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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Illusion Of Emergency And The Future Of Cultural Studies: Thirty Years Of Cultural Studies And Cultural Criticism In Mainland China, Zhiqiang Zhou
The Illusion Of Emergency And The Future Of Cultural Studies: Thirty Years Of Cultural Studies And Cultural Criticism In Mainland China, Zhiqiang Zhou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since 30 years ago, cultural studies in mainland China has established its own history, theoretical characteristics and framework of inquiries thanks to the introduction of Western theory, discussions of Chinese issues, and the engagement of active dialogue with international cultural studies. Chinese cultural studies started with a critical consciousness, then activated the drives of anti-authoritarianism, and generated an illusion of emergency. Today, it has outgrown the paradigm of the 1950s, and must establish new theories and thoughts on the basis of a new sense of criticism.
The Returning Dream-Seeking Trip: The Narrative Of America In Chinese Popular Culture Since The 1990s, Guozhan Chen
The Returning Dream-Seeking Trip: The Narrative Of America In Chinese Popular Culture Since The 1990s, Guozhan Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper finds an obvious change in Chinese popular culture through analyzing the stories of going abroad since the 1990s: the leading character spares no effort to seek American Dream during the early 1990s, but turns back since 2008. It has become a significant narrative mode, and clearly demonstrated the changes of the image of America. From seeking American Dream to realizing Chinese Dream, it narrates a changed China via leading character's return; and it is also a story about how Chinese Dream replaces American Dream. However, such a narrative mode reveals some problems: many of its judgments are accompanied …
The Translation And Writing Of Modern Chinese Poetry: A Case Study Of Xu Zhimo, Liming Chen
The Translation And Writing Of Modern Chinese Poetry: A Case Study Of Xu Zhimo, Liming Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since the publication of Wellek's "The Crisis of Comparative Literature" (1959), the study of literary influence has been legion, either focusing on (un) intentional misreading or misunderstanding. The perspective of influence is vital to clarifying the mechanism of Chinese new poetry's production. This article aims to illustrate, through a detailed survey of the intrinsic relation between Xu Zhimo's translation and poetic writing, how he creatively transformed modern western poetry, which not only brought vernacular Chinese poetry prosperity, but interrupted the predominant unpoetic trends by giving new poetry aesthetic temperament, though not yet so satisfactorily. The "anxiety of influence" became motivation …
"Totality" And "Fracture": The External Context And Internal Opportunity In The Generation Of Literary Experience, Yan Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As a basic theory of literary research, literary experience has been a hot topic in the field of literary theory once again in the recent decade, but nowadays the understanding and use of this concept is ambiguous and random. The Western modern experience theory provides the basis for studying literary experience, which is an aesthetic presentation of human experience in the fictional world interwoven by discourses, and thus the human experience is born in the collision of perception and fiction. The world of experience is the external context for the generation of literary experience, which requires cultural memory to provide …
Affirmative Action And Identification: A Rethinking Of The "Seventeen Years" Minority Film, Chun Liu
Affirmative Action And Identification: A Rethinking Of The "Seventeen Years" Minority Film, Chun Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The tension between ethnic group and the nation state, as well as the nation state and the international order, is the core conflict of globalization. From the aspect of visual identification, the article reviews the "Seventeen years" minority film (1949-1966) when China was not involved in globalization in a modern sense. Through a comparison with the U. S. affirmative action which has been commonly adopted by ethnic studies, this article creates a new explanation frame, arguing that such policies in the 1950 s as nationality identification, ethnic equality and ethnic autonomy were a part of the Socialist affirmative action. Based …
