East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

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

Publications and Research

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

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

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

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

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

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

To Teach, Delight, And Inspire. Experiences With Kim Sowol’S Jindallaekkot (Azaleas) As A Printed Facsimile, Printed Scholarly Edition, Web-Based Reading Text, And Virtual Reality Experience, Wayne De Fremery

Barowsky School of Business | Faculty Scholarship

Here we document how college students responded to a canonical book of Korean poems, Kim Sowol’s 1925 Jindallaekkot (Azaleas), presented in a variety of formats: as part of a 2014 printed facsimile, a 2007 printed scholarly edition, a reading text articulated as a web page on a tablet, and a radical refiguration as a virtual reality forest. We asked students to describe if they enjoyed and felt inspired by their encounters with Kim Sowol’s poetry in these different formats. We also asked if they felt their experiences were educational and if they engendered a desire to share Kim Sowol’s poetry …

ポスト汎神論から超物質主義へ―鈴木大拙と新仏教―, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

In modern Western thought, pantheism remains a powerful if controversial undercurrent. Recent re-evaluations of the work of Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) point to pantheism’s radical implications for metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics. Pantheism (Jp. hanshinron 汎神論) also has significant valence within Japanese Buddhist modernism, particularly in the work of scholars and lay activists who articulated the outlines of a New Buddhism (shin bukkyō 新仏教) from the 1880s through the 1940s. For these thinkers, pantheism provided a “middle way” between materialism and idealism, as well as between theism and atheism. In the postwar period, lapsed radical turned Buddhist Sano Manabu …

Pregnant Violence In Post-3.11 Fiction, Doug Slaymaker

Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Publications

This essay explores the violence and the threat of violence associated with pregnancy in Japanese fiction after the triple disasters—the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown—of March 11, 2011. There is hardly a female character in this fiction that is not confronted with questions about pregnancy and childbirth. The queries are surely motivated by genuine concern about the humans involved, but they are just as often about control, about a woman’s body as a public item, about responsibility to the child, and then to society at large. Childbearing in a disaster zone is profoundly anxiety-producing; but it is also worth examining …

Aatj’S Role In Diversity And Inclusion: An Opportunity To Transform Into A Well-Integrated Organization, Suwako Watanabe

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

According to the survey results, 57% of the survey respondents said no to the question, “Is the Japanese language educator community in North America diverse one?” (Mori, Hasegawa, Park, and Suzuki, this volume). This result suggests that the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) as a professional organization needs to improve diversity within the field. What is a more important question is whether or not our organization and its membership as a whole embrace the value of diversity and put it into practice in every aspect of their profession on a daily basis. The survey results make it clear …

Moonlit Nights And Seasons Of Romance: Yosano Akiko's Use Of The Moon In Tangled Hair, Teppei Fukuda

Dissertations and Theses

Ever since they opened their country to the world in the late nineteenth century, the Japanese experienced drastic changes in many aspects. They rapidly absorbed Western culture with their desperate hope to modernize their country in politics, the sciences, and art. Literature was not an exception. Yosano Akiko (1878-1942), who is well known as a pivotal poet of Japanese Romanticism, absorbed this new modern sense of self and individuality and advocated the poetic expression of one's private and personal emotions.

In premodern Japan, poets had traditionally expressed their feelings through a set, limited range of classical landscapes and natural objects, …

Marching Through The Floating World: Processions In Ukiyo-E Prints (2020), Theory & History Of Art & Design Department, Elena Varshavskaya (H791 Instructor)

Ukiyo-e Prints Course | Exhibition Catalogs

"Marching through the Floating World is a book that accompanies a student curated virtual exhibition of the same title. This exhibition is dedicated to images of processions in ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

Ukiyo-e or “pictures of the floating world” was a vibrant style of urban art that flourished in Japan in the 17th- 19th century, predominantly in the form of mass-produced woodcuts. Steeped in everyday pleasurable pastimes of townspeople, ukiyo-e prints reflected contemporary culture to its fullest, whether fact or fiction, often the two amalgamated in a witty way.

Processions constituted a noticeable theme in ukiyo-e prints as they were an …

Skeptical Buddhism As Provenance And Project, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The past century and a half has seen various attempts in both Asia and the West to reform or re-conceptualize Buddhism by adding a simple, often provocative, qualifier. This paper examines some of the links between “secular,” “critical,” “sceptical,” and “radical” Buddhism in order to ascertain possibilities in thinking Buddhism anew as a 21st-century “project” with philosophical, ethical, and political resonance. In particular, I am motivated by the question of whether “sceptical” Buddhism can coexist with Buddhist praxis, conceived as an engaged response to the suffering of sentient beings in a globalized and neoliberal industrial capitalist world order. Let …

