East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Towards A Beautiful Japan: Right-Wing Religious Nationalism In Japan's Ldp, Andrew Weiss

Student Work

A 2017-2018 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Andrew Weiss (Davenport College '18) for his essay submitted to the East Asian Studies Program, "Towards a Beautiful Japan: Right-Wing Religious Nationalism in Japan's LDP” (Frances Rosenbluth, Damon Wells Professor of Political Science, advisor).

Andrew Weiss, a double major in East Asian Studies and Global Affairs, spent several months of field work in Japan over the summer and winter of 2017 to understand the role of right-wing Shinto in the thinking and politics of the Liberal Democratic Party. Why is the LDP and Abe in …

Alternative Marriage Practices Of Wartime Urban China In Discourse And Practice (1937-1949), Charlotte Cotter

Student Work

A 2017-2018 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Charlotte Cotter (Grace Hopper College '18) for her essay submitted to the East Asian Studies Program, "Alternative Marriage Practices of Wartime Urban China in Discourse and Practice (1937-1949)” (Peter C. Perdue, Professor of History, advisor).

Charlotte Cotter’s thesis, “Alternative Marriage Practices of Wartime Urban China in Discourse and Practice (1937-1949)” is an excellent study of how women in Shanghai during wartime explored different modes of intimate life, including alternate forms of marriage, when the upheaval of war tore apart families and disrupted personal relations. Throughout …

Critique Of "Aesthetic Non-Differentiation" Thought: Reflections And Transcendence In The Early Gadamer's Aesthetics, Jianhua Xiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

There are two backgrounds when the concept of "aesthetic non-differentiation" is put forward. The background of thought is critique of Kant's subjective aesthetics and its successors, such as genius aesthetics and experience aesthetics. The real background of art practice is the critique of the so-called "museum-style art". The theoretical essence of "aesthetic non-differentiation" is the emphasis on the unity and non-differentiation of the whole life world and ontological truth as a representation of the life world. The directly and mainly theoretical source of "aesthetic non-differentiation" is Heidegger's ontological thought. The misreading of Heidegger's ontological aesthetics causes some theoretical defects in …

Human, Animal, And Life In The Posthuman Turn: From Agamben To Young Marx, Xingkun Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Posthuman thought since the 1980s has challenged anthropocentrism and humanism to a great extent, and has promoted our reflections on what human is, on the relationship between humans and animals, and on human life itself. Three paths of Posthuman research will be traced, in which the concept of "biopolitics" and "anthropological machine" of Agamben proceeds from the animalization of human in the political field, and reveals the the dilemma of exclusive inclusion facing contemporary human life. But Agamben comes up with a passive politics based on a-historical analysis. This paper is intended to go back to the analysis of …

New Evidence To Some Issues Of The Linchuan School Of Drama In The Ming Dynasty: On The Basis Of The Historical Facts Of Tang Xianzu's Associating With His Fellow Countrymen, Zhiyong Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the Ming Dynasty, Linchuan, in addition to Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, is another important center of drama where Tang Xianzu is the core. The center formed around a family with remote village communities and the members include Xie Tingliang, Shuai Ji, Wu Shizhi, Zeng Ruhai, Zheng Zhiwen and Xu Fenpeng. These writers have different degree of social contact with Tang Xianzu, and tend to have similar creation and thought. It is reasonable to consider the Linchuan drama group during the period of the late Ming dynasty as an independent genre of drama. More importantly, to explore the activities of …

Intuitional Experience And Visual Regulation: On The Relationship Between Language And Picture In Xiangxing Shujian And Xiangxing Sanji, Tairan Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Shen Congwen's consciousness about the difference and complementarity between pictures and words finds expression in his Xiangxing Shujian (The Complete Works of Shen Congwen) and Xiangxing Sanji (Random Sketches on a Trip to Hu'nan). Shen thinks that it is much more difficult to express his intuitional experience by words than by painting, though, for him, painting is still powerless in this regard. Shen just made do with words. So he tried to describe the intact image of Xiangxi (West Hu'nan) by juxtaposing words and painting simultaneously and by balancing what is classic and what is modern. In fact, that kind …

The Energeia And Image In The Thought Of Gadamer In His Late Years, Lijun Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The concept of energeia is the up-to-date thought in Gadamer's old age, which is also philosophical hermeneutics' upto-date contribution to ontology. The energeia means the force in the development of being. According to the philosophical hermeneutics, being can be divides into three grades: the chaos, the being, and the transformation from chaos to the being. In the transformation from chaos to the being, it is the energeia that makes it happen. The essence of the image is that it is the way of chaos transformation into the being. At the same time, the image preserves the energeia which drives the …

