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Full-Text Articles in East Asian Languages and Societies
The Autonomy Of Art And The Justice Of Aesthetics, Dai Xu
The Autonomy Of Art And The Justice Of Aesthetics, Dai Xu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
To promote aesthetic justice is to re-incorporate contemporary aesthetics into the life world by way of ethnics and to bring out theoretical significance for the present. From the view of logic, the issue of "the autonomy of art" may be argued to be essential for the practice-oriented ethic aesthetics. Different views on this issue may be understood as what Wittgenstein called the misunderstanding of the words, and they do not conceal the essence of the problem and there has no fundamental confliction between these apparently chaotic views. The paper maintains that the investigation of aesthetic justice has to be preceded …
Reconstructing The Poetic Appeal Of Contemporary Chinese Prose: A Case Study On Zhao Lihong's Prose, Zhouwen Wu
Reconstructing The Poetic Appeal Of Contemporary Chinese Prose: A Case Study On Zhao Lihong's Prose, Zhouwen Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper explores the poetic appeals in Zhao Lihong's 30-year prose writing from the following three perspectives: the positioning of the authenticity of the author's subjecthood, the choice of the approaches to poeticization, and the creation of the narrative form. The existence of these appeals proves that they reveal a problem unresolved for decades in contemporary Chinese prose. Critically inheriting the poetic tradition in May 4th Period and the First 17-Year-Period of Communist China, Zhao Lihong’s prose constructs a poetic discourse of prose aesthetics, which points to a way for the contemporary and the future prose in China.
The Changing Of The Person In The Narration In Modern Chinese Literature And Its Intellectual Implications, Huiying Xie, Weiwei Zhou
The Changing Of The Person In The Narration In Modern Chinese Literature And Its Intellectual Implications, Huiying Xie, Weiwei Zhou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The person used in narration is an essential factor of narrative rhetoric, and it plays an important role in the construction and representation of the "realness" in a novel. The choice of the person in narration may, on the one hand, abide by the implicit imperatives which the historical context enforced on "realness," and closely links to the identity of the intellectual group who undertakes the task of narrating. The novels during the May 4th Movement in 1919 correspond to the spirit of individual liberation, and the following two decades saw the transformation to popularization and nationalization. The paper demonstrates …
The Constructs Of Literary Form And Its Multilateral Relationships, Fan Nan
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 …
Play And Liminality In Chinese Cinema: Star Studies In The Perspective Of Performance Theory, Yingjin Zhang, Qianliang Yi
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
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 …
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
"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 …
The Pursuit Of Subjectivity In The Minorities Literature: An Examination Of Literary Language Use In The Southwest Border Area, Yonggang Zhang
The Pursuit Of Subjectivity In The Minorities Literature: An Examination Of Literary Language Use In The Southwest Border Area, Yonggang Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The fundamental value of the national literature is embedded in the pursuit of its subjectivity, and in the post-modern cultural context, national literary language is one essential approach to understand of the subjectivity pursuit in national literatures. In terms of the complex relationship between Mandarin Chinese language and minority languages, the efforts of minority writers should be noted for their using Mandarin Chinese to strengthen their consciousness of nationality and search for the ways and meanings of cultural exchanges with the world of Chinese language. By writing in Chinese, minority writers attempt to reconstruct their national literature, to gain discourse …
The Variations And Eternals Of Stories From The Anthropological Perspective: Based On A Comparative Analysis On Eileen Chang And Nikolai Leskov, Lili Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper discusses Benjamin's paradox of "the story-teller" and questions the scope of his definition of the story. The premises for the question include: stories have always accompanied human activities; stories are the cognitive objects of human perception; stories meet people's need for meaning; stories adapt themselves to the changes of human needs and cultural conditions. Thus, this paper proposes a broader definition of story from the perspective of anthropology and makes a comparative analysis on Russian novelist Nikolai Leskov who was called a "story-teller" by Walter Benjamin and modern Chinese novelist Eileen Chang. The paper observes that the stories …
"Descendants Of A Blurry-Eyed Dragon": A Lacanian Analysis Of The Post-Maoist Structuration Of Chineseness, Guanjun Wu
"Descendants Of A Blurry-Eyed Dragon": A Lacanian Analysis Of The Post-Maoist Structuration Of Chineseness, Guanjun Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
"Descendants of the Dragon" (Long de chuanren) has become one of the most popular songs within the Sinophone world since the early 1980s. It can be, however, also regarded as one of the representative texts through which one can indeed glimpse the profound construction of Chineseness in the post-Maoist mainland China. Utilizing theoretical tools provided by Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek, this paper offers detailed textual analyses as well as psycho-analyses of "Descendants of the Dragon", with the goal of furthering the contemporary critical examination of Chineseness.
