Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Socialist-Realist Art From The Perspective Of Gaze Theory: An Inquiry From Filmology To Iconology, Ying Lu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"Socialist-realist gaze," linking gaze and socialist realist literary thoughts, refers to the visual communication of heroic figures on the external points off the screen in shooting Chinese revolutionary films. Such gaze, being invisible and with shared sight, returns to Jacques Lacan's gaze theory because of its intersubjective functioning. During its generation and function, socialist-realist gaze breaks the limitation of pictorial space, extends the boundary of screen as a "quilting point," and connects characters and audiences with ideological truth. As a performative image behavior, it arouses and strengthens the empathy between the viewers and the hero.

Fables Agreed Upon: A Comparative Study Of New Historicism And Alternate History, Feng Li, Yitzhak Lewis

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

New Historicism and alternate history raise similar questions regarding history and ideology. New Historicism reads every text as an alternate history narrative, while the narrative mode in alternate history can inspire a nuanced understanding of the critical positions promoted by New Historicism. The paper offers a comparative study of the two in terms of their conceptualizations of historical narrative, intertextuality, narrativity, non-linear structure and spatiality. It seeks to create dialogues between different voices in both the critical theory and the literary genre with respect to their attention to mundane matters, their allusions to the present and projections of the future, …

“Birth Of New Things From Old Things”: The Dialectics Of Ding Ling's “Transformation” In The Left-Wing Literature Movement During The 1930s, Shujie Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Written in the summer of 1931, Ding Ling's Flood is considered to represent her turn to the left-wing. This was the result of Ding Ling's transformation in thought and the construction in the organized movement of the League of Left-wing Writers. With the dialectical materialist method of creation, Feng Xuefeng reinterpreted Flood, turning it into a practice of the "November Resolution". This established new space of discourse and path of practice for the cultural struggle of left-wing writers in the new situation.

A Study Of The Relationship Between Zhou Zuoren And Takeuchi Yoshimi As An Overseas Student In Beijing, Wanming Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

From 1937 to 1939, Takeuchi Yoshimi studied in Beijing as an overseas student. During this time, he had adeveloped deep understanding of literature's inefficacy when confronted with Japanese invaders＇ political violence. At the sametime, through befriending Zhou Zuoren, Takeuchi was deeply affected by him, especially regarding his views on the relationshipbetween literature and politics, national character, cultural subjectivity, and modernization of East Asia. In the end, Zhou Zuoren became a bridge for Takeuchi Yoshimi to Lu Xun. By using the two key words, "ghost" and "sorrow of the East Asia people", to connect Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun, Takeuchi expressed …

On The Relationship Between The Morality Advocating Campaign In The Qing Dynasty And Popular Novels, Caixun Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Through the nationwide Morality Advocating Campaign, the Qing government brought novels into cultural management, which had a profound influence on the creation and dissemination of the novel. In such a political and cultural ecology, censership and banning of novels, which had formed an important part of the social Morality Advocating Campaign, became a top- down, national cultural conscious action in Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, in order to enhance the effect of advocating morality, some“moralist scholars”intentionally fictionized the moral-instruction books. On the other hand, some novelists consciously utilized popular novels to implement persuasion in order to cooperate with the …

A Comparison Of The Two Historical Narrative Approaches To Qi Baishi's “Late Life Transformation”, Zhongyi Xia

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The two historical narrative approaches to Qi Baishi's “late-life transformation” could be referred to as “the Sovietperspective” and “the non-Soviet perspective”. The former is characterized by “framing history with theory” and “substitutinghistory with theory”, while the latter “confirming theory with historical facts” and “constructing theory with historical facts”. Following the thread “constructing theory with historical facts”, one must valorize The Autobiography of Qi Baishi, because itssimple summary of “late-life transformation” is reliable as “history”, and as theory it is also superbly profound, which can shedlight on the absurdity of the Soviet perspective “framing history with theory”. Likewise, by following the …

Cento: The Categorizing Feature And Fictional Function Of Verse In The Vernacular Stories Of The Song And Yuan Dynasties, Chuyan Ye

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the vernacular stories of the Song and Yuan dynasties, centos of poems or ci-poems not only appear in the beginning of the story as a lead-in, but also widely exist in the rhymed texts of other parts. Judging by its content and form, the performance of centos is closely related to the art form of hesheng (a form of rhyme created upon sighting anything) in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. According to the audience's familiarity with the rhymed text, and the story-teller＇s categorization of knowledge and utilization of techniques, the centos in the story-telling scripts can be classified into …

The Aesthetics Of Witheredness And Artistic Creations In The Song Dynasty, Yun Dong

