Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Shakespeare And Econo-Literary Criticism, Min Jiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This article introduces the phases and practices of econo-literary criticism over the years to argue for the interdisciplinary studies of literature and economics. By explicating the fruitful research on Shakespearean works from the different perspectives of econo-literary criticism, it argues that this critical practice, through examining texts for their embedded economic forms, contents and contexts, can furnish new perspectives on literary texts as well as cultural and economic history, which, in turn, benefits the research of economics, whose innate ethic deficiencies are growingly felt recently.

The Cross-Cultural Perspective To Survey Chinese Literati Paintings In François Jullien's Study Of Chinese Painting Theories, Yunhua Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

François Jullien has consciously adopted a "Western self" to look at Chinese painting theories and take them as contributing to "the other." His theoretical base is also Western, or more specifically, derived from Heidegger, Levinas and Derrida. Jullien's goal is, arguably, to have a juncture and an approach to return to the European "l'impensé" by way of China, the "other." His study on Chinese painting theories is impressively novel, especially his insightful discussions on the nexus between Laozi (Daodejing) and Chinese painting theories. Also, his study provides methodological reference for Chinese scholars of comparative culture and comparative literature. That said, …

Understanding As Obstacle: Exercise As A Perspective For Intercultural Research, Pfizenmaier Ruben

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper argues that modes of understanding built on familiarity with the other, as well as on contrastive opposition can become an obstacle in intercultural research. Built on a critique of Gadamer's idea of a fusion of horizons, it claims that intercultural research not only has to circumvent the danger of reducing the other under the familiar, but also has to prevent a construction of the other as exotic and absolutely different.

Running From The Touch On My Back: Affect And Technology In A Studio Practice, Anthony Noel Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

I rediscovered a family photo box two years ago. An image of my grandfather sat on the top of the piles in the Tupperware box. The photo created an immediate intensity and infected the entire family photobox. My grandfather committed suicide twenty years before I was born. From the point of this discovery I have needed to explore why vernacular photographs can create haunting resonances. There seem to be limits to the information we can glean from photographs like this one. Photographs like this one activate our desires to fill in unknown details. They also encourage personal hauntings and lingering …

Non-Fictionality Of Lu Xun's Old Tales Retold: On The Stylistic Effect Of Literary Game On Lu Xun's Historical Writing, Jianhuai Li, Guangya Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Lu Xun's Old Tales Retold can be regarded as an absolutely unique voice in the history of China's "New Literature." It demonstrates an originality as non-fictionality of the stories, with imagistic modernist discourse interacting with with the ancient discourse. This resulted in a multi-voiced image-full textual world which contributes to the alienation of literary discourse, the estrangement of aesthetic experience, and the rhetoric effect of parody and irony. It hence broke the boundaries of reality and fiction, undermined the authenticity of historical writing, removed the barriers between fiction and non-fiction as well as those between literature and non-literature, and deconstructed …

Introduction: On Connection, Diversity, And Resilience In Writing Across The Curriculum, Lesley Erin Bartlett, Sandra L. Tarabochia, Andrea R. Olinger, Margaret J. Marshall

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Developed from presentations at the 2018 International Writing Across the Curriculum conference, this collection documents a key moment in the history of WAC, foregrounding connection and diversity as keys to the sustainability of the WAC movement in the face of new and long-standing challenges. Contributors reflect on the history and ongoing evolution of WAC, honoring grassroots efforts while establishing a more unified structure of collaborative leadership and mentorship. The chapters in this collection offer a rich variety of practices, pedagogies, mindsets, and methodologies for readers who are invested in using writing in a wide range of institutional and disciplinary contexts. …

"Aesthetic Dignity Of Words": Aestheticism In Theodor W. Adorno's Early Theory On The Philosophy Of Language, Yaochong Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As a key piece of writing of Theodor W. Adorno's early theory on philosophy of language, Theses on the Language of the Philosopher has lacked scholarly attention for a prolonged period of time. In recent years, Western scholars realize that the philosophy of language in classic critical theory affords potential ideological resources to reflect on the linguistic turn.The new generation of German scholars in critical theory also propose a "language paradigm", which promotes the revival of Adorno's philosophy of language. Adorno's historical contribution to the philosophy of language is based on his creative extension of Walter Benjamin's theology/philosophy of language …

A Study Of The "World" Metaphor In Contemporary Western Narrative Theories, Jianguo Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

