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Dream Of The Red Chamber Internet Fan Fiction And Literary Canonicity, Rojas Carlos
Dream Of The Red Chamber Internet Fan Fiction And Literary Canonicity, Rojas Carlos
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article considers the contemporary genre of Internet fan fiction inspired by Dream of the Red Chamber, which is to say Chinese novels published over the Internet that take the plot of Dream of the Red Chamber as their starting point. Through a close textual analysis of thematics of incestuous desire, reproduction, and vestigial remains in two works of Dream of the Red Chamber fan fiction, he argues that these contemporary novels comment allegorically not only on their own relationship to Dream of the Red Chamber itself, but also on more abstract processes of literary production and canon formation.
Cross-Cultural Recognition Of Musical Expressiveness, O. Young James
Cross-Cultural Recognition Of Musical Expressiveness, O. Young James
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
According to the resemblance theory, music owes its expressive character to its resemblance to human expressive behaviour. Discerning the expressive character of a work of music is a matter recognizing the resemblance between the music and expressive behaviour. For example, slow music is often experienced as sad and this is at least part since the speech of sad people is slow. Certain forms of expressive behaviour are found in many cultures. Consequently one would predict that members of one culture are able to discern the expressive character of music produced by members of other cultures. There is considerable empirical evidence …
Humanity-Restoration And Artistic Creation: The Interfusion Of Liu Xizai's Ideas Of Inner Saint And Poetic Virtue, Tao Ma
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Qing-Dynasty Confucian scholar Liu Xizai (1813-1881) expanded his idea about inner saint in terms of philosophy, literature and arts, and self-cultivation throughout his life. In such works as Private Words to Uphold the Will (Chizhi Shuyan) and Reading Notes from Ancient Tung Tree Studio (Gutong Shuwo Zhaji), Liu explored the ways to integrate life and art, human nature and artificial skills, with strong humanistic concerns. Underlying his concept of inner saint is the fusion of the idea of "literary creation as the study of mind" and the ideal of poetic virtue. Inner saintliness is achieved in the mind’s return …
From "Guideways Through Mountains And Seas" To "Film Slides": A Study On The Gestation Of Lu Xun's Concept Of Image, Xu Xu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper posits that Guideways through Mountains and Seas and film slides are two of the starting points to investigate Lu Xun's cognition of and choice between "cultural image" and "political image." Lu Xun had eventually blended both for the purpose of the Enlightenment through Image. Lu Xun's concept of image is two-folded. On the one hand, on the functional level of images, Lu Xun invested the image with the function of enlightenment, through his affirmation of the universality of images, caution against the frivolous consumption of images, and reflection over the enslavement of images. On the other hand, on …
On The Site-Specificity Of Public Art, Baldini Andrea
On The Site-Specificity Of Public Art, Baldini Andrea
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since the stipulation of the NEA's new guidelines in 1974, works of public art and site-specificity issues became inextricably intertwined. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship between works of public art and the specific space they "inhabit." I will develop my analysis by considering three case studies from contemporary public art: Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, Pino Castagna's In pietra alpestra e dura and Mauro Vangi's La Lupa. I will argue that public artworks that are site-specific function possibly following two directions that are dialectically related. On the one hand, public artworks "transform" the space where they …
Spatial Experience And Artistic Expression: A View From The Perspective Of Historical-Geographical Materialism, Jia Yan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Harvey David's historical-geographical materialism provides a unique viewpoint for understanding and interpreting the spatial experience and expression in artistic creation. According to this theory, the meaning of space is always in a constant flux, and its complexity is not determined by the concept itself but depends on changes in the historical condition of human material production and the context. In the experience of space, physical space reflects the characteristics of human production and materials and is always accompanied by personal psychological experience and historical imagination. The artistic expression of space, which often becomes the intermediary between the social and historical …