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the Song dynasty witheredness (ku) came to be the representation of a particular type of beauty, with the withered objects regarded as the object of aesthetic interest. The taste for witheredness manifests in various forms such as cold and thin, sparse and plain, old and strange, epitomizing the ancient-emulating aesthetics of the Song dynasty. Besides literary texts highlighting the withered objects, literati paintings constitute a unique world characterized by witheredness popularized with examples of withered objects such as dead trees, aged plum trees, and thin bamboos. The aesthetics for the withered reflects the taste and spiritual pursuit of the …

Yang Weizhen And The Changes Of Poetics In Late Yuan Dynasty, Fang Ding

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The history of poetry in Yuan dynasty is usually divided into three periods. In the early Yuan period, the poetic style of late Tang dynasty and late Song dynasty was prevalence. In the middle-Yuan period, the high Tang style was emulated, as was represented by the so-called the Four Great Yuan Poets who were officials and served in the court. Yang Weizhen, an influential poet in late Yuan dynasty for his poetics, however, advocated the Six-Dynasty poetry as well as the works of Li Po, Li Ho, Tao Yuanming, Wei Yingwu, Liu Zongyuan, Du fu, Li Shangyin, etc. Yang Weizhen …

Anthologies Of Ancient Chinese Fiction Compiled By Western Sinologists And The Construction Of The Literary Style Of Fiction, Lijuan Song

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Anthologies of ancient Chinese fiction compiled by Western Sinologists are an important channel for their textualization in the West. These fictive works exist mainly in three forms: selected translations of ancient Chinese fiction, selected works of Chinese literature, and histories of Chinese literature. Being translations, samples and selections at the same time, these texts also feature functions of in-betweenness, exhibition and criticism. Through translation, exhibition and criticism, those anthologies have not only textualized ancient Chinese fiction in the West, but also investigate Chinese fiction from Western perspective, which, regarding issues of translation, origin, and types of Chinese fiction, facilitated the …

An Analysis Of Chinese Fiction's Impact On The Joseon Conception Of Fiction, Weiguo Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Based on the literature of Goryeo and Joseon fiction, this article aims to study ancient Korean fictive works written in Chinese, and explores the conception of early Goryeo and Joseon fiction from the lens of its reception of Chinese understanding of fiction. With the wide spread of fictive works such as Taiping Guangji and Jiandeng Xinhua on the Korean Peninsula, Goryeo and Joseon scholars began to understand and consciously create fiction. Then, Seo Geojung and Yi Seungso, who inherited the Confucian conception of fiction, put forward the“jesting theory”and“completing history theory”. These ideas not only laid the foundation for the development …

Narratives Of Journey To The West In Overseas Sinology, Hongbo Zhu, Xinxin Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since the mid-20th century, in Japan, as well as some European and American countries, studies of Journey to the West have started to emerge, which, with rich content and fruitful achievements, are in themselves narratives of overseas Sinology on this novel. Besides being an important part of overseas Sinology, they are also an extension to the modern study of Journey to the West in China, which testifies to the significance of cultural exchange in the process of “Chinese culture going West”. At the same time, through examining and interpreting Journey to the West from the perspective of global and modern …

On Allegory, Metaphor, And Allegorical Interpretation, Longxi Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the 4th and 5th centuries B.C., the rise of philosophy challenged the authority of Homer and many philosophers, notably Plato, dismissed Homer and poetry in the quarrel between poetry and philosophy. Some other philosophers, however, particularly the Stoics, came to the defence of Homer by proposing the idea of allegory and arguing that the Homeric epics contained a spiritual meaning beyond the literal sense of the text. Similarly, the Song of Songs in the Bible was also questioned by both Jewish rabbis and Christian interpreters because of its sensual language and eroticism. It was again allegorical interpretation that came …

L’Adieu Hors De Tout Lieu. L’Espace Funéraire Réinventé Par J. Amado, Réimaginé Par O. Fazwy, Dahlia El-Séguiny

Regards

In The Double Death of Quincas-Water-Bray by Jorge Amado and its Egyptian cinematographic adaptation, The Paradise of the Fallen Angels by Ossama Fawzy, the funerary preparation leads to an ironic reflection on life and death, and the confrontation between the value systems of the bourgeoisie and the marginalized.
This article studies the question of borders, “real” or virtual, between narrative spaces.
It is based on the concept of heterotopia (Michel Foucault), which offers a reflection on the constitution of a “different space” within the real location, and the notion of intermediality (Silvestra Mariniello), which questions the conceptual space that emerges …

« Bennesbeh La Boukra Chou ? » Et « Film Ameriki Tawil » : De La Restitution Des Vues « Rêvées » ?, May El-Koussa

