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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Rent Collection Courtyard: Theme Park As Politics, Nian Zhang
The Rent Collection Courtyard: Theme Park As Politics, Nian Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
China's contemporary large group sculpture Rent Collection Courtyard and Cai Guoqiang's Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard were created in a different time, and the relationship between the original and Cai’s work is an issue not merely of cultural industry but more of the symbolic production of history. The original group sculpture is an example of proletarian literature and art, and the tragic derailment of fate is that the object of contestation in the work has now turned into the condition for the exhibition of the work. That is, without the capital invested into the art work, there would not have been …
A Cultural Study Of Unrelated Homonym In Internet Language, Mofan Xu
A Cultural Study Of Unrelated Homonym In Internet Language, Mofan Xu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Unrelated homonym is a common phenomenon of language use in contemporary internet, in which the newly created homonyms have no relevance to the meaning of the original words. Unrelated homonym is not a way of making neologism, but a special usage conditioned by cyber communication techniques and it has become a kind of normalized language play. There are two purposes in using unrelated homonyms: to attract readers' attention through signifier noise, and to achieve an ironic effect through conveying the intended original content in an arbitrary phonetic form. The target of the irony reflects the group psychology of the contemporary …
Aesthetic Modernity Forms Of Contemporary Taiwanese Prose Theory, Jiangzhen Cai
Aesthetic Modernity Forms Of Contemporary Taiwanese Prose Theory, Jiangzhen Cai
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The prose theory has developed for more than half a century in Taiwan, with "modernity" as the principal axis. In the process of prose theory transformation, Yu Kwang-Chung's call for "cutting off the pigtail of prose" became a symbolic slogan with far-reaching influence, and his modernist approach of "poeticizing" prose established itself as the predominant principle. In the recent three decades, however, scholars shifted their research focus to the generic essence of prose, trying to define the generic style by deconstructing the style, while at the same time advocating the imagination and fictionality in prose which challenges the conventional concept …
Power, Representation And The Advocating Of Modern Chinese Literature: With A Study On Totalistic Anti-Tradition In The May Fourth Era, Qinghua Cao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper maintains that the slogan of "Literature Revolution" in the May Fourth Era calls actually for a revolution of representation, and at the foremost of the revolution is the transformation of the means and manner of representation. The discursive construction in the content of "new literature" focuses on the discipline and description of the represented objects, the position of the representation and the relationship between representation and the represented objects, but the essential concern is on how to empower the representation. The totalistic anti-tradition in the May Fourth Era can then be understood as the totalistic anti-representation which opposes …
The Aesthetic Ideas In The Taichi Diagram And Chinese Calligraphy Art, Lei Wei
The Aesthetic Ideas In The Taichi Diagram And Chinese Calligraphy Art, Lei Wei
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As the fruit of Chinese ancient philosophy and the vivid expression of Chinese culture, Taichi diagram is a concrete and intuitive summarization of The Book of Change. The endless flowing curve of the S-shape in the Taichi diagram represents the ideal of harmony in the binary opposition of "Yin and Yang," implying the coexistence of Emptiness and Fullness, as well as the combination of the hard and the soft. This supreme realm of harmonious integration becomes the fundamental basis of the art of Chinese calligraphy. The expression of meaning through imagery in Taichi diagram conveys ancient Chinese philosophy and aesthetic …
The Body Prescribed, The Subject Of Desire, And The Discourse Of Body In Literary Criticism, Xuezhi Niu
The Body Prescribed, The Subject Of Desire, And The Discourse Of Body In Literary Criticism, Xuezhi Niu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Literary criticism as an intellectual act about literature has caused quite some contradiction, and the most direct reason may be related to the pan-axiology of criticism. The discourse of body is a value choice of criticism focusing on the body narrative in literature. It concerns how body is conditioned by culture, how it is restrained as object of desire, and where the discourse of body as a mode of criticism functions when the body narrative goes out of control, etc. only by avoiding the contradiction of pan-axiology can this mode of criticism be so examined as to activate the dormant …
A Further Reflection On The References Of Verbal Signs And Images, Jingpeng Zhao
A Further Reflection On The References Of Verbal Signs And Images, Jingpeng Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Language and writing are two different systems. Language as a system of sound symbols has the unique feature of containing "image" (verbal icon) in the sounds, and while writing, compared with the other images, are images that can be pronounced. A further reflection leads to the observation that the resemblance between the verbal icon and the referent can only decide the relation between the meaning and the referent but cannot undermine the arbitrary relationship between the pronunciation and the verbal icon or between the signifier and the signified. In other words, it cannot change the nature of the linguistic sign …
Cultural Turn And The Legitimacy Of The Theory Of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetic Ideology, Yanfeng Li
Cultural Turn And The Legitimacy Of The Theory Of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetic Ideology, Yanfeng Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper starts its investigation from the perspective of discourse legitimacy with respect to the structural transformation of contemporary social culture and the transfiguration of the mechanism of discourse production. It tries to trace the working logic underlying the historical development of the theory of aesthetic ideology and map out how its legitimacy is produced, ossified and trapped into crisis. The theory of aesthetic ideology was formed in the 1980s, and this paper takes its discursive structure, attribute and function as obvious symptoms of "modernity." Due to the fracture of "modernity," the transformation of socio-cultural structure and the transfiguration of …
Discourse Power And The International Status Of Chinese Contemporary Literary And Art Theory, Shengxun Shi
Discourse Power And The International Status Of Chinese Contemporary Literary And Art Theory, Shengxun Shi
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Discourse power is a problem emerged when Chinese art encounters the Western discourse hegemony. Theoretical expression is crucial to the acquisition and presence of the discourse power over art, while the discourse power over literature and art theory is essential to Chinese art discourse power. International status is an entailing problem of the internationality of discourse power and it encompasses discourse power into the global framework of totality. However, in the global framework of literary and art theory China remains silent, and thus the issue of the international status of Chinese literary and art theory emerges. Chinese theoretical scholars have …
How Can A Literary Theory Be In The Era Of Post Theories?, Wei Song
How Can A Literary Theory Be In The Era Of Post Theories?, Wei Song
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Theoretical paradigm of modernity is met with unprecedented challenge and crisis, amid contemporary innovation and transformation of thoughts, thinking and discourse. Issues emerging from the post theory and "after theory" become important points for academic reflection. Post theories belong to the theoretical paradigm of postmodernity with a deconstructionist critical spirit. The reconstruction of literary theory in the era of post theories is not only a response and a critical questioning to contemporary cultural transformation, and the reality concern and critical dimension are the most demanding cultural-political issues in the process of the reconstruction.
