RedefiningLanguageasBrainTextandbasedonSaussure’sViews/NIEZhenzhao
Abstract: The essay starts from an investigation of the basic definition of language, especially the distinction between langue and parole as proposed by Saussure. Through investigating the links between language and symbol, language and sound, and language and character, the essay propose a new perspective of language arguing that language is the sound form of brain text and character is the written form of brain text. Understanding the nature of language is essential for us to discuss the function of brain text in literature studies. As a key term in Ethical Literary Criticism, brain text is related to some pioneering researches in the fields of literature, philosophy and psychology, such as the researches on brain text and literary creation, and the mechanism from brain text to literary text.
Keywords: language; brain text; ethical literary criticism
OnEthicalIdentity,ChoiceandGrowthinAGirlinWinter/CHENXi
Abstract: Philip Larkin is one of the most distinguished writers in 20th century, whose novel-AGirlinWinter-reveals the growing process of young women during the World War II. From the perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism, this paper first investigates Katherine’s ethical identity as an European refugee to British,and how she makes her ethical choices in the hostile environment. What she chooses is to turn estrangement into reconcilement by kindness and generosity. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the ethical identity of Katherine and Jane as woman, exploring Katherine’s subversion of traditional ethical norms on women and her evolving ideas on marriage, family and outlook on life. This paper manifests that it is in the process of making ethical choice that Katherine grows.
Keywords: ethical identity; ethical choice; Philip Larkin;AGirlinWinter
AnEthicalInterpretationofJohnBull’sOtherIsland/LIUMaosheng,LUOKeman
Abstract: As the only Irish-themed drama by George Bernard Shaw,JohnBull’sOtherIsland, a story about Broadbent and Doyle’s civil engineering company went to the Irish countryside Rosscullen for the land exploration, revealed the political fraud and economic plunder against Ireland by the British capitalist class at that time. From the perspective of ethical literary criticism, the paper analyzes the ethical environment of the Irish in the Victorian period,the ethical choices of the British capitalists and the ethical dilemma between the British and the Irish at that time, thus resolving Shaw’s pity on the ethical ideal for constructing a “utopia society” and the enlightenment that the ethical ideal bring to the social progress.
Keywords:JohnBull’sOtherIsland; ethical environment; ethical choice; ethical dilemma; ethical ideal
NewLiteraryDrawingMethod:ACaseStudyofTheMerchantofVenice/GUOFangyun
Abstract: The issue of how to transform the hidden literary space structure into clear maps has plagued British and American literary researchers for many years, which is to be tackled by the present research with the new literary mapping method. As a graphical means of mapping complex literary spaces onto visual map models via ArcGIS, this method is employed to explore the aim, the theme, the form and the audience ofTheMerchantofVeniceby analyzing the planning, data, characterization and layout finishing, which would presentTheMerchantofVenicein a map that is represented in the artificial system through such geographical features as size, font and colours. It is found that the new literary mapping method can help us visualize the hidden spatial structures, which is not only significant for exploring the meaning of literary works, but also a tool for literary criticism.
Keywords: new literary map; visual map model; ArcGIS;TheMerchantofVenice
TheConstructionofGermanNewLiterature:AStudyofHerder’sLiteraryProgrammeOfGermanCharacterandArt/ZENGYue
Abstract: Herder published two essays,OssianandShakespeareinOfGermanCharacterandArt. By commenting on Nordic folk songs represented by Ossian and British dramas represented by Shakespeare, Herder drew up a programme for the construction and development of German new literature in the second half of the 18thcentury, and discovered the primitiveness of Nordic folk songs and the naturality and historicity of British dramas. He believed that in comparison with French and ancient Greek literature, these characteristics of Nordic/British literature can give a new and better direction for German new literature. Nordic/British literature and nations have the same identity with German literature and nation. Through the construction of German new literature, the identity of German nation will also be established.
Keywords: Herder; Ossian; Shakespeare; German new literature
Onthe“Duffyesque”PoeticLanguage:FromthePerspectiveofCognitiveMetaphor/FUJingjing
Abstract: The incumbent Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has won a coined epithet, “Duffyesque” for her unique literary form, which is characterized by mixed linguistic registers, disruptive syntax and de-familiarizing terms. The debate over “Duffyesque” language caught public attention due to a denigratory remark made by Jeffrey Hill in 2012. Virtually the linguistic differences of Duffy’s “Duffyesque” traits can be analyzed from the perspective of cognitive metaphor. Through recognizing the presence of cognitive process in the production, consumption and circulation of literary discourse, it is found that the tension and complexity of Duffy’s language and that Duffy’s poetic practice is contrary to that of the avant-garde Language Poets in terms of revealing the constructedness and indeterminacy in language referentiality.
