East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Semiotic Analysis Of “Repulsion” And Its Social And Aesthetic Functions, Guanghui Tan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Repulsion is not a pure negative emotion. With repulsion, people can tell cleanness from dirtiness, beauty from ugliness, and good from evil. Central to repulsion is the denial of the existence of the other. Repulsion can be divided into physical, material, emotional, and symbolic loathness. Repulsion may be combined with other emotions to form new feelings such as nausea, contempt, pessimism, and arrogance or destructive desire. Most moral norms in human history are constructed through cultivation of people’s repulsion or sense of disgust. In the first place, people construct taboos by defining dirtiness, establish morality through taboos, and stabilize moral …

Self-Understanding Before The Text: Paul Ricoeur's Conceptualization Of The Textual Meaning, Fei Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Paul Ricoeur rejects the Structuralist view of language as a closed system of symbols, and maintains, from the perspective of semantics, that language inherently possesses a dynamic structure of signification. This signification structure implies the discourse, in linguistic domain, is realized as an event and understood as meaning. But meaning is not wholly subjective, as it is substantialized in linguistic forms during the process of externalization, which to a certain degree enables the comprehensibility of human experience. The act of externalization culminates in literary works. With the cancellation of the realistic context, literary texts are allowed the capacity to refer …

Speculative Aesthetics And Subject-Object Relation: Michelangelo Antonioni And Samuel Beckett As Examples, Chang Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Speculative realism explores the substance of objects existing outside of humans’ subjective frame of thought. Under its radiation, Western aesthetics in the last five years has developed a new trend of speculative aesthetics composed of various branches, stimulating a shift in existing art paradigms. However, inside this trend, two camps of aesthetic discussions, with speculative materialism and object-oriented ontology as their respective starting points, are in great division. This article attempts to work through and clarify the tension as well as interaction among the various branches of speculative aesthetics, by mainly focusing on how speculative aesthetics talks about art outside …

Spatial Rhetoric And The Visual Generation Of Cultural Memory: A Rhetorical Investigation Of The National Museum Of China, Wei Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Derived from visual rhetoric, the rhetorical of space depends on the physical development of visual rhetoric, the modern generation of visual context and the establishment of space as a mechanism for the production of its meaning. The rhetorical discourse in public cultural space not only has an impact on individual's aesthetic experience, but also regulates the generative logic of cultural memory and cultural identification. The production of spatial rhetoric in the National Museum of China effectively promotes the rhetorical practice of the visually "persuasive" discourse through the spatial layout and structural design of the architecture, the aesthetic application of lights …

A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu: Enlightenment On "Hatred" And "Love", Xiaolei Guo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Marcel Proust's long narrative A la Recherche du Temps Perdu reveals that the inevitable form of existence of the temporal ego, “I”, is alienation, with desire as its psychological expression and "hating the neighbor" as its ethical expression. But Proust also suggests an extra-temporal ego, the “true I.” The narratives of the "true I" and "I" are isomorphic to Sartre's "pre/non-reflective consciousness" and "reflective consciousness." The temporal ego is fictional and the ego is polyphonic. This means that, although "hatred" is the inevitable ethical impulse of the "I" towards the world, "non-hatred" is also a realistic and existential possibility. Lacan …

A Synopsis Of The Symposium Of “Literature And Images” And The Books Launch Of A History Of Literature-Image Relations In China, Wenbo Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Concept Of “Cyborg”, Guodong Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

“Cyborg” has gradually become a popular term in academic research and popular culture since the 1960s, but its connotation is often ambiguous. From the perspective of its conceptual genealogy, the term “cyborg” invented by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline is based on the image of the mechanized man, but the definition of “cyborg”—“cybernetic organism”— covers the idea of pure machine. Interpreting “cyborg” from the perspective of postmodern philosophy, Donna J. Haraway explicates it as an ontological metaphor and a political myth of irony, producing an intellectual discourse about cyborg that separates the concept from what it originally signifies. …

An Exploration Into The “Essence Of Things” In The Poetics Of The Jin And Song Dynasties, Danjun Cai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The discovery and representation of the sound and color of things became the core content in the development of the poetics of the Jin and Song Dynasties, a trend criticized by such critics as Zhong Rong and Liu Xie, who denounced the poetry that indulged in description of things and maintained that poetry should resume the traditions of metaphor and evocation (bixing 比兴) from the Han and Wei dynasties and of the relationship between the object and the self as expressed in “correspondences between feelings and objects.” Such criticism was advocated by later generations, and resulted in many negative comments …

