Application of Literary Theory in Teaching Literature——A Case Study From ＂Approaching Fiction＂ in China Youth University of Political Studies

For most universities and colleges in China, literary theory is taught at the graduate level of literary studies. Most English teachers think literary theory is such a complex field with jargon-ridden disciplines and concepts that it is often considered as ＂a hot potato＂ in classroom teaching. Based on a case study from ＂Approaching Fiction＂ in China Youth University of Political Studies （CYUPS）, the present paper claims that application of literary theory in teaching literature not only greatly broadens students＇ horizon but also deepens their interpretation and understanding of literary works. With proper selection of teaching material and carefully designed teaching approaches, application of critical theory plays an increasingly important role in the undergraduate literature classroom.

A New Way to Look into Literature——Comment on Structuralist Literary Criticism

What is structruralism?Is it a school or a movement?Many critics agreethat structruralism is,in a broad sense,a revolution in the human thinkingprocess.Structuralism is,as Barthe,properly defined in,the activity of re-defining all the cultural phenomena,an activity grounded in the belief th-at like language,a myth,wrestling match,system of tribal kinship orrestaurant menu is a system of signs,In this connection,structuralism ismuch concerned with and influenced by the modern schools of linguisticsespecially by the structural linguistics originated by Sausure.

On the Ethical Dimensions of Literary Criticism in the Realm of We Media

In the realm of We Media,literary criticism is not completely free and unrestricted during its continuous production process;instead,it should adhere to certain ethical norms.The ethical dimensions of literary criticism in We Media focus on fostering a fair relationship between criticism activities and text,society,and the audience in order to facilitate healthy and orderly criticism that yields positive outcomes.The ethics of literary criticism in We Media can be categorized into aesthetic ethics,cultural ethics,political ethics,and media ethics within its internal structure,all of which ultimately converge into the realm of art production ethics.It is important to embrace a consciousness of intersubjectivity and adopt a cognitive approach of situationism in order to avoid blind restrictions and misjudgments in order to foster a positive and healthy ecosystem for literary criticism in We Media.Additionally,it is crucial to adhere to bottom-line thinking and emphasize responsibility,taste,and discipline while regulating the field of criticism,the audience,and critical text.

The Latest Development of Ethical Literary Criticism in the World

The series A Study on Ethical Literary Criticism exhibits key achievements in the major program of national social sciences by scholars headed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao,who are devoted to the research of foreign literatures,studies in philosophy and social sciences,and interdisciplinary study of world literature,who dedicated themselves to the construction of the ethical literary critical theory and methodology with the application of ethical literary criticism in practice.This series organically combine the generality of ethical literary criticism with the individuality of specific writers and combine the theoretical guidance with realistic practicality in academic research,which will be conducive to the development of world literary criticism and region and country-specific studies in the new era.

The New Development of Marxist Literary Criticism Today: An Interview with Barbara Foley

本访谈考察了马克思主义理论、马克思主义文学批评、马克思主义教学法等领域的批评方法和当下挑战。福莱教授认为马克思主义理论提供了一种"元理论",一种"特权"立场,对研究文学、政治和历史之间的联系及其内部关系而言极为有利。在审视了马克思主义基本理论,如历史唯物主义、政治经济学和意识形态批评等的基础上,福莱教授阐释了长期以来有关文学本质的争论并确立了马克思主义文学批评基本话语范式。本访谈也探讨了自古典时期迄今、兼具保守性和革新性气质的诸多文学文本,力图表明马克思主义在阐释抽象的社会力量及其文学表现形式之间多样式、多层次的交往和呼应等领域仍发挥着持续的功能。福莱教授《当代马克思主义文学批评》以方便教学为目标,能够为21世纪那些对新颖突出的文本、体裁和文化争论与唯物主义研究的传统原则之关联感兴趣的读者提供指引。

Comparative Criticism beyond Eurocentrism:In Search of the Untranslatables of Literary Theory

While the study of world literature is often seen as escaping the boundaries of eurocentrism-albeit with the need for constant revision and self-critique-a truer overcoming would involve another sort of anthologization,namely,of world theory and criticism.World literature should go beyond being a reified collection of translated texts,to become an exploration and comparison of the different ways of thinking about literature and aesthetics in different parts of the world.Barbara Cassin's Vocabulaire Europeen des philosophies:Dictionnaire des intraduisibles provides a possible model in this regard.The untranslatability of critical terms from different traditions is generative of new meanings due to the repeated efforts to translate and to compare non-synonymous terms with each other.This essay examines the untranslatability and comparability of several different terms from Asian aesthetic traditions.

