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Articles 1 - 30 of 128
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Alain Badiou's Inaesthetic Critique Of Poetry, Yushen Wang
Alain Badiou's Inaesthetic Critique Of Poetry, Yushen Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The core of Badiou's concept of inaesthetics is to liberate art from philosophy and let it become an independent program of truth in contrast to philosophy. Among arts, poetry was once denounced by Plato, who thought it was an imitation of imitation and therefore unhelpful for the establishment of the Republic. Badiou, however, sets a high value on poetry from his inaesthetic perspective. From the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Celan, and others, Badiou discovers a dialectical coexistence between poetry and mathematics. For him, modern poetry, as a form of thought, is able to verify itself. Being the task of …
Jacques Rancière On Literarity, Haiting Zheng
Jacques Rancière On Literarity, Haiting Zheng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Jacques Rancière reconstructs the term "literarity" through the concept of "distribution of the sensible." By considering "literarity" as the joint of politics and literature, he defines the term as the availability of mute letters and the excess of words. The unbridled wandering of mute letters expands the space of literary expression and blurs the boundary of literature, which represents not only the democracy of literarity but also the paradox of democratic literarity. Literature suppresses the democracy of literarity by various means of self-cancellation. On the one hand, this mechanism transforms the paradox of democratic literarity into a productive contradiction of …
"Sister Xianglin's Doubts": The Situation And Dilemma Of Soul In Luxun's Short Story "New Year Sacrifice", Hong Zhang
"Sister Xianglin's Doubts": The Situation And Dilemma Of Soul In Luxun's Short Story "New Year Sacrifice", Hong Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The "world of Lu Town" in Lu Xun's"New Year Sacrifice"is a caricature of early twentieth-century Chinese society. It is a stable social structure centering on the charisma of Master Lu the Fourth, a member of the gentry in Lu Town. The narrator "I" and Sister Xianglin are marginal people, or "superfluous individuals" in the mainstream society. The encounter of the two discloses a serious dilemma. Sister Xianglin's doubts about the existence of soul and Hell are serious mental tortures that reflect the inner anxiety of the narrator "I" as a modern intellectual. Sister Xianglin and "I" are mirrors of each …
Literary Friendship Revisited: Significance Of Wayne Booth's Literary Ethics To The Contemporary Literary Studies, Yun Fan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The theories and critiques since the 1960s have snared contemporary literary studies into a predicament, and with the emergence of post-critique, reviewing Wayne Booth' literary ethics may cast some new light on the predicament. His efforts to reconstruct literary ethics, call for literary friendship, elucidate rhetoric ethics, and explore the public dimension of conduction will illuminate the reshaping of cultural character and the return to ethics and life in contemporary literary studies.
On The Factors To "The Extraordinary Out Of The Ordinary" In The Late Ming Dynasty, Gang Chen
On The Factors To "The Extraordinary Out Of The Ordinary" In The Late Ming Dynasty, Gang Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Teasing "the extraordinary out of the ordinary" is a prevailing aesthetic taste in the late Ming dynasty, initiated by Li Zhi in the intellectual field and proliferated into the creative writing of novels and plays. This research delineates the development of this ideal in the Late Ming dynasty, and explains the reasons for the ideal from three aspects: zeitgeist, partisan contestation and literary claims. It hopes to explore the cultural implications and values with reference to the historical context.
Mediocre Drama: Jean Baudrillard's Remark On Andy Warhol, Shuyuan Wan
Mediocre Drama: Jean Baudrillard's Remark On Andy Warhol, Shuyuan Wan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Andy Warhol is Jean Baudrillard's favorite contemporary artist. In Baudrillard's opinion, Warhol was a great transitional figure who has opened a new chapter in the history of art by initiating the trend of commodity fetishism and laying foundations for artistic modernity. He dispelled abstractionism in contemporary art by promoting figurative expressions, established the ready-made style of art, and normalized aesthetic practice in a broader sense. While eliminating the differences between original works and duplications, Warhol also profoundly changed the thinking model and aesthetic trend of artistic creation. He was well versed in creating meaning from meaninglessness, discovering prominence from mediocrity, …
The Early And High Tang Poets' Inheritance And Development Of The Traditions Of Yanzhi O RYuanqing, Qinghai Liu
The Early And High Tang Poets' Inheritance And Development Of The Traditions Of Yanzhi O RYuanqing, Qinghai Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Two main conceptualizations of the essence of poetry before the Tang dynasty are yanzhi, expressing aspirations, and yuanqing, conveying emotions. Tang poets inherited and developed both traditions, and their poetry reflected the conceptualizations in different ways during different periods. Although Tang Emperor Taizong wrote poems in the mode of expressing aspirations and ordered officials to follow suit, a majority of poets believed in the mode of conveying emotions. During the reigns of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, the court considered conveying emotions as the aim of poetry, while Luo Binwang and Wang Bo followed both modes of yuanqing and …
Life, Conduct, And Scholarship: Achievements Of Prof. Xu Zhongyu, Qingbing Tong
Life, Conduct, And Scholarship: Achievements Of Prof. Xu Zhongyu, Qingbing Tong
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
No abstract provided.
