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Full-Text Articles in Chinese Studies
On Different Models For Lyric Poems, Culler Jonathan, Danhong Cao
On Different Models For Lyric Poems, Culler Jonathan, Danhong Cao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Two conceptions of the lyric have come to dominate the study of poetry in the Anglo-American world: the Romantic model, which considers lyric as an intense expression of subjective experience and emotion, and the mimetic model that treats poetry as the thought or speech of a persona created by the poet, therefore adopting methods and strategies used in analysing fictional texts. Neither of these two can be the "default model" for describing and interpreting lyrics because of their neglect of the fundamental characteristics of lyrics: all those elements which are fundamentally directions for performance rather than representations. Moreover, while lyrics …
The Cultural Politics Of Conspicuous Consumption In China, Min Zhou
The Cultural Politics Of Conspicuous Consumption In China, Min Zhou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
To adequately understand contemporary conspicuous consumption in China, one needs to put it in a historical background and look at it not only from an economic perspective but also from cultural and political points of view. Both China and the West have had the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption at different historical periods, which, in their own ways, have constituted different cultural and political narratives and have demonstrated in them different characteristics. Three Confucian values that affect Chinese people's consumption of luxurious commodities — namely, maintaining consistency between behavior and status, family reputation and the awareness of other people's influence — …
Discovery And Invention Of Image Effects: A Study Of Gombrich's Theory Of Caricature, Chun Mu
Discovery And Invention Of Image Effects: A Study Of Gombrich's Theory Of Caricature, Chun Mu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
E. H. Gombrich's discussions on caricatures play an important role in his study of the history of art and image psychology. He begins his narrative of the magic of art with the taboos of caricature and in this way delineates the course of Western art history. He also reflects on the representational images in Western Naturalism from the perspective of equivalences of caricatures, and by means of this he reveals the truth of image psychology. Gombrich argues that all image makings, including the one aiming at representation, pursue equivalences instead of similarities, and image makers always devote themselves to conducting …
Particularities In Time And Space: On Historicism In Stephen Greenblatt's New Historicism, Zhu Wang
Particularities In Time And Space: On Historicism In Stephen Greenblatt's New Historicism, Zhu Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Historicism usually appears as a confusing concept in scholarly writings. Several thinkers have made definitions of this term in both its strict and loose senses, and it is now usually used in its loose sense — it can refer to any methodology in which a certain entity is examined by placing it in a specific time and place. Stephen Greenblatt's major works share the spirit of historicism in its loose sense in that he has put into question the possibility of building an abstract theoretical system independent of time and space. Greenblatt was accused of having shied away from examinations …
Horace's Poetry And The Literary Order Of Augustan Rome, Yongyi Li
Horace's Poetry And The Literary Order Of Augustan Rome, Yongyi Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Roman poets in the Augustan era were already faced with a literary order the complexity of which was almost modern, composed of the state, the public, patrons and friends. The prevalence of literary patronage compelled poets to negotiate between art and political power, whereas a well-developed mechanism of publication, transmission and book trade exerted pressure on them in terms of tastes and fashions. Horace's success lay in his ability to outmaneuver the system through ingenious strategies, whereby instead of falling victim to it, he managed to shape the course of Roman poetry.