Keywords: Carol Ann Duffy; “Duffyesque”; cognitive metaphor; poetic practice
TheUrbanSpacesandBlackLifeCrisisinRichardWright’sLongDream/PANGHaonong,LIUMinjie
Abstract: InLongDream, Richard Wright throws light on the internal correlation among physical space, social space and psychological space, disclosing the political hegemonism and psychological oppression suffered by blacks in the social space dominated by whites. From the regionality of black belt, fragility of black economy and the illegal acts of police, he reveals the close relation between physical space and political space in the black areas. Regardless of the special stress on the bondage to women in familial space, Wright bears his resentment against the tension of inhibition on female space limited by feminine nature and traditional space. In addition, he delineates male existence space of a wide diversity, see through the evolution of their hearts, and publicize their deep souls in a black writer’s specific view. In the release of his spirits, he gives a minute presentation of men’s fret and a good illustration of black urban men’s sorrows and woes in racist society.
Keywords: Richard Wright;LongDream; urban space; black people; life crisis;
ViolenceandSecurity:Post-9/11DomesticatedWritinginLorrieMoore’sFictions/ZHOULingmin
Abstract: Lorrie Moore is an American neorealist fiction writer. In her post-9/11 fictionsAGateattheStairs,DebarkingandPaperLosses, she adopts domesticated writings to depict the post-9/11 realistic life of common people in America. In the three fictions, Moore presents the domesticated writing in the three aspects of the space violence, domestic violence and family security, probing into the violent impact of 9/11 on common people; she also argues that domesticated writings do not fall into “privateness” and “domestication”, but instead they illustrate the close relationship among the family, grand history and national politics.
Keywords: post-9/11 fictions; domesticated writings; Lorrie Moore; violence; security
RewritingHistoryinContemporaryContext:ColsonWhitehead’sTheUndergroundRailroadasaNeo-slaveNarrative/LIULu
Abstract: American writer Colson Whitehead, winner of 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, wroteTheUndergroundRailroad, a typical contemporary neo-slave narrative. The novel examines slavery in US history and its resonance in contemporary American life by tracing the slave girl Cora’s escape along the fictional underground railroad. In rewriting the themes of “literacy” and “freedom” with its unique style that integrates tradition and experiment,TheUndergroundRailroadexplores not only the destiny of African Americans in US society, but also the connotations of the word “freedom” in contemporary context, as well as new stylistic possibilities for neo-slave narrative.
Keywords:TheUndergroundRailroad; Colson Whitehead; neo-slave narrative; history
CharismaandtheDevelopmentof“theAtheistwithaSoul”:AStudyof36ArgumentsfortheExistenceofGod:AWorkofFiction/LIUYiwei
Abstract:36ArgumentsfortheExistenceofGod:AWorkofFictionpays special attention to the process of Cass’s transformation from a youth with philosophical aspiration to “the atheist with a soul”. The Charismatic figures have great influence on Cass during this period. At first Cass adored and followed the vulgarized and fake Charismatic figures, but later on he is inspired by the true Charismatic figures. Seeing the nature of true and fake Charisma, Cass manages to find out a golden means of dealing with the relation between religious belief and atheism: holding the philosophical standpoint of atheism on the one hand and acknowledge the importance of religious experience on the other; the superficial and useless disputes between religious belief, atheism must be abandoned and the merits of the two should be absorbed harmoniously, and “the atheist with a soul” is the best summary of this golden means.
Keywords:36ArgumentsfortheExistenceofGod:AWorkofFiction; Charisma; “the atheist with a soul”
TheInteractionofNaturalSceneryandInternalImage:OnD.H.Lawrence’sEnvironmentalSenseinHisPoetry/CHENYuming,DUZhiqing
Abstract: D. H. Lawrence is an ecological poet with an acute sensitivity to environment, which in his works is not simply an natural aesthetic object that exists as “the other”, but a living existence furnished with encouraging living spirit and holiness of nature. Based on Lawrence’s personal experience and his innate close relationship with nature, an analysis is made from the perspective of environmental sense on how Lawrence seeks the authenticity of self-existence by integrating himself with the environment from a non-human perspective. Lawrence’s poetry expounds artistically and philosophically his ecological ethic concerns of how one can achieve internal self-enhancement by environmental perceptions.