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

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

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

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

Reconsideration Of Humanism And Literature, Gong Zhang, Yuneng Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The issue of "humanism and literature" was once a forbidden area in Chinese literary theory. After the Reform and Opening-up, the emancipation of mind promoted the breakthrough in this forbidden zone and launched an in-depth discussion to bring order out of chaos and clarify the source of such thoughts. It not only did justice to the humanistic thought in modern Western literature and art, but also re-evaluated the "human literature" and "humanistic literature" in the May Fourth new literature and literary theory. It enabled fair evaluations of the view that "literature is a study of humanity" and played an important …

The Art Of Guan Hanqing's Dramaturgic Structure, Jianzhong Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The 15 existing plays by the Yuan-Dynasty playwright Guan Hanqing reflect the playwright's originality in processing subject matter through transformation of conventional themes and his realistic concerns with profound thoughts. Guan Hanqing's plays, literally variety dramas in Chinese, demonstrate a variety of structural types with different dramaturgic techniques. The plot from suspense, misunderstanding, and discovery to return is well adapted into plays with each act comprising two sections, and this greatly promotes the expressiveness of the plays. His story is strengthened by his thoughtful construction of plot with added sections that broke through the "one-play-of-four-act" convention. In Guan's ingenious casting, …

The Body And Its Theoretical Problems In Virtual Art Experience: An Investigation Based On Physical Practice In Vr Films, Xiaoxi Shan, Xueli Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The mode of typical interactive experience comes into being in virtual art activities represented by VR films. According to the degrees of "freedom" of the experiencer's body, the interactive experience of VR films can be divided into three types: three-dimensional freedom, six-dimensional freedom, and multi-dimensional freedom. In different types of interactive activities, technology extends to body, and body assimilates technology to makes it function as body, which gives rise to the "technical embodiment"; in the meantime, consciousness rests on body and body covers consciousness, which gives rise to the "conscious embodiment". With the increase of body's freedom, "technical embodiment" and …

The Chineseness Of Chinese Fiction: Taking Wang Zengqi As An Example In Response To The Query Of Howard Goldblatt, Cancan Ouyang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In his questioning of Chinese fiction, Howard Goldblatt suggests that, thanks to its obsession with the depiction of daily life, Chinese fiction features loosely-knit plots, which as a result deprives itself of literariness. Goldblatt's perception is problematic, because the depiction of everyday details precisely originates from the long history of Chinese literary tradition, which pursues the harmony of writing, man, and the world. Such a harmony-seeking practice bespeaks the Chineseness of modern Chinese fiction. Unlike Western literature that puts an emphasis on literary independence, Chinese literary tradition stresses "the expression of what one truly thinks", and emphasizes the unity and …

The Reconstructed Picture: On The Formation And Transformation Of The "Fangweng Style", Yuqi Shang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The term "Fangweng Style" was first used in The Metrical Marrow of the Hall of the Literary Notables, in order to describe the style of Lu You's poetic creations. Today, the prevalent definition of the "Fangweng Style" is focused on its patriotic themes and magnificent artistic conceptions. In fact, the connotations of "Fangweng Style" varied during different periods. During the Ming and Qing periods, it featured the subject matter of daily life, with a smooth and fresh style. With a preference for suite of poems, Ming and Qing literati emphasized the demonstration of their leisure attitude. Therefore, definitions of the …

The Substance Of Wei Xi's "Genuine Air" And Its Theoretical Implications, Zebao Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Wei Xi(1624-1681), an early Qing-Dynasty prose theorist, proposed the concept of "genuine air(zhen-qi)," and it is an important component to his literary theory. In essence, the concept highlights author's personality and centers round author's reason, while it also implicitly promotes cultural pluralism. With this concept, Wei's theory framework can refrain from overreliance on the rules, reason and knowledge. The political implication of "genuine air" respond to the socio-cultural background in which the Ming-Dynasty subjects tried to reflect the fall of their nation, and his theory also embodies his intention of upholding mores of the intellectuals through changing literary mode. Wei …

Theory And Death, Liang Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Derrida's deathbed interview raises important questions about the relationship between theory and death. His dying and his words about death form the tension of this interview event. Through survival theory, he charts the theorist's path to immortality beyond life, but he also frankly shows the helplessness in the face of real death. He raises questions but does not answer them; rather, he leaves them to posterity because he could not find a convincing (or in his words, "sincere") balance or consistency between the theory and death.

Xu Zhongyu's Contributions To The Study Of Ancient Chinese Literary Theory, Shuzhuo Jiang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper discusses Xu Zhongyu's various contributions to the field of ancient Chinese literary theory. As a professional in this field, he devoted to it more than 80 years of his life. As a patriot, Xu Zhongyu, in the early stage of reform and opening up, took the initiative to emancipated his mind, and became an exemplary explorer who dared to enter the academic forbidden area, to innovate and to seek truth from facts. Xu Zhongyu was open-minded in terms of academic vision and eclectic in his research approach. With his singular academic vision, he made outstanding achievements in many …