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    Chinese Literary Critical Discourse
  • Chinese Literary Critical Discourse
    Wu Xuan
    2020, 40(3): 1-14.
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    Chinese creative culture intersects with modern Western culture in the following aspects. First, Fuxi's xiantian bagua (Prenatal Eight Trigrams Numbers), "creating symbols of humanity via nature," and the idea of "respecting Confucianism while creating philosophy of individualism" discussed in the Records of the Grand Historian and The Yi Commentary of Su Shi all represent the Chinese-style implicit creative experience of "respecting and transforming reality." Such experience — "creation of the individual within the whole" —  is distinguished from creation out of binary opposition in the West. Second, the worship of vitality and the cherishing of life in ancient times, which laid the foundation for Yinshang cultural and artistic creations, have not been promoted philosophically in the development of Chinese culture. To a certain degree, intellectual reflections upon the organic relationship of "life-vitality-creativity" has been interrupted in the Chinese cultural modernization. Third, the "male-and-female-equivalent jade carving" of Yinxu, the "ideological contest of equivalence" of the pre-Qin periods, and the "equivalent cultural exchanges" of the Tang and Song dynasties not only can offer resources for deconstructing the Western "binary opposition," but also can provide the cultural philosophy of "diverse and equivalent relationship of creativities for modern Chinese philosophy and aesthetics. Fourth, the historical evolution of Chinese understanding of "divide and unite," and the deeply individualized thinking of writers in literary classics penetrating and creating tensions in Confucianism and Taoism are existing forms of "equivalent interaction" between creative culture and regulative culture. The idea that "Chinese culture is characterized by equivalent interaction" can replace the perception of "a dominantly determined Chinese culture" that has been accepted for nearly a hundred years.

  • Classical Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
  • Classical Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
    Chen Weizhao
    2020, 40(3): 15-26.
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    From the Tang dynasty onwards, ancient Chinese literature and literary theories have influenced the Sinophone cultural sphere, especially in East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. During the Edo and Meiji periods, conceptions of Chinese ancient style prose were also incorporated into the framework of Japan's intellectual and cultural constructions. Yet, Japanese writers acceptance of and rejection to the paradigms in ancient style prose were closely related to their current affairs in socio political, economic, and cultural dimensions. Remolded by Japanese culture, Chinese literary theories became localized and started to influence the literary creations and theories in Japan. The paper argues that the scope of research on Japanese Sinology and early modern Chinese literature should be extended to the whole of Sinophone cultural sphere.
  • Classical Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
    Zou Chaobin
    2020, 40(3): 28-36.
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    The meaning of the title "Cheng Xiang" in Xunzi is controversial. Through close reading, this paper analyzes "Cheng Xiang" in Xunzi from such new angles as evolvement of literary style and cultural integration. It is found that "Cheng Xiang" in Xunzi consisted of three relatively independent articles when Xunzi originally wrote them. "Cheng Xiang" was not simply titled by using several characters in the opening passage. Instead, it was consciously named after its literary style. "Cheng Xiang" as a literary style resulted from the integration of rites and music culture in the court of the Zhou dynasty and folk ballad culture. The rites and music culture mainly influenced the satirical content and the rhyme in "Cheng Xiang" literary style, while the folk ballad tradition was demonstrated in structure, such as the title and set phrases, and thus the proper meaning of "Cheng Xiang" should be "Cheng Xiang as a ballad".
  • Classical Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
    Huang Zhouyin
    2020, 40(3): 37-45.
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    Early Qing historian Niu Yunzhen concluded that grave elegance of style, sophisticated maturity of expression and inspired originality of appeal were three foremost qualities of the history-writing genre, through his reading of Han historian Sima Qian's exemplary work Records of the Grand Historian. With these qualities as criteria for historical criticism, Niu Yunzhen not only reinforced the status of Records of the Grand Historian as a classic, but also attached importance on emotion as an intrinsic attribute of historical writing. As a result, the expression of personal feelings was gradually legitimized and eventually became equally important to narrative method and moral implication in history writings thereafter.
