East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Looking Through Endgame: On Adorno's Conceptions Of Modernist Theatre, Cheng Lu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Beckett's theatre of absurd was regarded by Adorno as the most quintessential modernist artworks. In Notes to Literature, Adorno interpreted Beckett's Endgame against the background of the post-WWII historical and psychological crisis. Firstly, the meaningless living of the characters in Endgame leads to Adorno's delineation of a declining subject in a rational age. Secondly, Adorno found in Endgame some anti-existentialist literary elements, which prompted him to re-interpret the relations between subject and situation and endow Beckettian absurdity with novel theoretical significance. Thirdly, Adorno considered Endgame as a parody of traditional drama, which was, for Adorno, a deviation from the rational …

The Poetic Education In Academies Of Classical Learning In The Qing Dynasty, Nensheng Cheng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the context of imperial examination, academies of classical learning in the Qing Dynasty could not afford not to stress the techniques of examination-required poetry and regulated prose composition, with some academics teaching technique for composing other forms of poetry. The purpose of turning the coarse writing into the elegant corresponded with the government's aims of promoting noble style in writing so that the technique pursuit of composing poems was not meant to be instrumental for passing the imperial examination only but also nurture the person for the country. To that end, many academies developed methods that focused on the …

The Voyage Of Gremais' Matrix, Han Qian, Xiuduan Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Gremas' semiotic matrix has been very popular among Chinese critics through the introduction of Jameson. Jameson has revised the semiotic matrix, and made it deviated from semanteme analyses and structuralism calculation. The revised version depends more on intuition, which oversimplifies the conflict between value and the view of value. The paper argues that a more objective and thorough analyses of value and significance may be conducted by returning to the original version of the semiotic matrix.

The Transformation From Being To Dasein: Agnes Heller's Neo-Marxist Aesthetics As A Breakthrough On Lukács' Theoretical Framework, Qilin Fu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Agnes Heller's neo-Marxist aesthetics is based on the individual construction of Dasein and the human condition of contingency, and it can be argued as a breakthrough of Lukács' aesthetics of Being. By way of humanist aesthetics, she accomplishes the transformation from the philosophy of consciousness into the selective construction of everyday life. This transformation is doubtlessly a great contribution to postmodernist Marxist aesthetics, and is valuable for both theory and practicum in the era of contemporary socialism and late capitalism or postmodern human condition.

The Connotation And Referent Of Chuanqi In The Study Of Fiction In The Ancient China, Qinghua Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Through a critical examination of the connotation and referent of the term chunaqi (legendary story, literally, "transmission of the strange") in the study of fiction in the ancient China, the paper points out that the term chuanqi in the ancient critical discourse was not a concept of genre but a concept of content and thematic type. When chuanqi is referred to as a genre, it was often called as a then homophonic term zhuanji (biographical record), while chuanqi referred to "a book-length account of an event from the beginning to the end." This term of chunaqi referred to a literary …

The Constructs Of Literary Form And Its Multilateral Relationships, Fan Nan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Literary form is often regarded as a mythical concept. For a fairly long period of time, literary form is always a suppressed object. Be that as it may, scholars have been making attempts to establish a self-contained system of literary form beyond the dimensions of logos, subjecthood and historical contents. This paper investigates the construction of literary form and its relationships with peripheral elements, especially the relationship between literary form and historical content. History has constantly intervened in the structure of literary form, and the literary content is often rendered as a transitory space between them. In this sense, the …

The Ming-Dynasty Restorative Trend Of The Study Of Qu And The Canonization Of The Yuan-Dynasty-Style Qu, Yun Cheng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper sorts out the restorative trend in the Ming Dynasty in terms of the respect for, elaboration on and the creation of the style (zun ti, bian ti and chuang ti) and re-interprets its claims such as promoting the orthodox prosody, appreciating the original tonal quality, and emulating the Yuan-Dynasty style. The respect for the style promoted the reception of the Yuan-Dynasty style of Qu (opera) to the mainstream ideology and literary orthodoxies. The elaboration on the style focuses on establishing uniform aesthetic norms for Qu as a literary genre. The creation of a genre as the "new legend" …