Whither East-West Comparative Literature? One Recent Answer from China

Comparative literature,as a discipline,has been in selfdoubt and crisis since its birth.Various scholars give different answers to its tendency and future.With the growth of East-West comparative literature research in East Asia,Chinese School of Comparative Literature proposed its own answer to it.In response to James St.André’s review essay'Whither East-West Comparative Literature?Two Recent Answers from the U.S.',this paper focuses on a new answer from Cao Shunqing’s work The Variation Theory of Comparative Literature,aiming to explore the two focuses of this new platform:one is the heterogeneity,and the other is the variation,which are different from French comparatism based on influences and American part based on analogies.On this basis this article tries to have a dialogue with imagology study of variation theory and sinicization of Western literary theory in Cao’s works.By highlighting the heterogeneity and variation,Chinese scholars seek to promote crosscivilization communication based on maintaining and developing the uniqueness of different literatures and civilizations,thus building a harmonious world without uniformity.

Aspects of Indigenous Participation in Brazilian Literature

The article both presents how,from the end of the 1980s onwards,native peoples have begun to occupy certain spaces of textual production and circulation that they had not previously occupied in the Brazilian cultural scene(for social,linguistic,and cultural reasons,but also political and juridical)and discusses how this process has provoked a vigorous movement of dilation of traditional textual and discursive borders in Western culture.Texts deriving from indigenous peoples in the sphere of academic discourse are,in general,bilingual,and are structured in ways that combine aspects of intellectual production with those of artistic creation.Moreover,they are also structured around a rather complex conception of the notion of authorship(considering that they are written by an author but represent the voice of their people).As examples,the article analyzes the case of Os cantos tradicionais Ye'kwana[Traditional Ye'kwana Chants],by the indigenous teacher and researcher Fernando Ye'kwana Gimenes,winner of the 2020/2021 edition of the Dirce Cortes Riedel Masters Dissertation Award by the Brazilian Association of Comparative Literature,as a typical example of the cultural phenomenon discussed.The traditional Ye'kwana chants present significant transgressions in relation to the traditional notions of narrative logic and the dominant forms of narration in the fields of literature and history.The awarding of this academic prize to an indigenous inhabitant of the forest,on the border between Brazil and Venezuela,by the largest association of comparative literature in Latin America,in addition to being an important act in political terms,demonstrates how urgent it is to rethink processes of global literary dissemination beyond the restricted frameworks configured by the logic of hegemonic cultures,which are based on closed divisions and hierarchies.With this,we intend to contribute to the process of including Amerindian texts in the repertoire of Comparative Literature and World Literature.

Remembering Raymond Williams:His Theoretical Heritage to China’s World Literature and Culture Studies

Raymond Williams,the eminent British Marxist literary theorist,was introduced to China in the late 1980s.and his theories have since been increasingly attractive to China’s literary and cultural studies.He not only touched upon some of the fundamental issues of Marxist literary theory,such as ideology,culture,hegemony and aesthetics,but also developed it with his dynamic construction of a sort of cultural materialism,thus bridging between Marxist socio-historical and aesthetic criticism and cultural and linguistic factors.While literary and cultural theory is in decline in the West,Williams’s legacy is still appreciated in international circles,which ought to be cherished and inherited by us Chinese scholars in our studies of world literature and culture.

Between Early Literary Modernism and Contemporary Post-Postmodernism——Jan Kjrstad Rewrites Knut Hamsun’s Novel Hunger 100 Years Later

The article is a comparative study of Knut Hamsun’s novel Hunger (1890) and Jan Kjrstad’s novel The Brink (1990), focusing on similar motives, topics and references from the point of view of early modernism and post-postmodernism. It sheds light on aesthetic problems concerning how to deal with existential and metaphysical questions viewed against the background of changing historical and philosophical experiences and new ways of poetic expression. The article points out the resemblances and differences between the novels and shows how two of the front figures of modern Scandinavian literature meet the challenges of renewing the traditional forms of writing.