  • Classical Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
    Yang Dongxiao
    2020, 40(3): 46-55.
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    The literary theories during the Six Dynasties often compared writers to "craftsmen", who were proficient in handicraft. Referring to the well developed art theory during this period, the connotation of "craftsman" can be considered in four dimensions: (1) a close adherence to the norm of literary styles, (2) an emphasis on language skills, (3) a balance between expressions of literary talents and emotions, and (4) a combination of conformance to rules and spirit of change. The theory of literary "craftsmanship" not only demonstrated an emphasis on writing techniques, but also disclosed its interactions with the lyrical and aesthetic functions of literature. In this way, it blurred the boundary between creations of literature and art and reflected a blending of the humanistic spirit of intellectuals and the technical spirit of craftsmen. Therefore, the theory of literary "craftsmanship" was a widely used one with far reaching impact and profound meanings.
  • Classical Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
    Zheng Miaomiao
    2020, 40(3): 56-64.
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    Among literature on poetry during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) there was poetic treatise, which focuses on theoretical and systematic expounding on the basics of poetics. This type of writing evolved through three stages of emergence, improvement and maturation. Li Dongyang's Poetry Commentaries from the Foothill Studio and Xu Zhenqing's On the Art of Poetry were two key works in the first stage. Li's work presented a gradually strengthened emphasis on the systematicity of poetry criticism, while Xu's work substantially centered on poetry criticism, marking the formation of poetic treatise. In the second stage, Wang Shizhen's Rambles in the Garden of Art and Hu Yinglin's Treasure of Poetry developed clear cut and complete structures. With increasing concentration on poetry criticism, they raised key arguments and made detailed, systematic discussions. More poetic treatises with greater length sprang up in the last stage, such as Xu Xueyi's Probe into the Origin and Styles of Poetry and Zhao Yiguang's Notes on Elegance. Compared with previous poetic treatises, these two works took the perspectives usually adopted in historical studies, which helped to improve the works in terms of both disciplinary construction and theoretical framework.
  • Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism
  • Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism
    Tan Guilin
    2020, 40(3): 65-75.
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    After the New Culture and May Fourth movements, three major strands were present in the field of Su Manshu study: the coterie of the Southern Society, writers of the "New Literature", and authors on the new Buddhist literature. Among them, authors on the new Buddhist literature primarily focused on such dimensions as (1) Su Manshu's character projection as a Buddhist, (2) Su's contribution to the development of Buddhism, (3) the affinity between Su's personalities and his art, and (4) Su's literary appeal to young Buddhist, etc. The significance of their research was several-folded. They argued for Su Manshu's due position in literary history; they provided theoretical and practical bases for the modern transformation of Buddhist literature; they opened up a space for alternative Buddhists who promoted the reform of modern Buddhism; and they set an example through Su Manshu's life to endorse their own interest in literature and art pursuit. Su Manshu was endowed with a sincere character as a free spirit who became a paragon for the reform of modern Buddhism. Their research has unique significance not only for Su Manshu study but also for the study of modern Chinese literature.
  • Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism
    Ding Xiaoyuan
    2020, 40(3): 76-83.
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    Reportage is a literary genre emerged out of modern journalism, featuring its blending of news, literature, and political commentary. With the changing of time, particularly due to the advent of the "Age of Omnimedia", its function to report news has significantly declined. Writers of reportage begin to develop its non-fictional narrative aesthetics, in order to accommodate themselves to the reader-objects and rising reader expectation. Reportage, as it stands, has shifted from its original style of reporting to a new genre of "literary reportage", a non-fictional narrative mode with distinctive features such as non-fiction, narrativity, and literariness.
  • Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism
    Feng Bo
    2020, 40(3): 84-94.