Integrated Creation As Chinese Way Of Aesthetics: On Jiang Kongyang's Contributions To The Construction Of Chinese Aesthetics, Yanzhu Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Focusing on Chinese way of aesthetics, this article reviews the contributions of such aestheticians as Wang Guowei, Zong Baihua, Zhu Guangqian, Qian Zhongshu and Li Zehou in forming and developing Chinese way of aesthetics. In the age of information, Jiang Kongyang was the first aesthetician who elucidated, practiced and expanded the notion of integrated creation as Chinese way of aesthetics, which itself was first conceived and proposed by Zhang Dainian and supported by Wang Yuanhua in his "integrative research method" of aesthetics. Jiang Kongyang elaborated the historical necessity, time pertinency and practicability of the notion, and answered the questions of …
The Rent Collection Courtyard: Theme Park As Politics, Nian Zhang
The Rent Collection Courtyard: Theme Park As Politics, Nian Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
China's contemporary large group sculpture Rent Collection Courtyard and Cai Guoqiang's Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard were created in a different time, and the relationship between the original and Cai’s work is an issue not merely of cultural industry but more of the symbolic production of history. The original group sculpture is an example of proletarian literature and art, and the tragic derailment of fate is that the object of contestation in the work has now turned into the condition for the exhibition of the work. That is, without the capital invested into the art work, there would not have been …
Power, Representation And The Advocating Of Modern Chinese Literature: With A Study On Totalistic Anti-Tradition In The May Fourth Era, Qinghua Cao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper maintains that the slogan of "Literature Revolution" in the May Fourth Era calls actually for a revolution of representation, and at the foremost of the revolution is the transformation of the means and manner of representation. The discursive construction in the content of "new literature" focuses on the discipline and description of the represented objects, the position of the representation and the relationship between representation and the represented objects, but the essential concern is on how to empower the representation. The totalistic anti-tradition in the May Fourth Era can then be understood as the totalistic anti-representation which opposes …
The Aesthetic Ideas In The Taichi Diagram And Chinese Calligraphy Art, Lei Wei
The Aesthetic Ideas In The Taichi Diagram And Chinese Calligraphy Art, Lei Wei
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As the fruit of Chinese ancient philosophy and the vivid expression of Chinese culture, Taichi diagram is a concrete and intuitive summarization of The Book of Change. The endless flowing curve of the S-shape in the Taichi diagram represents the ideal of harmony in the binary opposition of "Yin and Yang," implying the coexistence of Emptiness and Fullness, as well as the combination of the hard and the soft. This supreme realm of harmonious integration becomes the fundamental basis of the art of Chinese calligraphy. The expression of meaning through imagery in Taichi diagram conveys ancient Chinese philosophy and aesthetic …
The Body Prescribed, The Subject Of Desire, And The Discourse Of Body In Literary Criticism, Xuezhi Niu
The Body Prescribed, The Subject Of Desire, And The Discourse Of Body In Literary Criticism, Xuezhi Niu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Literary criticism as an intellectual act about literature has caused quite some contradiction, and the most direct reason may be related to the pan-axiology of criticism. The discourse of body is a value choice of criticism focusing on the body narrative in literature. It concerns how body is conditioned by culture, how it is restrained as object of desire, and where the discourse of body as a mode of criticism functions when the body narrative goes out of control, etc. only by avoiding the contradiction of pan-axiology can this mode of criticism be so examined as to activate the dormant …
A Cultural Study Of Unrelated Homonym In Internet Language, Mofan Xu
A Cultural Study Of Unrelated Homonym In Internet Language, Mofan Xu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Unrelated homonym is a common phenomenon of language use in contemporary internet, in which the newly created homonyms have no relevance to the meaning of the original words. Unrelated homonym is not a way of making neologism, but a special usage conditioned by cyber communication techniques and it has become a kind of normalized language play. There are two purposes in using unrelated homonyms: to attract readers' attention through signifier noise, and to achieve an ironic effect through conveying the intended original content in an arbitrary phonetic form. The target of the irony reflects the group psychology of the contemporary …
Aesthetic Modernity Forms Of Contemporary Taiwanese Prose Theory, Jiangzhen Cai
Aesthetic Modernity Forms Of Contemporary Taiwanese Prose Theory, Jiangzhen Cai
