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Full-Text Articles in Chinese Studies
From Original Creation To Manufactured Production: Transformation Of Literary Production In The Age Of Internet-Based New Media, Lingling Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Internet literary activities on various website platforms for original literature and We-media accounts have brought about new mechanism of literary production. Fundamental changes take place in literary production from "original creation" to "manufactured production": the shift of the focal concern of writers from expressing "the self" to catering to the taste of "the divided audience", the shift from a formulaic adaptive mode of writing to trans-formulaic writing to cope with the impact of A.I writing, and the formation of literary production groups to offset the pressure inserted by capital on the scale of literary production to require a shift from …
The Aesthetics And Ideology Of Literature: A Discussion Focused On The Concept Of Aesthetic Ideology In Contemporary Western Literary Theory, Li Tang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Ideology embodies the deployment mode of power operation. Its functions include negotiating the relationships between subjects and between subjects and society, while its effects may lie in the difference between individual perceptual experience and individual-disciplining hegemonic discourse. Literature plays an indispensable role in conveying ideology and supporting hegemonic order, while it is also an important vehicle to break away from the control of hegemonic discourse. Literary discourse and practice bear the dual function of aesthetic and political discourse, but literature needs to take a balanced stance functioning aesthetically and ideologically so as to be accepted as a text with both …
On The Formation Mechanism Of Contemporary Discourse On The Public, Chonghong Luo
On The Formation Mechanism Of Contemporary Discourse On The Public, Chonghong Luo
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The formation of contemporary discourse on the public is embedded in the cultural context of humanism and post-revolution, taking culture as the main criterion to divide the elite and the public. The era of consumerism in which revolutionary discourse is absent is characterized by the formation of discourse contestation in a multicultural field. As consumerism gradually shows itself in the public culture, traditional humanistic intellectuals' criticism of it leads to a discourse contestation between the traditional elite and the contemporary public. Meanwhile, the sustained prosperity of popular culture and the developing theorization of cultural studies result in a gradual shift …
Political Polyphony And Folk Carnival: Historical Symptoms Of The Theory Of Peasant Literature In The 1930s, Bo Feng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The discussion on "peasant literature" among different parties and people around the 1930s was actually a continuation of the petty bourgeois issue in the 1920s Chinese revolution. This is because after the Communist-Kuomingtang spirit, the proletarian party could only reaffirm its political subjectivity when the petty bourgeoisie were distinguished from the peasants. Besides, Nonpartisan intellectuals also needed to highlight the unique significance of enlightening the more popular peasants, because they were different from the petty bourgeoisie, who, to a certain extent, was more directed at the intellectual class. However, the reception of theoretical resources from Soviet Russia and Japan inevitably …
A Critique Of Su Manshu From The Perspective Of Modern Buddhist Literature, Guilin Tan
A Critique Of Su Manshu From The Perspective Of Modern Buddhist Literature, Guilin Tan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
After the New Culture and May Fourth movements, three major strands were present in the field of Su Manshu study: the coterie of the Southern Society, writers of the "New Literature", and authors on the new Buddhist literature. Among them, authors on the new Buddhist literature primarily focused on such dimensions as (1) Su Manshu's character projection as a Buddhist, (2) Su's contribution to the development of Buddhism, (3) the affinity between Su's personalities and his art, and (4) Su's literary appeal to young Buddhist, etc. The significance of their research was several-folded. They argued for Su Manshu's due position …
Reportage As A Non-Fictional Narrative Mode, Xiaoyuan Ding
Reportage As A Non-Fictional Narrative Mode, Xiaoyuan Ding
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Reportage is a literary genre emerged out of modern journalism, featuring its blending of news, literature, and political commentary. With the changing of time, particularly due to the advent of the "Age of Omnimedia", its function to report news has significantly declined. Writers of reportage begin to develop its non-fictional narrative aesthetics, in order to accommodate themselves to the reader-objects and rising reader expectation. Reportage, as it stands, has shifted from its original style of reporting to a new genre of "literary reportage", a non-fictional narrative mode with distinctive features such as non-fiction, narrativity, and literariness.