Disenchantment: Gu Cheng And Hai Zi In The Illusion Of Cultural Memory, Dong Yan
Disenchantment: Gu Cheng And Hai Zi In The Illusion Of Cultural Memory, Dong Yan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In the history of Chinese new poetry since a century ago, Gu Cheng and Hai Zi have become a cultural memory symbol indispensable to contemporary culture. Their similarities in people's memory continue to affect later readers' interest, which gives them an enduring position in the age fragmented with information. However, being in the cultural memory illusion, they gradually reveal how new poetry becomes an object of consumerism and entertainment. At the same time, because of the function of the symbol system called "condensed structure" by Jan Assmann, factors within and without their poetry are mixed together and indistinguishable, which affects …
Oriental Miscellany And Theatre Reform Of Modern China, Liming Zhao
Oriental Miscellany And Theatre Reform Of Modern China, Liming Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
At the beginning of the new literature, Oriental Miscellany consciously provided a public platform for advocating theatre reform, and contributed greatly in this aspect. In terms of reforming traditional theatre, it put forward the idea of the three ways for reform, thus correcting the New Youth School's extreme idea of abolishing traditional theatre. As for the introduction of Western drama, it paid attention to transplanting advanced theatre ideas, such as nature, evolution, realism and tragedy. It advocated the reform of theatre space, and introduced Western experimental drama, thus promoting the development of the "little theater" in China. As a modern …
Traditional Misunderstanding Of "Meaning Not Fully Expressed By Language" And A Correction From The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Language, Jianzhang Zhao, Yingfang Zhao
Traditional Misunderstanding Of "Meaning Not Fully Expressed By Language" And A Correction From The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Language, Jianzhang Zhao, Yingfang Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The preposition that meaning is not fully expressed by language is a mystification of the relationship between meaning and language. There is no consciousness and language in the undivided state of the subject and the object, and therefore there are no issues of the speakable and the unspeakable. The understanding of the relationship between language and meaning in traditional thought is based on the theory of simple reflection, holding that thought is the conformity to the world and the language is the conformity to thought. From the perspective of modern philosophy of language, thought is human's understanding of the world, …
Visual Turn And Modern Logic Of Somaesthetics, Wei Zhang
Visual Turn And Modern Logic Of Somaesthetics, Wei Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As the common object of visual aesthetics, body has changed multivariately in the modern aesthetic mechanism made by "visual diversion". On the one hand, modern visual mechanism clears up the established connotation of traditional "duality of body and mind" and strengthens the body consciousness of modern individuals, which promotes the aesthetic purport of body and in the meantime breeds the capital effect of body, expending the consumption characterization of body, and giving birth to the aesthetic practice of "body consumption". On the other hand, with the help of the technology of modern visual media, modern visual mechanism makes it more …
Zhu Guangqian's Translation Of Hegel's Aesthetics And The Construction Of Modern Chinese Literary Theory, Yongyin Li
Zhu Guangqian's Translation Of Hegel's Aesthetics And The Construction Of Modern Chinese Literary Theory, Yongyin Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As a classic work, Zhu Guangqian's translation of Hegel's Aesthetics has influenced Chinese literary theory profoundly. Many significant theoretical topics in Chinese literary theory are rooted in either imagination or a critical reconstruction of Zhu's translation. However, to some degree, Zhu's translation misses some thought of Hagel's aesthetics. Therefore, a comparative reading of Zhu's translation and Hagel's German texts is conducive to a better understanding of Hagel's aesthetics and, as a result, to the construction of literary theory in China.