Cultural Studies And The Intellectual Genealogy Of Chinese American Scholars: The Controversies On Lydia H. Liu's Study Of The “National Character” And Beyond, Shi Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Lydia H. Liu's criticism on Lu Xun's discourse of national character is not an isolated case in literary criticism, but part of the theoretical nomadism of “translated modernity.” Be it Lydia H. Liu’s conceptualization of “translated modernity,” Leo Ou-fan Lee’s “pursuit of modernity,” David Der-wei Wang’s “repressed modernity,” Rey Chow’s “repressed visuality” or Shu-mei Shih’s “lure of the modern,” the theoretical purport of theirs tends to examine the complex relationship between Chinese literature and politics in the 20th century from the perspective of power criticism, and reflect on the “repressive regime” behind the modern nation-state. The formation of this knowledge …

Cruelfictions Of Psychoanalysis: From Freud To Kafka; From Derrida To Mignotte, Rabaté Jean-Michel

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Derrida has asserted that the main problem encountered by psychoanalysis is the existence of cruelty, a question that has never been solved. Touria Mignotte has responded to these criticisms and queries in Cruelty, Sexuality, and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis by deploying a concept of cruelty that is not simply cultural but psychoanalytical. Following Mignotte’s lead, I attempt to situate the investigation at a foundational level that looks at the body. Derrida’s argument about psychoanalysis is compared with Deleuze’s essay on sadism and masochism, after which I outline points of convergence in their approaches, which leads to discussions of texts by …

Evaluation Of The Identity Of “Fengren” In Classical Chinese Poetics, Shiwei Lv

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

“Fengren” is a reference of identity from The Book of Poetry. Classical Chinese poetics has formed a unique evaluation of the identity relevant to the discourse of “Fengren,” which is suggestive of the ethics in The Book of Poetry. In contrast to the identity of “Saoren,” “Fengren”’s identity is linked with political criticism and sarcasm. As “Feng” and “Ya” are gradually distinguished, “Fengren” is differentiated from “Cairen” and becomes increasingly recognizable in terms of expressing meanings metaphorically through things. Thanks to the author community and the content of “Feng,” the style of folk lyric is formed with “Fengren” at its …

From Textual Experiments To Experimental Texts: Expressive Repetition In “Artificial Intelligence Literature”, Tianhua Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the 70 years since the birth of artificial intelligence, attempts at literary “creation” with computers have run through the course of technological development, creating what one might call “artificial intelligence literature” (AI literature). Evolving from “textual experiments” carried out by technological researchers to “experimental texts” that explore the possibilities of literary conceptualization, AI literature integrates original problematics including machine thinking, text generation, and machine creation, which exhibits the two-way interaction between social ideas and technological practice. In the early stage, the closed-loop of mutual verification between artistic ideas and technological choices turned out to be a failure, while AI-driven …

Hong Shen’S Artistic Experience And Psychological Journey In The Early 1920s: A Study Of Newly Discovered Correspondence Between Hong Shen And George Pierce Baker, Tingting Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

I did archival research at Harvard University in the summer of 2019 and found that there were eight letters between Hong Shen and his mentor, Professor George Pierce Baker, from 1920 to 1923. Moreover, a letter that Professor Baker wrote to a certain editor referred to Hong Shen. Most of these letters have never been mentioned in the literature, and those that were mentioned require further study. As these letters from a hundred years ago are valuable to research on Hong Shen, I have specially translated them into Chinese and have done a preliminary study. These letters not only reveal …

How The Althusserian Critics Inherit And Develop Marx’S Thought Of Artistic Production, Jifang Duan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

How Althusserian critics inherited and developed Marx’s thought of artistic production is an important theoretical issue in the development of Marxist theory on literature and art. Louis Althusser, Pierre Macherey and Terry Eagleton put forward important theoretical concepts such as “symptomatic criticism”, “silence” and “aesthetic ideological criticism” within the framework of Marxist philosophy and ideology, expanding Marx’s thought of artistic production in the light of the relation between ideology and aesthetic discourses, and thus they have enriched the theoretical connotation of Marx’s theory and promoted the thought of artistic production, enabling it to take root in textual criticism and move …

How Did Yuan Zaju Become “Literature Of Its Time Period”: Revisiting The Idea “Every Time Period Has Its Own Literature”, Dajun Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The sequence of literary form that “poetry of the Tang dynasty, ci-poetry of the Song dynasty and drama of the Yuan dynasty” is often used to advocate the value of Yuan zaju. However, it does not necessarily lead to the assertion that “every time period has its own literature”. In each period of history this assertion conveys different meanings, including the origin, coordination and variation of Yuan zaju, but the value judgements were based on Yuan zaju’s property of verse, considering it as successor of folk-song-styled verse, the exemplary model of dramatic poetry, or the highest level of Chinese poetry. …

Ciudad, Movimiento Y Transformación: "23 Segundos" En Dos Tiempos, Mariana Pensa

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

En este trabajo se realiza una lectura del film uruguayo 23 Segundos (2014, dirigido por Dimitry Rudakov). Un punto de entrada al mismo nos remite a los conceptos de acción/inacción, desde donde la intriga toma cuerpo y comienza a formarse. A partir de esto, se focaliza en el personaje principal de Emiliano, y en su recorrido por Montevideo, recorrido que se transforma a lo largo de la película en una forma de adquisición de conocimiento sobre sí mismo y los demás. Esto lo lleva ultimamente a un cambio de vida, a la superación de la alienación y la rutina. Es …

2021 Seccll Conference Program, Seccll Conference

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

Conference program for the 2021 SECCLL.