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The prose theory has developed for more than half a century in Taiwan, with "modernity" as the principal axis. In the process of prose theory transformation, Yu Kwang-Chung's call for "cutting off the pigtail of prose" became a symbolic slogan with far-reaching influence, and his modernist approach of "poeticizing" prose established itself as the predominant principle. In the recent three decades, however, scholars shifted their research focus to the generic essence of prose, trying to define the generic style by deconstructing the style, while at the same time advocating the imagination and fictionality in prose which challenges the conventional concept …
Cultural Turn And The Legitimacy Of The Theory Of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetic Ideology, Yanfeng Li
Cultural Turn And The Legitimacy Of The Theory Of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetic Ideology, Yanfeng Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper starts its investigation from the perspective of discourse legitimacy with respect to the structural transformation of contemporary social culture and the transfiguration of the mechanism of discourse production. It tries to trace the working logic underlying the historical development of the theory of aesthetic ideology and map out how its legitimacy is produced, ossified and trapped into crisis. The theory of aesthetic ideology was formed in the 1980s, and this paper takes its discursive structure, attribute and function as obvious symptoms of "modernity." Due to the fracture of "modernity," the transformation of socio-cultural structure and the transfiguration of …
How Can A Literary Theory Be In The Era Of Post Theories?, Wei Song
How Can A Literary Theory Be In The Era Of Post Theories?, Wei Song
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Theoretical paradigm of modernity is met with unprecedented challenge and crisis, amid contemporary innovation and transformation of thoughts, thinking and discourse. Issues emerging from the post theory and "after theory" become important points for academic reflection. Post theories belong to the theoretical paradigm of postmodernity with a deconstructionist critical spirit. The reconstruction of literary theory in the era of post theories is not only a response and a critical questioning to contemporary cultural transformation, and the reality concern and critical dimension are the most demanding cultural-political issues in the process of the reconstruction.
A Further Reflection On The References Of Verbal Signs And Images, Jingpeng Zhao
A Further Reflection On The References Of Verbal Signs And Images, Jingpeng Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Language and writing are two different systems. Language as a system of sound symbols has the unique feature of containing "image" (verbal icon) in the sounds, and while writing, compared with the other images, are images that can be pronounced. A further reflection leads to the observation that the resemblance between the verbal icon and the referent can only decide the relation between the meaning and the referent but cannot undermine the arbitrary relationship between the pronunciation and the verbal icon or between the signifier and the signified. In other words, it cannot change the nature of the linguistic sign …
Discourse Power And The International Status Of Chinese Contemporary Literary And Art Theory, Shengxun Shi
Discourse Power And The International Status Of Chinese Contemporary Literary And Art Theory, Shengxun Shi
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Discourse power is a problem emerged when Chinese art encounters the Western discourse hegemony. Theoretical expression is crucial to the acquisition and presence of the discourse power over art, while the discourse power over literature and art theory is essential to Chinese art discourse power. International status is an entailing problem of the internationality of discourse power and it encompasses discourse power into the global framework of totality. However, in the global framework of literary and art theory China remains silent, and thus the issue of the international status of Chinese literary and art theory emerges. Chinese theoretical scholars have …
On The Ways For Literature To Pervade Reality, Xuan Wu
On The Ways For Literature To Pervade Reality, Xuan Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper raises the issue on how valid the traditional categorization of creative methods such as realism, romanticism and modernism can explain the uniqueness and originality of classical writers such as Dostoevsky and Lu Xun etc. It observes that classical writers have shared experience in the originality of literary creation which shows in their unique questions in philosophy or humanity targeting at the social reality of their own time while establishing their own understanding upon the questions and the understanding leads to the unique structuring of literary works. Therefore, a methodological schema can be found between individual concerns, personal understanding …
Kantian Influence On Early Zhu Guangqian, Qian Cao
Kantian Influence On Early Zhu Guangqian, Qian Cao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Based in a close reading of Zhu Guangqian's pre-1949 works on aesthetics, the paper delineates the relationship between Zhu's early aesthetics and Kant and points out the fundamental influence of Kantian aesthetics on the formation of Zhu's aesthetic theory. The paper claims that Croce's apparent influence shown as the psychological aspects in Zhu'a pre-1949 aesthetics should be understood as selective acceptance after Zhu's acceptance of Kantian aesthetics. Kant's main influence upon Zhu's aesthetics is Zhu's acceptance of the uninterested non-utilitarian formalism and the sublime theory, although Zhu had held some reservation about Kant's aesthetics, especially after 1930s when he began …