Discussion about contemporary Chinese cultural criticism and mass culture

Contemporary Chinese cultural criticism is facing traditional three factors. That are： literary criticism, belletristic criticism and Chinese-style criticism; contemporary transformation from western cultural criticism and consciousness of problems in contemporary Chinese culture together form a problem domain of cultural criticism; during the 30 years, literary discipline knowledge has evolved from the aesthetic to the culture and the weakening and missing of beauty and poetry become a weakness of cultural criticism. Concerning about the study of repression mechanism for appreciation as well as strengthening the aesthetic nature is the proper attitude literary researcher should have while intervening cultural criticism.

“空间转向”的本土化以及网络文学空间叙事研究趋向

中国叙事学在受到国外研究影响的同时保持独立思考,不断从本土叙事资源中探索新路径,开创新模式,形成了独具特色的本土文艺理论话语体系,但在空间叙事的“本土化”方面,囿于古典小说对于时间的高度依赖和现当代小说对于乡土书写的执着关注,导致空间研究一度被忽视。伴随着与网络空间关系最为密切的网络文学的崛起,国内网络文学研究的“空间转向”逐渐受到重视。以硕士研究生为代表的青年学者,对网络文学的空间叙事表达了较多关注。这一发展趋向基本契合网文的“青年”属性,表明Z世代不仅在网络文学阅读和批评上,甚至在理论研究层面,都能够立足网络文学这块热土,依仗互联网原生居民得天独厚的网感优势,朝向中国文艺批评理论创新的伟大使命进发。

系统观与方法论:网络文艺评论的审美指向和思维展开

在互联网时代新的媒介生态、艺术生态和产业生态中,网络文艺创作生产风生水起、如火如荼。与此相应,网络文艺评论蓬勃发展。伴随数字文化的范式转换,网络文艺评论需在系统性的审美观照中,突出强化“传统”与“现代”的历时性比较、“中国”与“西方”的共时性参照、“加强”与“修正”的反身性透视。这三个维度的审美指向和思维展开是网络文艺新实践在文艺评论上的客观反映,也是网络文艺评论发挥积极作用、促进创作生产繁荣发展的必然要求。

艺术本质核心元素探析

艺术的本质问题是一个论争了几个乃至十几个世纪的话题,也是一个曾经被“反本质主义”要放弃和搁置讨论的形而上问题。从历史上看,研究者曾从“模仿”“形式”“表现”来界定艺术的本质。可以说,艺术既是对现实的“模仿”,又不完全是,因为“模仿”的目的是要表达作者的情感和感受。艺术既是要创造一种美的“形式”,又不完全是,因为通过美的“形式”也还是要表达作者的艺术追求和主观感受。因此,无论“模仿说”还是“形式说”,最终的目的都是要表达或表现作者的主观感觉。“表现”才是艺术中最主要和最核心的元素,“表现说”也更充分地体现着艺术的本质。

自创生:媒介及新媒介文艺意义生成

“自创生”是用以描述系统自我生成性质的重要概念,“自创生系统”是能够自主生产、递归进化的系统。自创生理论以生成论为哲学基础,在去“本体”化的过程中建构了独特的“自体论”。按照自创生理论,媒介是典型的自创生系统。进入现代社会,媒介系统将物质性与技术性转化为自身的生产力,展现出更为强劲的自主性,并在进阶演化和更新迭代的螺旋式生成运动中表现出递归性以及人、物、媒介之间新的缔合关系。数字新媒介系统的自创生进入了“数智化”阶段,形成了以计算法则为主导的信息生产方式,也带来了新世界即赛博空间的涌现。新媒介的数智化自创生,建构了新媒介文艺意义生成的自创生性质。从自创生视角看,新媒介文艺实践不过是数字化的人类行动者与媒介性行动者在互动耦合过程中,联合其他生产要素共同开展的自创生性文艺意义生产活动。在这一过程中,媒介性与文艺性交叠衍生,数字文艺性也由此生成。

