Mao Qiling's Comments On The Romance Of The West Chamber And The Value Of His Concept Of “Lyric Example” In Literary Criticism,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Mao Qiling's Comments On The Romance Of The West Chamber And The Value Of His Concept Of “Lyric Example” In Literary Criticism, Xurong Yang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Theatre critics of the Ming dynasty spoke only occasionally about the "example (li)" of the Yuan-dynasty plays (za ju). In early Qing dynasty, Mao Qiling proposed "lyric example ( ci li)" as the primary commentary approach to The Romance ofthe West Chamber. The concept of "lyric" refers to the Yuan-dynasty plays, and the concept of "example" refers to the conventions, commonalities, laws and paradigms. Mao's concept of "lyric example" provided a comprehensive analysis of the language, the temperament, the system, and the performance as well as the critical standards in evaluating not only The Romance of the West Chamber but …
The Breakthrough And Limitations Of Qi Biaojia's Xiqu-Play Criticism,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Breakthrough And Limitations Of Qi Biaojia's Xiqu-Play Criticism, Shiyang Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In his letters to friends, Qi Biaojia expressed his hope to compile a collection of xiqu-plays in the Ming dynasty to promote contemporary xiqu-plays with textual criticism of the manuscripts. Qi inherited Wang Jide's idea of being the first to bridge the gap in the xiqu world and Lv Tiancheng's "intention to be close to the secular." Therefore, he tried hard to collect all the xiqu-plays in the Ming dynasty available to him, and compiled a monograph on xiqu-plays. Qi focused on manuscripts rather than on the playwrights or actors as his basis of evaluation. As opera music meters and …
Multidimensional Construction And Deconstruction Of The Claim That The Eight-Legged Essay Was Epitomized In The Ming Dynasty,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Multidimensional Construction And Deconstruction Of The Claim That The Eight-Legged Essay Was Epitomized In The Ming Dynasty, Xiong Zheng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The claim that the eight-legged essay was epitomized in the Ming dynasty was solidified by scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties with the belief that each generation had an exemplary genre since the Yuan dynasty. The claim was constructed from four dimensions of the three relationships between writing and, respectively, societal politics, scholar's vitality, and tradition of adhering to the classics and doctrines, as well as generic transformation and its value. The value of the eight-legged essay in the Ming dynasty had also been criticized in the above mentioned four dimensions by the Ming and Qing dynasty scholars. However, …
The Aesthetic Concept Of On The Absence Of Sentiments In Music And A Reflection On The Construction Of Chinese Aesthetics,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Aesthetic Concept Of On The Absence Of Sentiments In Music And A Reflection On The Construction Of Chinese Aesthetics, Kai Lin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Ji Kang's ( 223-263) On the Absence of Sentiments in Music has three types of aesthetic concepts. First, listeners of sorrowful music release his emotions through listening. Second, peaceful listeners obtain aesthetic pleasure through appreciating the beauty of musical form. Thirdly, peaceful listeners focus specifically on moderate music, in order to acquire peace and preserve his health. Going beyond utilitarian emotions, Ji Kang laid more emphasis on the second type of aesthetic concept, which was close to Kant's definition of disinterestedness. Yet, he regulated desire due to vigilance, rather than stressing "aesthetic freedom" like modern aesthetics. Therefore, Ji Kang's three …
Fictional Text And Reality Of The Possible,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Fictional Text And Reality Of The Possible, Shusheng Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article explores the issue of reference in fictional texts, that is, the relationship between fictional texts and reality. Paul Ricoeur thinks that the reference of poetic language is not cancelled, but only suspended. Through its semantic creativity, it possesses the ability to transform reality and to turn our personal environment into a habitable world. The interpretation of the concept "world /Welt" and "environment /Umwelt" by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer shed light on the significance of fictional texts in reality, for they propose to us possible modes of existence in the ontological sense. In other words, fictional texts can …
A Paranoid Anxiety Of Life And Its Artistic Expression: A Thematic Study Of The Story Of Zhuangzhou Drumming The Basin,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
A Paranoid Anxiety Of Life And Its Artistic Expression: A Thematic Study Of The Story Of Zhuangzhou Drumming The Basin, Yugui Jing
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The original story of "Zhuangzhou Drumming the Basin" as first appeared in the Stories to Caution the World has been circulated both in China and abroad, and the motif of "unfaithful widow" is given distinctive artistic forms of expression. Zhuang's wife, the female protagonist in the story is constructed as an embodiment of carnal desire. Such representation reflects the status and tragic existence of women in a patriarchal society. Zhuangzi, who tests his wife's faithfulness, is in fact a representative figure of ancient scholars of little means who are separated from society and family, and a sexually jealous character of …
Juxtaposition, Narrative Strategies, And Multimedia Explorations: Representation Of Time In Comics,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Juxtaposition, Narrative Strategies, And Multimedia Explorations: Representation Of Time In Comics, Xu Lian
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Following the tradition of narratology and comics studies, this article explores various ways of representing time in comics and displays the complexity and diversity of temporal representation in the grammar of comics. It focuses on spatialization, closure, order, speed, and innovation enabled by virtue of multimedia explorations. Spatialization strategies such as juxtaposition and collage are basic ways to represent time in comics, and closure of perception is also critical in understanding time. However, new forms like music comics and webcomics have significantly changed the structure of temporal representation.