The Four Dimensions Of Literary Memory And Historical Consciousness, Yonghe Lu
The Four Dimensions Of Literary Memory And Historical Consciousness, Yonghe Lu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The same essence of memory, history and literature is a deliberate construction (reconstruction) of the "past", which is based on the realistic context. Dilthey argues that different "human sciences" co-create a spiritual world of "productive nexus or system" on the basis of "experience" and "understanding". As two different spiritual "associations", literature and history inform each other and jointly create a whole meaning system. The concept "narrative substance" of Ankersmit is a collection of different narratives of "past". "Narrative substance" is not the objective reality of history, but the historical "image" or "metaphor". The "narrative substance" sets up for us a …
The Origin Of The Title "The Four Dreams Of Linchuan" And The Deep Significance Of The Peony Pavilion, Baocheng Kang, Yanfang Chen
The Origin Of The Title "The Four Dreams Of Linchuan" And The Deep Significance Of The Peony Pavilion, Baocheng Kang, Yanfang Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The title "the Four Dream of Linchuan" is not in accordance with the facts of the four Chuanqi plays written by Tang Xianzu, for "The Purple Hairpin", one of the "four dreams" has little to do with "dream" of any kind. Inspired by "the Four Dreams" written by Che Renyuan and the folk song "4 dreams 8 voids" in The Plum in the Golden Vase, Tang Xianzu himself began to use the title of "the Four Dreams of Linchuan". The title was rarely recognized till the late Ming Dynasty, but it became popular during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of …
A Critique Of Studies Of The Cultural Identity Of Hong Kong Literature Since The 1990s: The Case Of Inherent Contradiction Between Nativeness And Chineseness, Shiying Xu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since the 1990s, Hong Kong and overseas scholars have borrowed the idea of the "third space" to investigate the issue of cultural identity in Hong Kong literature, which has brought about three typical views: "the margin theory", "the crevice theory" and "the theory of imagining Hong Kong moving North", all based on the inherent contradiction between the Hong Kong nativeness and Chineseness. In order to transcend the framework of "Hong Kong and China", Zhu Yaowei shifts his vision to the framework of "East and West, local and global, orientalism/postcoloniality and global capitalism". The above discussion shows that political factors play …
Bai Xianyong's New Aesthetics Of Kunqu Opera, Sheng Ding
Bai Xianyong's New Aesthetics Of Kunqu Opera, Sheng Ding
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Bai Xianyong proposed the concept of New Aesthetics of Kunqu Opera after the youth version of The Peony Pavilion and the new version of The Story of Jade Hairpin. The goal of the New Aesthetics of Kunqu is to integrate the classical aesthetics of Kunqu and modern theatrical aesthetics, and the integration is characterized by the centrality of classicality aided by modernity. The works which come as a result of the New Aesthetics of Kunqu Opera have received praises scholars and some criticism from senior fans at the same time. This paper expounds on Bai Xianyong's theory and practice, and …
Literary Theory: Nationality In An Age Of Globalization, Fan Nan
Literary Theory: Nationality In An Age Of Globalization, Fan Nan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The maintenance of nationality of Chinese literary theory in an age of globalization is part of the issue of the relationship between culture and nationality. Many factors are herein involved, including nationality and the globalization of Chinese literary theory, the relationship between the discourse of modernity and traditional culture, and the treatment of Localization, the modern constructive transformation of ancient Chinese literary theory, etc. A thorough study of these factors is needed to draw a reasonable conclusion. There is an important principle for introducing into China Western literary theories: the significance of the theory is to represent and interpret China's …
Pen Names In The "Seventeen Years Period" And The Ecology Of Contemporary Chinese Literary Criticism, Pengcheng Kou
Pen Names In The "Seventeen Years Period" And The Ecology Of Contemporary Chinese Literary Criticism, Pengcheng Kou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
It is a common phenomenon to use a pen name when a writer publishes his critical works in China's "seventeen years period". There are several causes: 1. the author worries that his work is not mature; 2. the author is not confident of his reputation; 3. the author intends to express particular ideas. Underneath these apparent causes are deeper psychological motivations: 1. to express opposite ideas to someone else’s; 2. to criticize a friend or a teacher; 3. to publish politically alternative works; 4. to reinforce the validity of criticism with another name; 5. to express special aims. Because of …
"Engaging In Literature For Life" In The Era Of Post-Revolution: The Theoretical Framework And Connotation Of Zhu Ziqing's Literary Appreciation, Cheng Luo
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Previous studies have primarily recognized Zhu Ziqing's significance in modern hermeneutics of poetry, literary criticism, the establishment of literary studies as a discipline, etc; and they tend to pay much attention to the influence of Richards and Empson's semantic criticism on Zhu's methodology of appreciation. However, in the historical context of post-revolution Zhu's literary appreciation is not just for "appreciation" or "knowledge", but originates from his anxiety about the cultural and political conflicts between the new and the old. That the two literary events between him and Gu Sui and Zhu Guangqian reveal Zhu's uniqueness on his theoretical framework of …
Huaxia Mythological Astronomy And The Comparative Literary Studies Of The Multi-Ethnic Chinese Nation, Yunhong Dai
Huaxia Mythological Astronomy And The Comparative Literary Studies Of The Multi-Ethnic Chinese Nation, Yunhong Dai
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Contemporary literary studies in China is moving towards a new direction, which is to reflect on and study the literature of multi-ethnic China by considering cultural-historical characteristics of the Chinese multi-ethnic nation and the multiple sources and ethnic groups in and of Chinese literature. Studies in Chinese mythology and archaeoastronomy indicate that Huaxia mythological astronomy is the source and basis of Chinese history, culture and literature. If the Chinese comparative literary studies reflect on their history, horizons and scope, Huaxia mythological astronomy should become a cornerstone and starting point of this discipline.