On The Construction Of Aesthetic Image In Aesthetic Activities, Zhirong Zhu
On The Construction Of Aesthetic Image In Aesthetic Activities, Zhirong Zhu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Beauty is aesthetic image constructed by the aesthetic subject in aesthetic activities. The process of image creation is a dynamic process of creation which transcends materiality and sensuality. Aesthetic activity as the process of image construction is a process in which the subject achieves spiritual pleasure through experiencing external things, bringing forth emotions and imagination and gratifying the desire of creation and self-achievement. This process unites the intuitive comprehension, judgement and creation. The relationship between image and artistic site is that between the form and the spirit, with the image taking various forms. The image is the embodiment of the …
The Debate On The Grade Of Tao Yuanming In Zhong Rong'sTastes Of PoetryIn Modern Academic History, Xun Yang
The Debate On The Grade Of Tao Yuanming In Zhong Rong'sTastes Of PoetryIn Modern Academic History, Xun Yang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In his Tastes of Poetry, Zhong Rong (468-518) put Tao Yuanming to the middle grade, which caused much objection from later critics. Wang Shizhen (1526-90) thought that Tao should be put to the top grade, although he had not done any theoretical analysis or produced any evidence from research literature. The recent research on Tastes of Poetry found that Zhong Rong had put Tao Yuanming into the rank of top grade poets, as quoted from Taiping Yulan. The entailed debate evolves round such issues as whether the critics had been reading the original Tastes of Poetry and whether Zhong Rong's …
An Analysis Of Visual Behavior In Art Cognition, Chenguang Ling
An Analysis Of Visual Behavior In Art Cognition, Chenguang Ling
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
"Looking" is an important process through which men understand the object, know themselves and construct the world. The analysis of looking can be unfolded in the following three aspects. The first aspect takes looking as seeing. Looking is an action while seeing is a result. However, "looking" does not necessarily means "having seen." Seeing reveals the object, when the object originally not focused on is presented by visual selecting and focusing. This is a process from invisibility to visibility. The second aspect takes looking as "seeing-in" or finding out. "Seeing-in" embodies the meaning of the depth model in the visual …
Kierkegaard And 19Th-Century Urban Space Of Copenhagen: A Modernistic Critique, Jinjian Tianwang
Kierkegaard And 19Th-Century Urban Space Of Copenhagen: A Modernistic Critique, Jinjian Tianwang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
With the development of modernization process in Western capitalist society, modern metropolises appeared in succession. Many Marxists in Western countries examined the relationship between the transitions of urban space and modernity critically, but few researches have focused on the urban space of Copenhagen. Tivoli garden appeared as an innovation while rebuilding Copenhagen, which incarnated the modernity of urban space in Copenhagen. As a citizen in Copenhagen who had special individual career and religious background, Kierkegaard had established an important relationship with church, and he opened up a new way to critique modernity through theology. He argued that the authentic interior …
On The Word-Image Intertextuality And Its Aesthetic Characteristics Of The Illustrated Book Big Breasts And Wide Hips, Hongyue Wang, Chunlei Yang
On The Word-Image Intertextuality And Its Aesthetic Characteristics Of The Illustrated Book Big Breasts And Wide Hips, Hongyue Wang, Chunlei Yang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
To examine the word-image intertextuality in the illustrated novels have become a new approach in literary studies, through which the relationship between illustrations and the novel itself is investigated. Mo Yan's novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips has been published with 24 pencil illustrations in 2003, and it can be seen that these illustrations are not randomly painted and inserted into the novel. The paper examines the dialogue and intertextuality between the text and the illustrations and analyzes the narrative modes of images and language.