The Evolution Of The Verse Of Irregular Lines From The Unregulated To The Regulated Verse With Irregular Lines, Yufeng Xie

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The lyrics for singing in the ancient Chinese literature, in terms of stylistic form, falls into two types: qiyan (lines of regular lengths) and zayan (lines of irregular lengths). In the early Tang period, Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen established the versification of qiyan poetry, while the regulating course of zayan poetry began in the Middle and Late Tang Dynasty. If the unregulated zayan poetry can be defined as Qu (the later opera verse) and the regulated zayan poetry as Ci (fixed rhythm lyrics), the evolution of zayan (the verse with irregular lines) in the past thousand-odd years was following …

The "Central Land Prosody" And The Rise And Fall Of The Musical Verse From The North And The South, Shunhua Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since the Yuan Dynasty when China became a united sovereignty, there appeared various new prosodic systems. Zhou Deqing (1277-1365) made great efforts to dismiss The Broad Rimes (guangyun, compiled from 1007 to 1008 under the auspices of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty) and to construct a new prosodic system based on the musical verse from the northern part of China so as to promote it into the system of "the Central Land Elegant Prosody (zhongyun yayun)." He claimed that the orthodox prosody should be in the Music Bureau verse from the North while the verse from the South was …

Play And Liminality In Chinese Cinema: Star Studies In The Perspective Of Performance Theory, Yingjin Zhang, Qianliang Yi

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Star studies sees film stars as "structured polysemy" and anticipates a salient system of meaning for us to decode and appreciate. Performance theory treats meaning as "conjunctural" rather than "structured" and privileges coincident, improvisation and juxtaposition. Approaching star studies through performance theory helps explore a wealth of filmic techniques and performance tactics. This article focuses on Tony Leung Chiu-Wai's "self-effacing" performance of repetition and examines special cases of play and liminality as well presence and absence in Chinese cinema. These cases challenge our conventional habit of thought and cognition and reveal an unlimited potential of alternative and alteration vis-à-vis history …

On The Methodological Evolution And Its Limitation Of Literature Anthropology, Daqiao Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper is a critical survey of literary anthropology in Chinese context. In the early 20th century in China, the main areas of investigation of literary anthropology are myths and ballads; during the Post-Mao Period, literary studies from the anthological perspective expand to literary texts and cultural texts, due to the influence of experimental ethnography and postmodernism. Practices in the above two periods show a consistent interest of research in the approaches of literary anthropology which evolves into the methods of cross-cultural comparison, primitivism, contextualism and field study etc. The paper concludes with the reflection on the potentialities and limits …

Life, Art And Potentialities: Agamben's Concept Of Poetics-Politics, Xingkun Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Human life in the context of modernity, according to Giorgio Agamben, has become a "bare life" and human being is reduced to homo sacer, while the political paradigm has transformed from public space to camp. When taking this into consideration, however, it may not be said that humanism should be resorted as the source for humanist thought. Agamben, following Heidegger, believes that humanism is a degradation of human dignity instead of emancipating and upgrading of the human being. The paper tries to answer how human being's integrity can be recovered to open up new space of politics. This paper focuses …

Gender As Cultural Production: The Cultural Critique In Contemporary Western Marxist Feminism, Rui Ma

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The uncovering of the sociality of gender and the reshaping of the consciousness of women are fundamental cultural appeals of feminism, and these appeals may rely on theoretical support from both classical Marxist dialectical analysis of the relationship between society and consciousness and Western Marxist illuminations of the subjectivity and cultural materialism, although the latter may take on more weight for feminist criticism. Since 1970s, Marxist feminism has absorbed the theory of cultural production, developed on Althusser's theory of ideology and British cultural studies, in its analysis of patriarchy, capitalism and gender system, and gender is thus disclosed as the …

The Evolution Of Literary Image Of Peasant Migrant Workers In Urbanization From The Burden-Bearing To The Weightless Existence, Lixin Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Literary image of the peasant migrant workers in China is closely related with the process of urbanization in contemporary China, and during the process, the image of peasant migrant workers has undergone significant transformation with the drastic change of literary ecology. When peasant migrant workers as characters entered the mainstream literature at the beginning of China's reform period, they appeared to be the "new character" that embodied the social ideal and life expectation of the intellectuals. The image changed, however, around the turn of the century when peasant workers became the strugglers of survival who had degraded to the concerns …