Literature Of Small Nationalities: Rewriting History, Boundary And Transgression, Changzhong Li
Literature Of Small Nationalities: Rewriting History, Boundary And Transgression, Changzhong Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The encounters of tradition and modernity, the local and the global make rewriting history a prominent narrative syndrome of literature of small nationalities. It is rewriting history’s basic appeal to summon collective memory and subsequently to reinforce an awareness of boundary and reproduction of identity with it. History in this sense is not a grand history written to be verified, but a narrative and hermeneutic tradition, a past constructed and molded by texts. Because of the absence of self-other spatial dimension, the single temporal dimension of tradition-modernity makes rewriting history penetrate the boundary of literature and ethics. Rewriting history can …
New Changes Of Confucianism During The Late Qing Dynasty And The New Novel's Imagination Of The Nation, Jun Zhu, Xun Sun
New Changes Of Confucianism During The Late Qing Dynasty And The New Novel's Imagination Of The Nation, Jun Zhu, Xun Sun
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
New Novel's imagination of the nation in the 20th century marked the beginning of modern Chinese novel as well as the narrative of a modern nation state. It was related both to the introduction of western modernity and new changes of Confucianism during the late Qing Dynasty. The convergence of the evolution theory in Gongyang studies and that in the West changed the traditional temporal and spatial structure in Chinese novels, which consequently resulted in the shift from traditional utopians to the imagination of the future "New China". While Chinese writers were introducing western political ideas by writing political novels, …
Originality In Modern And Contemporary Chinese Drama Revisited: Spoken Drama Vis A Vis Chinese Opera, Huizhu (William) Sun
Originality In Modern And Contemporary Chinese Drama Revisited: Spoken Drama Vis A Vis Chinese Opera, Huizhu (William) Sun
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
From a comparative perspective and using originality as the main criterion, this study examines dramatic literature in modern and contemporary China, including Chinese opera as well as spoken drama, especially taking seriously the former, often overlooked by modern literary scholars. The conclusion is that the achievements of Chinese opera are greater than those of spoken drama. And modern Chinese opera has unwittingly had a breakthrough in the area of modern verse drama where western dramatists have tried but largely failed in the last century or so. Some Chinese operas may likely become the most valuable world classics from Chinese theatre.
The Aesthetic Ideology Of Post-Marxism, Yongkang Fan, Fengjie Liu
The Aesthetic Ideology Of Post-Marxism, Yongkang Fan, Fengjie Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper aims to analyze the philosophical basis, theoretical connotation and theoretical characteristics of the theory of post-Marxist aesthetic ideology. The influential theory about aesthetic ideology in China belongs to the "problematic" of traditional Marxism, but the contemporary Western aesthetic ideology belongs to the 'problematic' of post-Marxism. The former is based on historical materialism, and the latter on cultural materialism and language constructivism. From the perspective of post-Marxism, aesthetic ideology no longer stays at the ‘metaphysical’ linguistic, cultural and symbolic levels; it is integrated with "physical" material systems and social reality and becomes parasitic within the institutions, thus having material …
The Genesis Of Literature, Shuying Du
The Genesis Of Literature, Shuying Du
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Existing hypotheses of the genesis (or the origin) of literature and arts, such as the renowned theory of "mimesis", of labor, of witchcraft, and of play, have made their due contribution, but none of them is entirely convincing. Equally important to the field of study are theories by the Russian scholar Alexander Veselovsky and Chinese scholars Lu Kan and Feng Yuanjun, who have been neglected by academics. It is probable that Giovanni Battista Vico's New Science is the closest to the truth of the origin of arts. Therefore, his ideas are still provocative. This article proposes another hypothesis: literature (poetry) …
The Void As The Effect: The Constructive Precondition Of Buddhist Aesthetics, Yun Wang
The Void As The Effect: The Constructive Precondition Of Buddhist Aesthetics, Yun Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
