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The Poverty Of Experience And Its Wayout In The Information Age: An Exammination From The Perspective Of Walter Benjamin, Bin Sun, Yanfen Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Experience generates from memory. However, if memory only serves as an accurate recollection of the past, it is destined to be replaced by modern technology, which can provide information instantly. Therefore, memory is presented in the form of story, which makes it possible to pass on experience across generations. But the art of storytelling is reaching its end due to the challenge of information, a new form of communication. The essence of information is instant verifiability. This even cancels the distinction between impression and idea since instant information renders all perceptions forceful and lively impressions. Yet, it is its force …

Reinterpreting The Aesthetics Of "Zerstreuung": From Walter Benjamin To Jonathan Crary, Peng Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Walter Benjamin's and Jonathan Crary's respective understanding of the concept of "Zerstreuung" is in sharp contrast to each other. Benjamin detects not only a connection between "Zerstreuung" and the bourgeoisie in the capitalist entertainment industry, but also an unconscious collusion between "Zerstreuung" and the public in the early film technology. Such collusion has created a state of "Jetztzeit" for the audience by using the technique of montage in film, so that the audience could reconstruct their historical consciousness, which is transformed into a collective experience from that of the individual, thus assigning early cinema with the potential of politicizing aesthetics. …

The Way Of Life, "The Third Sex", And The Method Of Reconstructing "Literary Native Soil": Centering On Yan Lianke's They, The Women, Zhudi Ye, Leiguang Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

There are three key points for the understanding Yan Lianke's non-fictive work They, the Women: the way of life, the study of women centering on "the third sex" and the imagination of native-soil China with non-fiction as the method. They respectively correspond to three dimensions of the work: the content, the author's thought, and the creation of literary style. These three dimensions are closely intertwined and focus on one issue: how to understand and imagine contemporary native-soil China. The numerous characters and their stories in They, the Women are woven together by the author's language and thought with strong subjectivity, …

Classic Literary Criticism As The Embryo Of Productional Literary Criticism, Wenfang Yao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

A significant development of Euro-American literary criticism in the 20th century is its progress regarding the issue of "art production," which, by including into it the practice of literary reading and literary criticism, breaks through the previous theoretical assumption that "art production" is limited to literary creation. Classic critics such as Albert Thibaudet, T.S. Eliot, Ivor Armstrong Richards, and Northrop Frye have, through practical experiences of literary criticism, discovered and confirmed the production of literary criticism. They have not only embarked on verifying such production through scientific experiments, but also conceptualized the ways in which productional criticism can be conducted …

Development, Pragmatism, And Innovation: Classical Xiqu Studies In Shanghai In The Past 70 Years, Jingfeng Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since 1949, five generations of scholars on classical xiqu studies have emerged continuously in Shanghai. Scholarship in the three major fields of research, namely, ancient theories and criticism of xiqu, chronological research of ancient xiqu writers and works, and interdisciplinary research, has engaged scholars of all generations and exerted great influence. The research on ancient theories and criticism of xiqu has witnessed a process of pioneering the filed, expanding purviews, integrating studies as a whole, reinvestigating the entire scholarship, and exploring the core inquiries. Such interlacing process of horizontal expansion and longitudinal excavation is typical of the historical path of …

Indexicality Strikes Back: From The Photographical Past To The Digital Present, Jia Peng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Indexicality as a logic category of signs anchors semiotic cognition and reality. As photographs record the existence of objects, indexicality is considered as the evidence of the "objectivity" of photographic signs. With the development of digital technology, indexicality seems to decline and even disappear, since the objects of images no longer necessarily exist. Yet, in Peircean semiotics, the relationship between indices and objects could be either "existential" or "empty", and the latter is further interpreted by Roman Jakobson with the concept of "shifters", a term re-visited in contemporary semiotics of art and image. In the semiotic production of digital images, …

