Issue in Focus: Art Theory Studies

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Representation and Thought in Images: A Study of the Relationship between Words and Images from an Artistic Perspective Zhao Yanqiu 2020, 40 (1):  108-117.  Abstract ( 294 )   PDF (599KB) ( 180 )   The inbuilt thought of images comes from the meaning of things represented by images and also from the initiation of artist's subjectivity. The meaning of image emerges from the interaction between image and audience. The prescriptive nature of image's presentation becomes the source to generate image's meaning, while the interpretation of the audience actualizes the implicit meaning. In images, visuality is always dominant from which meaning is generated and the audience captures the meaning and keeps the visuality. The initiation of subjectivity into image is artists' conscious action, as is reflected in their observation, conceptualization, and performance. Artists can foreground certain thoughts in images by highlighting the cultural connotation of the things represented, stylizing and specifying the contexts of the images. There is difference in the expression of thought between the presentation of images and the figurative representation constructed through language, and the difference can be described in three ways. First, the visuality of image is unable to represent non-visual phenomena in life. Secondly, image is unable to express thought through its materialitys. Thirdly, the thought presented by visual images is not as clear as that expressed by literary images. Related Articles | Metrics

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Inheritance or Critique: On the Relation between The Origin of German Tragic Drama and The Birth of Tragedy Yao Yunfan 2020, 40 (1):  118-126.  Abstract ( 239 )   PDF (346KB) ( 93 )   While Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Benjamin both acknowledged that tragedy and trauerspiel are two different genres, they had contrasting elucidation of the characteristics and significances of trauerspiel. According to Nietzsche, trauerspiel was an unsuccessful mimesis of tragedy. However; Benjamin saw in trauerspiel a kind of special value. This difference was a result of their different understandings of the concept of ursprung. Nietzsche considered ursprung as an attempt to integrate Apollonian and Dionysian spirits, while Benjamin presented the structure of ursprung as a destructing force against monolithic sovereignty. Despite this contradiction, Benjamin accpeted Nietzsche's view and took Socrates as a symbol of the decadence of tragedy and the beginning of trauerspiel, thus reconstructing the lineage between tragedy and trauerspiel. Related Articles | Metrics

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Second Nature and Modern Art: On Lukács' Response to Hegel's "End of Art" Lu Kaihua 2020, 40 (1):  127-135.  Abstract ( 304 )   PDF (352KB) ( 144 )   To comprehend Hegel's argument that "Art is a thing of the past", one needs to learn Hegel's basic judgment of modern society which is derived from his concept of "second nature". Young Lukács, however, in light of Hegel, gives his own negative version of "second nature" and his judgment of the relation between the modern world and modern art in respect of lyric poetry and novel. Therefore, it is the interaction between the concept of second nature and the concept of modern art that helps us to make sense of why Lukács took a course against Hegel, though he had absorbed dialectics and philosophy art from Hegel. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Art that Can not be Reduced: Sociologists of Art on the Specificity of Art Lu Wenchao 2020, 40 (1):  136-145.  Abstract ( 253 )   PDF (372KB) ( 147 )   In the history of sociology of art, the sociologists such as Marxist, Bourdieu and Becker used the sociological method to study arts, and developed our understanding of arts. But they did not pay attention to the specificity of art, what they did was just as the colonialism of sociology in the field of art, and reduced art into general social factors. This caused the criticisms of some sociologists of art. Wolff claimed that we cannot reduce art into economic base or ideology, and we should pay attention to its aesthetic and formal factors; Heinich argued that art was a value system of specificity, which could not be reduced; Hennion and Benzecry thought that the taste was a condition of passion, and could not be reduced into the tactics of social distinction. DeNora claimed that the power of art came from the interaction between people and art, and kept a place for the specificity of art in this interaction. Their idea on the specificity of art was a balance to the reductionism of art, and was helpful for the development of Chinese sociology of art. Related Articles | Metrics

Western Literary Theory

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Culture Industry and Mass Deception: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Concerns about Soft Power in China Josef Gregory Mahoney 2020, 40 (1):  146-155.  Abstract ( 313 )   PDF (1374KB) ( 260 )   Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's concept of the culture industry remains a powerful description of the fate of art, literature and other cultural products in an era where media and information technology have made culture more industrial and reifying than ever before. We revisit this concept, tracing it forward from Walter Benjamin's initial contributions and proceeding onward the work of Herbert Marcuse against the backdrop of Marx's theory of commodity fetishism. We provide a brief description of historical origins with David Hawkes' works on the emergence of commodity fetishism in 16th-century England and carry this forward to Joseph S. Nye's discussions of the more contemporary phenomenon of soft power. Returning to Horkheimer and Marcuse's concerns for the logic underlying capitalist reification, as well as Adorno's longstanding concern that a culture industry could not produce a socialist consciousness (contrary to Benjamin's optimism), and recalling Marx's admonition that capitalism and nationalism are essentially the same road, we question whether there has ever been a socialist art or literature in China or anywhere else, whether one is possible, and whether we should concern ourselves firstly with products (e.g., soft power, media censorship, propaganda) or the mode of production that produces them. Related Articles | Metrics