Regards

Throughout history, the integration of archival images into cinema has taken different forms depending on contexts and styles. Whether in fiction, documentary or experimental filmmaking, archival footage has been used for different purposes and for different reasons. Over time, this practice turns into an aesthetic and is referred to as found footage. This article asks the question of the link between cinema constructed from found footage and the philosophical concept of “heterotopias” developed by Michel Foucault, by studying the films representing the plays of Ziad Rahbani Bennesbe la boukra chou? and Film ameriki tawil, released in 2016, whose …

« 1982 », De Oualid Mouannes, Pamela Nassour

Regards

War is the main element in the Lebanese collective consciousness and memory. Throughout the years, Lebanese citizens fight its residue, which still traumatizes them and defines their existence. For artists, the reaction appeared through their work, and in this article, the Lebanese film 1982 by director Oualid Mouaness will be tackled. This film is analyzed through its aesthetics and plot. Mouaness had a story to tell, like any other Lebanese witnessing that era. Thus, his film 1982 is to be added to the long list of Lebanese war films. Yet, what makes it different? In this article, we study Mouaness’s …

Introduction – L’Adaptation Au Cinéma Égyptien : Enjeux Théoriques Et Historiques, Walid El Khachab, Salma Mobarak

Regards

Alors que la tradition du récit arabe dont l’Égypte a hérité remonte à la fin du VIIe siècle, la naissance du roman moderne se situe au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles.
C’est à cette même époque (1896) qu’eut lieu la première projection du cinématographe à Alexandrie...

Les Transferts De La Littérature Occidentale. Alibis Culturels Ou Réception D’Archétypes ?, Michel Serceau

Regards

During the entire 20th century, dozens of Western literary works and plays were adapted to the Egyptian screen in hundreds of films.
The Western works adapted by Egyptian filmmakers were chosen because of the universal aspect of the archetypes and social issues at the heart of these, and because of their dramatic – even melodramatic – appeal in the eyes of the viewers.
Film directors preferred to adapt novels that were not deeply committed to a social and realist ideology, while still drawing the high esteem enjoyed by literature towards cinema, which, in its infancy, was a practice in search …

Du Roman « Zeth » Au Feuilleton « Bint Ismaha Zeth » Ou Le Traitement De L’Histoire Dans Une Adaptation Télévisuelle Égyptienne, Ramla Ayari Charif

Regards

The issue of adapting literary works for television has only recently begun to arouse researchers’ interest. Egypt, the leading country in television production and the imagining of literary works on television across the Arab world, witnessed a new lease of life from 2011 to 2014.
The TV series Bint ʾismaha Zeth, produced in 2013 by Kamla Abouzekri and Khairy Beshara, is a striking illustration of the phenomenon.
Adapted from the novel Zeth written by Sonallah Ibrahim, the TV fiction retraces, through the story of its heroine, the history of Egypt from 1952 to 2011.

Résumé

La question de l’adaptation …

Contexte, Réception Et Intermédialité Dans L’Adaptation Des Mains Douces De Tawfik El-Hakim, Yasmine Haggag

Regards

From the play by Tawfik el-Hakim (1954) to the film by Mahmoud Zoulficar (1963), Soft Hands involves adapting the stage to the screen and the content to the socio-historical context. After placing the play and then the film in their cultural and socio-historical settings, the study focuses on the adaptation work by closely examining the language, characters, plot, settings, and music, in order to assess the various transformations carried out for better reception by the audience.

Résumé

De la pièce de Tawfik el-Hakim (1954) au film de Mahmoud Zoulficar (1963), Les mains douces mettent en jeu l’adaptation de la scène …

Symbolique Et Oblicité Politique Dans Deux Adaptations Égyptiennes Du Comte De Monte-Crist, Randa Sabry

Regards

After exploring the diversity of the elements borrowed from The Count of Monte Cristo by the two adaptations of Henri Barakat – Amir al-intiqam and Amir al-dahaa – this article analyzes the way they work towards their own coherence through a cultural acclimatization on different levels and by the grafting of a subplot with political implications in line with the social context of 1950s and 1960s Egypt.
Far from accomplishing only his own revenge, the hero is led, in the wake of a political prisoner, to join the sphere of rebellion against the representative of tyranny and to prepare for …

Une Femme D’Égypte Du Papier À L’Écran : Adapter « Les Années De Zeth » Après La Révolution, Thomas Richard

Regards

By adapting Sonallah Ibrahim’s Zaat, the eponymous TV show deeply transforms the original novel, unfolding new meanings for the viewer in the context of post-revolutionary Egypt.
Through a comparative analysis of the novel and the TV show, this study intends to understand how the show offers a portrait of Egyptian society and a portrait of a woman that are inscribed within the renewal of the political gaze Egyptian society develops on herself.
Simultaneously, this gaze questions how gender relations are brought to the screen, and how they are linked to social and national issues.