A Review Of Literary Trauma Theory: Past, Present And Reflection, Xuemei Zhao
A Review Of Literary Trauma Theory: Past, Present And Reflection, Xuemei Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In recent years, trauma studies as an important hotspot of humanities has attracted increasing attention from Chinese academia. As far as trauma studies in the field of literature is concerned, there are mainly two problems. Firstly, researchers have focused more on textual criticism of trauma literature, which has led to a lag in theoretical exploration. Most existing studies are based on trauma theory's disciplinary foundation of psychology and psychiatry, lacking necessary literary perspectives as a reference. Secondly, the historical and cultural context in which the concept of trauma emerges represents its inherent western characteristics and implies its research object. However, …
Fallacy And Generation: The "Symbolist" Baudelaire And Chinese New Literature, Liang Han, Bo Zhang
Fallacy And Generation: The "Symbolist" Baudelaire And Chinese New Literature, Liang Han, Bo Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article aims to initiate a discussion for clarifying the theoretical base underpinning the treatment of Baudelaire as a symbolist poet in Chinese new literature, a typical case extensively documented in the field of reception history. After the identification of discrepancies between Baudelaire's original works and their internalization into Chinese new literature, it argues to attribute these discrepancies to the intent to redefine and refashion his works and, thereby, his image in China for developing local literature and constructing local identity. In the article we coin for this process of internalization an adaption-growth model, suggesting to take it as a …
The Extension Of Value In Literary Classics: A Case Study Of Mark Twain's "Running For Governor", Lili Liu
The Extension Of Value In Literary Classics: A Case Study Of Mark Twain's "Running For Governor", Lili Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Based on the priority of "internal value" in the genesis of a text's value, this article studies the extension of value in literary classics and its pattern. As can be seen in the Chinese translation of Mark Twain's "Running for Governor" and its diachronic generation of meaning, a regular pattern of meaning generation in literary classics can be found via dialectic discussion: literary classics always release their "internal value" in accordance with the authors' ideal appeal and "initial readers'" pursuits, which lays the foundation for subsequent extension of meaning. Furthermore, this article has found, during the extension of value in …
The Other In The View Of The Self And The Self In The Horizon Of The Other: The "Reconstruction Of Canon" In The Translations Of Literary Mind And The Carving Of Dragons In American Scholarship, Pengfei Gu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article discusses a basic literary question: suppose there is an original text which is an authorized canon, then is its translated text still a canon? The circulation of Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons in American scholarship is an example. Those translated texts, rewritten through cross-cultural translation, deviate from the original because they were reconstructed in a heterogeneous cultural context. With three kinds of research methods, including contextual reduction of the original text, form reconstruction of the paratext and comparison of intertextuality between Chinese and Western versions, Vincent Yu-chung Shih, Stephen Owen and Yang Guobin succeeded in reestablishing …
Formal Aesthetics Of Ballads: Ideas Of Literary Language In The Chinese Ballad Campaign, Chengzhu Cao
Formal Aesthetics Of Ballads: Ideas Of Literary Language In The Chinese Ballad Campaign, Chengzhu Cao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Although the language of ballad seems simple and unadorned, its specific formal skills and overall idea of form run through the whole text, where its important literary value lies. It not only has a set of internal formal rules, but also shows a close association with daily spoken language, dialect, and ancient Chinese poetry. Therefore, what is worthy to learn for the New Literature is not wonderful words or sentences in a ballad, or its simple and natural language style or strong feelings expressed for ordinary people, but its formal rules. These rules not only provide useful reference and nourishment …
Knowledge Production And Canonization Of Modern Chinese Poetry: Selected Modern Chinese Poetry (1919-1949) In Historical Perspective, Chang’An Fang
Knowledge Production And Canonization Of Modern Chinese Poetry: Selected Modern Chinese Poetry (1919-1949) In Historical Perspective, Chang’An Fang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Selected Modern Chinese Poetry (1919-1949), edited by Zang Kejia and published in 1956 by China Youth Press, is the first and one of the most important anthologies of modern poetry in China since 1949. For literary construction in modern China, its preface, "An Outline of the Development of Modern Chinese Poetry since the 'May Fourth Movement'", has reconstructed the history of the development of modern Chinese poetry from 1919 to 1949, which saw anti-imperialistic and anti-feudalistic themes highlighted and realism become the mainstream. Because the editor used it as a historical framework and discourse basis to break through the existing …
Musicalization: Xu Zhimo's Poetic Aesthetics, Liming Chen