Chinese Native-Soil Literature: Occurrence And A Hundred Years Of Evolvement, Cece Wei
Chinese Native-Soil Literature: Occurrence And A Hundred Years Of Evolvement, Cece Wei
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Chinese "native-soil literature" has constantly been interacting with world literature due to its modern consciousness. Due to a deep spiritual connection with Chinese culture, society and history, it is the best entrance to perceiving the rich connotation in modern Chinese literature with regard to the issues of China and world, tradition and modernity. It is an excellent sample for studying modern and contemporary Chinese indigenous literature, which provides us with valuable experience about how to inherit and develop Chinese literature in the dimension of indigenousness, nation, and the world. It is also an effective dimension to explore contemporary "Chinese problems". …
Deciphering The Myth Of "Liberating Actors' Nature": Reflections On An Idea Of Acting And The Import Of Western Teachers, Huizhu Sun
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
"Liberating actor's nature" sounds like from the West, yet not from Stanislavsky or any other mainstream acting teachers. It was coined by the Chinese who misread Western teachers. Westerners doing short-term acting workshops unwittingly contribute to this misconception. Because of the language barrier, they usually eschew scripts and focus on physical exercises. Those fragmented workshops are seen in China as representing mainstream Western actor training. "Be yourself", a western marketing cliché, is also mistaken as the core of acting. Actor training should cultivate actors' second nature, not let loose their original nature. Since the 1950s, Western theatre professors increasingly promote …
Film Posters As An Alterative/Alternative Archive For Chinese Film History, Yingjin Zhang
Film Posters As An Alterative/Alternative Archive For Chinese Film History, Yingjin Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The film poster generates public desire for watching the film, but its pictorial cues often exceed its intended ideological or thematic message. The excess information contained in graphic composition, star texts, and visual citations (e.g., to current fashions and other intertexts) makes the film poster an alterative para-text in the sense that it sets in motion a dynamic of circulating multilayered meanings in a medium that resonates with other media and genres of art (e.g., drawing, painting, calligraphy, photography, design, literature, drama, opera, and music). Film posters are therefore enmeshed in intermediality or crossmediality and inevitably gesture toward something outside …
Narrative Function And The Order Of Life: Analyzing The Performative Mode Of Moggallāna Folk-Opera, Zhiquan Zhang
Narrative Function And The Order Of Life: Analyzing The Performative Mode Of Moggallāna Folk-Opera, Zhiquan Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Mulian (Moggallāna) folk-opera about howMoggallāna saves his mother from Avici Hellhad become the main performative mode of Buddhist deity-worshipping contest. On the level of narrative function, the performance has three types of ritual: those of leading-in and leading-out ritual,, dramaturgic ritual and intervention ritual. The introduction of ritualistic elements into the contest creates a unique space for Mulian Opera in the forms of the geographical space constructed by sacrificial circles and ritual venues, the life space enacted by the rites of life and rites of custom, and the cosmic space of human-deity interaction. The …
The Mind Of The Other, Political Organism, And The Dramatic Nature Of Ordinary Language: A Case Study Of Stanley Cavell's Comments On Coriolanus, Yunke Lin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Stanly Cavell is the precursor to apply the philosophy of ordinary language, especially the thought of later Ludwig Wittgenstein, into analyzing literary and artistic works. Through detailed analysis of Wittgenstein's discussions on the issues of "the mind of the other" and "private language"s, Cavell claims that thinking in ordinary language is a seduction of the skepticism brought about by the myth of positivism. In his reading of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Cavell expounds "appetite" as a metaphor of political organism, demonstrating how Wittgenstein's criticism is embodied in a dramatic way. The ontological mechanism of drama realized through explorations of ordinary language is …
The Selection Of The Scholars In Chinese Textbooks And Homogenization In The Canonization Process During The Republic Of China Period, Hongbo Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Ancient novels such as The Scholars, The Travel Notes of Lao Can, and The Water Margin were frequently selected into Chinese textbooks for primary and secondary schools during the Republic of China period. Because The Scholars was closely related to the Vernacular Movement and catered to the taste of young students, it came to be the most frequently selected novel, and its excerpt, "The Childhood of Wang Mian," became the most frequently selected story. During the Republican period, Chinese textbooks were arranged in accordance with the theme, language, and era of each work, and editors tended to select similar rather …