Making It Just In Time: Author-Creator Matsumoto Taiyō, Natsume Fusanosuke, Jon Holt, Teppei Fukuda

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Translated by Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda

The first time I can remember encountering Matsumoto Taiyō’s work was probably when he released his short story collection, Blue Spring (Aoi haru - Matsumoto Taiyō tanpenshū [stories published from 1990 to 1993; Shōgakukan, 1993]). All of the stories concern a bunch of young dudes -- full of desires, frustrations, and violent tendencies -- and no chance they can ever get past those things. I thought to myself at that time, “Ah, I bet this stuff means a lot to readers in their teens, but they don’t really do anything for me.” …

Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy Of Action, Mercedes Valmisa

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

If you are from the West, it is likely that you normally assume that you are a subject who relates to objects and other subjects through actions that spring purely from your own intentions and will. Chinese philosophers, however, show how mistaken this conception of action is. Philosophy of action in Classical China is radically different from its counterpart in the Western philosophical narrative. While the latter usually assumes we are discrete individual subjects with the ability to act or to effect change, Classical Chinese philosophers theorize that human life is embedded in endless networks of relationships with other entities, …

Review: André Van Der Braak, Reimagining Zen In A Secular Age: Charles Taylor And Zen Buddhism In The West., James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Las Comunidades Asiáticas En Latinoamérica, Nina Lerrick

World Languages and Cultures

This project undertakes the examination of several prominent Asian communities in Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, and others in understanding the diverse intersection that is the Asian-Latino culture and identity. Within the United States, there is a growing community of Asian-Latinos that share both the cultural identities of the Hispanic/Latinx community (cultural environment) and the Asian communities (familial and cultural upbringing). Likewise, in U.S. cities such as New York City and Los Angeles, there have been notable Asian-Latino restaurants that offer Asian cuisine and Latin cuisine, as well as a rise of new Asian-Latin infused cuisines …

Towards A Decolonial Feminist Aesthetics: Gender, Race, And Empire In Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’S Dictee, Juwon Jun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Defining revolutionary struggle as a struggle between fictions, Trinh T. Minh-ha asserts that art in revolution is a spiritual presence which widens the conception of freedom. Political struggle is constituted by clashes in differently written and conceived realities—hinged on the creation and realization of multiple liberatory fictions. Liberation then requires us to attend to creating new myths and conceptions of freedom which can free us from the current structures of domination that produce current subjects and realities. If culture is indeed an “essential element in the history of a people,” mapping decoloniality in cultural and aesthetic fields may be essential …

「社會主義時期」的藏地「生態政治」與「政治生態」: 以阿來「機村史詩」爲例, Huaji Xu

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

藏族作家阿來在「機村史詩」中以非凡的創造力描繪出了當代中國政治變動和社會風潮影響下的邊疆風貌，「民族」與「生態」成爲他文學中至關重要的命題。明乎此，本論文從移風易俗、勞動生產、救災行動三方面入手，把作家的藏地生態書寫置於毛時代的「民族話語」和「國家敘述」中加以考察，揭示出藏地從傳統「山神社會」向現代「國族社會」轉變的艱難歷程及其仍在進行時的歷史形態。在阿來的史詩創作中，毛時代的歷次革命/政治運動和諸種民族建制力圖將藏族作爲「少數民族」納入到「中華民族」，訴諸於「想象的共同體」式的國族認同；然而包括異域風情、自然資源、信仰習俗和民族心理特質在內的藏地「人類生態體系」自始便是此宏大敘事的重要一環，在國族整合中扮演重要角色，而且在這組交織纏繞、二律背反的關係中帶出當地藏民平等和正義的種種困局以及各式「被壓抑的聲音」。概言之，本論文聚焦阿來作品中「社會主義時期」（1949—1979）的「生態政治」與「政治生態」及其文學特色，以民族/族羣理論和生態批評爲主要研究方法，既期望對尚待開掘的內地少數民族文學研究和海外熱門的中國研究作初步的探討與迴應，也希冀藉阿來對「階級鬥爭爲綱時代的藏地」的生態描摹與文學重塑，燭照今日之西藏問題。

