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The Debate On “Seven-Syllable Verse As The Most Difficult Form” And Its Poetic Connotations In The Ming And Qing Dynasties, Hao Feng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The discussion on the difficulty of different poetic forms is a result of the deepening of stylistic criticism, with scholars holding diverse opinions. Since Yan Yu proposed a systematic ranking of the difficulty of various poetic forms, this debate persisted throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, influenced by internal shifts within the style school and motivated by the desire to elevate certain forms and articulate poetics, theorists in these periods often “took it out of context,” focusing exclusively on the notion that regulated verse is more challenging than archaic forms. The idea that seven-syllable verse is the most difficult …

Fengge Or Wenbi?: An Interpretation Of Fan Xiheng's Translation Of Buffon's Discourse On Style And Reflection On The Theory Of Modern Literary Style, Yue Ren, Aibin Yao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

For a long time, the academic community has regarded Fan Xiheng's “On Fengge” (published in the September 1957 issue of The Translation) as the authoritative translation of Buffon's “Discours Sur Le Style” (Discourse on Style). However, in the 1958 edition of Selected Works of Comte de Buffon, also translated by Fan, the speech appears under a different title, “On Wenbi”. Based on Fan's other translated works, it can be inferred that “On Wenbi” is the original version endorsed by the translator, while “On Fengge” is highly likely a version revised by the editors of The …

Art As “Installation-Event”: A Benjaminian Reading Of Kafka's “A Hunger Artist”, Han Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Franz Kafka's late short story “A Hunger Artist” depicts an artist who performs the act of hunger within the confines of an iron cage. The figure's self-referential reflexivity, a hallmark of modernity, along with the story's dual dimensions of “testimony” and “prophecy,” has inspired creative interpretations from theorists including Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben. These interpretations encompass perspectives including theological allegory, corporeal apparatus, historical consciousness, and testimonial writing. Together, they illuminate the core theme of “art as installation-event.” By undertaking a comparative reading of the story and its critical interpretations, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the “dialectical …

Narrative, Type And Emotion: Middle-Level Approach In Noel Carroll's Philosophy Of Art, Youxiang Gong

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Noel Carroll's multidisciplinary research on philosophy of film, aesthetics and philosophy of art combines philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, cognitive science and biology, revealing the new trend of analytical aesthetics and philosophy of art in the late twentieth century. Carroll adopts an eclectic strategy in his middle-level approach to the philosophy of art. His method of historical narrative incorporates historical and narrative dimensions, complementing the history-intention theory and the institutional theory of art. He examines the traditional concept of mass art from a neutral position, attempting to construct the philosophy of mass art. He also relies on the …

The Spectrum Of “Pleasure”: From Le Plaisir To La Jouissance, Bingqing Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The shift from le plaisir to la jouissance represents a significant transformation within French theory, reshaping traditional philosophy. Sigmund Freud's pleasure theory in the nineteenth century was rooted in Gustav Theodor Fechner's physiological research, which framed pleasure as a form of pleasure pedagogy involving domestication and manipulation. In the twentieth century, among the shift of thought in the cultural era, French theorists’ focus on la jouissance introduced a critical deconstruction of Freud and Fechner's frameworks. While engaging with the concept of pleasure, it turns to the unsatisfied and the lack of pleasure. La jouissance emphasizes dissatisfaction and the absence of …

“Representation”: An Analysis Of Its Basic Meanings And Chinese Translation Options, Jianzeng Zhou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The concept of “representation” involves a lexical genealogy of multi-ethnic languages. At the core of this semantic spectrum is substitution that engages both the self and the other, thus demonstrating an oscillating character in terms of its presence. In this regard, “zaixian”, despite its connotation of otherness, is often seen as an alternative expression of imitation, which is also used to translate the concept of “reproduction”, a synonym of imitation. Although “biaozheng” breaks away from the idea of imitation and attempts to cover both the self-oriented and other-oriented aspects of representation, its classical Chinese connotation and …