Return To Roman Jakobson: On The Linguistic Source Of "Literariness", Wei Feng
Return To Roman Jakobson: On The Linguistic Source Of "Literariness", Wei Feng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
It is necessary to take the linguistic source of "literariness" into account when we discuss the controversy concerning the term itself. Jakobson brought forth the concept of "literariness" for the first time in 1919. After that, the relation between literature and linguistics always played a leading role in his academic thoughts. He was also the first to use the notion of "structuralism" in 1929 and became a pivotal figure in the adaptation of Saussure's structural analysis to literary theory. Not only did he explore his precursor's functionalist ideology, but also expanded the social significance and humanistic values of linguistic studies. …
Ranges Of Understanding: On The Vast Scope Of Art Interpretation. A Wittgensteinian Perspective, Majetschak Stefan
Ranges Of Understanding: On The Vast Scope Of Art Interpretation. A Wittgensteinian Perspective, Majetschak Stefan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The article examines the question of what "understanding an art work" means and offers some considerations about the ranges of understanding that we experience in interpretations of art: the vast scope between the contrasting extremes "expert knowledge" on the one hand and "art blindness" on the other. With respect to the philosophy of later Ludwig Wittgenstein it will be shown what these ranges originate from and why they are unavoidable. This may come as a surprise to some philosophers since Wittgenstein usually is not regarded as someone from whom one might expect pronouncements of an aesthetic nature. But in fact …
Art's Border Crossings, Crisis Or Rebirth Of Aesthetics: A Study Of Rancière's Critique Of Lyotard, Haochen Zhang
Art's Border Crossings, Crisis Or Rebirth Of Aesthetics: A Study Of Rancière's Critique Of Lyotard, Haochen Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Following the Utopian tradition characterized by the interaction between aesthetic autonomy and aesthetic criticism, many Western scholars have critical attitudes towards art's border crossings and therefore are pessimistic about the trend of aesthetics. Rancière, through reflections on Lyotard and the whole postmodern "ethical turn" that he represents, tries to activate the political potential within border crossings of art and thereby reconstructs aesthetics' critical dimensions. However, due to the confusion of the "unpresentable" and the "unrepresentable", Rancière does not sympathetically see Lyotard's sublime aesthetics' direction; his route of aesthetic politics also has some limitations. Both his insights and limitations as manifested …
Prosthesis Of Speed, Aesthetics Of Disappearance And Logistics Of Perception: Paul Virilio's Discussions Of Cinema, Xing Zheng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
By integrating scatted discussions of Paul Virilio, this paper will give a comprehensive mapping of his thought on cinema and reveal its inner logic. Virilio's discussions on cinema are based on his "Dromology" theory. He points out that cinema is a kind of Prosthesis of Speed. It mimics an experience of perception which is peculiar to children, and has made it reborn in the adults. In this context, a new aesthetics related to modern art and media has emerged, which is named "Aesthetics of Disappearance" by Virilio. This new aesthetics has reshaped the perception in modern society in all dimensions, …
Re-Packaging A Cultural Revolution Model Opera: Politics And Commerce In Tsui Hark's The Taking Of Tiger Mountain, Li Han
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Tsui Hark's The Taking of Tiger Mountain (Zhiqu weihu shan, 2014) presents an unique text to examine the ramification of the Cultural Revolution in contemporary China and its interplay with the explosive growth of the mainland film industry in the global context. First of all, examined herein is the CCP's discourse on the role of cinema in its cultural enterprise plan in recent years. By situating The Taking of Tiger Mountain in the state's refreshed propaganda campaigns, the paper demonstrates how this work participates in the continuing exploration of new possibilities for the "main melody" elements. Secondly, conducted here is …
Seduction: From The "Aesthetic Stage" To The Postmodern Mirror: Baudrillard's Interpretation Of Kierkegaard's Seduction, Jingjian Shang
Seduction: From The "Aesthetic Stage" To The Postmodern Mirror: Baudrillard's Interpretation Of Kierkegaard's Seduction, Jingjian Shang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In his Seduction, Baudrillard interprets Kierkegaard's concept of seduction: he regards seduction as a behavior of the "aesthetic stage", including Don Juan's physical seduction and the spiritual seduction of Johannes, represented as the male's desire and seduction to women, and also as a guiding spirit of Socrates' maieutics and Jesus' sermons, while Baudrillard is concerned more about nature of women's seduction. He regards seduction as a game which disintegrates the hierarchy of gender, power and production with its superficiality and meaninglessness, from the post-modern perspective. He considers Johannes' seduction as an artificial strategy, which is the mirror image of the …
Ecocriticism And Shakespeare, Until 2016, C. Estok Simon
Ecocriticism And Shakespeare, Until 2016, C. Estok Simon