"Redefining Literature And Art": Strategies For Reconstructing The Political Dimensions Of Literature, Chuanlan Yin, Fengjie Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since the mid 1990s, critics and theorists have begun to "re-visit" the relationship between literature and politics in an attempt to reconstruct the political dimensions in literature, which, as this paper maintains, marks the emergence of the trend of "redefining literature and art." The core theoretical strategy behind the re-politicalization of literature is to emphasize the inseparability of literature from social context or social relationships, but during the process, literary heterogeneity in terms of politics is not scrutinized with sufficient attention. The paper maintains that the relationship between man and literature may be both a reflection of and a choice …

Is Wang Guowei's Theory Of The Poetic State Focused On Feelings: A Discussion With Mdm. Ye Jiaying, Zhi Geng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In her book Wang Guowei and His Literary Criticism, Mdm. Ye Jiaying describes the theory of poetic state as "a vivid expression in the work [… of] the feelings of the author." If Ye's interpretation of the theory is interpreted within the context of the book, however, it may be found that Ye's interpretation is insufficiently supported by the theoretical discourse and practice. The problem in Ye's interpretation include the following. Firstly, her interpretation of the essence of the theory dissolves not only the intrinsic characteristic of "the emotion" and "the scene" but also the poet's conscious artistic pursuit and …

Inaesthetics And Art As Procedure Of Truth: An Introduction To Badiou's Art Thought, Jiang Lan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

For Alain Badiou, art and its creation do not need a preconceived idea to direct or guide, as art itself is one of conditions for philosophy. In light of this, Badiou replaces the aesthetics that subordinates art to the will of philosophy with an inaesthetics that induces truth out of art. Inaesthetics no longer tries to pursue the idea or notion that governs the works of art, but focuses on how artistic creations penetrate the consistent presentations of everyday discourse and tease out truth from the smoothed discourse. This way to artistic creations is like a journey through darkness, with …

An Investigation On The Antenarrative In Ancient Chinese Novels, Runbao Wan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The antenarrative takes many forms in ancient Chinese novels with varied functions, and religions and folklore are among the main source of influences on its formations. The religion-influenced antenarratives may be classified into explicit, implicit, undetermined and multiple antenarratives in terms of their function. The antenarrative plays an important role in the overall design, the narrative schema, and the setup of suspense in the ancient novels, and suggests a unique national characteristic of Chinese classical novels. The folklore-influenced antenarrative takes the form of "the entry to the story (ru hua)," "the head to chapters (tou hui)," the comments of the …

The Cultural Theme In Terry Eagleton's Critical Theory, Hailiang Mai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This essay explores the content and exceptionality of Terry Eagleton's idea of culture and its significance for contemporary thinking on culture, and it posits the exploration in the context of current academic heat on culture, the intellectual history of English cultural theory and the tradition of Western Marxism. The paper maintains that Eagleton's proposition of cultural crisis not only reveals the intrinsic contradiction of the cultural heat but also helps for the understanding of the fundamental logic of modern cultural theory. Cultural crisis has been in existence along the modern era and it has intensified into contemporary culture wars. It …

On The Stylistic Origins And Literary Forms Of Ci And Fu, Zhixi Qian

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper argues that ci (poetic prose) and fu (rhymed prose) were two different genres, each originated from its oral tradition. Ci, a form of poetic prose, originated from various stylistic writings such as ritual presentation on sacrifice and historical events and ambassadors' orations, while Encountering Sorrow by Qu Yuan (343-278 BC) and Nine Songs from the Songs of the South from were related with them. Ci and Fu became merged into one genre at the hands of Song Yu (ca. 298-222 BC), Tang Le (ca. 290-223 BC) and Jia Yi (200-168 BC), and to the time of the Han …

