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中國古典美學範疇之“淡”, Zhou Cao

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

上個世紀七十年代，羅蘭·巴特（Roland Barthes）以“平淡的場域”表達了對中國的整體感觀，而後荷蘭漢學家余蓮（François Jullien）以“淡”總論中國思想與美學，兩位學者從跨文化的視野指出了“淡”在中國古代美學思想體系中的重要性。若從“淡”的歷史流變來看，不同理論流派與藝術門類的論述跨越了數個研究場域，而非限於範疇體系中“風格”論的一種表現。故此，本文嘗試超越以往視“淡”為“審美風格”的局限，著重研究“淡”在不同理論之間的流動，探尋“淡”如何從味覺現象發展為哲學、道德概念並演變為文藝美學範疇，從材質、心性、詩歌、詩歌批評、詩學理論五個角度梳理其理論漸進的過程與發展史的重要節點；同時，鑒於古代範疇隨步移行的特點，本文在微觀細讀的基礎上深入辨析一些由“淡”構成的重要概念或術語，界定它們的內涵與外延，並以文史哲結合的方法釐清其各自的理論語境與淵源，進而反思“淡”在不同時期意涵變遷的歷史文化原因。本文通過重要節點勾勒“淡”的發展史，透視古代美學思想各個場域之間的會通，希望能夠重新描繪“淡”在整個範疇體系中的位置，發現“淡”成為古典文藝審美理想的深層原因。

Writing Gender In Early Modern Chinese Women's Tanci Fiction, Li Guo

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Women’s tanci, or “plucking rhymes,” are chantefable narratives written by upper-class educated women from seventeenth-century to early twentieth-century China. Writing Gender in Early Modern Chinese Women's Tanci Fiction offers a timely study on early modern Chinese women’s representations of gender, nation, and political activism in their tanci works before and after the Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864), as well as their depictions of warfare and social unrest.

Women tanci authors’ redefinition of female exemplarity within the Confucian orthodox discourses of virtue, talent, chastity, and political integrity could be bourgeoning expressions of female exceptionalism and could have foreshadowed protofeminist ideals …

Imperial Crossings: Chinese Indentured Migration To Sumatra's East Coast, 1865-1911, Gregory Jany

Student Work

A 2020-2021 Williams Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Gregory Jany (Jonathan Edwards, '21) for his essay submitted to the Department of History, “Imperial Crossings: Chinese Indentured Migration to Sumatra's East Coast, 1865-1911" (Denise Ho, Assistant Professor of History, advisor).

Gregory Jany’s thesis, “Imperial Crossings: Chinese Indentured Migration to Sumatra's East Coast, 1865-1911,” is elegantly written, deeply researched in multiple archives—British materials, Dutch archives, and Qing documents—and uses several languages beyond English: Bahasa Indonesia, Dutch, Chinese, and Classical Chinese. Grounded in the literatures of the late imperial China, the Chinese diaspora, and colonial Southeast Asia, …

Tongcheng School's Criticism Of Anti-Order Writing: On Annotative Criticism In Classical Prose Anthologies, Xinping Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"Anti-order" is an important theoretical category in Chinese traditional culture, often compared with the category of "fro-order." As the categories of "anti-order" and "fro-order" develop, two value orientations are formed in the process, that is, the orientation that favors "fro-order" over "anti-order" and that puts more merit on "anti-order" than "fro-order." The preference to "anti-order" has exerted greater influence and given rise to the concept of "anti-order writing" in theoretical criticism of classical Chinese literature. It is a common aesthetic aspiration in literary criticism of the Qing Dynasty that values the "anti-order." The Tongcheng school, for instance, makes detailed comments …

On The Edition Criticism Of New-Era Novels And Its Academic Value, Xianhai Luo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Different versions of novels in the new era through the writers' revision or rewriting has not been paid due academic attention. Different versions of novels are produced in three periods particularly. Among these revisions and rewritings, the "substantive textual variants" center round expressions that are politically sensitive or that are concerned with sex scenes. Other changes are made concerning artistic perfection and socio-historical requirements. Apart from political factors, literary awards, commercialization, film and television adaptation, copyright, regional culture, network and new media, as well as changes in the context of globalization, are also contributing reasons for textual modification and variation. …

Physical Instruments And Image Art, Tian Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