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Ecocriticism is a fairly new area of investigation that has rapidly and sometimes controversially expanded. Theorizing ecocriticism has at times been met with debate, and traditional areas of literary studies have not always been entirely receptive. Thus, the expansion of ecocritical theory into Shakespearean studies (now a thriving micro industry all its own) warrants serious discussion, both from contextual and theoretical positions. This article will cover three main sections: 1] an introduction to the general field of ecocriticism; 2] the theory and the practice of ecocriticism (including the problems and the promises); and 3] Shakespeare and ecocriticism. The more that …
Cross-Cultural Recognition Of Musical Expressiveness, O. Young James
Cross-Cultural Recognition Of Musical Expressiveness, O. Young James
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
According to the resemblance theory, music owes its expressive character to its resemblance to human expressive behaviour. Discerning the expressive character of a work of music is a matter recognizing the resemblance between the music and expressive behaviour. For example, slow music is often experienced as sad and this is at least part since the speech of sad people is slow. Certain forms of expressive behaviour are found in many cultures. Consequently one would predict that members of one culture are able to discern the expressive character of music produced by members of other cultures. There is considerable empirical evidence …
On The Site-Specificity Of Public Art, Baldini Andrea
On The Site-Specificity Of Public Art, Baldini Andrea
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Since the stipulation of the NEA's new guidelines in 1974, works of public art and site-specificity issues became inextricably intertwined. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship between works of public art and the specific space they "inhabit." I will develop my analysis by considering three case studies from contemporary public art: Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, Pino Castagna's In pietra alpestra e dura and Mauro Vangi's La Lupa. I will argue that public artworks that are site-specific function possibly following two directions that are dialectically related. On the one hand, public artworks "transform" the space where they …
An Analysis Of Visual Behavior In Art Cognition, Chenguang Ling
An Analysis Of Visual Behavior In Art Cognition, Chenguang Ling
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
"Looking" is an important process through which men understand the object, know themselves and construct the world. The analysis of looking can be unfolded in the following three aspects. The first aspect takes looking as seeing. Looking is an action while seeing is a result. However, "looking" does not necessarily means "having seen." Seeing reveals the object, when the object originally not focused on is presented by visual selecting and focusing. This is a process from invisibility to visibility. The second aspect takes looking as "seeing-in" or finding out. "Seeing-in" embodies the meaning of the depth model in the visual …
Ouverture And Closure In Interpretive Contexts, Margolis Joseph
Ouverture And Closure In Interpretive Contexts, Margolis Joseph
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
I posit as polar extremes of interpretative practice the well-known model of closure Dante reports as guiding or governing medieval literature and the opposed model of acknowledging different degrees and kinds of openness somewhat differently supported by Umberto Eco and Roland Barthes, that suggest the limiting considerations of "the only possible right way" and the increasing tolerance and scatter, characteristic of our time, of contingently contrived responses and associations that convey a sense of relevance but are prepared to dispense with distinctions of any strong methodological sort. Contemporary interpretation, particularly in the arts, tends increasingly to favor openness; accordingly, the …
Xunzi And Solomon On Aesthetic Responses To Loss, Higgins Kathleen
Xunzi And Solomon On Aesthetic Responses To Loss, Higgins Kathleen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Emotions related to loss are commonly expressed and embodied in aesthetic forms, including both enduring works such as monuments and performances, such as rituals. Xunzi, in his response to Mozi's criticism of grandiose funerals, helps to explain the value of aesthetically elaborate rituals for dealing with the emotions experienced by those who survive the death of a loved one. Xunzi's account also dovetails nicely with the concerns of Robert C. Solomon, who claims that grief, despite appearances to the contrary, is a functional emotion and that grieving is morally obligatory. Aesthetically elaborate rituals provide symbolic satisfaction of the longing for …
Iconic Consciousness: The Material Feeling Of Meaning, C. Alexander Jeffrey, Rui Gao, Di Zhao
Iconic Consciousness: The Material Feeling Of Meaning, C. Alexander Jeffrey, Rui Gao, Di Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This article suggests an iconic turn in cultural sociology. Icons can be seen, it is argued, as symbolic condensations that root social meanings in material form, allowing the abstractions of cognition and morality to be subsumed, to be made invisible, by aesthetic shape. Meaning is made iconically visible, in other words, by the beautiful, sublime, ugly, or simply by the mundane materiality of everyday life. But it is via the senses that iconic power is made. This new approach to meaning is compared with others — with materialism, semiotics, aestheticism, moralism, realism, and spiritualism.