Keywords: D. H. Lawrence; poetry; environmental sense; ecocriticism
Conversion,ReformationandAwarenessofEnglishNationalIdentityinTheMerchantofVenice/CHENWeibin
Abstract: Shylock is described by Shakespeare inTheMerchantofVeniceas an object for the audience to show hatred as well as sympathy, which corresponds with Elizabethan people’s stereotype upon Jews and arouses their reflection on religious persecution during Religious Reformation. The conversion of Shylock and his daughter to Christianity embodies Catholics’ conversion to Protestants and complies with the religious climate in Elizabethan age. For these people, an anxiety over salvation is caused by conversion from Catholics to Protestants and quest of English national identity. Shakespeare offers a hidden opening for them to express this anxiety.
Keywords: conversion; reform; awareness of English national identity;TheMerchantofVenice
TheTranslationandResearchofRohanKoudainChina/FANHongtao
Abstract: Rohan Kouda is a great writer spanning three historical periods in Japan: Meiji, Taisho and Showa Dynasty.The translation and study of Rohan Kouda in China can be divided into three stages: the Republic’s embryonic period, the 1980s-1990s and the development period after entering the 21st century. Though problems do exist in the translation and study of Rohan Kouda in China, Chinese scholars, especially young ones showcase the spirits of facing up the difficulty in the study of Rohan Kouda in recent years, which will inevitably bring new hope to the translation and research of Rohan Kouda in China.
Keywords: Rohan Kouda; translation; research; expectation
AnalyzingChineseandJapaneseViewsonChildren’sLiteratureintheBeginningPeriod/LIUXianfei
Abstract: Iwaya Sazanami and Sun Yuxiu represent the concept of children’s literature at its early stage, both of whom hold that children’s literature bear the educational function.Yet, Iwaya Sazanami pays more attention to the cultivation of children’s personality and the entertainment of his works, whereas Sun Yuxiu lays particular stress on ethical lessons and put the function of children’s literature in the first place. The reasons for such differences are the dominance of the idea that “writings are for conveying ‘dao’” and the time gap in evaluating the value of folk literature.
Keywords: views on children’s literature view;TonghuaSeries; Sun Yuxiu; Iwaya Sazanami
AComparativeStudyofChineseandEnglishPoeticProsody/XIONGLian
Abstract: Traditional poetry esteems prosody embodies musicality and “non-musicality”. This study compares poetic prosody between Chinese and English poetry in terms of timbre, tune, rhyme and rhythm to evaluate their musicality and “non-musicality” in light of music aesthetics. It turns out that Chinese poetic prosody is superb for musicality, so much unmatched by English poetry, but English poetry excels in “non-musicality”, a virtue that Chinese poetry may never expect to equal. In terms of music aesthetics, it contends that musicality and “non-musicality” are one of the reasons that Chinese poetry is liable to lyricism while English poetry to narratives.
Keywords: prosody; musicality; non-musicality; lyrical; narrative
ConstructingChineseEco-criticismDiscourseSystemwiththeHarmoniousCoexistencebetweenMan&Nature:ASummaryofthe8thSymposiumonCross-Strait(GuangdongandTaiwan)EcologicalLiterature/YANGXiaohui
Abstract: Since the beginning of the 1990s, Eco-criticism has experienced three waves of development. From the second wave around 1995, researchers were no longer limited to British and American scholars, and the research objects have also expanded from Europe and the United States to East Asia. The 8thCross-Strait Ecological Literature Seminar is China’s largest academic conference on ecological literature, and the theme is Constructing Chinese Eco-Criticism Discourse. The participants discussed many practical issues, and its highlight is promoting the construction of the Chinese Eco-criticism Discourse. An analysis of the profound papers Reveals that writers from East Asia are closely related to the Chinese cultural circle and report on ecological issues related to south and west Asia.
Keywords: Eco-criticism; Chinese Discourse; ecological observation