Author：Zitian Ding

Abstract: "The Spanish Gypsy" has never received sufficient attention from the academic community. By examining George Eliot's notebook and travel diaries, it is revealed that Eliot artistically processes the Gypsies from two dimensions: literature reading and real-life experiences. This demonstrates that Eliot responds to the common views of 19th-century historical community through literary reshaping of the Gypsy people, further highlighting the ethical consciousness of personal happiness obeying the national cause. Combining the extensive discussion on ethnic issues in 19th-century Britain and Eliot's own ideological background, ...

Column：British Literature Studies   089-104   Details

Author：Wei Wang, Meng Pan

Abstract: This article focuses on William Wordsworth’s conception of nature as the subject-matter of study. In terms of relation, Wordsworth’s notion of knowing serves as the basis for his conception of nature, and nature is integrated as the major objective for knowing, existing as an essential part of it. In terms of connotation, nature in Wordsworth’s conception not only possesses natural attributes, but also exhibits a distinct and strong subjectivity, serving as the embodiment of human passions. In the poetical works of Wordsworth, the conception of nature is richly represented. To summarize, Wordsworth’s conception of nature is born out of the empiricist tradition of British philosophy, and serves as a concise expression of certain Romantic literary ideas.

Column：British Literature Studies   105-114   Details

Author：Jingbo Zhang, Xuemeng Wang

Abstract: With the development of psychiatry and the accumulation of “madness” culture, mental illness has shifted from being a physical issue to a moral one. In the “increasingly refined” Victorian society, marginalized groups who deviated from social norms were morally condemned and branded as “mad.” Mental illness also became a “feminized” condition. Victorian women, constrained by domestic life, became detached from society with the home becoming their safe space, while the social sphere turned into a physical and psychological forbidden zone. The disease and spatial writings in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette intend to ...

Column：British Literature Studies   115-124   Details

Author：Jiexin Yi, Liangdie Huang

Abstract: The representation of chivalry in Vasconselos by American Southern writer William Gilmore Simms, out of the cultural heritage of Middle Ages and the indigenous culture of the United States, boasts strong realistic allusions. The protagonist Philip Vasconselos’s choice of justice rather than loyalty as chivalric virtues alludes to the stance of the American South holding fast to slavery at the price of secession. His pursuit of love and home instead of expedition and treasure-hunting as chivalric paradigms gives prominence to the positive role of family in counteracting the negative influences of expansionism on society....

Column：American Literature Studies   125-135   Details

Author：Xiuxia Chen

Abstract: Russell Atkins is an African American postmodern avant-garde poet renowned for his dedication to breaking with tradition and innovating in poetics. His poetry-dramas exemplify his “deviating” poetics. Atkins crafts his poetry-dramas in “music-form,” employs innovative gothic narration to subtly convey his rebellion against racism, and creates the interdisciplinary theory of Psychovisualism, which he applies to his poetry-dramas writing. His work represents an experiment in postmodern avant-garde poetics, an interdisciplinary aesthetic construction, and most significantly, a challenge to the hegemony of western white culture and a new attempt at formulating language rules by an African American writer.

Column：American Literature Studies   136-147   Details

Author：Yiwen Wen

Abstract: An Interview with Professor Wang Jiaxiang on Her Study, Translation, and Teaching

Column：Lushan Bitan   148-156   Details

Author：Mingjian Zha

Abstract: Contemporary theories have deconstructed the concepts of literature and literariness, as well as the conventional aesthetic values and criticism associated with them, leading literary studies toward cultural studies. While these theories employed in cultural studies reject the idea of a fixed essence in literature, dismiss traditional aesthetics, and broaden the conceptions of literature and literariness, they also introduce new ways to deepen our understanding of literariness and challenge established aesthetic perspectives. In the “post-theory” era, new formalism emphasizes not only traditional aesthetic forms but also the socio-historical contexts that shape them, aiming to integrate both aspects. ...

Column：Topics in Literary Aesthetics   003-013   Details

Author：Chi Zhang

Abstract: In the 20th century, Western literary theory flourished, but the “literariness” advocated by formalism was not widely valued. Since the rise of structuralism in the 1960s, many schools have not studied the aesthetic value of literary works. Harold Bloom has almost single-handedly defended the aesthetic value of literature. The aesthetic turn of literary studies is not only a reconstruction of aesthetic criticism, but also a reaffirmation of the aesthetic value of literature.

Column：Topics in Literary Aesthetics   014-025   Details

Author：Qiang Hu

Abstract: As a representative figure of the Scottish Renaissance, Lewis Grassic Gibbon holds significant intellectual value for understanding Scotland's history. A Scots Quair presents the characters' burden of historical pressure with a profound sense of history, depicting a unique survival experience and emotional im...

Column：Research on Writers and Their Works   026-035   Details

Author：Qi Feng

Abstract: Ying Chen, a Chinese-Canadian female writer in french, fictionalizes in her novel L’ingratitude the story of a rebellious daughter, Yanzi, who challenges institutionalized motherhood and intends to deconstruct patriarchal centralism with her “matricide” behavior. Ying Chen constructs an unnatural story world where the boundary between life and death is blurred. Yanzi’s death and the separation of spirit and flesh not only make the dying ghost become the participant and promoter of the story waiting for Yama’s transport to get a “new life”, but also become ...

Column：Research on Writers and Their Works   036-047   Details