AI文学的批评:路径、范式与重点

AI文学是生成式人工智能技术以人类已有的文学形式为样板,通过算法自动生成的数字文本,其本质是算法文学。在通用人工智能出现之前,AI文学的生成是人与智能机器交互合作完成的。随着智能水平提升,AI逐渐由辅助性工具向智能主体演变。面对新的文学现象,简单套用传统的文学批评方法会导致方法失灵和理论失效,但传统文学批评坐标系关注作品、世界、艺术家、欣赏者四个要素及其之间关系的思路为AI文学的批评提供了方法取径的启示。将“艺术家”置换为“人机创作共同体”,可建构AI文学批评的坐标系图式。AI文学的批评实践仍需坚持以文本为中心,从文本出发,重点关注“人机创作共同体”中人与智能体的关系,由文本批评深入到算法批评,拓展到关系批评,并以反身批评反思人的文学,推动AI文学与人的文学共同繁荣发展。

当代文论的五个悖论——兼及“没有文学的文学理论”

随着生态危机和人工智能挑战的不断加剧,当代文艺审美活动的悖论性处境日益凸显,将悖论美学、悖论诗学和悖论批评推到了前台,强化了文学理论在“述”与“行”、“硬”与“软”、“质”与“文”、“向心”与“离心”、“域化”与“化域”之间的“悖论式振摆”。这种局面不仅显示了当代理论的“疑难与困境”,也使悖论本身的美学和诗学价值得到“解蔽”和释放,从而使悖论成为一种文学理论批评的新型样态。“没有文学的文学理论”是近年来有关文学问题的重要命题,其“含混”和“暧昧”不仅将当代文论的悖论性质全面体现出来,而且通过发挥悖论诗学的理论潜能和批判锋芒而对当下文艺文化现象做出了深入的反思和针砭。这是一种“可做的”理论而非一套“可用的”学说,其“洞见”和“盲视”当会在人们“做理论”的批评实践中得到彰显和检验。

论公安派之“真”的四个层面

在公安派的诗文理论中,“真”是一个非常重要的概念。前人对于“真”这一概念虽颇有研究,但对于“真”的意义层面划分仍不够细致。通过对相关文献的梳理,将公安派之“真”区分为人格、情感、文体、表达四个层面,并由此探讨“性灵”与“真”之间的关系问题,认为“性灵”和“真”其实是“体”和“用”的关系。以“真”为核心来建立公安派的文学体系,一方面颠倒了二者之间的因果位置,另一方面在某种程度上淡化了其他审美风格在公安派文学中的地位和价值。公安派对于“真”的追求,树立了独立自主的人格类型,实现了个人情感的自由书写,促进了晚明非正式文体的勃兴,也代表了晚明“重一己而轻外物”的时代文化精神。

论新时代党的文艺创新理论的教育价值

新时代党的文艺创新理论是党在新时代中国特色社会主义建设事业的伟大实践中形成的智慧结晶,为广大文艺工作者提供了科学指导与努力方向。要深入学习习近平总书记关于文艺工作的重要论述,深刻把握新时代党的文艺创新理论的鲜明特质与主要内涵,领会新时代党的文艺创新理论在升华理想信念、夯实辩证思维、提升创新能力、夯实文化自信等方面所蕴含的重要教育价值,以科学的世界观、方法论推动理论与实践的融合共进,为充分实现新时代党的文艺创新理论的教育价值奠定坚实基础。

驰骋在革命美术与诗歌之间——新四军文艺战士芦芒的跨界创作

芦芒是新四军中为数不多的进行跨界创作的革命文艺工作者。他穿行于美术与诗歌领域,用手中的刻刀和笔创作出了大量的木刻版画和诗歌作品,配合和服务当时的宣传文化工作。在革命战争年代,他通过创作中审美主体的互换,实现了诗歌与美术彼此互为动能及在审美与主题意识等方面的交互借鉴,使战地文艺实践其文艺普及任务时具有巨大的优势。它们的主题内容,甚至革命化、大众化的艺术形式也因此与20世纪30年代木刻艺术运动以及其后延安时期开始的文艺工具论有着内在相关性。