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On Liu Xizai's Paradox About The Exhaustibility Of Meaning, Xingchuan Tao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Liu Xizai in his General Principles of Arts proposed a paradoxical idea about exhausting the inexhaustibility of meaning with the inexhaustible, and this paper claims that his idea points at the fundamental function of aesthetic creativity. The ideas developed in Liu's book cover two sides. On the one hand, the book explicates the concept of the inexhaustibility of meaning from three aspects: the infiniteness of the macro and the micro dimensions, the incompatibility between language and meaning, and the infiniteness in the finiteness. On the other hand, the book explains the approaches to exhaust the inexhaustible from three aspects: writing …

Theoretical Traces Of Raymond Williams' "Structures Of Feeling" And "Cultural Materialism", Jifang Duan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"Structures of Feeling" is an important concept in Raymond Williams' aesthetic theory of "Cultural Materialism", and it is the starting point of his Marxist aesthetics and underlies the different stages of his theoretical development. The concept of "the structure of feeling" provides both an anchor point for retrospective criticism on his cultural materialism aesthetics and a point of departure for delineating the trajectory of his theoretical development and implications. The paper advocates a close reading of theory as it may provide an important approach to understand Williams' Marxist cultural theory as that it represents a way to break away from …

Critique Of Foucault's Theory Of Discourse, Xian Zhou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"French theory" is another expression for the post-structuralist thought in France, with Foucault's theory of discourse being the most influential, and constructivism lies at the core of the theory. On the one hand, the theory of discourse highlights the function discourse performs in constructing subjectivity and the reality; on the other hand, it aims to reveal the symbiotic relation between the power and knowledge behind discourse. Thus, the theory dissolves the cognitive agency of the subject while foregrounding the subject's construction of discourse, and it highlights the representational practice of discourse while forecloses the social material practice of the non-discourse. …

Dialectics Between Politics And Literature: On Overseas Studies In Chinese Literature, Jin Ji

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper surveys and reflects on the overseas researches on the relationship between Marxism and modern Chinese literature. Through critical analyses of major studies on Left-Wing literature and writers as well as case studies sinicization of Marxist aesthetic ideology, the paper tries to expose the struggle between knowledge and power and reveal the complexity of mutual stimulus between internal and external factors. The paper points out that the study of the sinicization of Marxism should discard the grand historical narrative with one dominant voice and be re-positioned into the multiple voiced historical site. The paper concludes that overseas studies have …

Four Characteristics Of Ancient Chinese Aesthetics, Fa Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper maintains that four characteristics can be observed about Chinese ancient aesthetics. The first one is concerned with the Chinese view of the cosmos, the second with Chinese view of the human world, while the third is concerned with the fact that Chinese theoretical norm is developed through a culture emphasizing on its totality instead of differentiality, the fourth with the cultural variety during the historical development.

Genre Criticism In Ming Dynasty And Zhu Yao'sThe Genre Of Ancient Rhapsody, Shihai He

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhu Yao's Gufu Bianti (The Genre of Ancient Rhapsody) is not only an important anthology of fu (rhymed prose, rhapsody) but also a comprehensive critical work on rhapsody. The anthology encompasses a selection of rhapsody texts and essays on the history and genre of rhapsody. It presents a systematic genre criticism which takes the six principles of poetry and exposition of personal sentiments as its criteria while taking prefatory notes and titular interpretation in ancient critical tradition as its approach, and its criticism is rich in content and logical in organization with valuable theoretical insights. The work has exerted a …

Literary Debates And Paradigm Shifts In Overseas Studies Of Modern Chinese Literature, Zhang Yingjin

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

By way of reviewing paradigm shifts as manifested in three literary debates, this paper contends that overseas studies of modern Chinese literature never contain only one single voice but rather follow a trajectory similar to institutional changes and paradigm shifts in the humanities in Euro-America. As theories come and go inside and outside China, Chinese experiences have been pluralized and complicated by today’s fast development of globalization and therefore demand an exploration from multiple and even mobile perspectives.

On Plato's Religious Justice And Artistic Justice, Yun Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper aims to probe into Plato's thoughts on religious justice and artistic justice through a critical reading of his Republic in terms of its contributions to the theory of justice. Plato's conceptualization of justice refers not merely to the justice in social life but also to religious justice and artistic justice, despite the fact that these term are not used explicitly per se. This paper argues that Plato's theorization of justice in The Republic proves to be the most distinctive and most valuable by putting justice in different perspectives from different areas.