Reflection And Development: A Review Of 70-Year Study On Ci-Poetry In Shanghai, Guozhong Peng, Zehhua Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The study of ci-poetry in Shanghai since the founding of the People's Republic of China can be divided into three stages: transition, prosperity, and development. In the transitional period, the study of ci-poetry in Shanghai focused more on ideological content than on artistic characteristics, and more on the style of "haofang" (the bold and unrestrained) than "wanyue" (the graceful and restrained). During its prosperous period, the study of ci-poetry in Shanghai began to reflect on the previous research. Driven by the fever for aesthetics and methodology, Shanghai has witnessed fruitful production of scholarly works on ci-poetry. After entering the stage …

Reflections On Post-Human Discourse: Centering On Slavoj Žižek, Xinting Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

There has been a joint effort seen in 21st-century philosophy and cultural theories to understand and respond to the impact of current technological revolution on social culture and the existence of subjecthood. Slavoj Žižek has always placed his elaboration on and questioning of the two post-human schools and tendencies in his ideological criticism of digital capitalism. The common tendency between post-human thought of the Cultural Left and the singularity theory of trans-human theory is shown in the "Promethean shame" and the new myth of the human-machine hybridity. Žižek's works over the decades have always focused on the development of cutting-edge …

The Progressive Logic Of Contemporary Literary Theory And Its Theoretical Reflection, Daren Lai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

From the perspective of history of scholarship, contemporary literary theory does not transform or develop in a simple linear fashion, but rather evolves in a more complex spiral cycle, which specifically constitutes three rounds of transformation and development, namely, the three reciprocal stages of breaking established traditions, introducing foreign theoretical resources, and constructing new critical ideas and forms. The external track of development and internal logic of progress of contemporary literary theory are, on the surface, related to the social and cultural structure in the context of grand historical changes, and echoes the developments of modern Chinese literary theory in …

Transformational-Generation: Dynamic Mechanism Of Literary Speech (On The Language Poetics Of The "Yale School," Part Ⅱ), Dengyun Dai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The linguistic thought of the "Yale School" mainly includes three aspects: (1) the intuition about three dimensions of language (the signified dimension, the inter-dimension, and the self-reflective and referred dimension), (2) the revelation of the transformational-generative mechanism of literary speech, and (3) the new verdict on the primal paradox of the unspeakable. The contents of these three aspects form an organic whole, which cannot be discussed separately. In general, the transformational-generation of the three dimensions of language refers to a mysterious mechanism: from the establishment of the signifier-signified relationship to the loss of reference, from the establishment of the inter-subjective …

What Is "Die Reine Sprache" About: A Discussion On Walter Benjamin's Early Philosophy Of Language, Fanke Wan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Walter Benjamin's philosophy of language centering on "pure language" (die reine Sprache) is considered as the primary motive power of all his further theories. It is not only related to many themes in Benjamin's philosophical landscape, but also shows a writing style, the philosophical background of which is known as "Irrkünste". However, in the scholarly discussions on Walter Benjamin in China, this critical stage was either marginalized or reduced to be the adjuvant of some grand theories, overshadowing its theoretical potential and connotation. This article analyzes the key term of Benjamin's early philosophy of language, "pure language", specifically by looking …

Culture Stress And Difficulties: Lived Stories Of Teenaged Mothers In Macau, Luis Miguel Dos Santos

The Qualitative Report

The traditional Chinese culture influences perspectives toward family, marital status, and living style in Macau SAR, where Eastern cultures meet Western cultures. Although the Western living styles and standards highly influence the daily practices of residents; broken marriage, single parenting, and divorce are considered taboo in the community. The purpose of this study was to understand how teenaged single mothers describe their sources of stress and difficulties in the city. Eight single mothers, who were at different stages in single parenting and broken marriages, were interviewed and asked to share their lived stories. Guided by the Ecological System Theory, analysis …

China’S Rural Statistics: The Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data Project, Yuanziyi Zhang