The Urban Imagination Of Shanghai Literature: With Focus Upon The 1990s', Yuan Feng
The Urban Imagination Of Shanghai Literature: With Focus Upon The 1990s', Yuan Feng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Urbanity and urbanization became the two key objectives of Shanghai Literature which claimed to aim at contemporaneity, literariness and experimental spirit, and the aims had also helped to construct a context for the magazine's popularity in the 1990s', and this made the magazine a leading literary periodical in China. One the one hand, it promoted varied ways to discuss, describe and present urban scenes. On the other hand, it excelled in the literary magazine market through its internal restructuring and external positioning to create a style of being open and multifaceted, and hence the magazine succeeded in establishing a literary …
A Hypoplastic Philosophic Fiction: A Reperusal Of Li Ping'sWhen The Sunset Disappears, Dongfeng Tao
A Hypoplastic Philosophic Fiction: A Reperusal Of Li Ping'sWhen The Sunset Disappears, Dongfeng Tao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
This paper is a reperusal and a reinterpretation of When the Sunset Disappears, a novel sensational in the 1980s. This novel contains a series of theoretic questions which are still significant nowadays, such as the relationships between reason and emotion, civilization and barbarism, religious forgiveness and secular punishment, etc. As a representative work of a representative intellectual group of that period, this novel is still worthy of attention, for it reflects a pattern the "Zhiqing" (Educated Youth) writers cannot break away from when thinking and writing about the Cultural Revolution: abstracting, philosophizing and moralizing specific social and historical problems. This …
An Art-Culturological Analysis Of The Appeal For Literary Autonomy Among The Beijing School Writers, Qingmin Zhang
An Art-Culturological Analysis Of The Appeal For Literary Autonomy Among The Beijing School Writers, Qingmin Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Beijing-School writers pursued the autonomy of literature and refuse external research of literature. They used native discourse to describe the autonomic characteristics of literature and directed literary research to literature itself. Their explorative analyses on the form, technique, language and other internal factors of literary research reached a philosophical depth and theoretical level that are still inspiring today. Their appeal for literary autonomy was grounded on such factors as poetical tradition, social reality, foreign theory and professional position, and this may prove to be a unique case for scholars to interpret the complex spiritual world of literary subjecthood.
Anthropocosmic Resonance In Post-Mao Chinese Environmental Literature, Visser Robin
Anthropocosmic Resonance In Post-Mao Chinese Environmental Literature, Visser Robin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In this article I examine philosophical ideas in 1980s Chinese environmental literature that, while espousing perspectives on human relations to the natural environment derived from Daoism, animism, and Buddhism primarily convey a syncretic humanist philosophy of Neo-Confucian idealism. I analyze three influential post-Mao literary works that appropriate ancient philosophical thought and praxis to critique unsustainable deforestation during the intensifying neoliberal development characterizing the Deng era. Ah Cheng's 1985 novella, King of Trees is one of the earliest examples of post-Mao ecological consciousness. Xu Gang's 1987 Woodcutter, Wake Up! launched the eco-reportage movement by appealing to the moral center of the …
On The Paradigm Transformation Of Literary Studies: From Literature To Literariness, Hanguang Ma
On The Paradigm Transformation Of Literary Studies: From Literature To Literariness, Hanguang Ma
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The ideas of modern literature from Madame de Stael to Matthew Arnold inherit the form of traditional literature which approaches literature from the perspective of the modes and outcomes of the subject's activities on the basis of the theory of subjectivity.Thus what they revealed through literature studies is not the truth of literature itself but the subject itself i.e. how the subject forms through literary activities. The Russian formalists put forward the concept of literariness which defined the object of literature as literariness of the works.The changing literary study modes makes the discussion on literature studies transfer from the grand …
The Theorization Of Rhythm In Modern Chinese Aestheticism, Hongxia Li
The Theorization Of Rhythm In Modern Chinese Aestheticism, Hongxia Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
As one core concept of aestheticism, "art for art's sake" in modern Chinese literature has a distinctive way of manifestation with localized forms, and the theorization of "rhythm" is the most unique one among its specific concepts. Authors and theorists help to define its trajectory of development throughout the process of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun approached it at the beginning of 20th century from the perspective of "devilish beauty" as a form of the rhythm of life. Lu Xun's conceptualization echoed among the advocator of pure poetry. Literary theorist Qian Gurong's essay "On Rhythm" can be viewed as a …