Résumé

En adaptant le roman …

Nationalist Allegories In The Post-Human Era, Siqi Zhang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

As China’s expansion of influence now takes up the spotlight of the world stage, Chinese science fiction, a relatively little known genre, reaches a global audience. In 2015, Liu Cixin received the Hugo Award for Best Novel for his trilogy The Three-Body Problem, as the first Asian science fiction writer to receive the Hugo Award. A year later, Hao Jingfang’s Folding Beijing was awarded the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. The recent world-wide recognition of Chinese science fiction begins with English translation, U.S. publication and promotion. The New York Times cited The Three-Body Problem as having helped popularize Chinese …

From Franz Kafka To Franz Kafka Award Winner, Yan Lianke: Biopolitics And The Human Dilemma Of Shenshizhuyi In Liven And Dream Of Ding Village, Melinda Pirazzoli

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

To date, many studies have exhaustively explained how and why Yan Lianke deals with both the intimate relationship between disease and biopolitics and the relationship between utopia and dystopia. These are certainly the most important themes in Liven (2004) and Dream of Ding Village (2006). However, biopolitical discourses cannot fully account for the complexity, depth and humanity of these novels, which in addition to exploring the complex and protean meaning of life also represent shenshizhuyi, an expression coined by Yan Lianke to describe his human dilemma in representing the complex relationship between shen 神 (soul, spirit, mind and myths) …

Hanay Geiogamah’S Body Indian And Foghorn As “Plays With A Purpose”, Danica Čerče

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, “Hanay Geiogamah’s Body Indian and Foghorn as ‘Plays with a Purpose,’” written against the backdrop of critical whiteness studies, Danica Čerče discusses how Geiogamah’s theatrical rhetoric intervenes in the assumptions about whiteness as a static, privilege-granting category and system of dominance. By focusing on various techniques and strategies mobilized to define and affirm Native Americans’ authentic rather than imposed identities, the article shows that humor is one of the prime textual devices in Geiogamah’s plays to renegotiate what Walter Mignolo calls “the racist structure of power.”

The Female Fantastic Vs. The Feminist Fantastic: Gender And The Transgression Of The Real, David Roas

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Since Ann Richter coined the term “fantastique féminin” in 1977, many works in different languages have postulated a “female” way of writing fantastic texts, depending on the selection of themes, language, characters, supernatural elements, and the portrayal of the uncanny and the monstrous. This claim on the existence of a "female fantastic" reflects central issues in Feminist Literary Theory: on the one hand, the will to identify an aesthetic mode opposed to the dominant patriarchal discourse (female writing, the use of specific themes, etc.); on the other hand, the argument that there are marginal genres, forms and styles voluntarily removed …

Introduction: New Perspectives On The Female Fantastic, David Roas, Patricia Garcia

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Print Culture, Digital Culture, Poetics And Hermeneutics: Discussion With J. Hillis Miller, Liyuan Zhu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper is a response to Hillis Miller’s query on the author’s essay “Hillis Miller on the End of Literature.” The author basically agrees with Miller’s view on the shift from print culture to digital culture, explaining the special cultural context under which Chinese scholars emphasize the visual turn. Based on the rapid development of Chinese online literature, the author points out that print culture does not rival but coexists with digital culture. On the other hand, drawing on Aristotle’s Poetics and insights of several leading figures of contemporary hermeneutics, the author contends that Miller’s dichotomy of poetics (form) and …

China Question Of Us-American Imagism, Qingben Li

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper investigates first the influences of ancient Chinese culture on Ezra Pound, and then Pound’s influence on the New Culture Movement of modern China (1917). It is a kind of circular journey of literary texts and theories from ancient China to the West and then back to China. This journey, or “circle model,” involves textual appropriation, variation, transformation and misunderstanding in every stage.

Western Theory And Historical Studies Of Chinese Literary Criticism, Zhirong Zhu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper examines the formation of modern historical studies of classical Chinese literary criticism in terms of its interaction with and transformation of western theory. The discipline emerged during the eastward movement of Western ideas in the early twentieth century, promoting the “scientific study” of classical Chinese learning, and instituting curriculum and textbooks in Chinese universities. The reception of Western concepts of “literature” and “literary criticism” in the early twentieth century, largely through Japan, laid the very foundation of historical studies of classical Chinese literary criticism as an independent subject of study. This paper argues that when adopting Western methods …