From the last 20 years of the 20th century, the metaphor of "world" found its way into narrative studies, resulting in a set of new narrative concepts as possible worlds, fictional worlds, and story worlds. With the help of these concepts, narrative researchers could break away from the text-focusedness in classical structuralist narratology and direct the focus of study to such problem as the ontological status of fictional narratives, the immersion effect of literary reading, and the flow of stories in transmedia channels. This article begins with an introduction of the definitions, historical development, and current situations of three major …

An Interpretation Of Painting For Preservation Of Life From The Perspective Of Aesthetic Life-Rearing, Fanren Zeng, Ruoyu Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The aesthetic life-rearing lies at the heart of various forms of Chinese Buddhist art, and is also reflected in Feng Zikai's Paintings for the Preservation of Life collaborated with Master Hongyi (Li Shutong). Upon the request of Master Hongyi, Feng drew 450 pictures during a course of forty-six years, finished with poems and essays by noted calligraphers including Master Hongyi. The collaboration aims to spread the Buddhist purity of mind and compassion to beings, illustrating the doctrine that preservation of life preserves mind, and becomes an unprecedented Buddhist masterpiece. Buddhist concepts such as pure mind, compassion, benevolence, agape for beings, …

Canon Model: On The Repetitive Structure Of Oral Narration, Ruoran Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Repetition scatters in narrative, and it shows the heterogeneous isomorphism with differences integrated with repetitions. Due to the shared textuality thinking between inherent musicality of oral literature and polyphony, canon model with its contrapuntal compositional technique is universally found in the compositional mechanism of oral literature, – and creates a narration of repetition based on imitation under temporal principle and counterpoint under spatial principle. Within a single text and across multiple texts, canon model may take the forms of parallel canon, mirror canon and endless canon based on the development of plot. The former two forms can further be divided …

Events Toward The Future: Event Theory Turn From The Perspective Of Contemporary Thinkers, Jiang Lan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

A turn is seen in event theory in the 21st century intellectual history, and the highlighting of the issue of event manifests man's aspiration to change the world. Event is a singularity, and cannot be reduced to a discourse or degree in an established order, since it itself constitutes a challenge to the discursive structure of the order. The emergence of an event signifies the occupation of a new place, so that absolute transformations can be made in new places and spaces. This is the starting point from which contemporary thinkers, such as Gilles Deleuze, Slovaj Žižek, and Alain Badiou, …

Meng Haoran's Poetic Ideas Reflected In His Fusion Of Ancient-Style And Regulated Verses Into Five-Character Poetry, Zhao Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The fusion of ancient-style and regulated verses in Meng Haoran's five-character poetry exemplifies the complicated relationship between ancient-style and contemporary-style regulated verses in the High Tang. His "regulated verses with ancient quality" had either gentle or steep patterns of tonality, and developed more flexible and consistent structures in variations of parallelism. On the other hand, his "ancient-style verses with regulated quality" were often delicate and fluent in parallelistic transformations. During the High Tang, poetry creations of these two types often shared some themes, and were also related to Meng's political frustrations or personal leisure which in turn reflected the subjectivity …

Playful Reception Of Classics: On Parodization Of Du Fu's Poems In The Song Dynasty, Hua Yao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Playful writings are relatively less researched on in Chinese literary criticism, compared with the more exuberant discussions such as the parody theory in the Western literary tradition. This paper takes as example the parodizations of Du Fu's poems in the Song dynasty to explore the parodical writing and its implications in the reception of canonical poetry. As Du Fu's poetry was canonized in the Song Dynasty, increasingly more parodies of Du Fu's poems were seen. The popularity and publicity of Du Fu's poetry prompted the parodization, while his unique style and textual features became the basis for parodies, both of …

The Interaction Of Yin And Yang: Ouyang Xiu's Idea Of Music And His Poetics, Wei Cheng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Ouyang Xiu regarded poetry as derived from music and he would prescribe poetry with his idea of music. His idea can be traced back to "Records of Music (yue ji)" in The Book of Rites, as he argued that music is originated from the vital energy (qi) of Yin and Yang. However, he abstracted the materiality from poetry and thus attributed emotional appeal to both music and poetry as their main function. In Ouyang's view, the imbalance of vital energy between Yin and Yang manifests in the diversity of emotions in music and poetry, while the circulation of the vital …

The Political Dimension Of "Empty Signifier": From Levi-Strauss To Žižek, Weijing Xiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The political dimension of signifier is a hidden clue that runs through structuralism to post-Marxism. Empty signifier has no specific signification but can embrace all signifiers. Its theoretical foundations are the difference and arbitrariness of language systems, the signifier chain, anchor point, and object a as developed by Lacan. Levi-Strauss' analysis of the "excess of signifier" and "Mana" in treatment of shamanism has the connotation of empty signifier. Laclau believed that the process of cohesion from floating signifiers to the master signifier with "links" is the process of leadership competition and formation, where the dominant signifier has to absorb the …

