Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.7, 2020

 

The Extension of Modernity and the Construction of “Contemporaneity” in Chinese Literary Theory

(Abstract)

 

Ding Fan

 

Once the concept of “modernity” was introduced into China, it played an important role in the development of Chinese literary theory. Their failure to fully understand the complex relationship between “modernity” and “contemporaneity” has however left Chinese academic circles with some problems in the study of modernity, such as blurred boundaries and confused concepts. We urgently need to construct a set of theoretical literary paradigms and critical methods rooted in China’s own literary practice and effectively transcending the theory of modernity. “Contemporaneity” ceaselessly improves itself in the extension and revision of “modernity.” This theory embeds different temporal dimensions such as history, the present day and the future into literary creation and criticism, endowing such works with the connotations and aesthetic significance of “foresight” and “truth.” In order to stand the test of history, the present and the future and become an effective theoretical paradigm and method of criticism, the construction of contemporary Chinese literature and art theory needs to move from preset modernity to innovative contemporaneity, extend the rationality of modernity, fully embrace the characteristics of the times, and distinguish the differences between Chinese and Western literature and art.