Scholars exchange ideas at the second Symposium on “Contemporary Chinese Literary Theory: Rethinking and Reconstructing” that was held from Oct. 13 to 14 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province.

 

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the speech Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered at the Forum on Literature and Arts on Oct. 15, 2014, scholars argued at a symposium that Chinese literary theory and criticism should be grounded in actual national conditions and practices of Chinese literature.
 

The second Symposium on “Contemporary Chinese Literary Theory: Rethinking and Reconstructing,” held from Oct. 13 to 14 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, gathered scholars of literary theory and criticism to discuss major issues looming in the development of the field domestically.
 

In his keynote speech, Zhang Jiang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and president of the China Literary Criticism Association, said one major problem is that literary theory is separated from criticism in contemporary literary studies.
 

From the perspective of literary theory, there are two undesirable trends. For one, theories are divorced from literary practices and deviate from texts, so they become monologues. Also, existing theoretical patterns are used to distort, disorganize and rearrange texts to verify theories.
 

Two worrying trends have also emerged in the field of literary criticism. First, without textual practices and experience, critics simply use theories to decide on texts. Second, without metaphysical theoretical backing, their criticism is reduced to impressionistic feelings.
 

Zhang stressed the need to integrate theory into criticism when building the Chinese literary theory system to prove theory with criticism and support criticism with theory. 

Referring to texts as the core of theory and criticism, he called on literary researchers to shift their focus from theory to text and build the Chinese literary theory system based on practices of Chinese literature, especially literary practices developed in the more than 30 years since reform and opening up.

Gao Xiang, secretary-general of CASS and editor-in-chief of the Social Sciences in China Press under CASS, emphasized in his speech that Chinese academics must engage in thoughtful studies. Academic achievements that are devoid of thought will be short lived in history, he said.
 

Without original, groundbreaking theoretical contributions to historical progress and human exploration, Chinese scholars will have no dignity, qualification and ability to enter into equal, dignified dialogue with international mainstream academics, Gao said.
 

Gao added that Chinese academics must engage in Chinese-style discourse, dare to stop blindly imitating Western theory, and explore and innovate to propose a discourse system with distinct Chinese characteristics.
 

The speeches by Zhang and Gao struck a chord among attendees of the symposium. With the decline of literary and cultural theory in the West, some far-sighted Western scholars are seeking a way forward from places other than the West, as exemplified by the dialogue between Zhang and reputed US literary critic J. Hillis Miller, said Wang Ning, a professor from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tsinghua University.

 

Chinese critics have begun to make their voice heard in the international literary theory community. Not content with verifying existing Western literary criticism and theory in practice, they aim to put forward their own theories by questioning and discussing Western criticism, Wang said. 

“Literary theory and criticism should not become a discipline that is just about theory,” said Yao Wenfang, a professor from the School of Literature at Yangzhou University.
 

Literary studies should be oriented toward practice and the times, Yao said. He also underscored the social potential and practical value of literary criticism, predicting that a bright future can be reached by going with the tide of literary innovation, cultural practice and social development.

Zhou Xian, a professor from the Art Institute at Nanjing University, said, “Theories without social participation or contribution are powerless.”
 

Those devoted to the area of literary and art theory should be aware of the historical mission the great era gives them, rather than confining themselves to their own interests. As theorists of literature and art, they should always take the lead in the development of social aesthetics and culture and contribute their share to further improving the cultural literacy of the public, Zhou said.
 

“Literary criticism is responsible for creating a dialogue with excellent works,” said Chen Xiaoming, a professor from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University. If literary critics fail to discover excellent works, expound upon the value of contemporary Chinese literature and make excellent works classic, literary criticism will lose its most important function, he said.
 

Participants agreed that Chinese academics should try to forge a Chinese literary and art theory and criticism system with a distinctive Chinese spirit and style based on China’s realities and practices of contemporary Chinese literature. Only in this way can Chinese literary and art theory and criticism better guide the development of Chinese literature.

 

 

Mao Li is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.