The Politics Of Form: The Correlation Between Formal Reconstructions In Free Verse And Anarchism, Guohui Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Formal reconstruction was a common phenomenon in the early stage of the Third Republic of France and in Britain during the First World War when free verse passed its stage of formal liberation. Rather than differentiating free verse from prose, the deeper rationale of formal reconstruction is that free verse has been contaminated by the "mauvais sang (bad blood)" of aesthetic anarchism that satisfied the poets' craving for anti-formal poetry in the early stage. As anarchism did not fare very well under the press of political conservatism in the late 19th-century France and 1910s Britain, free verse, as a result, …

The Shift From "Thought" To "Spirit" In Lu Xun Studies Since 1976: A Case Study Of Wang Furen's A Mirror Of China's Anti-Feudal Ideological Revolution, Jian Wang, Guoen Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

It is commonly accepted that 1976 was a turning point for Lu Xun studies, but what remains obscure is through what ways the shift eventuated. This article, by focusing on Wang Furen's study of Lu Xun, attempts to outline the shift with the two keywords "thought" and "spirit", and highlights his contribution of integrating factors of intellectuals and reality into Lu Xun studies, which is inspired by the epistemological turn. This attempt becomes the origin of a more individualized and enlightenment-oriented approaches to Lu Xun. It is in this latter period that the concept of "spirit" is emphasized, because it …

Toward "Rhapsodie": On Jean-Pierre Sarrazac's Modern And Contemporary Dramatic Poetics, Yinghui Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Central to Jean-Pierre Sarrazac's dramatic thought is "rhapsodie", a concept with united heterogeneities. The original meaning of this word is "stitching," and Sarrazac uses it to define modern and contemporary theatre, aiming to highlight the characteristics of comprehensiveness, flexibility, and heterogeneous unity. He takes modern and contemporary theatre as a continuation of and an exploration into contemporary theatre after the so-called "theatre crisis" at the end of the 19th century, and maintains that as theatricality is intertwined with the elements of "epic" and "lyric," once excluded from Aristotelian theatrical theory, traditional theatre has been developing toward an open artform. The …

Parsing An American Sign Language Corpus With Combinatory Categorial Grammar, Michael Albert Nix

Theses and Dissertations

Research into parsing sign language corpora is ongoing. Corpora for German Sign Language and Italian Sign Language have been parsed (Bungeroth et al., 2006; Mazzei, 2011, 2012, respectively). However, research into parsing a corpus of American Sign Language is non-existent. Examples of parsed ASL sentences in literature are typically isolated examples used to show a particular type of construction. Apparently no attempt has been made to parse an entire corpus of American Sign Language utterances. This thesis presents a method for constructing a grammar so that a parser implementing Combinatory Categorial Grammar can parse a corpus of American Sign Language. …

The Choreo-Story Workshops: Devising Body Narratives, Montana J. Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-methodological project analyzes the utility of the proposed performance method, the Choreo-Story, within the field of Performance Studies. The Choreo-Story is a movement-based performance method, mode of devising, and performance product. It is a performance tool that can be used to understand how embodiment and dance help individuals make sense of the many identities they perform. This method highlights the body as both a text and tool for storytelling. To analyze the Choreo-Story method, I use Kenneth Burke’s Dramatistic Approach to examine three performance acts that occurred in the HopKins Black Box theatre between 2016 and 2018: my …

"There Is Enough Food On The Table": Religious Minority Students' Experiences With The Campus Spiritual Climate, Regina C. Schneider

LSU Master's Theses

Within the last 30 years, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have been at much of the forefront of student affairs and higher education policy and practices. Issues regarding gender, race, and socioeconomic status have received much attention not only in education, but also in the greater landscape of the nation. Religious and spiritual minority students are a population that has only recently been considered in fostering a more inclusive and pluralistic college environment. Thus, there is a research gap involving religious/spiritual minority college students and their perceptions of the campus climate. Additionally, only a small pool of research addresses the …

Gower As Data: Exploring The Application Of Machine Learning To Gower’S Middle English Corpus, Kara L. Mcshane, Alvin Grissom Ii

Accessus

Distant reading, a digital humanities method in wide use, involves processing and analyzing a large amount of text through computer programs. In treating texts as data, these methods can highlight trends in diction, themes, and linguistic patterns that individual readers may miss or critical traditions may obscure. Though several scholars have undertaken projects using topic models and text mining on Middle English texts, the nonstandard orthography of Middle English makes this process more challenging than for our counterparts in later literature.