The Disciplinary Boundaries And Intrinsic Basis Of Aesthetics Of Theory Of Life, Jianjiang Wang
The Disciplinary Boundaries And Intrinsic Basis Of Aesthetics Of Theory Of Life, Jianjiang Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Aesthetics of theory of life establishes its boundaries through the distinction from social aesthetics, ethic aesthetics, natural aesthetics, and aesthetics education as well as the aesthetic realm. Aesthetics of theory of life has the features of the study of morphology, which construct its inner-aesthetics. Inner-aesthetics is characterized by non-object, inner-vision and spiritual realm, and becomes the signature features and intrinsic basis. The life ideal, spiritual realm and moral cultivation construct the specific connotation of Chinese aesthetics of theory of life. The paper claims that the research of aesthetics of theory of life can be deepened only through the mastery of …
The Significance Of Hu Yinglin's "Generational Stylistic Degradation" In Poetics And Culture, Minghui Wang
The Significance Of Hu Yinglin's "Generational Stylistic Degradation" In Poetics And Culture, Minghui Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Stylistic degradation over the generations is a claim made by Ming-Dynasty scholar Hu Yinglin (1551-1602) on classical Chinese poetic tradition. This paper argues that Hu's claim should not be treated merely as a concept of literary regression but should be taken more seriously as Hu's criticism of the uncontained proliferation of lyricism in poetry and corrosion of "ideal-expressing" poetic tradition. Hu's apparent retro idea of poetics conveyed in "generational stylistic degradation" is closely related with the tradition of "poetic arousal and projection (兴寄)" in ancient Chinese poetics and his reaffirmation of poetic cultivation, while poetic style (格) is a holistic …
Ouverture And Closure In Interpretive Contexts, Margolis Joseph
Ouverture And Closure In Interpretive Contexts, Margolis Joseph
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
I posit as polar extremes of interpretative practice the well-known model of closure Dante reports as guiding or governing medieval literature and the opposed model of acknowledging different degrees and kinds of openness somewhat differently supported by Umberto Eco and Roland Barthes, that suggest the limiting considerations of "the only possible right way" and the increasing tolerance and scatter, characteristic of our time, of contingently contrived responses and associations that convey a sense of relevance but are prepared to dispense with distinctions of any strong methodological sort. Contemporary interpretation, particularly in the arts, tends increasingly to favor openness; accordingly, the …
Xunzi And Solomon On Aesthetic Responses To Loss, Higgins Kathleen
Xunzi And Solomon On Aesthetic Responses To Loss, Higgins Kathleen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Emotions related to loss are commonly expressed and embodied in aesthetic forms, including both enduring works such as monuments and performances, such as rituals. Xunzi, in his response to Mozi's criticism of grandiose funerals, helps to explain the value of aesthetically elaborate rituals for dealing with the emotions experienced by those who survive the death of a loved one. Xunzi's account also dovetails nicely with the concerns of Robert C. Solomon, who claims that grief, despite appearances to the contrary, is a functional emotion and that grieving is morally obligatory. Aesthetically elaborate rituals provide symbolic satisfaction of the longing for …
Aestheticization Of Evil And The Theory Of Poetic Justice, Jian'gang Wang
Aestheticization Of Evil And The Theory Of Poetic Justice, Jian'gang Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As one of the common themes in literature and art, evil can be transformed and purified through creative aestheticization and obtain a new quality which the ordinary life cannot provide. Meanwhile, it also can be endowed with a poetic value and aesthetic ethics. Therefore, evil in art may not only help to engage the reader in understanding life but also plays a big role of providing aesthetic pleasure. Furthermore, the paradox of the aestheticization of evil will eventually point out the issue of literary ethics and trigger the people to ponder on poetic justice.
An Ontological Comparison Between Rhapsody And Tomb Art In The Han Dynasty, Xiaoyang Wang
An Ontological Comparison Between Rhapsody And Tomb Art In The Han Dynasty, Xiaoyang Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Rhapsody in the Han Dynasty is commonly categorized into two sub-genres, namely, prosaic rhapsody (greater rhapsody) with more descriptive details and lyric rhapsody (lesser rhapsody) which is often used to express personal thoughts and feelings. The tomb art in this paper specifically refers to the relief sculpture and the mural painting. The comparative study between rhapsody and tomb art in current scholarship has rarely taken their ontological relationship into consideration. Greater rhapsody and mural paintings may be considered as mainstream or upper-class art forms while lesser rhapsody and relief sculpture tend to be private or lower-class oriented. Recognizing the ontological …
David Harvey's Interpretations Of Space In French Literature, Jin Liu
David Harvey's Interpretations Of Space In French Literature, Jin Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
David Harvey is one of the important figures who mingle traditions in geographic research and Marxism in the "spatial turn." His idea of space is developed in the three dimensions of ontology, modernity and art. In the dimension of art, his criticism practice of French literature centered on Paris opens a new horizon for spatial criticism of literary and cultural studies, and it also builds a new platform for realistic critical Marxist literary theory.