Reexamining “Metalepsis”: The Natural And The Unnatural, Changcai Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This article reviews the controversies surrounding “metalepsis,” and attempts to propose a relatively more inclusive definition, which takes into account the nature, scope, degree and effect of metalepsis, reality and fictionality, authorial intention and reader interpretation, as well as the characteristics of different media, etc. Metalepsis exists not only within textual boundaries but may also occur in the connections between the text and the real-world author, reader, and context. Furthermore, it transcends narrative levels to encompass different representational worlds, story worlds, real-world contexts, and discursive worlds. By engaging with unnatural narrative theory, this paper further explores the issues of “natural …

Ethical Relationships And Moral Values In Semiosis: The Core Ideas Of Semioethics, Xiaolin Tang, Ziran Yu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The primary aim of semioethics is to explore the ethical issues that have been overlooked by previous semiotic theories. Semioethics holds that the ethical relationship in semiosis is a dialogical relationship between the self and the Other, and views listening to the Other as the moral value to be pursued in semiosis. Deeply influenced by Mikhail Bakhtin, semioethics views dialogue as the most fundamental form of semiosis and emphasizes the inescapable alterity inherent in dialogue. In its conception of the self, semioethics incorporates Charles Peirce's ideas, highlighting the sign-based nature of the self and the inseparability of the sign …

Learning Ci-Poetry And Ci-Poetry Studies: An Analysis Of Zhou Ji And Wang Guowei's Development Of Ci-Poetry, Bai Hei

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

By situating Zhou Ji and Wang Guowei within the historical context of learning ci-poetry and ci-poetry studies, this article reexamines the interactions between ci-poetry and its theoretical development. First, they demonstrate different approaches to incorporating authorial intention into the “awakening structure” and the “arousing structure.” Secondly, they inherit and refine the traditional poetics of experiencing objects and emotions by shaping the impassioning process through the centripetal style of the “immersion structure” and the centrifugal style of the “nomadic structure.” Thirdly, they construct the structure of ci-poetry through the duration-oriented “superimposition structure” and the punctum style of “explosion …

Acceptance And Rejection Of “Delicate Beauty, Fittingly Adorned” (Yao Miao Yi Xiu): A New Perspective On Wang Guowei's Ci-Poetry Studies, Keqiang Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the original manuscript of Wang Guowei's Poetic Remarks in the Human World, the phrase ‘yao miao yi xiu’ (delicate beauty, fittingly adorned), used to describe the characteristics of ci poetry, has been widely praised by scholars. However, this particular passage was omitted from the officially published version. Researchers have either overlooked this omission or expressed doubts about it. This paper argues that the discussion of ‘delicate beauty, fittingly adorned’ and the distinction between shi poetry and ci poetry reflects Wang Guowei's early views on ci poetry, which differ from the newer ideas presented in this book. The …

Tracing Textual Discontinuity In Wang Guowei's Criticism On A Dream Of Red Mansions, Wei Si

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Wang Guowei's Criticism on A Dream of Red Mansions is acclaimed as a groundbreaking work in the history of Chinese literary criticism for its “organized and systematic” approach. However, a notable textual discontinuity exists between the Chapter III and IV, revealing ideological shifts and editorial interventions by Wang himself. He openly acknowledged that Chapter IV abandoned Schopenhauer's theory of the will, which formed the philosophical foundation of Chapter III. A close examination of Wang’ s editorial practices as the chief editor of World of Education revealed a striking anomaly: while articles marked with “to be printed in the next issue” …

Assessment Of Peripheral Neuropathy In Hypothyroidism In Relation To Serum Neurofilament Light Chain, Arwa Raid Hammodat, Hanan Luay Al-Omary, Omar Farooq Nafea Al-Azzawi

Al-Farahidi Biomedical Journal

Background: Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder characterized by reduced thyroid hormone production. Beyond its systemic effects, it can involve the peripheral nervous system. This can be assessed through electrodiagnostic testing and by measuring serum neurofilament light chain (NfL), a marker of neuronal damage.

Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate peripheral neuropathy in patients with hypothyroidism and to examine its relationship with serum NfL concentrations.

Materials and Methods: A case–control study was carried out at Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital, Baghdad, between September 2024 and May 2025. It included 40 patients with hypothyroidism and 40 healthy controls. All subjects underwent sensory and …

Synopsis Of The 12Th Youth Forum Of China Association For Theory Of Literature And Art On “National Memory And Artistic Imagination”, Dong Yan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

Artwork As Monad: Theodor Adorno's Interpretation And Reconstruction Of Walter Benjamin, Ruoyu Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The aesthetic proposition of “Artwork as Monad” expresses a special conceptualization of art works. This notion took shape at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, during a period when transformation of the relationship between man and the universe reconstructed the empirical world. Walter Benjamin, through his critique of modern mechanical cosmology and Kantian empiricism, proposed a new cosmic empirical theory, thus constructing a world of Konstellation that laid an experiential foundation for knowledge. Theodor W. Adorno dynamically remolded it via negative dialectics. From the micro to the macro, the artwork-as-monad structure includes Machtfeld of art, consciousness …

Skull Or Angel: A “Dynamogram” Of “Auffahrt”: On Aby Warburg And Walter Benjamin's Baroque, Hongkai Qiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In his personal letters from the 1920s, Walter Benjamin expressed his desire to join Aby Warburg's circle. Compared with the epistemological resonance of their “Final Plans”, the connection between Benjamin and Warburg during this period was more essential. Warburg described the kinetic form of the inversion and repolarization of history energy as the “Dynamogram,” emphasizing its vertical operation. Similarly, Benjamin proposed a spatialized historical dynamic in The Origin of German Tragic Drama.Both the allegory and “Dynamogram” provided a similar historical Structure, the spatialization of time in allegory corresponded to the naturalization of Baroque history structure. The allegorical antinomy signified …

On The Reorientation Of Benjamin's Practice In Gestural Criticism, Fan Zhang, Han Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Walter Benjamin's gestural criticism not only serves as a new perspective of theatre criticism based on the interruption and citation of “gesture,” but also opens a mysterious gate to Kafka's fiction. Gestural criticism of theatre unveils the aesthetic effect of alienation inherent in gesture and highlights the cognitive function of the stage's “dialectical imagery”. Benjamin's criticism of fiction seamlessly inherits the narrative analysis strategies of his theatrical critiques, transitioning from stage performance to broader social spaces. The exploration of gesture shifts from an aesthetic to a philosophical path: it examines the alienation embedded in gestures, their deeper production mechanisms, and …

The Use Of The Useless:Semiotic Significance Of Redundancy In Communication, Shanshan Bai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The concept of redundancy is derived from information theory. However, as the question of significance is suspended in information theory, the important role of redundancy in communicating the textual meaning is hardly elaborated. From the perspective of semiotics, redundancy can be divided into in-text redundancy and out-of-text redundancy. In-text redundancy mainly unfolds in such forms as the indicator of intrinsic metalanguage, phatic symbols, and the built-in redundancy as a response to semiotics noise. Out-of-text redundancy primarily serves as genre determination, subcultural style representation, and conversion of markedness. Redundancy, as an organizational form of meaning interpretation in the dimension of temporality, …

Towards The Ordinary: The Argument Structure Of Jacques Rancière's Poetics Of The Sensible, Qiqi Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Jacques Rancière's critical texts contain various attempts to subvert the reproductive logic of art by rediscovering the sensible, to show the power of the ordinary, and to liberate it from the realm of signification on the levels of language, time, and space. On the level of language, Rancière uses the example of the nineteenth-century French novel Madame Bovary to show how the flow of language suspends the perceptual order of inequality. On the level of time, Rancière sorts out the multiple structures of time in Bela Tarr's film Turin Horse, showing how the time of purely material events presented …