On The Ways For Literature To Pervade Reality, Xuan Wu
On The Ways For Literature To Pervade Reality, Xuan Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper raises the issue on how valid the traditional categorization of creative methods such as realism, romanticism and modernism can explain the uniqueness and originality of classical writers such as Dostoevsky and Lu Xun etc. It observes that classical writers have shared experience in the originality of literary creation which shows in their unique questions in philosophy or humanity targeting at the social reality of their own time while establishing their own understanding upon the questions and the understanding leads to the unique structuring of literary works. Therefore, a methodological schema can be found between individual concerns, personal understanding …
The Theorization Of Rhythm In Modern Chinese Aestheticism, Hongxia Li
The Theorization Of Rhythm In Modern Chinese Aestheticism, Hongxia Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As one core concept of aestheticism, "art for art's sake" in modern Chinese literature has a distinctive way of manifestation with localized forms, and the theorization of "rhythm" is the most unique one among its specific concepts. Authors and theorists help to define its trajectory of development throughout the process of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun approached it at the beginning of 20th century from the perspective of "devilish beauty" as a form of the rhythm of life. Lu Xun's conceptualization echoed among the advocator of pure poetry. Literary theorist Qian Gurong's essay "On Rhythm" can be viewed as a …
A Hypoplastic Philosophic Fiction: A Reperusal Of Li Ping'sWhen The Sunset Disappears, Dongfeng Tao
A Hypoplastic Philosophic Fiction: A Reperusal Of Li Ping'sWhen The Sunset Disappears, Dongfeng Tao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper is a reperusal and a reinterpretation of When the Sunset Disappears, a novel sensational in the 1980s. This novel contains a series of theoretic questions which are still significant nowadays, such as the relationships between reason and emotion, civilization and barbarism, religious forgiveness and secular punishment, etc. As a representative work of a representative intellectual group of that period, this novel is still worthy of attention, for it reflects a pattern the "Zhiqing" (Educated Youth) writers cannot break away from when thinking and writing about the Cultural Revolution: abstracting, philosophizing and moralizing specific social and historical problems. This …
Anthropocosmic Resonance In Post-Mao Chinese Environmental Literature, Visser Robin
Anthropocosmic Resonance In Post-Mao Chinese Environmental Literature, Visser Robin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In this article I examine philosophical ideas in 1980s Chinese environmental literature that, while espousing perspectives on human relations to the natural environment derived from Daoism, animism, and Buddhism primarily convey a syncretic humanist philosophy of Neo-Confucian idealism. I analyze three influential post-Mao literary works that appropriate ancient philosophical thought and praxis to critique unsustainable deforestation during the intensifying neoliberal development characterizing the Deng era. Ah Cheng's 1985 novella, King of Trees is one of the earliest examples of post-Mao ecological consciousness. Xu Gang's 1987 Woodcutter, Wake Up! launched the eco-reportage movement by appealing to the moral center of the …
Kantian Influence On Early Zhu Guangqian, Qian Cao
Kantian Influence On Early Zhu Guangqian, Qian Cao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Based in a close reading of Zhu Guangqian's pre-1949 works on aesthetics, the paper delineates the relationship between Zhu's early aesthetics and Kant and points out the fundamental influence of Kantian aesthetics on the formation of Zhu's aesthetic theory. The paper claims that Croce's apparent influence shown as the psychological aspects in Zhu'a pre-1949 aesthetics should be understood as selective acceptance after Zhu's acceptance of Kantian aesthetics. Kant's main influence upon Zhu's aesthetics is Zhu's acceptance of the uninterested non-utilitarian formalism and the sublime theory, although Zhu had held some reservation about Kant's aesthetics, especially after 1930s when he began …
On The Paradigm Transformation Of Literary Studies: From Literature To Literariness, Hanguang Ma
On The Paradigm Transformation Of Literary Studies: From Literature To Literariness, Hanguang Ma
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The ideas of modern literature from Madame de Stael to Matthew Arnold inherit the form of traditional literature which approaches literature from the perspective of the modes and outcomes of the subject's activities on the basis of the theory of subjectivity.Thus what they revealed through literature studies is not the truth of literature itself but the subject itself i.e. how the subject forms through literary activities. The Russian formalists put forward the concept of literariness which defined the object of literature as literariness of the works.The changing literary study modes makes the discussion on literature studies transfer from the grand …
An Art-Culturological Analysis Of The Appeal For Literary Autonomy Among The Beijing School Writers, Qingmin Zhang
An Art-Culturological Analysis Of The Appeal For Literary Autonomy Among The Beijing School Writers, Qingmin Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Beijing-School writers pursued the autonomy of literature and refuse external research of literature. They used native discourse to describe the autonomic characteristics of literature and directed literary research to literature itself. Their explorative analyses on the form, technique, language and other internal factors of literary research reached a philosophical depth and theoretical level that are still inspiring today. Their appeal for literary autonomy was grounded on such factors as poetical tradition, social reality, foreign theory and professional position, and this may prove to be a unique case for scholars to interpret the complex spiritual world of literary subjecthood.