Iconic Consciousness: The Material Feeling Of Meaning, C. Alexander Jeffrey, Rui Gao, Di Zhao
Iconic Consciousness: The Material Feeling Of Meaning, C. Alexander Jeffrey, Rui Gao, Di Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article suggests an iconic turn in cultural sociology. Icons can be seen, it is argued, as symbolic condensations that root social meanings in material form, allowing the abstractions of cognition and morality to be subsumed, to be made invisible, by aesthetic shape. Meaning is made iconically visible, in other words, by the beautiful, sublime, ugly, or simply by the mundane materiality of everyday life. But it is via the senses that iconic power is made. This new approach to meaning is compared with others — with materialism, semiotics, aestheticism, moralism, realism, and spiritualism.
Literary Research Methodology In Big Data Era: A Survey Of Franco Moretti's Quantitative Analysis, Xiaohui Chen
Literary Research Methodology In Big Data Era: A Survey Of Franco Moretti's Quantitative Analysis, Xiaohui Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Literary research in the Big Data era can hardly avoid the clamp of computing, and quantitative approach will eventually become one of the important approaches. This paper claims that Franco Moretti's literary quantitative analysis provides a typical example for literary study in the Big Data era. His method of quantitative analysis demonstrates the possibility of the methodological transition from natural sciences to social sciencesvand to humanities. With Popper's theory and contemporary IT advances behind his approach, Moretti exposes the literary significance of the change of novel’s titles after analyzing the titles of Britain's 7000 novel, which also proves the effectiveness …
Manliness And Masculinity: Towards A Distinction Of Two Key Terms In Men's Studies, Hongsheng Sui
Manliness And Masculinity: Towards A Distinction Of Two Key Terms In Men's Studies, Hongsheng Sui
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Manliness and masculinity are two related and different concepts, and there have been inaccurate rendering into Chinese and confusing usage, but there has little study of the distinction between them in domestic academic circle. The paper sets out to distinguish the two terms from the perspectives of philosophy, anthropology, sociology and culturology, in hope of distinguishing them in terms of their etymological and cultural development, their definition, scope and criteria, their value orientation and judgment, and their construction strategies and modes of practice. The paper aims at redressing the misconceptions about manliness and shedding light on the predicaments of modern …
The Nature Of Crime And The Role Of The Judge: Judge Bao In Ballad-Stories, L. Idema Wilt, Guanwen Wu
The Nature Of Crime And The Role Of The Judge: Judge Bao In Ballad-Stories, L. Idema Wilt, Guanwen Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The character of Judge Bao, which derives from the historical Bao Zheng (999-1062), starts to make his appearance in the various genres of vernacular literature in the period 1250-1450. While vernacular stories (huaben) and plays (zaju and xiwen) on Judge Bao have been widely known throughout the twentieth century and have been analyzed repeatedly, the ballad-stories (cihua) on Judge Bao were only discovered nearby in Jiading, Zhejiang in 1967. While the initial publication of the facsimile edition of the ballad-stories created quite a stir and resulted in a number of publications, this initial enthusiasm soon ebbed away and the new …
The Power Of Image: Medieval Debate On Icon And Its Theoretical Value, Qiong Wu
The Power Of Image: Medieval Debate On Icon And Its Theoretical Value, Qiong Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The debate on icon was an important event in the theological and visual cultural field in the Western Medieval era, and it exerted a profound influence on Western visual culture. This paper examines the theological and cultural context of the debate, and with a focus on the relationship between invisibility and visibility, the paper discusses the paradoxical value of representation and its effects on visual cultural field.
A New Discussion On Kuang Zhouyi's Ci-Poetry Criticism, Keqiang Sun
A New Discussion On Kuang Zhouyi's Ci-Poetry Criticism, Keqiang Sun
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Some new findings about Kuang Zhouyi's critical materials on ci-poetry enable us to review and re-evaluate Kuang's theoretical contribution to ci-poetry criticism which include his explorations into the ci-poetry in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties and his theoretical explanation of the concept of "big." The paper claims that Kuang should be given full justice as an important ci-poetry scholar in the late Qing dynasty.