Journal of East Asian Libraries

In July 2018, the East Asian Library (EAL) of the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) initiated the Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data (CCVG Data) project to create a series of open-access online datasets of China’s rural statistics selected from the library’s collection of Chinese village gazetteers. The current datasets contain data from 1,000 village gazetteers in 18 categories. As an ongoing project, the goal is to reach 2,500 to 3,000 villages. A database that allows effective and efficient ingesting, querying, manipulating, and displaying CCVG data will be available for use by the end of 2020. This article serves as …

The Forest, The Trees, The Bark, The Pith: An Intensive Look At The Circulation Rates Of Primary Texts In Ten Major Literature Areas At The University Of Oregon Libraries, Jeff D. Staiger

Charleston Library Conference

This poster looks at the circulation rate for literary primary texts, which constitute a unique area of collecting in academic libraries: while they do not in most cases meet immediate research needs, it is assumed that libraries ought to acquire them, for reasons including future research needs, preservation of the cultural record, and the ability of members of the intellectual community to stay current, those these remain primarily tacit. The circulation trends of contemporary literary works in ten areas of literature (English, American, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin American, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian) over the past twenty years at the …

ترجمة الأدب العربي في الصين في السياق التاريخي والثقافي في العصر الحديث والمعاصر, Ma Tao

Al Jinan الجنان

قد شهدت قضية ترجمة الأدب العربي في الصين تطورًا مندجمًا في تغيرات اجتماعية في العصر االحديث والمعاصر، خصوصًا منذ حركة الأدب االحديث التي نشأت في بداية القرن العشرين. وكذلك شهدت تحول دوافع المترجمين لترجمة الأدب العربي، من الخدمة لتنوير الشعب وإنقاذ الوطن، إدخال وضع للإيديولوجية والتخطيط السياسي، ثم السعي إلى الجمالية الفنية والتبادل الثقافي. ولم يؤثر الأدب المترجم من اللغة العربية في بيئة الأدب الصيني فحسب، بل قد راح يؤدي وظائف إيديولوجية وشعرية لم يكن يتحلى بها الأدب الإبداعي الصيني في حقبة معينة؛ فهو قد شارك، ّ إلى حد ما، في بناء الثقافة الصينية الأساسية في العصر الحديث والمعاصر.

From Aesthetics To Ethics: The Place Of Delight In Confucian Ethics, Andrew Lambert

Publications and Research

An exploration of the role of pleasure or delight (le 樂) in classical Confucian ethics. Building on Michael Nylan’s account of the role of pleasure in public spectacle and social order, I explore how the meaning of delight (le 樂) derives from the features and effects of music (yue 樂). Drawing on Dewey’ s aesthetics and accounts of music in Confucian texts, I explore a conception of Confucian ethics, in which delight— like states generated through everyday social interaction are foundational.

永恆逃逸的差異 : 以《流言》、《易經》及《小團圓》為例論張愛玲與重複, Lok Tung Choi

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

王德威曾提出張愛玲重複（Repetition）、迴旋（Involution）、衍生（Derivation）的文學譜系。張氏化一為二，使「流言」代替「吶喊」、「重複」代替「再現」、「迴旋」代替「革命」。張愛玲在文學體系中被「包括在外」的狀態足顯學者無從將之置入的焦慮。自《小團圓》、《雷峯塔》及《易經》三部自敘小說相繼出版後，是張以「重複」書寫為自己立幡招魂。

本論文借用吉爾．德勒茲（Gilles Deleuze）有關差異（Difference）及重複（Repetition）的哲學概念分析、對讀張愛玲的作品。德勒茲指出差異為人類感知經驗的基本原則，故差異必然存在；而重複注定為一種自覺的、悖理式的「運動」——創造必然是重複而非再現，重複著不能被重複的。創作並非複製原本的記憶，而是原本的記憶蘊含的情感力量內化，顛覆自身，「重複」著作品，始終強調著異質性（heterogeneity）。