Literary Research Methodology In Big Data Era: A Survey Of Franco Moretti's Quantitative Analysis, Xiaohui Chen
Literary Research Methodology In Big Data Era: A Survey Of Franco Moretti's Quantitative Analysis, Xiaohui Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Literary research in the Big Data era can hardly avoid the clamp of computing, and quantitative approach will eventually become one of the important approaches. This paper claims that Franco Moretti's literary quantitative analysis provides a typical example for literary study in the Big Data era. His method of quantitative analysis demonstrates the possibility of the methodological transition from natural sciences to social sciencesvand to humanities. With Popper's theory and contemporary IT advances behind his approach, Moretti exposes the literary significance of the change of novel’s titles after analyzing the titles of Britain's 7000 novel, which also proves the effectiveness …
Manliness And Masculinity: Towards A Distinction Of Two Key Terms In Men's Studies, Hongsheng Sui
Manliness And Masculinity: Towards A Distinction Of Two Key Terms In Men's Studies, Hongsheng Sui
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Manliness and masculinity are two related and different concepts, and there have been inaccurate rendering into Chinese and confusing usage, but there has little study of the distinction between them in domestic academic circle. The paper sets out to distinguish the two terms from the perspectives of philosophy, anthropology, sociology and culturology, in hope of distinguishing them in terms of their etymological and cultural development, their definition, scope and criteria, their value orientation and judgment, and their construction strategies and modes of practice. The paper aims at redressing the misconceptions about manliness and shedding light on the predicaments of modern …
The Power Of Image: Medieval Debate On Icon And Its Theoretical Value, Qiong Wu
The Power Of Image: Medieval Debate On Icon And Its Theoretical Value, Qiong Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The debate on icon was an important event in the theological and visual cultural field in the Western Medieval era, and it exerted a profound influence on Western visual culture. This paper examines the theological and cultural context of the debate, and with a focus on the relationship between invisibility and visibility, the paper discusses the paradoxical value of representation and its effects on visual cultural field.
Event-Truth And Literary Criticism: On Badiou's Reading Beckett, Cheng Tan
Event-Truth And Literary Criticism: On Badiou's Reading Beckett, Cheng Tan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Alain Badiou rejects the conventional idea that Samuel Beckett was a playwright associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. He points out that, in Beckett's writing, there is ideological transfer from "solipsism" to "event." As has been shown in Beckett's later works, he devoted himself to his reflection about "event," thus creating a text of "truth." Badiou, through his idea of Inaesthetics, attempts to understand Beckett in Beckett's own way. From the inherent ideological structure of the text, Badiou constructs critical concepts for the text, and consequently makes the truth of text appear in the form of concepts. He succeeds …
Literature And History: On Hayden White's Theory Of Tropology And Its Effect, Zilu Yang
Literature And History: On Hayden White's Theory Of Tropology And Its Effect, Zilu Yang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper focuses on Hayden White's theory of tropology, and tackles the issue of trans-boundary between literature and history. White's discourse upon the poetry of history relies on the revelation of the mechanism of tropology. This paper demonstrates the four key concepts, namely, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony, comprising in the connotation of tropology. This quadruple structure points to a certain internal continuity in human consciousness, and constitutes the main mechanism of historical discourse in meaning-production. Classical historians establish the basic forms of writing by way of tropology, and then influence the three layers of writing, namely, weaving of a …
On The Aesthetic Significance Of Kant's Concept Of Schema, Hongbin Su
On The Aesthetic Significance Of Kant's Concept Of Schema, Hongbin Su
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Schema is an important concept in Kant's philosophy, but Kant delimited it to the territory of epistemology. This paper argues that schema is also an important aesthetic concept. Schema is grasped through intuitive activities, and it follows that schema has certain aesthetic value. Schema is an object of aesthetic activity, but most often it also participates indirectly in aesthetic activities as the source of artistic images. The homogeneity between cognitive schema and aesthetic schema shows the homology of cognitive activities and aesthetic activities.