Sinophone Literature And World Literature In Chinese, Fengliang Li, Ping Hu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Recent discussions regarding Sinophone literature demonstrate that overseas Chinese literary research circle is attempting to claim discursive power from the American sinological field and is making its way from the margin to the centre. Meanwhile, these overseas researchers, by adopting a decolonizing and decentralizing approach, try to contest with mainland China's academic circle for dominant discursive power. Beneath the discussions is a strong sense of discursive politics. Sinophone literature and world literature in Chinese are remarkably different in terms of their respective value positions, theoretical approaches and research objectives, but researches on Sinophone literature can inform the formation of modern …

Technology, Apparatus And Meaning: Two Approaches To Myth Interpretation, Jing Rao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper reflects on the "Davos Debate" between Cassirer and Heidegger and attempts to put it into the perspective of mythical thinking. In the debate, Heidegger refuted Cassirer's latent transcendental subjectivity that underlay the discourse on the science-myth dichotomy. On the other hand, Cassirer's subjectivity is closely related to Heidegger's reflective critique on technology. Myth and technology are homological in the sense that they are both implicitly constructed in the "Gestell" (apparatus), and the double origins of apparatus open up two approaches of myth interpretation. Although the true meaning of myth interpretation lies in the dimension of existential renewal instead …

The Fragmented Ancient Chinese God System, Dake Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Ancient Chinese mythology is different from those in other civilizations in its fragmentariness, and the fragmented nature is the result of the collective destruction of historical documents in the pre-Qin feudal states burnt down all historical documents, on top of the massive burning of books and the burying-alive of Confucian scholars during the reign of the First Emperor of Qin. This silent "cultural revolution" in the pre-Qin and Qin era resulted in the destruction of the first generation of Chinese mythology. During the wave of Asian emigration, myth fragments from India, Iran and West Asia constructed the second generation of …

The Meta-Ethical Traits: Nothingness, Différance And Spectrology, Hongsheng Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

One of the foremost problems that contemporary narrative ethics must respond to is whether meaning exists. This paper reviews the different Western versions of the death of God and the various understandings of "nothingness" among Chinese and Western thinkers, attempts to distinguish "nothingness" from "nihilism", and hopes to pin down the location of the meaning formation from multiple perspectives. It proceeds to investigate Derrida's "différance" and "spectrology" and positions deconstructionism in the meta-ethical dimension of post-philosophical thinking. The paper has also summarized the basic features of the meta-ethical dimension.

The Primitive State Of Antique Chinese Elenchus In Spoken And Written Style, Dalei Hu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In antique Chinese writing, elenchus as a form of debate prose takes the form of spoken and written styles, and this paper takes this approach to examine the primitive state of the genre. The paper demonstrates three main aspects of the genre of elenchus in the ancient China. The first concerns with the context, setting and scene of elenchus and there are some principles in the oral elenchus. The second concerns with the functions of elenchus. The third concerns with the connotation of elenchus exhibited in the different styles of the genre. The genre of elenchus comes into being, the …

The Return Of Beauty?, Welsch Wolfgang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper argues that the so-called return of beauty propagated in the aesthetic discourse is actually a return of the topic "beauty." The paper puts forward three claims in support of the argument. 1) The opposition to beauty that we find in art theory from mid-nineteenth century onward and especially in the twentieth century was not directed against beauty in general, but against specific conceptions of beauty. 2) Contemporary pleas in favor of beauty have dubious reasons and effects. 3) The talk about the attractiveness of the beautiful or the sublime, breath-taking beauty and its universality is conspicuously absent from …

Taiwanese Language Medical School Curriculum: A Case Study Of Symbolic Resistance Through The Promotion Of Alternative Literacy And Language Domain Norms, Philip John Sweeney

Dissertations and Theses

In contemporary Taiwan, Mandarin language proficiency and literacy in Han characters are not only key skills needed for success in academic institutions and employment markets, but they also carry meaning as symbolic markers of national and supranational Chinese identity. This study examines how Taiwanese-language medical studies curriculum planners are promoting alternative linguistic practices as a means of resisting the influence of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan and striving to replace it with a rival Taiwanese nationalism. I conducted research for this study during the 2010-2011 school year in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I collected data for this study by engaging in participant observation …

Asian Studies Colloquium, Katherine Filippo

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

From Hegel To Paz: Re-Reading Orientalism In Latin American Writing, Koichi Hagimoto

Hipertexto

Over the past few decades, the presence of Asia in the history of Latin American literature has received considerable scholarly attention. An increasing number of studies on Asia in relation to Latin American politics and economy has been accompanied by a growing interest in cultural relations between these geographically distant regions. While the trans-Atlantic ties between Europe and Latin America have been scrutinized by critics for many years, the analysis of a trans-Pacific connection is still considered to be a relatively new subject. In general, previous research can be divided into two main branches. On the one hand are the …

Rock And Roll And Its Cultural Legacy In Post-Socialist China, Cameron Ruscitti

East Asian Languages and Cultures Department Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Live Confucian: The Newsletter Of The Confucius Institute Of Pace University January 2013, Confucius Institute Pace University

Live Confucian

A newsletter of the Confucius Institute, Pace University.

The Confucius Institute at Pace Universi­ty is dedicated to providing Chinese lan­guage and cultural education, resources,and services to meet the needs of people from all backgrounds.

Review Essay: Negotiating The Traditional And The Modern: Chinese Women's Literature From The Late Imperial Period Through The Twentieth-Century, Li Guo

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The three books above complement each other in their coverage of Chinese women's literary genres from the late fourteenth through the early twentieth century. The authors' theoretical inquiries invite consideration of the following questions: what meaning, if any, might a feminist imagination or approach have in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) eras, early and late Republican China (1911-1948), and beyond? What do these works have in common regarding the resituating of women's literary status, the reclamation of feminine agency, and the empowerment of female subjectivity in China's literary tradition? These books can be considered in dialogue with Western feminism …