本論文提出異質性是張氏被現代文學「包括在外」的根因，而異質性屬於「差異」的領域，「重複」才是張愛玲的文學定位。本論文強調自傳小說的虛構性，避免逸事索隱的閱讀策略。本論文分四章，前三章以人物為錨點分析重複，包括：教授、友人及母親，然後討論自我複寫的意義。以早期散文集《流言》、英文自敘小說《易經》及中文自敘小說《小團圓》為研究文本，觀照其中差異，以德勒茲式的閱讀檢視張氏的自我複寫的三種意義。

On Xu Zhongyu's Thoughts Of College Chinese Education, Huaping Cheng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As a pioneer in the reintroduction of college Chinese courses in the 1980s, Xu Zhongyu, after many years of exploration, established college Chinese as a course based on the unity of the humanistic and the instrumental, with focus on cultivating and enhancing the humanistic literacy and language skills of college students. Through teaching selected essays in the textbook, he intended to subtly cultivate student's sentiments, independent thinking and critical spirit. Xu Zhongyu emphasized students' writing training by advocating the study of exemplary texts in order to make students comprehend their artistic achievement and borrow their creative methods. Through extensive writing …

From Function To Semantics: History And Theories Of The Picture Frame, Yuan Gao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As a key element linking art history and art theory, the frame inherently has both historical and theoretical implications; its historical transformation, either in form or conceptualization, is inextricably linked to methodologies and theoretical discourses in art history. This study begins with the historical transformation of a form and its function, and discusses, combining the discourse of various theorists, the generation and development of the picture frame, especially its application to art history. It also introduces theoretical perspectives from the twentieth century on the shift and interdisciplinary significance of the concept of the picture frame in the field of visual …

Li Bai's "Twelve Imitations Of The Old Poems" And Its Image Construction, Yinan Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Li Bai's cycle of poems "Twelve Imitatations of the Old Poems" is an imitation of "Nineteen Old Poems". It was preceded by Lu Ji's method of imitating other texts and could be seen as part of the practice of imitating older poems from the Six Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai's imitations are richer both in "images" and "implications" than those in the imitated poems, perhaps because he borrowed some techniques from the Qi and Liang Dynasties to enhance the traditional modes of conveying and inspiring, and Li Bai tried to combine expressionist and representational techniques to demonstrate the …

Innovation And Development: The Innovative Development And Route Of Chinese Literary Theory In The New Era, Shiwen Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

A Methodological Exploration Into The Conceptual History Of Style As Key Concept In Art History, Ting Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"Style" is a key concept in modern art history. Its rich implications and inherent contradictions, however, make its connotation ambiguous. By way of examining the birth, development and evolvement of this concept in art criticism, this paper tries to expose the meaning of style which shifts from "maniera" to "stile," and describe its constant transformation in the evolving history of style. The analysis in the paper shows that it is the rich connotation and evolution of style that makes the history of style a dominant paradigm in the construction of traditional Western art history, while the dilemma that the history …

A Study On "Standardizing By Chinese Characters" In Zhang Taiyan's On National Learning, Xuehu Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Building on the foundation of traditional philology (xiaoxue) and extending to multiple schools of thought, Zhang Taiyan's work On National Learning is a very important work in Chinese intellectual history. The seven essays on literature in its middle volume, which address such issues as literary and cultural traditions situated between the study of Chinese characters and philosophy, play a key role in the mainstream study of literature and culture. This article analyzes Zhang's idea of "writing based on Chinese characters" and his principle of "standardizing by Chinese characters" in literary criticism, as well as their significance to and function in …

An Investigation Of Gao Qi's Poetic Theory, Zhaoming Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Gao Qi's poetic theory consists of one general standard and three specific concerns. The general standard for a great poet is to be well-rounded and versatile. The three specific concerns are listed according to their priority. The first and foremost concern of poetry is ge (form), yi(will), and qu (taste). What follows are secondary component of poetry: sheng (prosody) and yan (language). In terms of the source and function, he emphasized the importance of travelling across the landscape, as well as the autobiographical and archiving function of poetry. His poetic theory was not only tethered to the legacy of Yan …