The New Development Of Marxist Literary Criticism Today: An Interview With Barbara Foley,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The New Development Of Marxist Literary Criticism Today: An Interview With Barbara Foley, Shengzhen Zhang, Barbara Foley
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This interview with Prof. Barbara Foley covers a wide range of critical approaches and new challenges in the fields of Marxist theory, Marxist literary criticism, and Marxist pedagogy. Prof. Foley holds that Marxism provides a meta-theory, a privileged standpoint from which to study the connections between literature, politics and history. After examining fundamental principles of Marxism － － historical materialism, political economy, and ideology critique － － Foley analyzes long-standing debates over the nature of literature and sets forth key concerns of Marxist literary criticism. This interview also examines a broad range of literary works － － from classical to …
“Poetic Wisdom”Or “Poetic Knowledge”: On The Interlingual Transformation Of “Della Sapienza Poetica”,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
“Poetic Wisdom”Or “Poetic Knowledge”: On The Interlingual Transformation Of “Della Sapienza Poetica”, Weixuan Lin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
While the term “Poetic wisdom” as the translation of “della Sapienza Poetica” helps to convey the aestheticconnotation of the original, it shadows the meaning of “poetic knowledge” and its epistemological background. Since René Descartes's rationality denied the value of philology, Giovanni Battista Vico tried to use “della Sapienza Poetica” as his method to seek truth in philology, and as his determination to defend philology. When approaching “della Sapienza Poetica” from the perspective of “poetic knowledge," we can understand and justify many of the puzzling arguments in Vico's New Science and give due respect to the concept which lacks among Western …
Third Reading Of Early Film Theory: The Turn To Dispositif, Affect, And Action Comedy,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Third Reading Of Early Film Theory: The Turn To Dispositif, Affect, And Action Comedy, Yingjin Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Early film studies has spread rapidly since the 1990s and become a mainstay in film studies in Euro-American academia, bringing technological innovation, visual culture, and urban modernity into film historiography and thus enriching scholarship in a field previously dominated by close textual reading. This article continues my tracking of early film studies but concentrates on methodological issues of the recent focus on “media archaeology.” My “Reading Early Film Theory: Collective Sensorium and Vernacular Modernism” (2005) introduces Miriam Hansen's theory and Zhen Zhang's book on reconstructing a cultural history of Shanghai film. My follow-up “Rereading Early Film Theory: In Pursuit of …
Imaginations Of The Wei And Jin Dynasties In The Time Of Historical Fracture: Rereading Zong Baihua's "On The Tales Of The World And The Beauty Of The Jin People” In The Context Of The Second Sino-Japanese War,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Imaginations Of The Wei And Jin Dynasties In The Time Of Historical Fracture: Rereading Zong Baihua's "On The Tales Of The World And The Beauty Of The Jin People” In The Context Of The Second Sino-Japanese War, Lang Jin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Zong Baihua's “On The Tales of the World and the Beauty of the Jin People”is the foundation for research on the aesthetics of the Wei and Jin dynasties. It expounds on the aesthetic spirit in the Wei and Jin dynasties with discourses of "consciousness of personality", which is often traced back to the period of the May Fourth Movement. In fact, this understanding is the result of reinterpretations in the new era. An overlooked fact is that this work was written during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and should be interpreted in the historical and cultural context of this period. The …
Testimony, Narrative, And History: The Plague And Some Issues Of Literature As Testimony,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Testimony, Narrative, And History: The Plague And Some Issues Of Literature As Testimony, Dongfeng Tao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Albert Camus's The Plague establishes a mode of“literature as historical testimony”and demonstrates a profound shift in the relationship between history and narrative, and it implies that literature ( narrative) is inevitably embedded in history. Literature as a testimony to the Holocaust does not record the Holocaust but also offers a new perspective to understand it. This actualizes the transformation of history as it changes the nature of historical knowledge. The history in The Plague is written in the mode of an allegory, and it establishes a profound metaphorical relation between the plague and the Holocaust. As both the plague and …
Urban Imagination And The Idea Of The Nation-State In Modern Chinese Literature,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Urban Imagination And The Idea Of The Nation-State In Modern Chinese Literature, Yongdong Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Cities and nation-states are both substantive and conceptual. The study of urban imagination in modern Chinese literature needs to go beyond the model that builds on the concept of a uniform city and village. It requires an understanding of the limits in interpreting modernity and cultural perspective, and an emphasis on exploring the polysemy and fluidity of city images. Cities and nation-states constitute a “problem field,”in which the way of looking at and imagining cities are often marked by metaphors of the nation-state. Urban imagination and the idea of the nation-state are mutually illuminative. The expression of the idea of …