The Paragon Of Literati, The Decorum Of Essays, And The Signature Of Civil Administration: Remarks On The Term "Three Prose Writers Of Our Qing Dynasty", Yingde Guo
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The term "three prose writers of our Qing dynasty" was popularized after the compilation and spreading of Song Luo's The Anthology of Three Prose Writers of Our Qing Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. While this term was purely Song Luo's personal coinage, it was widely accepted by his contemporaries who considered Hou Fangyu, Wei Xi, and Wang Wan as the paragons of literati for their "civilian spirits", upright personality and responsibility for the country. Song's Anthology epitomizes the cultural origins and stylistic standards of classical prose, demonstrating literati's consciousness and efforts to define, mold, and exemplify the styles …
Types And Subtypes Of Artistic Justice, Yun Wang
Types And Subtypes Of Artistic Justice, Yun Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Because forms of performing arts and story-telling such as drama, fiction, and film present a caricature of social life, they inevitably describe people's good and evil deeds and their conflicts. In the world history of art over two thousand years,numerous works of drama, fiction, and film have done so from a position of correct or at least relatively correct morality. In this sense, artistic justice is an eternal theme for performing arts and story-telling,and the theory of artistic justice should have been well established. However, in the present-day, works on artistic justice are mostly published by scholars in the field …
"The Pattern Of Dao": A Conceptual Study Of The Core Categories In Ancient Chinese Aesthetics, Mingdong Gu
"The Pattern Of Dao": A Conceptual Study Of The Core Categories In Ancient Chinese Aesthetics, Mingdong Gu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Dao and wen are two core categories in Chinese aesthetic tradition. The mainstream description of the relationship between these two categories was that "wen is the vehicle for Dao". In the strict sense, this view was not an aesthetic thought per se, because it reduced wen to a tool and thus obscured the inherent aesthetic relationship between wen and Dao. Perhaps Liu Xie's under-researched idea of "the wen of Dao" (the pattern of Dao) provided a more persuasive description to this relationship. This article re-evaluates the significance of the discourse on wen as an aesthetic category from the perspectives of …
Baroque Irony In Contemporary French Fictions: A Case Study Of "Playful Fiction", Jia Zhao
Baroque Irony In Contemporary French Fictions: A Case Study Of "Playful Fiction", Jia Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The term Baroque irony is coined by Roland Barthes, which is considered to be representative in the so-called language turn. It represents the relationship between the signifieds within language rather than that between language and the outside world, and thus it questions language itself. The"Playful Fiction" demonstrate Baroque irony in terms of semantics, syntax, morphology and parody. Baroque irony is, the paper concludes, a kind of anti-metaphysical language that does not aim to convey fixed meanings but deconstructs them. It is an anti-rational language that brings readers to a world of texts where meanings coexist and interact. It is also …
On The Poetic Method "Duotai Huangu": A Clarification Of Misunderstandings, Changhong Zhang
On The Poetic Method "Duotai Huangu": A Clarification Of Misunderstandings, Changhong Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Duotai huangu(lit. grabbing the embryo and changing the bones) is an important proposition in classical Chinese poetics. However, in the process of transmission, some recipients are haunted by misunderstandings about its conceptual expression, connotation, and poetic value. These misunderstandings are mainly manifested in five aspects. First, the essence of the method of duotai is "to imitate" rather than "to see through" the original poems. Second,duotaiis often erroneously referred to as "tuotai", the meaning of which is fundamentally different from that ofduotai. Third, duotai and huangu are two correlated poetic methods separated by the degree of innovation. The conflation of duotai …
The Value Of Fiction: The Aesthetic Politics Of Speculative Design And A Future Poetics, Li Zhang