This collaborative project uses Gower’s Confessio Amantis as a small, fixed corpus for analysis. We employ natural language processing …

Standing In The Dark: Sloth And Stability, Paralysis And Perseverance In Book Iv Of The Confessio Amantis, Andrea Schutz

Accessus

In Book IV of the Confessio, things happen in the dark – the dark of night, of dreams, of despair, of secrecy, of treachery, of death. The medieval sin of accidia sets the pace for this beautifully constructed book, whose tales link and cross, as in a dance. Dido, Phyllis, the bad, the forgetful, and the obsessive lovers swing like slowing pendulums back to their starting points, and stop still. On the whole, their dance with Amans is a slow and stately pavane of the dead and desperate. This is Gower’s darkest book, though not the most bloody: Sloth is …

Narcissus In Queer Time, Lacey M. Wolfer

Accessus

Queer temporality has been studied in relation to the Middle Ages as a means of questioning the prevailing historiography for other modes of connection to the past, such as embodied or affective. Conversely, the other branch of queer temporality has been primarily interested in how queer lifestyles today disrupt the heteronormative plan laid out by society. Joining these modes, Gower’s revision of Narcissus questions our notions of historiography through showing us an example of a queer, transgender character and his struggles with heteronormative expectations—demonstrating that the medieval is not so disconnected from the modern.

One Voice, Ancient And Resigned, Will Rogers

Accessus

While we know, or at least can imagine, what Gower looked like in his old age, it is hard to imagine or hear his voice. And yet, given what we know about his old age and visual impairments, his voice necessarily was important to his old age and continuing revisions of his texts. In this article, I attempt to reconstruct from some of his later poetry what that voice might have sounded like, at least in-text, and piece together how later authors heard that voice of old age.

Dark Money: Gower, Echo, And 'Blinde Avarice', Craig E. Bertolet

Accessus

Gower’s poetic works show a consistent concern with the darkness and deceit associated with Avarice, the sin mostly associated with commercial transactions. In the Confessio, he calls Avarice blind. This blindness seems to work both ways. Avarice blinds humans to their humanity because it causes them to cheat and steal from others. Avarice also blinds the victims of the greedy since the greedy resort to deception in order to gain what they want. In the Confessio, Genius tells the tale of Echo as an example of the practices that he calls usury but who works as an amalgam …

“Als Wel The Lord As The Schepherde, He Broghte Hem Alle In Good Accord”: Harmonious Materialism In The Confessio Amantis, Roger A. Ladd

Accessus

Using R. F. Yeager's analysis of the figure Arion as a starting point, this article argues that in the Confessio Amantis, John Gower shifts his impulse toward social correction from direct estates satire to a more subtle approach encoding his social critique in the love stories of the Confessio. Examples of this approach include a variety of tales from Book 5, and the Apollonius of Tyre story in Book 8. Details of the poem's ending and later works like "In Praise of Peace" indicate that Gower still retained an interest in direct critique of social problems.

Global Gower: The Archer Aiming At The World, Joyce Coleman

Accessus

This article explores the Vox Clamantis’ famous image of the archer shooting an arrow at a globe. There are sources and analogues for all the elements of the picture, but their combination and reinvention have produced a unique iconography. Gower’s multispectral conception of the globe combines ecological features with human estates with divine justice. Huntington Library HM 150 extends this innovation further, possibly even linking the miniature to the Wilton Diptych via the cross and pennon planted on the top of its globe. The complexity of the ideas embedded in the archer images suggests that Gower himself, and not …

Introducing Gower Shorts, Eve Salisbury, Georgiana Donavin

Accessus

This essay provides an introduction to a special issue of Accessus, entitled "Gower Shorts," slightly expanded and revised versions of conference papers presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo in 2018-19 and the Modern Language Association Conference in Chicago in 2019.

Poisons In Romeo And Juliet, Jenna Bauch

Research in the Capitol

Throughout this experience with dramaturgy, I plan to extensively conclude the identity of the type of poison that Romeo used to kill himself in Shakespeare’s classic play, Romeo and Juliet. I plan to do this based on four essential qualities of the poison. Due to evidence from the text, the poison must be fast acting, readily available in the 16th century, contain a high toxicity within a low amount (enough to fit inside a small vile), and water soluble. Another challenge will be determining the level of importance of each quality as it pertains to the poison. I will be …