Ekphrasis As A Paradigm Of Art History Writing And Its Contemporary Circumstances, Yingying Dai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Ekphrasis, derived from classical rhetoric, was a traditional paradigm in art history writing, but current scholarship has overlooked how it transformed from a rhetorical device into a paradigm of art history writing. Considered as a vivid description of the “qualities of ekphrasis”, enargeia was the rhetorical source of ekphrasis's characteristics such as visualization and emotional persuasiveness. Through transformation and use by classical rhetoricians, ekphrasis shifted from a rhetorical device into a method in art history writing, and further into a paradigm featuring visualization and emotional persuasiveness during the Renaissance. Today, ekphrasis and contemporary art have encountered the same dilemmas and …

From A Political Genre To The Politics Of Genre: The Avant-Garde Manifesto's Inheritance And Variation Of The Modern Political Manifesto, Li Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As a result of application of the earlier political manifesto to the artistic field, the avant-garde manifesto plays a crucial role in breaking through the conservatism of the old system and establishing a political dimension for aesthetic practice in Western avant-garde art. On one hand, it shapes the avant-garde consciousness of artists from the dimension of time and space with a fragmented historical narrative pattern and a multi-role dramatic conflict structure. On the other hand, it calls for immediate action to disrupt the static and closed relationship between artists, recipients and works, revitalizing the connection between art and life. This …

Literature Dies In The Digital: Friedrich Kittler On Literature As Medium, Na Jiang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Friedrich Kittler, one of the theoretical pioneers of the “media materialism” paradigm, views literature as a medium and thereby analyzes its material basis and technological features. From the writing practices of the print era to modern literature in the age of analog technology, shifts in technological media have disrupted literary history, resulting in the death of literature in the age of computers. Kittler's media materialist approach to literature emphasizes the external hardware conditions that define literature as a medium and offers a new technological perspective for reviewing literary development. This innovative approach has transformed the framework of literary studies and …

De Rerum Natura (On The Nature Of Things) And Roman Poetry In The Golden Age, Yongyi Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Lucretius exerted enormous pressure on the Roman poets of the Golden Age with the outstanding achievement of his De Rerum Natura. Virgil outmaneuvered him by reducing him to one of the voices and perspectives in his own work, by introducing other voices and perspectives, and by unifying them structurally and thematically, and in particular by employing a strategy of re-mythologization to dissolve the rationalism of De Rerum Natura. Horace took a pragmatic approach to the Epicurean philosophy and the literary elements of the epic, refusing to engage in head-on collision with Lucretius, and even frequently alluding to this …

Revision And Deletion Of Early Works And The Shift In Poetic Style: Wang Shizhen And The Transformation Of Early Qing Poetry, Liuying Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Wang Shizhen's poetic corpus underwent significant revision from its initial publication in the late Shunzhi period to his final compilation of the complete collection of his works in his later years. Over the course of half a century, he continually produced new works while re-editing and republishing earlier collections. During the first and eighth years of Kangxi's reign, he made substantial deletions to his earlier poems when compiling new editions of his works. By examining these deletions through early editions and related documents, we can reconstruct Wang Shizhen's early poetic development and trace his evolving aesthetic sensibilities. Although his success …

“Poetry Is A Discourse Of Republicanism”: On Friedrich Schlegel's Idea Of Aesthetical Politics, Jiu Luo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

For a long time, German Romanticism was regarded as politically dangerous because of its aestheticism. The modern concepts of state and legal right based on Enlightenment rationalism have led to extremely irrational and inhuman consequences in political practice. This prompted early romantics to oppose the artificial and destructive nature of knowledge embedded in the Enlightenment rationalism, as well as the blunt political principles derived from such understanding. Schlegel's interpretation and development of Kant's critique of aesthetic judgment demonstrate that aesthetic experience is a vital form of sensory education and that shaping the senses through aesthetic experience aids in realizing the …