Aesthetics In Cross-Cultural Perspective, Davies Stephen
Aesthetics In Cross-Cultural Perspective, Davies Stephen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In this paper I attempt reconcile two apparently opposed views: artworks are embedded in culturally relative art-historical contexts and cannot be fully understood without an awareness of these contexts, yet artworks trade in themes that are universally and perennially of human interest, such as war and peace, and shape these to cater to shared, biologically based perceptual systems. The first explains some of the difficulties we face in understanding and appreciating art cross-culturally. The second indicates why, nevertheless, a degree of cross-cultural artistic appreciation is possible. As well, our grasp of the challenges and possibilities of the media from which …
An Exploration Into The Logics Of Language Construction During The May Fourth Period, Wei Deng
An Exploration Into The Logics Of Language Construction During The May Fourth Period, Wei Deng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In his History of National Language Movement, Li Jinxi discussed the process of language construction in the May 4th period with a focus on the pronunciation while putting the vernacular movement into his narrative of the national language movement history. On the other hand, Hu Shi paid high attention to written language and tried to construct the national language with "vernacular literature," hoping to use "a literature of national language" to create "a national language of literature." Hu Shi's endeavor showed the general logic of language construction during the May Fourth period, that is, to construct a modern national language …
Deconstructing Utopian Imagination: The Allegory Of Solaris And Others, Dan Chen
Deconstructing Utopian Imagination: The Allegory Of Solaris And Others, Dan Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Utopia is a socio-economic sub-genre of science fiction. The question of how to imagine a utopia is actually an issue of how to write out the image of a utopia. In Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, there is a formal strategy of "double inscription," which turns the limitation of utopian genre into allegory and critical merits. Thus, it is possible to refute it from the inside of its anthropocentric totality and to divert the interpretation into the field of political ethics. As a result, the surface binary opposition between self and the other is nullified, and the imagination of a zero-degree Utopia, …
Event-Truth And Literary Criticism: On Badiou's Reading Beckett, Cheng Tan
Event-Truth And Literary Criticism: On Badiou's Reading Beckett, Cheng Tan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Alain Badiou rejects the conventional idea that Samuel Beckett was a playwright associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. He points out that, in Beckett's writing, there is ideological transfer from "solipsism" to "event." As has been shown in Beckett's later works, he devoted himself to his reflection about "event," thus creating a text of "truth." Badiou, through his idea of Inaesthetics, attempts to understand Beckett in Beckett's own way. From the inherent ideological structure of the text, Badiou constructs critical concepts for the text, and consequently makes the truth of text appear in the form of concepts. He succeeds …
How Consumer Phenomenon Enters Literary Writing, Changzhong Wang
How Consumer Phenomenon Enters Literary Writing, Changzhong Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Representation of consumer culture is universal in literary writing and consumption has contributed an extensive content for literary works. When writing about consumer culture, literary production becomes an integral part of the culture. The paper argues that the consumption of literary writing implies an essentially literary discourse instead of consumer culture discourse. Literary writing about consumption shows distinctive characteristics of discursive presence: common and widespread capacity, localized and fragmented modality, and penetrative and interspersed mechanism. In view of the features such as the value, attributes, discursive features, it may be argued that the narrative strategies in literary writing about consumer …
Literature And History: On Hayden White's Theory Of Tropology And Its Effect, Zilu Yang
Literature And History: On Hayden White's Theory Of Tropology And Its Effect, Zilu Yang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper focuses on Hayden White's theory of tropology, and tackles the issue of trans-boundary between literature and history. White's discourse upon the poetry of history relies on the revelation of the mechanism of tropology. This paper demonstrates the four key concepts, namely, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony, comprising in the connotation of tropology. This quadruple structure points to a certain internal continuity in human consciousness, and constitutes the main mechanism of historical discourse in meaning-production. Classical historians establish the basic forms of writing by way of tropology, and then influence the three layers of writing, namely, weaving of a …