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    The discussion on "peasant literature" among different parties and people around the 1930s was actually a continuation of the petty bourgeois issue in the 1920s Chinese revolution. This is because after the Communist-Kuomingtang spirit, the proletarian party could only reaffirm its political subjectivity when the petty bourgeoisie were distinguished from the peasants. Besides, Nonpartisan intellectuals also needed to highlight the unique significance of enlightening the more popular peasants, because they were different from the petty bourgeoisie, who, to a certain extent, was more directed at the intellectual class. However, the reception of theoretical resources from Soviet Russia and Japan inevitably features displacement and difference, due to internal contractions in the international communist movement and in the spread of Marxism. The theoretical interpretation of "peasant literature" thus became a political practice of inheriting and overcoming contradictions. Through a comparison of these immature and left-wing theories of peasant literature. it can be known that ideas on lass, revolution and popularization were either artistic representation of different parties achieving specific political goals and functions, or native-soil folk imagination of realizing self-enlightenment and national self-determination against mainstream authoritative discourse. This made the discussion on theories of "peasant literature" around the 1930s a political polyphony and a folk carnival. It fully demonstrated the complex and interactive relationship between politics and literature and within literature itself where different aesthetic tendencies mutually stimulates and generated each other.
  • Special Column: Research on Popular Novels in Ming Dynasty
  • Special Column: Research on Popular Novels in Ming Dynasty
    Wan Qingchuan
    2020, 40(3): 95-106.
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    The deterioration of political ecology during the Ming dynasty led to intense conflicts among various political powers and interest groups. Due to the development of publishing technology and Dibao Gazette, lower classes of the society were increasingly involved in political activities. The varying degrees of involvement of different social classes in political struggles influenced related writers' fiction writing and dissemination. In this sense, fiction, especially those based on major political events and historical figures, gradually became an auxiliary vehicle for political struggle. Through the selection and (re)interpretation of historical materials, authors expressed their political views and appeals, attempting to influence the political operation and historical narrative. The creation of these fictions was entangled with various factors, such as disputes and conflicts of political parties, regions, civil and military officials, and some even led to literary violence and bloody incidents. Political writing broke the tradition of fictions as a simple vehicle for education and entertainment, forming a unique literary phenomenon in the history of Chinese fiction.
  • Special Column: Research on Popular Novels in Ming Dynasty
    Wang Jinju, Du Zhiwei
    2020, 40(3): 107-116.
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    Although The Plum in the Golden Vase is a derivation of the episode “Wu Song kills his sister-in-law” in The Water Margin, its temporal and spatial narration breaks through the restrictions of the original text. In terms of historical background, The Plum in the Golden Vase intentionally blends the Song and the Ming dynasty, which sets a precedent for profound reflection of the times in popular novels. The coherent chronological narrative and the continuous festival writing in this work also demonstrates the ups and downs as well as the prosperity and decline through the comparison of before and after. The main location in the narrative shifts from Yanggu to Qinghe, which ambivalently forms a realistic but illusory artistic effect. Then the novel describes society by focusing on family issues, and combines the courtyard layout with the story development and characterization, which constructs an interlocked and multilayered space. On the whole, it sets up a new paradigm for the popular novels by creating the chaptered novel of worldly affairs, which had a far-reaching impact on subsequent fictional writing.
  • Special Column: Research on Popular Novels in Ming Dynasty
    Feng Yuanyuan
    2020, 40(3): 117-123.
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    The parody of The West Chamber runs through the narrative of The Plum in the Golden Vase. This parody is demonstrated in the words and actions of characters, as well as in the descriptions of specific scenes and plot. The so-called "parody" is not only a degradation, de-coronation and desecration of the original text, but also a subversion of the narrative of gifted scholars and beauties, with characteristics of "deconstructionism" and "irony". The aesthetic style thus formed shows exactly the real symptoms of the time-carnival of the body and disappearance of taboo.
  • Research on Cultural Theory
  • Research on Cultural Theory
    Zhao Kuiying
    2020, 40(3): 124-135.