The Evolution Of Tianmu Mountain Woodcutter's Comments On The Scholars: A Form Of Reader Awareness And Dissemination Of Commentary In The Post-Jin Shengtan Era, Lujie Shi

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

During the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, literati-oriented popular novels, such as The Water Margin, appealed to talented readers represented by Jin Shengtan. To address the generally low literary level of readers, these scholarly readers attempted to align the works with a potential readership of “talents” and guide them through authoritative yet accessible interpretations infused with literati ideas. By doing so, the scholarly readers engaged themselves in the commercialized dissemination of popular novels. This marked the “Jin Shengtan Era” in the history of novel dissemination. The refined literary quality of The Scholars drew scholar-type readers such as Zhang …

The Transmission And Shifting Status Of Ouyang Xiu's Classical Prose In The Qing Dynasty, You Zhou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Qing dynasty was a crucial period for the dissemination of Ouyang Xiu classical prose. In the early Qing, the literary model shifted from Su Shi to Ouyang Xiu, influenced by changes in the understanding of qi (vital force) in literary thought. Since then, Su Shi's prose no longer held the same stature as Ouyang Xiu's, and the pairing of Ouyang Xiu with Zeng Gong became more prevalent among scholars. During the mid-Qing period, both the Tongcheng School and the Wu School of textual criticism professed to follow the literary principles of Ouyang and Zeng, though they interpreted Ouyang's style …

Viewing Lin Chuanjia's A History Of Chinese Literature From The Perspective Of Classical Studies, Zhixi Qian

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Lin Chuanjia's A History of Chinese Literature is a pioneering work in the teaching and research of modern literary history. However, it reflects the traditional Chinese perspective of literature and literary history. Lin's work has been widely criticized for its significant differences in concepts and methods compared to the mainstream literary history works that followed. In his book, Lin integrated the literary historical concepts of the Tongcheng School and the Yangzhou School of the modern times. He adopted the curriculum framework of “Research Methods of Chinese Literature” from the Imperial University of Peking and focused on describing literary works and …

An Exploration Of The Characteristics Of The Classical Chinese Concepts Of “Literature”, Zhili Cai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The classical Chinese concept of literature takes written forms (Chinese characters) as a prerequisite, with the mastery of them as a fundamental requirement for composing essays. In ancient China, the legitimacy of ci-poetry, qu-poetry and analects as literary forms was strongly questioned due to their reliance on oral transmission. This distinguishes classical Chinese literature from modern Western literature, where creation precedes the written word. Furthermore, because classical Chinese literature was closely tied to practical daily use, literary styles were primarily classified based on their application scenarios. Thus, the success of an essay depended crucially on the appropriateness of …

Distanciation And Belonging: Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutic Detour In Textual Interpretation, Youfeng Hu, Haixia Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In his reconsideration of Descartes's “Cogito,” Paul Ricoeur constructs a philosophy of reflection that emphasizes understanding one's subjectivity through the mediation of the other, such as symbols and texts. The introduction of textual mediation means that self-understanding is no longer self-evident; rather, readers encounter a concrete engagement with four types of “distanciation”: between saying and the said, authorial intention and textual meaning, the world of the text and the world of reality, and “moi” and “soi.” Ricoeur assigns a productive and positive meaning to distanciation, establishing methodological practices grounded in existential foundations, linking structuralist linguistics with deep semantics, and outlining …

Possibility Of Literature As Testimony: An Analysis Based On Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics Of Testimony, Na Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The crisis of testimony, ignited by skepticism, reveals itself in two distinct dimensions. Firstly, from an epistemological perspective, testimony represents a textual rendering of historical events, and its inherent unverifiability gives rise to the quandary of conformism. Secondly, in ethical terms, doubts about the legitimacy of witnesses to extreme events contribute to a nihilistic trend in historical discourse. In response to this challenge, Paul Ricoeur offers his concept of testimony. Epistemologically, he introduces the notion of the hermeneutics of testimony, which seeks to bridge the gap between the inner affirmation of the original account and the external realm of history …