China Social Science Review

No.1, 2024

Evaluation and Reflection on the Writings of Chinese Literary History in the English-Speaking World

(Abstract)

Yu Xiayun

The writings of Chinese literary history in the English-speaking world have lasted for more than 120 years and have gone through four stages. The early writings of Chinese literary history were mostly created to complement classroom teaching, and suffered from problems such as weak systematicity and strong subjectivity. In the 1960s, ethnic Chinese scholars began to dominate the writings. Since then, with the introduction of the theory of modernity, the “modernity model” has become the dominant paradigm for writing history. Since the 21st century, the writings of literary history have become pluralistic. There is, however, a tendency for these literary histories to be written theoretically first, especially in describing the course of Chinese literary development in terms of theories of modernity, thus neglecting the excavation of Chinese literature’s own characteristics and traditions. At the same time, they focus more on the elaboration of concepts than the discovery of new materials.