From cavern fresco to easel painting, from photograph to computer-generated imagery (CGI), the physical instruments for capturing and creating images have constantly evolved thanks to the progress of technology. Accordingly, the development of image art has undergone three stages, that is, those of simulation, reproduction, and generation. Following the popularization of painting software and the Internet is the seamless integration of simulation, reproduction, and generation, which gives rise to an unprecedented prospect of visuality as well as more profound aesthetic thinking. This article, with a reference to the changes in drawing tools and a focus on the relationship between technical …

Pleasure And Aesthetic Experience From The Perspective Of Neuroaesthetics, Jun Hu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The study of the relationship between cognition and emotion in the common aesthetic mechanism of human brain is subject to debates. Oshin Vartanian, among others, suggests that cognition and emotion play an equally important role in the aesthetic process. He brings the concept of "pleasure" to the forefront in aesthetic experience and attempts to build a theoretical framework of neuroaesthetics that can link the study of emotion and that of cognition. Based on the aesthetic experience processing patterns, the emotional experience theory, as well as aesthetic experiential cases, Vartanian speculates and illustrates how "pleasure" plays a role in aesthetic experience. …

Some Issues Concerning The "Chorus" In Nietzsche's The Birth Of Tragedy, Youfeng Hu, Mian Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche, starting from the Satyr chorus and the original phenomenon of drama with a connection to his own aesthetic experience, offered a provocative aesthetic explanation of the origin and the development of tragedy. Tragedy, according to Nietzsche, originated from the Dithyramb and evolved in the form of "Dionysian chorus heading towards Apollo." The chorus, in which the tragic effect of "metaphysical comfort" was embodied, enabled tragedy to engage in the existence of Greek as a kind of primitive aesthetic experience. As the musical spirit of the chorus diminished, tragedy gradually declined. Nietzsche attempted to revive …

T. J. Clark's Logic Of "Negation" And The Practice From An Opposite Perspective In Social Art History, Haoyang Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Social art history is one of the most popular approaches to writing art history in the English-speaking context. T. J. Clark, who has been viewed as the leading scholar of social art history, introduced such discourses as "ideology", "class," and "production" into the writing of early French modern art history, seeking to interpret the relation of "vision-context" between ideology and social context. It is interesting to note that, when the social art history was in its heyday, Clark did not continue on its path, but proposed to "negatively" evaluate modern art. Once published, this view immediately triggered in the field …

The Compilation Of Anthologies And The Theoretical Issues In Constructing Contemporary "Study Of The Literary Selection", Yong Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In order to construct a contemporary "study of literary selection", we should center on the compilation of anthologies while taking into consideration of other mechanisms concerned with the selection of literary works, so as to construct a multi-dimensional system through multi-layered analysis of the "study of literary selection". The multi-layered structure of contemporary "study of literary selection" allows for its departure from the study of "The Selection of Refined Literature", and manifests as the important features of its modernity as well the anxiety of modernity. An investigation of contemporary "study of literary selection" informs our understanding of literary canonization.

The Crisis And Future Of National Memory In The Digital Age, Jingrong Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The concept of national memory can be interpreted in two ways, either as "memory about a nation" (or "a nation as a kind of memory") or as "a nation that remembers" (or "a nation's memory"). With a reference to nation which could be understood as country, native land, nation, and state, the national memory also unfolds as memory of China in geopolitical sense, memory of the native land in cultural and psychological sense, memory of nation in ethnographic sense, and memory of the state in political sense. The signification of the national memory changes in different contexts. There are two …

Transformation In Women's Ci-Poetry Towards The Su-Xin Style In The Mid-And Late Republican Period And Its Significance In The History Of Ci-Poetry, Yanting Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The mid- and late Republican period witnessed a transformation in ci-poetry initiated by a group of female poets, drawing on the style of Su Shi and Xin Qiji (Su-Xin hereafter). This transformation had its origins in the female poets who, due to their experience of modern education and particularly systematic education on ci-poetry, gradually formed a new practice to write under the guidance of certain thought on ci-poetry. The direct reason for this transformation was the emphasis on literature's social function brought about by the dramatic changes since the late 1920s, and the indirect reason was to use the Su-Xin …

Towards "Post-Critique": A Debate Over The Future Of Western Literary Studies, Hansong Dan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the era of "after theory", it is always a heated scholarly issue to debate over the future of Western literary studies. Recently, Rita Felski and Joseph North respectively advance their arguments as to how literary studies as a discipline can overcome its methodological and disciplinary impasse. After a scrutiny of the inherent flaws of contemporary criticism, Felski suggests that we choose to practice "post-critique" so as to avoid the restraints of the "hermeneutics of suspicion". She is much in favor of Latour's "Actor Network Theory", which in her view is a significant new tool to reorganize literary criticism. North's …