Zhidun's Five-Character Poems And Their Significance In The History Of Poetry, Yanfeng Cai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhidun is an eminent monk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He made great achievements in Buddhism. His poetry was very influential in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Zhidun inherited the tradition of Wei and Jin Poetry, and paid attention to poetic language. Influenced by the popular metaphysical poems in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Zhidun's poetry had a significant impact on literati poetry. Judging from the number of poems and the level of art, that Zhi Dun's was a very important poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. However, because Zhidun was a monk, his poetry and its significance have not been fully …

Aristocratic Portrait Of Cifu: A Study Of The Fuxue At The Xiao Family Of Lanling In The Southern Dynasties, Xiang Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As an imperial family in the Southern Dynasties (420-589) , the Xiao family of Lanlin played the roles of royal members and literati, the interaction between which profoundly influenced the criticism and creative activities of Cifu. Wen Xuan supervised by Xiao Tong distinguished Sao and Fu and prioritized Fu. Taking Jinfu as the object of investigation, it constructed the concept of the dynamic history of Fu that attached importance to both great Fu and little Fu. In terms of content, the Xiao family often created lyrical little Fu with aristocratic interests and recreational tendencies, in accordance with the principle of …

Horace's Poetry And The Literary Order Of Augustan Rome, Yongyi Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Roman poets in the Augustan era were already faced with a literary order the complexity of which was almost modern, composed of the state, the public, patrons and friends. The prevalence of literary patronage compelled poets to negotiate between art and political power, whereas a well-developed mechanism of publication, transmission and book trade exerted pressure on them in terms of tastes and fashions. Horace's success lay in his ability to outmaneuver the system through ingenious strategies, whereby instead of falling victim to it, he managed to shape the course of Roman poetry.

Post-Structuralist Poetics In The Great Preface And Some Thoughts On The Modernization Of Ancient Chinese Literary Theory, Mingdong Gu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Great Preface of the Mao School of Poetry is a foundational document for the exegesis of the Shijing and a landmark for Chinese literary theory. Despite its status as the first cornerstone for Chinese poetics, it has incurred harsh criticism due to its various inadequacies and unknown origin, and is never regarded as the first self-consciously composed literary criticism. Is The Great Preface indeed a discourse with a loose structure and inconsistent thesis as the critics have suggested? To re-examine its writing, conception, and overall structure from the perspective of post-structuralist discourse theory will draw an opposite conclusion: The …

Writing//Posthuman: The Literary Text As Cognitive Assemblage, Katherine Hayles N.

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Posthuman studies have developed in many different directions, which may be charted according to the role they assign to computational technologies. Arguing that computational media have been highly influential in the spread of posthumanism and its conceptualizations, this essay illustrates the importance of digital technologies for writing in the contemporary era. Humans and computational media participate in hybrid interactions through cognitive assemblages, networks through which information, interpretations and meanings circulate. Illustrating these interactions are analyses of two works of electronic literature, Sea and Spar Between by Nick Montford and Stephanie Strickland, and Evolution by Johannes Heldén and Hakan Jonson.

A Study Of The Combination Of Elegance And Popularity In The Chuanqi Plays' Lyrics During The Reign Of Emperor Wanli, Yihui Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In drama theories, criticisms and creative practices during the reign of Emperor Wanli in the Ming dynasty, the combination of elegance and popularity in chuanqi plays' lyrics was prominent, which demonstrated the interactive characteristics of aesthetic theories and literary writings. In terms of theories, Tu Long made a first attempt, which was fulfilled by Wang Jide and inherited by Wang Tingne, Zang Maoxun, etc. In terms of creative practices, Mei Dingzuo's The Story of the Jade Box initiated this thought, and then Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion pushed it to its peak, followed by the other two plays The Story of …

An Interpretation Of “Xingwei”, Chao Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"Xingwei" is a poetic category based on the theory of "Xing" and "Wei" in Chinese poetics. Connecting "Xing" and "taste" theories, Zhong Rong put forward the theory of "Flavour", which refers to the beauty of implication in the content and situation of the poems. This became the basic meaning of "Xingwei" later. An overview ancients cases indicate that "Xingwei" mainly refers to an aesthetic feeling or experience implied in the poetry and can rouse the reader' extremely interest and enable the reader to have an endless aftertaste. It points to both aesthetic acceptance and the generation of creation, has two …

