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"What Are Poets For?": An Interpretation Of Hesiod's Classical Poetics, Lei Peng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the Proemium of Homogony, Hesiod distinctively extols the Muses, the lineage and the might of them as a hidden eulogy of the role of poets. This essay is a detailed reading of the proemium and an exploration into the classical poetics therein. Through an analysis of the lineage of the Muses, this essay shows the non-creative feature of classical poetics, then reveals the alternation Hesiod makes of the relationship between the poet and the Muses as in the three songs of the Muses, and finally,by interpreting Hesiod's depictions of kings and singers, demonstrates the role of Hesiod as a …

A Critical Review Of Researches Into The Poetry Of The Han, Wei And Six Dynasties In The First Half Of The 20th Century, Zhixi Qian

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The studies of the poetry of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, which have developed in a new teaching and academic system, show a combination of classical scholarship and modern approaches and therefore have some representative significance in ancient literature studies. There is a long tradition of such studies and scholars have got new discourse from such fresh literary concepts as the theory of evolution, vernacular literature and popular literature to reconstruct or interpret the history of poetry, and discovered or discussed some new facts, thus making studies of yuefu poetry attract considerable academic attention. As such studies develop, facts …

A Reflection On German Classic Aesthetics And The Construction Of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics, Fanren Zeng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Contemporary aesthetics in China over the past 50-odd years developed partly because of the influence of classic German aesthetics, as can be seen from the fact that the most important form of aesthetics in contemporary China — practice aesthetics — is derived from classic German aesthetics, especially Kantian aesthetics. This is determined by the level of classic German aesthetics and China's particular needs. However, all theories are historical, and have to appear and disappear in history. The dramatic socio-economic transformation since 1949 determines that classic German aesthetics is no longer suitable to China, and practice aesthetics derived from it has …

A Study Of F. R Leavis's Cultural Criticism, Xiangchun Meng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

F. R. Leavis was the most influential and controversial critic and one of the forerunners of cultural criticism in the 20th century Britain. His cultural criticism is the point of departure for his literary criticism, which in turn aims for cultural and social health. Leavis's cultural criticism comprises mainly of the conception of the "organic community", the theorization of "minority culture" and the promotion of "literary culture" and the criticism of the "Technologico-Benthamite" culture, the first three of which form the core of his cultural ideals. A better understanding of Leavis's cultural criticism may illuminate our reflections on the cultural …

Aesthetic Features Of China's Original Piano Music In The Early 20th Century, Wei Chen, Xin Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper focuses on China's original piano music in the early 20th century, and through an analysis of several musical compositions, it tries to define the aesthetic features in this period as the combination of the composition techniques from the West, modernized rendition of Chinese traditional and classical music, and appropriation of the foreign repertoire. Under the guidelines of coming from practice and into practice, the musicians composed a big repertoire of music with reality concerns. Over the past fifty years, the change of aesthetic sensibilities charts the development of the modernity of Chinese aesthetics, and the tracing of the …

From The Subaltern To The Precariat, During Simon

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This essay argues that, given the global dominance of neo-liberal capitalism, the concept of the subaltern now needs to be replaced by that of the precariat, a term first used by Pierre Bourdieu. It further argues that the category of the subaltern emerged in key post-disciplines of cultural studies, postcolonialism and subaltern studies, all of which themselves belong to the aftermath of the West's 1968 revolutions. In our era of global capitalism, their usefulness is in decline. Indeed the precariat is a broader category than the subaltern since it covers not just those who live on the margins of the …

Homer's Epics In Lessing'sLaokoon, Hui Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Laokoon by G. E. Lessing (1729-1781) has long been considered as a masterpiece of modern aesthetics pertaining to the limits of painting and poetry. However, this controversial book, in fact discussed more about Homeric epic than about Laokoon if we take its content into consideration. So Lessing himself mentioned in its introduction not without connotation that Laokoon was only seemingly (gleichsam) his starting point. The present paper tries to highlight the differences between the quietness in Winckelmann's sense and the crying in that of Iliad which Lessing specifically emphasized, and then purports to follow Lessing's way to understand the significances …

Li Bai As A Critic Of The Poetry Scene In Emperor Xuanzong's Reign, Qinghai Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As a critic, Li Bai's critical practice consists of his comments on the poetry history and on the coeval poetry writing, which are inherently related with each other. Comparatively speaking, his insights into contemporary poetry writing rarely attract researcher's attention. His achievements in this field mainly include the following. Firstly, in Gu Feng No.1 [Old Airs], Li Bai expounds his view on coeval poetry writing which reflects his general understanding and positive affirmation of it. Secondly, besides aesthetical standards such as "restoring the ancient," "airs and odes" and "rectified sound," which are the basic guidelines of his commentary on the …

Lucretius's Poetic Enlightenment: A Reading Of De Rerum Natura, Xiaofeng Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Besides being the most important philosophical work during the era of the Republic of Rome, De rerum natura [On the Nature of Things] is also the earliest extant long poem in Latin. While its author Lucretius is not only accredited as the most important philosopher in Latin, he is also known as a major poet in ancient Rome. In De rerum natura, Lucretius illustrates obscure philosophical reasonings in lucid and euphonic poetical lines. Thus, it not only renders the sophiticated atomic materialism in a more approachable way, but also initiates a literary form for enlightenment. Based on a close reading …