The Emergence Of The Legitimacy Of Religious Healing Knowledge In Taiwan, Wei-Cheng Chiu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how religious healing knowledge has been defined and used by scholars, physicians, and New Agers and how religious healing knowledge emerged as a legitimate area of knowledge in Taiwan. The key position of religious healing knowledge within the entanglement between religion and spirituality is also examined. After the martial law was lifted in 1987, Taiwan’s society had rapidly diversified, and its religions were at the transition point between the old and the new. Meanwhile, the new spirituality culture was introduced into Taiwan in the 1980s and got popular in the 1990s, and it inherited the trend of …

Exhibiting Text As A Spatial Object In The Beijing Lu Xun Museum, Formosa Deppman

The Yale Undergraduate Research Journal

Lu Xun preserves a certain complexity and reflectivity in his writings that avoid overly simplistic interpretations. But what happens when a text is taken out of its literary context and exhibited as visual art? By examining the two cases of the Beijing Lu Xun Museum and the Former Residence of Lu Xun, we observe different inversion of meanings that allow for new forms of heterogeneity to be played out in a spatial realm. The text-focused curative style of the Beijing Lu Xun Museum decontextualizes Lu Xun’s quotes to create more generalizable meanings for viewers. The Former Residence of Lu Xun …

Interwoven Histories: A Chinese Family, A Yale Graduate And The Nanking Massacre, Isabella Yang

The Yale Undergraduate Research Journal

Following the fall of Nanjing, the Republic of China’s capital, in December 1937 during World War II, Japanese soldiers conducted a series of atrocities against civilians in the region that lasted for months, infamously known as the Nanking Massacre. This paper takes a microhistorical approach to examining how these atrocities permanently affected civilians’ lives. Relying on oral histories and primary sources at the Yale Divinity Library, it explores two interwoven histories of wartime survivors: one of the Cao family residing just outside Nanjing when the atrocities happened, and another of a Yale graduate named Miner Searle Bates who took advantage …

Time To Re-Evaluate Taniguchi Jiro's Pace In Manga, Natsume Fusanosuke, Jon Holt, Teppei Fukuda

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Natsume Fusanosuke is Emeritus Professor of the Graduate Program of Cultural Studies in Corporeal and Visual Representation, Gakushūin University. Despite his recent retirement from Gakushūin in March, he is still very active in manga criticism and scholarship. Originally a manga artist himself in the 1980s, by the 1990s he began doing more writing about manga, although he often still employs his cartooning skills to assist in his analysis and explanation of his subjects, much like his American contemporary Scott McCloud. It is not a stretch to compare the latter’s Understanding Comics to Natsume's work in the classic How to Read …

The Functions Of Panels (Koma) In Manga: An Essay By Natsume Fusanosuke, Jon Holt, Teppei Fukuda

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Natsume Fusanosuke presents in this essay the core ideas of his formal ‘theory of expression’ (manga hyōgen-ron) that focuses on three basic elements of manga: words, pictures, and frames. In the 1990s, Natsume emerged as a seminal scholar of Manga Studies, whose influential works include Manga no yomikata (coauthored, 1995) and Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono hyōgen to bunpō (1997), where the present essay is found. Here, Natsume describes the central aspects of panel constructions in manga: creating a sense of order for the reader by segmenting time; shaping the reader’s mental perceptions by panel compression (asshuku) and …

The Professional Struggles Of Contemporary Korean Women: Origins And Consequences Of The Glass Ceiling, Liat Miller

Master's Projects and Capstones

The status of women globally, though improved in recent decades, remains an unresolved issue. The labor market, in which women must contend with the glass ceiling phenomenon, is an indicative microcosmos of a larger issue—the persistence of discriminatory attitudes toward women. The case is even more profound in East Asian contexts, such as South Korea. The existing literature is limited and focuses on either specific aspects of the glass ceiling or particular industries in Korea. This paper explores the origins and interconnected causes of the glass ceiling in Korea, which include Confucian philosophy and values. Moreover, by analyzing testimonials of …

Confucian Leadership Democracy: A Roadmap, Yutang Jin

Comparative Philosophy

What kind of polity is justified by classic Confucian values? Adopting an interpretive approach, this paper explores the idea of leadership democracy being expressive of classic Confucian values by first introducing the models of leadership democracy associated with Weber and Schumpeter and second connecting Confucian elitist values to them. I argue that leadership democracy best realizes the Confucian emphasis on the people as the source of legitimacy and the ruler as the engine of good governance. The Confucian idea of people-rootedness is borne out by citizens behaving as democratic plebeians who are empowered to choose their leader but devoid of …