The Value Of Fiction: The Aesthetic Politics Of Speculative Design And A Future Poetics, Li Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As AI technology permeates the media society of today, futurology has become one of the most notable topics among various disciplines. In reference to Jacques Rancière's aesthetic politics, this article discusses how speculative design distributes the audience's sensibility by means of fiction and creates Dissenus with props, so that the vigorousness of future poetics can be maintained. As today's most critical cross-media practice, speculative design, based on the logic of "What-If," relies on props and their fictional aesthetics to deduce the side effects of emerging technologies. In this way, people can get away from the consumer-based logical script and turn …
Two Major Approaches Of The Interaction Between Literary Criticism And Historical Materials: A Data-Driven Analysis, Xiuming Wu, Tingting Shi
Two Major Approaches Of The Interaction Between Literary Criticism And Historical Materials: A Data-Driven Analysis, Xiuming Wu, Tingting Shi
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Over the past seven decades, the research on contemporary Chinese literature has witnessed a significant change from literary criticism in the narrow sense to a criticism integrated with historiographical source investigation. This change has shown its influence in the field of literary criticism. By An analysis of data on articles published in nine major journals such as Literary Review, Literature & Art Studies, and Modern Chinese Literature Studies from 2007 to 2017 shows that there have been two major forms of the interaction between literary criticism and historiographical sources, which may define as led to two approaches, namely, literary criticism …
William James's Philosophy Of Aesthetic Temporality: About The Relationship Between The Horizontal Composition Of Stream Of Consciousness And The Integrality Of The Spatial Composition Of Art Works, Yanshun Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
William James's grasp of the original practical activities underlies his aesthetic thought of pragmatism. He is well versed in describing and analyzing the aesthetic phenomena in the field where the subject and the object are not separated. On the one hand, he emphasizes the impromptu features of aesthetic behaviors driven by meaning-seeking, centering on the analysis of their fresh state, which is original, occasional while inevitable. On the other hand, he also creatively explores the horizontal features of the smooth and impromptu development of aesthetic life from the perspective of stream of consciousness or consciousness of time. He believes that …
"If There Is No God, Nothing Is Permitted At All": Žižek On Cyberspace, Yuchen Dai
"If There Is No God, Nothing Is Permitted At All": Žižek On Cyberspace, Yuchen Dai
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Cyberspace and virtual reality are two topical concepts in new media studies. Among diverse discourses, Slavoj Žižek's critique of cyberspace is highly prominent. In constrast to the mainstream technological determinism, Žižek argues that the rise of cyberspace initiates an era characterized by "the retreat of big Other," and without the Other that functions as the Master to safeguard the norm for individual's actions. This ressesion of Master's function means, as Žižek claims in light of Lacanian psychoanalysis, that the subject will not be informed of what should be desired, and the subject is thus deprived of the access to effective …
Cunning Apparatus And The Pain Of Modern Literature: A Parallactic Reading Of Kojin Karatani's Literary Theory, Shangrong Han
Cunning Apparatus And The Pain Of Modern Literature: A Parallactic Reading Of Kojin Karatani's Literary Theory, Shangrong Han
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since Kojin Karatani's Origins of Modern Japanese Literature was published, it has been regarded as an example of modern criticism based on rationalism. Considering Karatani's theoretical constructions at that time and his entire academic career, a hidden concept of parallax can be found, and the apparatus that exists in modern Japanese literature, as Karatani sees it, results from the lack of this parallax. In contrast to modern literature's emphasis on self-consciousness, the apparatus excludes self-consciousness and engenders a closed field by means of this exclusion. Therefore, arguments on modern literature, such as depth and plot, remain inside the apparatus; not …
Humanistic Discourse And Knowledge Production Of Literary Theory In The Early Years Of The New Era, Yaming Lu