If the "void" is taken as an aesthetic concept, the idea of the "void as the effect" should be its indispensable condition. If "cause and effect" is understood as a kind of time sequence, then "effect" is undoubtedly the end of this process. This "sequence" indicates the pursuit for reason and emphasis on the end, and thus it establishes the aesthetic vision for the "void". The development of the idea of the void has revealed that it is getting increasingly result-oriented with more emphases on proving and tracing the result that one gets what the mind turns to. Thus the …
Historical Evolution And Reflection On The Concept "The Essence Of Literature", Daren Lai
Historical Evolution And Reflection On The Concept "The Essence Of Literature", Daren Lai
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The essence of literature is an issue of modern literary theory. In the process of Chinese literary theory's modern transformation and development, the theorization of the essence of literature was highlighted, and has become the key issue in modern literary theory. This concept has adapted itself several times through historical construction and evolution, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the period of reform and opening up, in accordance with the change of time and the development of literature. The new period also saw the evolution process of this concept under different critical lenses: social and aesthetic ideology theories, …
Genesis And Evolution Of The Concept "Chinese Painting" — The Art Of The Early Republican China, Yiran Xiong
Genesis And Evolution Of The Concept "Chinese Painting" — The Art Of The Early Republican China, Yiran Xiong
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The concept "traditional Chinese painting" was originally a by-product of the establishment of a national state. In the process of naming, there existed an intervention of state power and a repression of cultural diversity. At the same time, concepts related to "traditional Chinese painting", such as the artist's identity, ink, the artistic function of Chinese painting, were also changed with the expansion of the concept "Chinese painting". In the early Republican China, when the West stood out as the other, the positions of "the Westernized Chinese style" or "the Sinicized Western style" underpinning experimental arts were further highlighted, showing the …
The Dilemma Of Minority Ethic Group's Literary Theory And The Conjunction With "Aphasia" Of Chinese Literary Theory, Xinyong Yao, Yajuan Liu
The Dilemma Of Minority Ethic Group's Literary Theory And The Conjunction With "Aphasia" Of Chinese Literary Theory, Xinyong Yao, Yajuan Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper focuses on the process of Chinese minority ethnic group ancient literary theory discipline construction, introduces the general characteristics of the discipline, and reveals the main dilemma perplexed. And also comparing the discussion of the "Alogia" of Chinese literary theory together with other related disciplines in the recent two decades. Through this discussion we try to practicing multi-dimensional and polygonal speech in which the China's literatures and literary theories should have.
The Philosophical Art Criticism Of Rosalind Krauss, Wenji Zhou
The Philosophical Art Criticism Of Rosalind Krauss, Wenji Zhou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As a well-known American art critic and art theorist, Rosalind Krauss established her own criticism style from the perspective of structuralism and post-structuralism, drawing on Saussure's ideas, semiology, psychoanalysis and various theories to take a philosophical art criticism on modern and postmodern art. This paper explores her particularly philosophical idea about the theory of grid and the formless while reviewing her philosophical art criticism, and therefore it presents the cultural logic behind modernist myths and essential postmodernism ideas. Hence, through philosophical art criticism, Krauss went through the change from the formalism to post-formalism during the course of unveiling the modernist …
Shen Congwen And The Study Of Material Culture, Jin Ji
Shen Congwen And The Study Of Material Culture, Jin Ji
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Forced to stop writing after 1949, Shen Congwen veered his attention to the study of material culture. Consistent with his literary creation, his study of folk and daily cultural relics was a "lyrical archeology" to present his life. The guideline for his study of material culture was "biographing things" by tracing their histories with a massive amount of literature. His emphasis on the material existence not only echoed ideas in modern archeology, but also related to his long-term obsession with "things", hence the juxtaposition of handed-down relics, newly discovered literature and articles. His study penetrated original discipline boundaries, because he …