Reflections On The Literariness In The Post-Theoretic Era: The Dispersion Of Meta-Narration And The Plight Of Essentialist Poetics, Yanfeng Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In the context of the dispersion of meta-narrative and the break-up in modernity, the paradigm of essentialist thinking faces the increasing crisis of representation of knowledge. The history of "big theory" is coming to an end, and the "post-theory" emerges as a new paradigm of discourse and system of knowledge. Post-theory takes on an anti-essentialist, non-centralist, pluralistic and historized standpoint of knowledge to reconstruct the validity of legitimacy, opposing rigid essentialism, logocentrism and the logic of totality and identification. With the advent of post-theory, the discourse paradigm of essentialist literariness and the essentialist poetics are faced with the question over …
Reflections On The Post-Modernist Concept Of Literary History In A New Literary History Of America, Song Li
Reflections On The Post-Modernist Concept Of Literary History In A New Literary History Of America, Song Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Greil Marcus and Werner Sollers' New Literary History of America from Harvard University Press sets a new paradigm for literary history writing in the aspects of style, organization and methodology. It has the following major features. First, it holds a literary view of culture vision. Therefore, the connotation of literature is expanded greatly and the boundary between literature and culture is blurred. Secondly, it embodies the principle of dedifferentiation in post-modernism culture. Thirdly, it advocates a constructional view on literary history. Fourthly, it disassembles the meta-narrative of an ontological history and emphasizes on the micro-narrative of history transection. Lastly, it …
The Logical Progress Of German Idealist Aesthetics: With A Discussion On The Aesthetic Historical Significance Of Schiller's On Beauty, Wei Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The trajectory of German Idealist aesthetics form Kant to Hegel revolves around the developmental process from philosophical analysis of psycho-aesthetic structure to dialectic examination of aesthetic object down to critical aesthetics and philosophy of art, with a knowledge background of modern European intellectual climate or the pursuit of determinacy. Schiller's On Beauty (Kallias, 1793), by exhausting the research methods of beauty, constituted an intermediary link in the advancement in German Idealist aesthetics and established its inerasable significance in the history of aesthetics.
Is Queer Theory Equal To Gay And Lesbian Studies？, Lanlan Du
Is Queer Theory Equal To Gay And Lesbian Studies？, Lanlan Du
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of women's studies. Although it is related to gay and lesbian studies, it differs from and reacts to them. Since Chinese scholars tend to conflate queer theory with gay and lesbian studies, this essay hopes for a more accurate introduction of queer theory with an analysis of its main ideas.
Narrative, Situation And Metaphor: How Plato's Republic'S Opening Paragraphs Are Written And Read, Linfang Zhu
Narrative, Situation And Metaphor: How Plato's Republic'S Opening Paragraphs Are Written And Read, Linfang Zhu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Plato's Republic is both a philosophical and a literary text. Plato had kept revising the opening of The Republic till the end of his life. The Republic has a structure of dual narrative, with the man called "I" also playing a double role in this book. The time, the place, the order of appearance and the unfolding of the events all correspond to the theme. The genre of dialogue and narrative saves this philosophical text from being trapped too deep into the metaphysical mire, but too many symbolic metaphors make the interpretation of the text an attempt to solve mysteries. …
Notes On Text Theory, Youxiang Tu
Notes On Text Theory, Youxiang Tu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The conception of le texte scriptible (the writerly text) in Roland Barthes reveals the character of the text of undistinguished relation between subject and object. According to Barthes, "the text" is both an object and a subject, and if it is a pure object, it will be a work, while as a subject the text brings the author's role into play. The theoretical significance of the text is given not innate, and the pure plurality in Roland Barthes's theory does not refer to multiple meanings, because ambiguity can still lie in a unified structure, when pure plurality eliminates the centrality …