Humanistic Discourse And Knowledge Production Of Literary Theory In The Early Years Of The New Era, Yaming Lu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Humanistic discourse is not inherently associated with the production of literary theory at its inception, but has become part of the production of literary theory knowledge and participated in the construction of the literary theory knowledge system in a specific way at a particular moment, humanistic discourse as a literary theory should be examined not only in relation to specific international and domestic historical contexts and actual social factors but also from the perspective of the formative process of the literary theory field in the new era. Humanistic literary theory was of great significance in the initial stage of the …
Intersemiotic Intertextuality, Verbal-Independent Visual Transcendence, And Visual Criticism: A Study Of Intertextuality In The Drawing Of Seven Sages Of The Bamboo Grove, Yuqin Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Taking intersemiotic intertextual play in the drawing of Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove as an example, this article investigates the intertwinement between language and image, a research topic worth a theoretical discussion, too, in the area of contemporary literary theory. This drawing generated with reference to the anecdotes of "Seven Sages" in ancient China is more a cultural marker of literature and art developed during the dynasties of Wei and Jin and thereafter than the epitome of unruly and indulged refined scholars. Apart from the verbal-dependent visual intertextuality, found within the drawing is the verbal-independent transcendence of the visual, …
The Soma Dimension Of Kant's Aesthetics And Its Significance For Ecoaesthetics, Xiangzhan Cheng
The Soma Dimension Of Kant's Aesthetics And Its Significance For Ecoaesthetics, Xiangzhan Cheng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Kant's aesthetics is typical for its "mind-representation". Mind uses all kinds of cognitive faculties to represent the object as a representation through synthesis, and then the object is given subjectivity through representation. Thus the taste in mind makes aesthetic judgments by connecting the representation with the subject's feeling. Kant, however, has not elaborated on and clarified the relationship between feeling and taste, thus making his aesthetics mainly "a science of judgment" that is rational rather than "a science of feeling" that is perceptual. However, Kant also proposes "taste of the senses" against "taste of reflection" and occasionally mentions such sense …
"Ecological Justice": Two Kinds Of Metaphysical Defense, Qing Zhao
"Ecological Justice": Two Kinds Of Metaphysical Defense, Qing Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article aims to undertake an epistemological discussion of ecological justice with de-subjectivity as its core theme from both the perspectives of Adorno's ecological theology and Shi Tao's proposition of "spokesman for shan-shui". The former argues that the negative dialectics holds the possibility of approaching nature itself, and the latter advocates the harmony of heaven and human. Specifically, Adorno elevated the status of nature in the realm of human beings created by God, whereby nature acquires divinity and subjectivity is suppressed. In a different yet compatible way, by conceptualizing the harmony between heaven and human for the exclusivity of subjectivity, …
"The Dark-Houred Clock": Embodiment And Abstraction In Celan's Poetry, Lemberger Dorit
"The Dark-Houred Clock": Embodiment And Abstraction In Celan's Poetry, Lemberger Dorit
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Celan's poetry is replete with metaphors that function in various ways. This article looks at two opposed functions of metaphor there: embodiment and abstraction. They rest on the fact that most cognitive processes occur unconsciously, leaving us with only a limited ability to understand their connections to metaphors. This makes it difficult to understand how a metaphor bridges between faraway and even opposed semantic fields. The dual metaphorical functions will be studied as used in three themes of Celan's language: (1) language as expression and as concealment, (2) interaction with the Other as a key to self-constitution, and (3) the …
An Access To Europe's "Límpensé": François Jullien's Conceptualization Of Classical Chinese Aesthetics, Zhenhua Han
An Access To Europe's "Límpensé": François Jullien's Conceptualization Of Classical Chinese Aesthetics, Zhenhua Han
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The classical Chinese aesthetics that French sinologist François Jullien tries to construct is centered on such notions as plain (la fadeur), non-objet, désontologie, and l'immanence. In so doing, Jullien aims to give Europe an access to "l'impensé" via Chinese aesthetics. However, his endeavour presents itself to be more like a derivative of post-structuralist theories of Foucault and Deleuze and an invention than a reliable representation of China. On the fundamental level, Jullien's views of Chinese thought follows those of Hegel and Max Weber. Although he tries to reexamine Hegel's negative comments on China, his seemingly exquisite discussions fail to rectify …