Discovery And Invention Of Image Effects: A Study Of Gombrich's Theory Of Caricature, Chun Mu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

E. H. Gombrich's discussions on caricatures play an important role in his study of the history of art and image psychology. He begins his narrative of the magic of art with the taboos of caricature and in this way delineates the course of Western art history. He also reflects on the representational images in Western Naturalism from the perspective of equivalences of caricatures, and by means of this he reveals the truth of image psychology. Gombrich argues that all image makings, including the one aiming at representation, pursue equivalences instead of similarities, and image makers always devote themselves to conducting …

From Antihumanism To Posthuman: Beyond Anthropomorphical Dialectics, Chunxiao Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Humanism and some Anti-humanistic theories share the same dialectical logic, which is deconstructed by Derrida but lacks alternatives. On the other hand, humanism is easily brought back into the discussion of Posthumanistic subjects due to anthropomorphism characterized by dialectics. This article tries to differentiate the "Posthuman" in its narrow sense from Antihumanism in its broad sense. Such Posthuman is exteriority that detours the consciousness of subjectivity, monism that deconstructs all kinds of fundamentalism and binary, and, finally, empirical embodiment.

From The Bicameral Man To The Self-Presider: About The Inner Voice Of Characters In Narrative Works, Xiuyan Fu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

One inspiration drawn from Julian Jaynes' theory of bicameral mind is that the construction of human beings' subjective consciousness has not yet been completed, which should arouse great awareness of all researchers in "Science of Man". Cautiously applying this theory to reexamine the characters with inner voice in their ears in narrative works helps us to further understand the mental state of human beings. We cannot ignore the description of consciousness itself which is written by literature as an ideology. Moreover, the depth frequently achieved by this kind of writing is beyond the reach of other kinds. Since the consciousness …

Theory About The Essence Of Literature From The Perspective Of Ontology, Zhongyuan Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Under the background of deconstructionism, contemporary literary anti-essentialism has posed questions such as: what is the theory about the essence of literature and how does it become possible? To answer these questions, one needs to study the connotation and possibility of theories about the essence of literature from an ontological perspective. The essence of literature refers to the being of literature. The theory about the essence of literature is thus the theoretical interpretation of being of literature, which is also the primary subject of literary studies and the metatheory of literary theory. The ontological area on which the theory about …

The Cultural Politics Of Conspicuous Consumption In China, Min Zhou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

To adequately understand contemporary conspicuous consumption in China, one needs to put it in a historical background and look at it not only from an economic perspective but also from cultural and political points of view. Both China and the West have had the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption at different historical periods, which, in their own ways, have constituted different cultural and political narratives and have demonstrated in them different characteristics. Three Confucian values that affect Chinese people's consumption of luxurious commodities — namely, maintaining consistency between behavior and status, family reputation and the awareness of other people's influence — …

Return To Roman Jakobson: On The Linguistic Source Of "Literariness", Wei Feng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

It is necessary to take the linguistic source of "literariness" into account when we discuss the controversy concerning the term itself. Jakobson brought forth the concept of "literariness" for the first time in 1919. After that, the relation between literature and linguistics always played a leading role in his academic thoughts. He was also the first to use the notion of "structuralism" in 1929 and became a pivotal figure in the adaptation of Saussure's structural analysis to literary theory. Not only did he explore his precursor's functionalist ideology, but also expanded the social significance and humanistic values of linguistic studies. …

Particularities In Time And Space: On Historicism In Stephen Greenblatt's New Historicism, Zhu Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Historicism usually appears as a confusing concept in scholarly writings. Several thinkers have made definitions of this term in both its strict and loose senses, and it is now usually used in its loose sense — it can refer to any methodology in which a certain entity is examined by placing it in a specific time and place. Stephen Greenblatt's major works share the spirit of historicism in its loose sense in that he has put into question the possibility of building an abstract theoretical system independent of time and space. Greenblatt was accused of having shied away from examinations …

On Different Models For Lyric Poems, Culler Jonathan, Danhong Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Two conceptions of the lyric have come to dominate the study of poetry in the Anglo-American world: the Romantic model, which considers lyric as an intense expression of subjective experience and emotion, and the mimetic model that treats poetry as the thought or speech of a persona created by the poet, therefore adopting methods and strategies used in analysing fictional texts. Neither of these two can be the "default model" for describing and interpreting lyrics because of their neglect of the fundamental characteristics of lyrics: all those elements which are fundamentally directions for performance rather than representations. Moreover, while lyrics …