Chinese Peking Opera Anthology: A Text-Centered Study Of Peking Opera,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Chinese Peking Opera Anthology: A Text-Centered Study Of Peking Opera, Dongdong Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since 1880, Peking opera (jingju) anthologies have developed rapidly and collected a large number of plays. Therefore, the text-centered study of jingju based on anthologies has been established, which could fulfil the gap in existing jingju studies that focus on performance. Specifically, by outlining the basic forms and evolutionary rules of the selected texts, we can survey the full picture of text-centered anthologies in development. By foregrounding text-centeredness and literariness of playscripts, we can open up a new field of textual studies beyond the studies of performance. The major aspects of theoretical studies of jingju anthologies include theories of anthology, …
On Wang Yuanhua's Ideas Of Jingju And His Reflection On The May Fourth Movement,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
On Wang Yuanhua's Ideas Of Jingju And His Reflection On The May Fourth Movement, Wei Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
It is extremely meaningful, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Wang Yuanhua's birth, to restudy his ideas of jingju. Wang's thoughts on the revival and development of jingju from the perspective of cultural heritage are highly valuable. He believes that, in terms of moral ideas, jingju is a medium and vehicle in disseminating grand traditions of Chinese culture towards smaller traditions. Meanwhile, considered as a performance system, jingju embodies the“bixing”mindset, the lyrical expression with mind-object interaction, as well as the flexible distance-immersion dynamic among performers and spectators. This results in a complete system of“virtuality, conventionalization, and ideographics”. He …
A Hundred-Year Modern Peking Opera: Practices And Experiences,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
A Hundred-Year Modern Peking Opera: Practices And Experiences, Hengfu Zhu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The hundred-year modern Peking opera (jingju) has gone through three stages. In the first stage, ranging from around 1910 to around 1964, jingju was used as agit-prop. In the second stage from 1964 to 1976, there emerged a series of new forms in acting, music, and stage art, with which theatre practitioners strove to use art to perform revolutionary historical stories or the struggle and construction in the socialist period. The third stage from 1976 to the present is characterized by a thematic departure from“politics”and“revolution”to the portrayal of“nobodies”by focusing on characters' psychology; this stage also features novel and beautiful physical …
Popular Literature And Art, National Forms And The Re-Presentation Of Lyricism,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Popular Literature And Art, National Forms And The Re-Presentation Of Lyricism, Fan Nan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In the 1930s and 1940s, debates about“popular literature and art”and“the‘national form’of literature”emerged successively in China. While affirming the popular and national literary forms, the literary form that Chinese intellectuals highly admired served as the“Other”in the debating discourse and thus it has never received positive theoretical account. This article intends to re-present this literary form through an integrated examination of cultural interest, class, and literary form. Thanks to the promotion of the May Fourth New Literature, the radical attitude of petty bourgeois culture and the general conceptualization of enlightenment, this literary form is marked by the surge of lyrical elements. The …
Cabaret Voltaire Or Kabarett Voltaire? Three Breakthroughs Of The Concept Gesamtkunstwerk,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Cabaret Voltaire Or Kabarett Voltaire? Three Breakthroughs Of The Concept Gesamtkunstwerk, Duozhi Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The birthplace of Dadaism in Switzerland is often simply translated into Chinese as “Voltaire Pub”. As an art salon, it actually finds its prototype in artists' pubs in Germany. The word “Cabaret” translated as “pub”, is also the general term for the entertaining variety shows therein,which originated in France. After its introduction into the German-speaking area, Cabaret became Kabarett and its cultural connotations and ways of presentations underwent great changes due to its collision with the avant-garde movement. Therefore, the simplified understanding of Cabaret as a pub downplays the significance of the Cabaret Voltaire in the history of modern art. …
Recoding Postmodernist Art Criticism: The Debate Between Anti-Pluralism And Pluralism,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Recoding Postmodernist Art Criticism: The Debate Between Anti-Pluralism And Pluralism, Juanjuan Yang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
While pluralism is considered politically correct today, this article tries to describe the trajectory of anti-pluralist criticism through some famous authors of October, specifically Hal Foster, who edited the seminal Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. In the beginning of the 1980s, Foster categorized two types of postmodernism, one being the postmodernism of reaction and neo-conservatism, the other being postmodernism of resistance and post-structuralism. Aligning with the latter of the two types, major authors of October published a series of important essays to criticize “mainstream postmodernist art, ” especially neo-expressionist paintings. However, during the same period, Arthur Danto claimed“the end of …
Writing Of Futurity: On Derrida's Hauntology,
2021
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Writing Of Futurity: On Derrida's Hauntology, Yun Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In Spectres of Marx, Jacques Derrida answers the post-Levinasian question: how to respond to the Other. He claims that The Communist Manifesto has become an injunction of Marx, who requires our response. We have to respond to it and speak, as Marx does, in a non-metaphysical way. Since it is beyond the economy of re-presentation, writing does not produce presence. Thus, everything in it is spectral. But it takes us into l＇avenir or futurity, a "spacing ( and) temporizing" different from the space-time produced by re-presentation, because it constitutes an "ethicality" which goes beyond the metaphysical subjective conquest of the …