Voicing And Devoicing Rules In East And Southeast Asian Languages, Siyu C. Zhang

Honors College Theses

Languages are composed of sounds that are produced by the vocal organs. These sounds can be split into two categories, voiceless and voiced. In general, based upon the International Phonetic Alphabet, there are more voiced sounds possible than voiceless sounds, with vowels, nasals, and approximants inherently voiced. After analyzing the separate phonetic inventories of 9 Asian languages representative of the major Asian language families (Arabic, Burmese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese), it was found that all of them except Mandarin Chinese had far more voiced sounds than voiceless sounds as well. After isolating only stops and affricates, …

The Taiwan Elections In Historical Perspective, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

During a recent trip to Taipei to observe the January presidential and legislative elections, like many people with little first-hand knowledge of Taiwan, I was struck by the unique traits of Taiwan’s democracy. The elections also seemed relevant to many debates in China, not only because they were closely followed and tweeted by critical voices on the mainland, but also because of their significance against the broader historical and geographical context of the history of modern China, a connection which holds true even if one subscribes to the view that Taiwan had no previous connection with this history before 1945 …

Book Review: Developmental Fairy Tales, Nicole Kwoh

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

At the 1996 APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, Jiang Zemin concluded his speech on economic development with a quote from Lu Xun: “For actually the earth had no road to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made” (1921). This quote highlights the important role played by the first generation of modern Chinese literature in shaping the current rhetoric of building a road to progress. In Developmental Fairy Tales: Evolutionary Thinking and Modern Chinese Culture, Andrew F. Jones explains the construction of this ubiquitous concept of cultural and historical progress. With a focus on Lu …

Salvaging Memories From The Ruins Of The Three Gorges, Daisy Yan Du

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. The construction of the dam began in 1994 and was completed in 2009. Proponents bill it as a symbol of China’s rise on the global stage, while critics worldwide see it as a huge humanitarian crisis that has the potential to worsen in years to come. The biggest controversy of this project concerns the forced migration of around two million people, who, due to the rising water, have been displaced from their hometowns along the upper reaches of the Yangzi River in Chongqing and Sichuan and Hubei …

Digital Chinese Whispers: Death Threats And Rumors Inside China’S Online Marketplace Of Ideas, James Leibold

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Chinese internet is a wonderfully raucous and interesting place. It has greatly expanded the scope of public discourse and activity, despite the party-state’s extensive censorship regime. Not surprisingly, the world’s largest cyber-community exhibits tremendous depth and diversity: progressive cyber-activists and professional agitators; navel-gazing starlets and steam-venting gamers; mundane infotainment and the banal waxing of quotidian life; and, sadly, dark corners of fear, hatred and paranoia. It’s all there; it simply depends on where one looks. Like other technologies before it, the internet is normatively neutral, and thus can be put to good, bad and anodyne uses: individuals—not tools—shape the …

Behind Bo Xilai’S Halo, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the wake of Bo Xilai’s sudden downfall, shortly after what could be called an online carnival among China watchers—probably more in celebration of a rare, real-life political drama than anything else—international media is changing its tune and beginning to paint a more sympathetic image of Bo than previously reported, by focusing on Chinese people’s love of him. Reuters, for example, has a report titled “In China’s Chongqing, dismay over downfall of Bo Xilai” that quotes a working “stick man” (棒棒军, a porter-for-hire) who praises Bo as “a good man” that “made life a lot better here.” The Telegraph‘s Malcolm …

Book Review: Chiang Kai-Shek’S Interpersonal Relationships: Perspectives Across The Strait, Sherman Lai

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This book brings together papers and panel discussions of a conference on Chiang Kai-shek held in Taipei in January 2011 with the joint participation of historians from both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. It reflects new scholarship on Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese-speaking world and showcases the approaches that historians in the PRC adopt in handling challenges that their Western colleagues do not encounter. While Chinese historians have enormous audiences, they do not share the academic freedom enjoyed by their colleagues in the West and Taiwan. Because their careers and livelihood are dependent on the Chinese Communist …

Familiar Story, Macbeth—New Context, Noh And Kurosawa’S Throne Of Blood, Minae Savas

Global Languages and Literature Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Japan As A Clean Energy Leader, Stefan N. Norbom

Gettysburg Economic Review

Over the past several decades, Japan’s energy strategy had positioned it as the world’s leader in clean and efficient electricity production and usage. This strategy, heavily dependent on nuclear energy, was essentially destroyed by one of history’s largest earthquakes, followed by a tsunami which overwhelmed five nuclear reactors on March 11, 2011. As of April 2012, all of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors have been shut down and it is uncertain when and how many may be restarted. This paper examines Japan’s options for crafting a new way forward with an energy policy to power the world’s third largest economy while …

Republican China, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Several years ago, I gave a talk on my research to a community group. My first slide included the words “Republican China” and as I waited to begin I heard a woman in the front row lean over and whisper to her neighbor, “I had no idea they have Republicans in China too!”

At this time of bruising primary battles, though, the China that the Republicans have seems more relevant—as China, imagined and real, has played a recurring role in the raucous Republican primaries. Here’s a rundown of some of the ways China has popped up on the campaign trail …

Hong Kong Identity And Democratic Values, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When Peking University Professor Kong Qingdong’s diatribe on Hongkongers and their lingering colonial infatuation swept over the Internet in late January, the widespread and growing uneasiness about mainland Chinese in Hong Kong suddenly had a face. Triggered by a viral video of a Hongkonger telling off a mainland family in the subway because their daughter was eating dry instant noodles, Kong’s interview sparked a wave of predictable but nonetheless justified outrage in Hong Kong. It took place against the background of the annual mainland shopping spree over Chinese New Year (in a previous episode, Dolce and Gabbana staff in Tsim …