Musicalization: Xu Zhimo's Poetic Aesthetics, Liming Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Apart from its shallow poetic imagery due to the vernacular and transparent language, a main reason why the New Poetry has been widely criticized since the May 4th Movement lies in the lack of musicality, more obvious when compared with Chinese classical poetry. But Xu Zhimo is an exception in that he made some effective and innovative transformation of the musicality of the poetry both at home and abroad by means of an integration of reading, translation and writing. It is therefore argued that musicality has characterized the most important features of his poetry, which is most obviously manifested as …
Knowledge Fragment And Theoretical System: Keywords As The Philosophical Basis For The Knowledge System Of Literary Theory, Hongbo Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper discusses deep changes of literary theory as a subject of knowledge writing when keywords are used to construct the knowledge system of literary theory. It reveals knowledge assumption behind the changes from the perspectives of disciplinary boundary, meaning reconstruction, and study acceptance. According to the paper, it is fuzzy disciplinary boundary of literary theory that makes it possible to perceive and generate theory by using keywords; with the narrative of literary theories questioned, it thus becomes necessary to use keywords and reconstruct meaning. At the same time, the knowledge of literary theory marked by keywords provides readers with …
Charm Of Fictitious History: The Literary Value Of New Historical Fiction, Ping Wang
Charm Of Fictitious History: The Literary Value Of New Historical Fiction, Ping Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Focusing on the forms of new historical fiction, this article analyzes general artistic features of its narrative. Since new historical fiction no longer attempts to construct a historical stage of facts, the writing patterns of previous historical fiction have been gradually broken. In the new artistic forms — fade-out and circularity of time, "intertextualized" narrative strategy, personalized historical discourse — new historical fiction assumes new meanings, which gives its text fictitious charm. The type of fiction uses new narrative to depict history which, significantly different from the past, embodies the wisdom of literary creation and also provides a new possibility …
The Intentional Confusion Of Narrative Viewpoint In Eileen Chang's Novels, Zidong Xu
The Intentional Confusion Of Narrative Viewpoint In Eileen Chang's Novels, Zidong Xu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Throughout her life, Eileen Chang has used the third-person narrative that limited the viewpoint of the protagonists; however, this narrative method underwent different changes during different stages of Chang's life. In her early works, the perspective of the protagonist was depicted by the omniscient narrator and some settings were described through the perspective of the protagonist as well as the narrator. This type of intentional confusion created by the narrative method was an important technical feature in Eileen Chang's novels. In The Rice Sprout Song, Chang still remained insistent on using the third-person narrative that limited the characters' viewpoint. What …
Post-Structuralist Poetics In The Great Preface And Some Thoughts On The Modernization Of Ancient Chinese Literary Theory, Mingdong Gu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Great Preface of the Mao School of Poetry is a foundational document for the exegesis of the Shijing and a landmark for Chinese literary theory. Despite its status as the first cornerstone for Chinese poetics, it has incurred harsh criticism due to its various inadequacies and unknown origin, and is never regarded as the first self-consciously composed literary criticism. Is The Great Preface indeed a discourse with a loose structure and inconsistent thesis as the critics have suggested? To re-examine its writing, conception, and overall structure from the perspective of post-structuralist discourse theory will draw an opposite conclusion: The …
Intuitional Experience And Visual Regulation: On The Relationship Between Language And Picture In Xiangxing Shujian And Xiangxing Sanji, Tairan Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Shen Congwen's consciousness about the difference and complementarity between pictures and words finds expression in his Xiangxing Shujian (The Complete Works of Shen Congwen) and Xiangxing Sanji (Random Sketches on a Trip to Hu'nan). Shen thinks that it is much more difficult to express his intuitional experience by words than by painting, though, for him, painting is still powerless in this regard. Shen just made do with words. So he tried to describe the intact image of Xiangxi (West Hu'nan) by juxtaposing words and painting simultaneously and by balancing what is classic and what is modern. In fact, that kind …
The Formation Of Body Modernity And Its Discourse Dimension: A Case Study Of "Body Encounter" In Modern China, Jigang Huang
The Formation Of Body Modernity And Its Discourse Dimension: A Case Study Of "Body Encounter" In Modern China, Jigang Huang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Body modernity played an important role in the process of shaping cultural modernity. Discourse of the body corresponded to the modern enlightenment, and expressed the political metaphor of the formation of modernity. From the issue of "body encounter" in modern China, we see the production process of the national body, the over-dominance of which reflected the needs of the time. The appearance of the body, to a certain extent, eased the anxiety of reform, which was also the body's frustration.
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 …