Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2018

The Causes of the Trend of Scientism Criticism and Its Inspiration

(Abstract)

An Jing

There was a boom of scientism criticism in the mid-1980s, especially in 1985, the “year of methodology” in the domain of literary criticism. Scientism criticism firstly emerged along with the shift of the concept of science from as a description to as a value judgment. Secondly, scientism became a state ideology in the 1980s. Thirdly, it was also an independent choice of Chinese literary circle. The trend of scientism criticism has taken the development of Humanities as value pursuit and the independence of literary aesthetics as the ultimate destination, which made this period of history irreplaceable. Therefore, it is still of significance to review the historical background of the trend and examine its value and inspiration.