The Formation Of Body Modernity And Its Discourse Dimension: A Case Study Of "Body Encounter" In Modern China, Jigang Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Body modernity played an important role in the process of shaping cultural modernity. Discourse of the body corresponded to the modern enlightenment, and expressed the political metaphor of the formation of modernity. From the issue of "body encounter" in modern China, we see the production process of the national body, the over-dominance of which reflected the needs of the time. The appearance of the body, to a certain extent, eased the anxiety of reform, which was also the body's frustration.

Adapt Or Die! The Social And Economic Dynamics Of Japan’S Animation Industry, You Pan

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research explored and discussed about Japanese animation industry, past, present, and possibilities to a better future. While there is existing literature on Japanese animation, this research will focus on a case study that will discover the bright side of Japanese animation market, while addressing the existing problems within the animation industry or potential issues at present times. By illustrating the existing and potential issues as well as the bright side, the objective of this research is to help the Japanese animation industry to survive under the depressive economic environment. My research will identify reasons for low productivity of high …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Learning Culture: Cultural Relationship In Masked Lanterns, Yuxuan Ding

Graduate School of Art Theses

Culture shock, or culture conflict, is the unfamiliarity or disorientation an individual experiences after encountering a culture different than their own. To better understand the people around us who share a different culture and the way of life it creates, we need to first respect and understand their culture. In general, Chinese culture stresses that individuals must see themselves as part of a larger group for the benefit of society, while American culture stresses the importance of individualism.

Based on my experiences in graphic design, I decided to further my studies in a studio art context to understand how the …

From Habits To Habitus: Chinese Elites Attempt To Create An Aristocratic Class Along The British Model, Karina Salomatina

Master's Projects and Capstones

Lately, new trends have appeared in the spending habits of Chinese elites, which include money spent on etiquette classes, butler service, British afternoon tea, debutante balls, education in boarding schools, and immigration to Britain. These new consumption patterns of Chinese elites signify their desire and attempt to adopt the British aristocratic lifestyle portrayed in popular TV series, classical novels and mass media. This study examines anthropological research, documentary videos, news reports and interviews with Chinese elites and applies Bourdieu’s theory of habitus as the main analytical tool in order to explain this phenomenon. Considering that forty years ago all Chinese …

“At War For Oppa And Identity”: Competitive Performativity Among Korean-Pop Fandoms, Brittany Tinaliga

Master's Projects and Capstones

Literature surrounding K-Pop is mostly focused on the reactionary, participatory, promotional, consumer and identity-forming roles of the Korean-Pop fandom. However, this research sheds a light on the dark side of the K-Pop fandom and the structures that sustain it: namely toxic practices and values. The study determines what practices and beliefs are at the core of competitive performativity and subsequently toxic fan conduct among international Korean-Pop fans and whether fans engage in reflexivity regarding these practices. To address this gap, this study incorporates a multi-methods approach, including CDA analysis, online corpus analysis, qualitative and quantitative data. The results reveal that …

Betraying Revolution: The Foundations Of The Japanese Communist Party, Matthew J. Crooke

Master's Projects and Capstones

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and China’s restoration of capitalism, it is easy to dismiss the relevancy of socialism today. Yet, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) has enjoyed success at the polls and recognition as a serious opponent of the government of Abe Shinzō. The JCP however is not making a push for power. Instead, it supports liberal opposition parties, most recently throwing its weight behind the new Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) in the October 2017 general election. A future CDP government in Japan could include the JCP as a coalition partner. Does …

Currents Of Consumption: How National Narratives Of Japanese Cuisine Collide With Localized Forms Of Sushi In Northern California, John Ostermiller

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper examines how national narratives of Japanese cuisine collide with the expectations, preferences, and perceptions of American consumers (particularly Northern California). The global economy has benefited the circulation of positive images of Japan managed by the Japanese government, but the commercialization of Japanese cuisine is also at odds with government efforts. In Japan, sushi is often synonymous with nigirizushi: sliced seafood and a daub of wasabi atop vinegared rice. As part of Japan’s washoku tradition, this singular image of sushi (allegedly) reflects the deepest essence of Japanese cultural sensibilities tied to simplicity, perfection, and nature. But in America, consumers’ …