Periodizing Postmodernism, Mchale Brian

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Looking back over the postmodern decades from the perspective of the twenty-first century, we are now in a position to begin distinguishing internal breaks and discontinuities, as well as continuities, within the period itself. The present paper undertakes to sketch out three phases internal to the postmodern period: first, an onset phase in the Euro-American sphere in the mid-sixties; next, the major phase of "peak postmodernism" in the seventies and eighties; finally, a late-postmodernist or transitional period in the nineties, widely experienced as a pause or lull, a kind of interregnum between postmodernism and whatever comes next. The consensus view …

Two Main Routes Of The Construction Of Western Marxist Literary Theory, Xianguang Feng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper starts with the observation that unique thoughts and routes distinguish various kinds of Marxism literary theories when they were constructed. The constructive differences lie in both the so-called "orthodox" and the later Western Marxist literary theories, and different developing routes and modes were developed especially in the later during its early and later periods. After an analysis of the periodization and the different features of Western Marxist literary theory, the paper concludes with the significance of the analysis to the construction of a Chinese Marxist literary theory.

Japanese Kawaii Culture (かわいい文化), Kaileigh Nicklas

Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day (2011-2017)

No abstract provided.

Comparing Dietary Patterns Of College Students When Eating In America Versus Eating In China: Impact On Nutrition Intake, Body Weight And Waist Circumference, Maoxinyu (Daisy) Wu

Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day (2011-2017)

No abstract provided.

Martin Luther: Vater Einer Allgemeinen Sprache? Martin Luther: Father Of A Common Language?, Annika Ewaldz, Adam Woodis, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Martin Luther is well known for his 95 Theses, in which he rejects the Catholic practice of selling indulgences; but it was his groundbreaking translation of the Bible into German that instigated the standardization of the German language. After his excommunication, Luther was in hiding in the Wartburg Castle, where he translated his Bible into a vernacular and cohesive form of the German language. Many different dialects were spoken throughout Germany at the time making communication between regions difficult. Luther’s translation soon became the most influential Bible in Germany and was disseminated quickly due to the recently invented printing …

The Confucius Institute At Umass Boston, Baifeng Sun

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

One of the 500 Confucius Institutes in 104 countries worldwide and the only one in Massachusetts. Facilitates rich cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China in collaboration with our educational counterparts in Beijing, China.

[Sabbatical Report], Joon Sung

Sabbatical Reports

The primary purpose of this sabbatical project was to film. edit and produce short video pieces based on the footage collected in Tokyo, Japan.

Imagined Communities: Changing Markets And The Implications For 21st Century Mali China Migration, Mamasa Camara

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the last decade there has been a huge increase in engagement between China and Africa across all fronts of foreign relations especially in the realms of trade, finance and migration. As China continues to push into Africa in pursuit of economic resources and diplomatic relations, many Africans are migrating to China and specifically Guangzhou in search of economic opportunity backed by cheap labor markets and the prospects for “low end globalization.”As the contemporary African presence in China is a relatively new phenomenon, so are the discourses surrounding its presence, discourses often relegated to the spheres of economics, boasting China …

Innovation In Nō: Matsui Akira Continues A Tradition Of Change, Mariko Anno, Judy Halebsky

Collected Faculty Scholarship

Within the practice of Japanese nō theatre, there are tensions between preserving the art and allowing change. However, innovation through performance has been central to nō throughout its long history, from the variant nō of the Edo era (1603–1868) to the more recent emergence of revival nō and new nō. The long career of nō master Matsui Akira (1946–) offers an individual perspective on the history of change in the tradition of nō. Based on a series of interviews with Matsui and research conducted at the Kita School of Nō and the Hōsei Nō Research Institute, this article examines Matsui’s …

Course Syllabus (Sp14) Coli 211 Literature & Psychology: "The Sublime, The Uncanny, And The Imagination", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Course Description:

In a world in which what counts as knowledge is predominantly restricted to the measurable and the calculable, those elements of human experience which elude and exceed these parameters are often ignored and discounted. In this course, we will examine questions of the sublime, the uncanny, and the speculative as treated in literature, psychoanalysis, and philosophy in order to think and write critically about them. Here, we will consider the possible extent to which an openness to such experiences can enrich our lives.