"Re-Theatricalization" And "Re-Totalization": The Historical Influence Of Japanese Touring Troupes On The "Revitalization" Of Western Theatre In The Early 20th Century, Yang Gao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

From the turn of the century to the 1930s, three Japanese theatre troupes successively toured the West spanning a long period of time and a large geographic area. During their overseas tours, the various "theatrical" and "total" qualities identified in the troupes' stage performances highly fascinated and impressed the Westerners. Although the Westerners' reception of the Japanese touring troupes' performances was inevitably accompanied by some "(mis)interpretations". Nonetheless, these "(mis)interpretations" could be regarded as a kind of positive "self-affirmation", which greatly strengthened and reinforced the ideals and visions of some innovative Western theatre practitioners who had been aspiring to "revitalize" Western …

Aloofness Of Tai-Ge School Literati In The Qianlong Era (1736-1795): A Case Study Of Shen Deqian, Haosu Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the eighth year of the Qianlong era (1743), Hang Shijun (1696-1772), a famous poet of the Zhejiang School, was demoted because of his disagreement with Emperor Qianlong about the "Inner Manchu and Outer Han" policy, in which the Manchu were given preferential treatment, while the Han were excluded. Shen Deqian (1673-1769), the leader of the poetry circle who was favored by Emperor Qianlong, wrote poems and presented them to Hang Shijun. By comparing Shen Deqian's two poems with those by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang scholars in the same period, this study identifies the internal consistency in their sympathy towards …

Articulation Theory And The Evolution Of Cultural Studies, Dongli Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Articulation theory has special value for cultural studies. This article discusses the evolution of the concept "articulation" from its origin through Ernesto Laclau to Stuart Hall, and goes on to portray articulation theory’s developing landscape in cultural studies – from "articulation", "double articulation" to "triple articulation". The developments of articulation theory have updated foundational concepts in cultural studies, helping it break the conflicts between "culturalism" and "structuralism". However, articulation theory has also complicated the scene of cultural studies, as it overemphasizes the agency of audiences in decoding activities and overly relies on language's expressive logic in the interpretation of cultural …

Fictional Characters From The Perspective Of Possible Worlds Theory, Bei Qiu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

According to the possible worlds theory, there are three types of alethic logics, i.e. necessity, possibility and impossibility. Literary works can then be seen as a specific possible world: fictional narrative world, while characters are its inhabitants. Taking into consideration the accessible relation of the fictional characters with the human beings in the real worlds, we divide the fictional characters into plausible characters, physically impossible characters and logically impossible characters. These three types of characters cover all the character types in fictional works. Possible worlds theory provides a new research scale and theoretical framework for categorizing character types as well …

From "Truth" To "Place": On The Turn Of Martin Heidegger's Artistic Thought, Yaxin Feng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Chinese scholars have reached a basic consensus on the periodization of Martin Heidegger that his thought can be divided into early and late stages by the ideological turn in the 1930s. Noticeably, however, at the Le Thor seminar more than three decades later Heidegger used three keywords — meaning, truth, and place — to mark the three stages in the development of his thought. In accordance with Heidegger's own rule, his thought had two turns and were thus divided into the early, middle, and late periods, the subjects of which are respectively "the meaning of being", "the truth of being", …

He Shaoji's Inheritance And Revision Of The Poetic Concept Of Natural Spirituality, Shuangxia Xiang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

He Shaoji has historically been considered a theoretician of the Song poetry school during the Daoguang and Xianfeng reigns, his poetics often taken as a representative of scholar poetry and as an altered form of Wen Fanggang's concept of textuality. However, when his poetics is studied on itself disregard of his personal link with the poetry school, it could be argued that He Shaoji was practically a follower of Yuan Mei. He's poetics is grounded in Ye Xie and Yuan Mei's concept of natural spirituality (xingling), and the shared features with Ye and Yuan's poetics show in his elucidation on …

From Bruce Lee To Eddie Peng: Transformation Of Chinese Male Star's Body And Its Cultural Significance, 吴红涛

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Bruce Lee and Eddie Peng, two high-profile Chinese male stars of different generations, are both recognized and loved by the public for their masculine bodies characterized by perfect muscles. Their bodies, as well as the public's imaginations and evaluations of their bodies reflect profound changes in contemporary cultural trends. In terms of body politics, this change shows a transformation from national discourse to international symbols; in terms of body types, it embodies a shift from martial hero to fitness expert; in terms of body landscape, it demonstrates a change from masculinity to masculine temperament. Due to the diversified visions of …