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

Author：Xiaoping Zhang, Ying Cheng

Abstract: Violence in McCarthy's novel, Blood Meridian is not only criticized by academia but also a difficult point to study. The application of the concept of Deleuze and Guattari’s “desiring machines” to explore the causes of “blood” or violence with the consideration of historical and social context of the United States as well as Ameri...

Column：Research on Writers and Their Works   048-060   Details

Author：Peilin Wang, Jianchong Nan

Abstract: Title: Writing Back to the Empire and Re-mapping World Literature: A Study of Midnight’s Children of Salman RushdieAbstract: The Indo-Anglian writer Salman Rushdie and the British writer E.M. Forster have both written about an Indian Muslim Dr Aziz. Such a coincidence deserves attention from literature, politics and culture. On the one hand, the similarity between the two Azizes forms intertex...

Column：Research on Writers and Their Works   061-072   Details

Author：Yanfang Song

Abstract: Mary McCarthy’s The Groves of Academe is set in a fictional university campus in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s. Through the story of a lecturer who engages in a power struggle to keep his job, it allegorically reflects the “witch hunt” actions and their impact under McCarthyism at the time. The protagonist disguises himself as prey to McCarthyism on the university campus to gain power by carrying out a so called “anti-witch hunt” campaign, disregarding moral conscience and abusing knowledge in the process. This behavior not only reflects the ...

Column：Cultural Studies   073-083   Details

Author：Yue Zeng

Abstract: Title: The Historical Writing and Founding Myth of Early Brandenburg-Prussia in Michael KohlhaasAbstract: Kleist’s novel Michael Kohlhaas narrates superficially a story about resisting tyranny and pursuing justice. However, from the perspective of covert progression, it is actually writing a splendid Brandenburg-Prussian dynastic history from the side with a hidden method. The novel takes the ...

Column：Cultural Studies   084-094   Details

Author：Xiaoyu Zhang

Abstract: Homer's Odyssey, one of the earliest surviving epic poems of ancient Greece, depicts the social and political landscape of Ithaca in vivid detail. Many scholars view Ithaca as a monarchical society with established kingship and statehood. According to the epic materials, the assertion that the state and kingship were fully present in Itha...

Column：Cultural Studies   095-106   Details

Author：Jing Zhou, Yuanbo Chen

Abstract: The map of Peking records and expresses changes of Peking’s urban form from a macroscopic point of view, and is an important representation of the city’s spatial evolution. From the travelogues and letters of French Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries to the Peking-based French novels of the 20th century, , the writers wrote and drew a map of the city of Peking according to the diversity of texts, them constructed a literary space for the image of Peking. From individual memories of aesthetic scrutiny to collective memories of shared descriptions, the ...

Column：Cultural Studies   107-121   Details