Beginning, Elaboration, And Counterpoint: The Intention And Method Of Edward Said's Music Criticism, Sheng Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As an important part of Edward Said's critical practice, music criticism, on the one hand, inherits critical methods from Beginnings, Orientalism, Humanism and Democratic Criticism; on the other hand, it resists these methods due to music's semantic ambiguity. In this interaction between acceptance and resistance, Said develops his unique music criticism based on the concept of elaboration. Specifically, he acknowledges the dynamic relationships between history and subject, world and text, original work and criticism, politics and aesthetics, before contrapuntally interpreting these concepts in a detailed and unprejudiced way. In doing so, his elaborations on music not only activate subject, text, …

Confrontation With The Unconscious: A Reading Of C. G. Jung's The Red Book, Jianchang Xing

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Red Book is the most difficult work among the oeuvre of C. G. Jung (1875-1961), and it is Jung's "self-experiment" on his "inner images" from 1913 to 1930, a "personal diary" written to himself, and a psychological work on literary themes. It "contains the nucleus of" and is "the key" to Jung's later works. The theme of the book is an exploration of the "the spirit of the depths" and the exertion of "refinding the soul" by means of images or metaphors rather than logical thinking and intellectual intervention. Jung held that "the spirit of the times" seemed powerful, …

Cultural Studies Revisited And Renewed: An Interview With Professor John Storey, Cong Zhang, Bing Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In this interview, Professor John Storey, one of the most renowned scholars in the field of cultural studies, not only revisits the history of cultural studies by investigating some of its key issues, but also shares his latest book Radical Utopianism and Cultural Studies in which he looks at the concept of utopianism from a cultural studies perspective and argues that radical utopianism can awaken the political promise of cultural studies. In so doing, he revisits the founding fathers of cultural studies and points to a radical utopia by defamiliarizing the naturalness of the here and now.

Literary Theory Should Adapt Itself To The Times: On Prof. Xu Zhongyu's View Of Literature And Art, Fengjie Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper maintains that the emergence of aesthetic reflection theory in China was largely the contribution of Prof. Xu Zhongyu as the result of his respect to and explorations into the artistic law of literary creation. Prof. Xu first incorporated the notion that "literature is the study of man" into the literary theory course books in China and demonstrated the profound interconnection between literature, humanity and humanitarianism. He also stressed the unique greatness of Chinese literature and anticipated the advent of "the paragon of the writing in the world". Prof. Xu devoted himself to the establishment of modern and contemporary …

On Anti-Conventionality And Limitation Of Non-Fictional Writing, Zhigang Hong

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Non-fiction Writing is not a particular genre, but a narrative strategy with anti-conventional characteristics. It relies heavily on the specific value of the subject matter itself and the subjective thinking of the writer, and thus makes it difficult to take into account the inherent artistic value of the work per se. Throughout the process from identifying the subject matter to narrating, the writer is an ever-present figure, providing irrefutable facts for the narrative. However, the ever-presence of the writer also leads to the fragmentation of the narrative and the silhouette effect of characters. Such a way of writing, which lays …

On The Perspectives Of Gender Representation And Ethical Contradiction In Women's Self-Portraits, Chenguang Ling

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Concerns with and reflections on self-portraits afford a perspective to glimpse numerous dimensions in social and cultural issues, including gender representation. Self-portrait is a record of the result of self-presentation. As a special artistic style, women's self-portraits have distinctive images and implications, and are irreplaceable in the consideration of gender issues. Women's self-portraits demonstrate female artists' unique pursuit in the constructions of self-image, performances of interpersonal relationship, and means of expression. Female artists' special connection to mirrors during the process of self-portrayal and their reflection on this relationship are an important approach to understand feminist ideas. The contradictions and conflicts …