The Urban Imagination Of Shanghai Literature: With Focus Upon The 1990s', Yuan Feng
The Urban Imagination Of Shanghai Literature: With Focus Upon The 1990s', Yuan Feng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Urbanity and urbanization became the two key objectives of Shanghai Literature which claimed to aim at contemporaneity, literariness and experimental spirit, and the aims had also helped to construct a context for the magazine's popularity in the 1990s', and this made the magazine a leading literary periodical in China. One the one hand, it promoted varied ways to discuss, describe and present urban scenes. On the other hand, it excelled in the literary magazine market through its internal restructuring and external positioning to create a style of being open and multifaceted, and hence the magazine succeeded in establishing a literary …
The Rhetoric Of "New Manchu": With A Focus OnNew ManchuMagazine In Puppet Manchurian State, Xiaoli Liu
The Rhetoric Of "New Manchu": With A Focus OnNew ManchuMagazine In Puppet Manchurian State, Xiaoli Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Manchukuo, a puppet state of Japan in the northeastern part of China, tried to create an ideology of New Manchu. This paper explored how Manchu was turned into New Manchu, and then discussed the imperialist logic behind the rhetoric of New Manchu. The logic implied that Japan was advanced, civilized and attractive but Manchu was underdeveloped, inferior and uncivilized. Further to the assumption was that Manchu needed to be educated and transformed by Japan. The paper proceeded to discuss who could be the happy subjects under the governance of Manchukuo, and from there the paper tries to deconstruct the hypocritical …
Mo Yan's Polarizations: An Interpretation Of HisBig Breasts And Wide Hips, Yong Zhao
Mo Yan's Polarizations: An Interpretation Of HisBig Breasts And Wide Hips, Yong Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Before writing Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Mo Yan has already formed a fixed mode of polarized thinking and perception, and the mode is reflected in his choice of subject matter. One the hand, he dredges from memorized history and writes with a confirmative force; on the other hand, he criticizes the realistic history and writes with a negative attitude. Big Breasts and Wide Hips displays as the reasonable extension of both polarities and shows that it is both a grace deconstruction of the memorized history and a parody of the realistic history. The characters are designed to fall into …
On Liu Gangji's Practical Ontological Aesthetics As An Advance Of Practical Aesthetics, Liyuan Zhu, Wenying Zhang
On Liu Gangji's Practical Ontological Aesthetics As An Advance Of Practical Aesthetics, Liyuan Zhu, Wenying Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In 1980s, Liu Gangji put forward and established practical ontological aesthetics as a result of reflection and critique of mechanistic and perceptual materialism. He re-interpreted the Marxist view of practice as that which is participated by both the subject and the object, and elevated practice from epistemological level to ontological level. In this way, his conceptualization surpassed the dichotomy between subject and object and transcended the material ontology in the track of old materialism which to this day is still followed by some scholars. Liu Gang Ji's concept of practice not only initiated an advance in Marxist aesthetics of practicum …
A Critical Reflection On And Construction Of Modern Chinese Literary Theory, Yichuan Wang
A Critical Reflection On And Construction Of Modern Chinese Literary Theory, Yichuan Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This essay attempts to survey and critically reflect the development of modern Chinese literary theory. It summarizes the heritage of modern Chinese literary theory in the form of domestic stand that incorporates Western thoughts, modern position that revitalizes Chinese tradition, union between individuals and the mass, the priority of material over mind in the symbiosis of thought and art, and the necessary tension between interior intellectual system and exterior ideological institutions. The history of modern Chinese literary theory also leaves us some lessons to learn, especially such fixations as inclination to dialectic thinking, thinking taking priority over being, over-appropriating, xenophobic …