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    A critical analysis of environmental discourse from the perspective of "ecological rhetorical discourse criticism" reveals that the non-ecological rhetorical function of environmental discourse is mainly demonstrated in "erasure" and "whitewash". Erasure in environmental discourse works in two directions: one is the erasure of the natural existence, while the other is the erasure of the agent. The two main rhetorical strategies to erase the agent are "passive voice" and complicated "nominalization". The rhetoric strategy to erase the natural world is mainly manifested in "objectification" and "personification", and the use of "hypernym" and "hyponym", etc. The rhetoric of whitewash is mainly euphemism, of which the function can be divided into three types, the "whitewashing" (in a narrow sense), "shallowwashing", and "greenwashing". Domestic ecocriticism has by far focused on the analysis of ecological literary texts, while popular cultural studies pays little attention to ecological culture. This paper, through crossing the boundaries between literary texts and non-literary texts from the perspective of ecological rhetorical discourse criticism, critically analyzes the non-ecological rhetoric functions and underlying constitution rules of a broader environmental discourse, with the aim to expand the vision and problem domain of ecocriticism and cultural studies, and hence to play a more practical role in constructing ecological culture and civilization today.
  • Research on Cultural Theory
    Zhu Jun
    2020, 40(3): 136-144.
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    Globalization has reshaped our sense of place and this reshaping has profound impact on human aesthetic experience. Modern transportation, media, mass culture and theme — parkization of cities accelerate the proliferation of the aesthetics of placelessness. Facing the crisis of “the end of Place”, Marxist theorists on space believe that “place” has become increasingly important due to its multiple deformations. Place not only reshapes the structure of senses but also reconstructs urban situation and social structure. This paper claims that there is at present a need to discard the narrow understanding of place while retaining the aesthetic appreciation of particularity and uniqueness, so as to rebuild a global sense of place. This global sense of place is a kind of local imagination and social-spatial practice which will be more dialectical and open, and it may have enlightening implications for the rectification of the anti-globalization trend and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
  • Research on Cultural Theory
    Zhang Yaojun
    2020, 40(3): 145-143.
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    The postmodern is not a concept with definite historical times, but is still related to time, especially to the present. There are two different concepts of the postmodern in Lyotard's writings, which correspond to the present of two different kinds. One is the finished status of modernity, which embodies an eternal present that leads to the "inhuman" depressions on humans. The other is an instantaneous moment that has burst out emotionally, which not only reflects on the former kind of the postmodern, but also forms a particular style of postmodern existence.
  • Issue in Focus: Art Theory
  • Issue in Focus: Art Theory
    Zhuge Yi
    2020, 40(3): 154-161.
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    Sticking to Marxism, art historian T.J. Clark analyzes modern art from perspectives of politics and society. Through comparative analysis, this article extracts his theory on modernist art. According to Clark, modernism arose, developed and declined in the historical coordinate system which consisted of the bourgeoisie, technological reason, the society of spectacle and socialist movement. As a response to modernity, modernist art was a structural model to examine the representation of modernity by visual form, which also explored and embodied the origin of the experience of modernity. Modernist art intended to signify the social reality in the crisis of representation, and to negate the capitalist society as a whole. Although aiming to create an “Artistic Utopia”, it regressed because of its sticking to subjectivity and resistance to identity. T.J. Clark's modernist theory has challenged the theories of Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried and produced far-reaching impact.
  • Issue in Focus: Art Theory
    Li Qian
    2020, 40(3): 162-170.
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    This paper focuses on the transformation of discourses on liveness and mediatization in theatre studies and theatrical productions, and tries to describe their historical contexts, intellectual backgrounds and social implications. It attempts to clarify the historical context in which the discourse of liveness is constructed, and claims that, for the theatre in an age of media, liveness and mediatization have shared theoretical constructs, and together they bring forth the richness of theatrical performances. In the current age of media, not only had liveness been drastically changed by media but also the live experience has been mediated, while the tension between liveness and mediatization underlies one of the most remarkable aesthetic tendencies in contemporary theatre. The paper claims that the appeal for liveness in the media-age theatre is essentially concerned with the issue of public sphere in contemporary theatre. It is imperative to locate the position of liveness as a concept in the theoretical field in the age of media, and to understand liveness and mediatization of theatrical works in the context of this media age.
  • Issue in Focus: Art Theory
    He Xi
    2020, 40(3): 171-180.