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Narrative Reliability and Literary Authenticity Jiang Shouyi 2020, 40 (1):  156-167.  Abstract ( 292 )   PDF (1401KB) ( 559 )   Narrative reliability focuses on specific textual strategies, while literary authenticity highlights the overall effect of presentation. In terms of rhetoric, the former reflects the rhetorical strategy of the implied author through the narrator, so that the latter can be guaranteed on the narrative level. In terms of cognition, narrative reliability relies on the reader's perspective mechanism, for which literary authenticity serves as the potential basis. Considering the factor of the real author, new situations regarding the narrative reliability of the implicit author's rhetoric and the reader's cognition will arise, which leads to the diversification of literary authenticity. Given that the focus of narrative reliability and that of literary authenticity differ, a complexity between narrative reliability and literary authenticity emerges: the narration is either reliable but unrealistic, or unreliable but realistic. On top of that, narrative reliability and literary authenticity are subject to the change of receptive context. Related Articles | Metrics

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Mythological Narrative of The Clouds and Its Tragic Characteristic Chen Chunlian 2020, 40 (1):  168-180.  Abstract ( 542 )   PDF (463KB) ( 524 )   In Aristophanes's The Clouds, Socrates is a Promethean figure. While Prometheus steals fire from heaven in order to rescue human beings from extinction, Socrates attempts to educate Athenian citizensin rational conduct with his method so as to save their morality from the impact of the Sophistic movement. However, just like the fire that Prometheus has brought to mankind, which has both good and bad sides, the Socratic method could also be dangerous. His moral education is doomed to fail because people have desires and cannot live with their reason only. In The Clouds, Aristophanes continues to explore the theme that has appeared in Aeschylus's tragedies. The comedy thus becomes tragic, when the keen and wise poet captures the limitation of human intelligence. Related Articles | Metrics

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Three Faces of Genre: Exploring Theoretical Approachesto Western Film Genre Gui Lin 2020, 40 (1):  181-189.  Abstract ( 318 )   PDF (342KB) ( 573 )   Theoretical studies of Western film genre started in the late 1940s, and have become significant for Western film studies. The theoretical construction has mainly been based on the Hollywood film industry and genre. After more than half a century, a lot of achievements have been made in genre studies. As a multi-dimensional phenomenon, genre includes various systems and conventions that formulate these systems, which further complicated genre studies. This article attempts to classify and summarize the findings of Western film genre theory with three theoretical approaches: cultural genre theory, artistic genre theory, as well as political and economic genre theory. These studies demonstrate the vast potential of genre theory, which used to be ignored and suppressed by literary theory. In current times when literature and art are closely related to commerce, politics, science and technology, genre studies can integrate various research issues. It would also be beneficial for domestic studies of genre theory to sort out and review the theoretical approaches of western film genre theory. Related Articles | Metrics

Aesthetic Studies

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"Pure Pleasure", "Absolute Beauty", and "True Self": A Study of the Metaphysical Dimension of Aesthetics Liu Xuguang 2020, 40 (1):  190-199.  Abstract ( 288 )   PDF (374KB) ( 325 )   Human aesthetic behavior has a metaphysical state: the subject, in its "true self" state, pursues "absolute beauty" through "pure intuition", and then obtains "pure pleasure". Albeit ideal, this formulation is a principle generally found in various Chinese and foreign aesthetics. It lays foundations for aesthetic behavior at the metaphysical level, guides specific aesthetic practices, and becomes an object of art. As the logic premise of modern aesthetics, this principle has significantly influenced various modern aesthetic theories. Related Articles | Metrics

Western Literary Theory

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Somaesthetics and the Justification of Body-Mind Monism: An Account from the Perspective of Marx's Historical Materialism Fang Yingmin 2020, 40 (1):  200-210.  Abstract ( 441 )   PDF (1362KB) ( 377 )   Although body-mind monism is the philosophical basis of somaesthetics, it is not readily justifiable within the intellectual history of Western philosophy and aesthetics. Western philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, rooted in essentialist thinking, veered between affirming and negating body, thus failing to adhere to body-mind monism. The transcendence of the essentialist predicament was realized through Marx's theory of historical materialism, and a way to justify body-mind monism is thus introduced. From the perspective of Marxist historical materialism, the nature of body-mind relation as a theoretical preposition is translated from the essentialist understanding of a theoretical problem to the existential problem of human. and the body-mind monism is then understood as a historical body-mind unity in time. This understanding, when put into the context of Western intellectual tradition and global cultural background, may not be considered as the only resolution to body-mind monism, but it may justify itself as an approach to the monism within its intellectual tradition. Related Articles | Metrics

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Body-ethics or Body-aesthetics?: An Investigation into Terry Eagleton's Recent View on Body Yin Zhike 2020, 40 (1):  211-218.  Abstract ( 332 )   PDF (313KB) ( 467 )   According to Terry Eagleton, culturalism in postmodern thought emphasizes culture's conquest of nature, which refrains from criticizing culture itself, but veils the finiteness of body with the infiniteness of will. Eagleton argues that the foundation of human reason is the dependent and limited human body, and that reason must reflect on whether culture would result in overestimation of the power of will and desire. Eagleton's view on body-aesthetics is a blend of ideas from Aristotle, British empiricists, Kant and Karl Marx. For Eagleton, both artworks and body have internal value and telos, and thus do not yield to any external purpose. Eagleton's body-aesthetics aims to find the teleological consistency of body and artworks. A clear understanding of his view on body-aesthetics in the new millennia must rest on perception of "virtue" and "praxis" in Aristotle's ethics. Related Articles | Metrics