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    Della Pittura (On Painting) by Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) is considered as one of the most important works in the history of Western art theory. In this book, Alberti constructed a system of terminologies and a set of principles, in order to structurally describe the content of paintings, to accurately convey the technique of paintings, and to systematically understand and evaluate the meaning and value of paintings. With the method of "quasimorphosis", this paper explores Alberti's artistic term "istoria" in three steps. Firstly, it traces the origin of the term back to the Classical Age; secondly, it describes the establishment of and changes to it in Medieval thought and scholarship, and finally, it discusses how Alberti defined a new category of art by using traditional term as an artistic principle.
  • Western Literary Theory
  • Western Literary Theory
    Samuel Weber
    2020, 40(3): 181-190.
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    In their book, Dialectics of Enlightenment, written during the Second World War in their exile in the U.S., Adorno and Horkheimer portray Ulysses in the Odyssey as the exemplary Western figure. Focusing on an event that occurs as he takes his revenge not just upon the suitors but upon the women who collaborated with them, the authors raise the question of just what a return home can mean in the Western tradition. They emphasize the violence involved in reclaiming one's "property," as Ulysses' son, Telemachus, executes the women in the most brutal fashion. This allows the author to discuss the form in which this violent event is narrated as an implicit critique of the brutality being described. This essay examines the ambiguous status of mortality in the interpretation of Adorno and Horkheimer, and in their conception of their Dialectic of Enlightenment.
  • Western Literary Theory
    Chang Peijie
    2020, 40(3): 191-200.
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    The transition from "aura" to "dialectical image" is a key to trace the trajectory of Walter Benjamin's aesthetic thoughts. Benjamin repeatedly specified the connotations, the prerequisites for emergence and the reasons for the disappearance of "aura." As far as artistic problems are concerned, the appearance of aura is closely related to "the semblance of beauty", trance experience and authenticity of things, and the key to this is that the aforementioned factors could ensure the essential distance between the aesthetic subject and the aesthetic object. However, these conditions do not stand under mechanical reproduction technology and aura is destroyed and disappears. As Benjamin's standpoint of thinking gradually shifted from Jewish theology to Marxism, his attitude towards aura also changed from that of lamenting its disappearance to that of criticizing its ideological characteristics. To further on this, he began to explore the possible form of "post-aura art", i.e., the dialectical image epistemologically based on dialectical materialism.
  • Western Literary Theory
    Huo Ju
    2020, 40(3): 201-209.
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    One of Louis Pierre Althusser's contributions to Marxism was to clarify the concept of the political "masses", affirming that the masses of all classes united in struggle functioned as both the departure of action and the end of theory. He thus loomed as a unique presence in the intellectual development of Western Marxism. From the perspective of literary criticism, this paper focuses on Althusser's re-positioning of issues such as author, form and defamiliarization in contemporary critical theory, and on his using the distanciation theory to explicate howideological practice surrounding mass movement intervenes reality and functions in it. The paper tries to clarify the following issues: the historical context of Althusser's concept of the masses, the content of the theoretical contestation in Althusser's literary criticism, the positive effect of art neuveau as he found, and the organic connection in the overall philosophical-artistic practice.
  • Western Literary Theory
    Wang Ting
    2020, 40(3): 210-216.
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    In Adorno's aesthetics, there is a natural beauty with a particular form: it has no clear concept, but only undefinable and impalpable characteristics. This distinguishes it from rational things, for the essence of natural beauty is unconditional and transcendent. Being transcendent, it is beyond reason. Since indefinability and mystique are appearances presented at its experience level, natural beauty can only be referred to through detour and negation. The rationale for Adorno's set of natural beauty originates from Kant's aesthetics. Like Kant, Adorno distinguishes knowledge from beauty; he differs from Kant in that Kant draws natural beauty from experience and leads it to transcendent morality, whereas Adorno intends to employ natural beauty, which is metaphysical and theological, to present the truth of art.
  • Seventy Years of Chinese Literary Critcism: Retrospection and Reflection
  • Seventy Years of Chinese Literary Critcism: Retrospection and Reflection
    Cui Xinxin
    2020, 40(3): 217-218.
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