Originating from the Chicago School in American academia during the latter half of last century, rhetorical narratology has become one of the most influential sub-trends of narratology in its post-classic phase. Rhetoric narratology essentially views storytelling as a communicative process whereby the author achieves specific effects on the audience. In its theoretical system, "the Implied Author", a concept first put forward by Wayne Booth, takes up a pivotal position, while the narrative communication model elaborated by James Phelan serves as the overall frame integrating its core ideas. However, the ambiguity integral to Booth's definition of "the Implied Author" foreshadows the problems, notably causal inversion and circular reasoning, in rhetorical narratology's theorization about narrative, and Phelan's elaboration of the narrative communication model,instead of overcoming such problems, only throws them into sharper relief. Because of the autonomy displayed by narrative's production and the openness of its reception, it is unjustified to treat storytelling and communication as qualitatively similar processes. To do this would overstretch the explanatory power of the (implied) author's communicative intention by tracing back to it everything concerning a narrative's production and reception, which is prone to lead the critic into a trap of circular reasoning.

Marcuse's theory of the aestheticization of technology seeks to emphasize that individuals must employ the power of a "new sensibility" to resist the repression imposed by technological rationality. From the 1970s onward, while effecting paradigmatic transformations in the arts, the new technologies have progressively enframed human cognition and behavior within their constitutive "cybernetic system". The system points to an open aesthetic situation that can reconstruct people's reflection on the external world and provide people with the internal motivation to change reality. The "New Landscape" created by Chinese contemporary photographer Yao Lu uses digital technology to collage different elements into a visual "reality", putting the audience in an embodied situation based on the sensory system. Through the situation, the audience can re-reflect on the relationship between the subject and the world, and between humans and the ecosystem, which reflects the continuation of Marcuse's ideas in contemporary art.

Qing (情) has been represented in literature through various conceptual guises—lyricism, affect, emotion, and feeling. Rather than recuperating a pre-lyrical state or clarifying the historical genealogy of qing, this paper argues for a critical shift toward the act of shu ( 抒, expression), emphasizing formal analysis and the agency of enunciation. In this framework, while the lyric tradition may function as an invented prehistory of modern and contemporary literature, its very articulation is a modernist undertaking, one that engages the present literary field through its dialogic and affective concerns.This articulation intersects with the affective turn, which, in the wake of the linguistic turn, resists infinite textual deconstruction and anti-essentialism by recentering embodied sensation and pre-cognitive intensity. Within this critical conjuncture, the classical notion of feng (風) in Chinese lyricism resonates with the concept of immediation in affect theory: both navigate terrains beyond the binary oppositions of body/mind and sensibility/rationality. They pose ontological questions such as "How is the self possible? " and "How is the other possible?"Furthermore, through the expressive motion of shu and the practice of reparative reading, the work of representation and the affective orientation toward the other transform into broader inquiries: "How is literature possible?" and "How is society possible? " This paper interrogates the bifurcation of qing across Chinese and Western literary theories in order to explore how qing can serve as a critical vector for re-opening the literary, thereby reconsidering both the nature of literature and the agency of the literary subject.

In contrast to the 'theory of psychic distance' which originating from the Enlightenment, Gramsci's 'theory of distance' breaks free from the 'formalist' approach in literary and art criticism. This new theory of 'distance' is deeply rooted in Gramsci's reflections on Italian literary issues and is more closely tied to his further extension and elaboration of the Marxist theory of the superstructure—an aspect that has been overlooked in previous studies of Gramsci's 'theory of distance.' Gramsci employs the notion of 'maintaining distance' to emphasize that 'modern, intelligent' readers must not uncritically enter the author's 'ideological world. ' Instead, they should actively adopt a 'national-popular' stance in their critique, becoming organic intellectuals engaged in the struggle for national-popular hegemony.

It is commonly assumed that Gramsci's influence on British Marxism became significant only after the 1970s, particularly in how his work transcended the traditional zero-sum conception of ideological struggle by emphasizing the dynamic interplay between ruling-class and popular ideologies—a perspective that later informed cultural studies. However, this view, often retrospectively constructed from the standpoint of cultural studies, overlooks the broader trajectory of postwar British Marxism. The engagement between Gramscian theory and British Marxism was in fact a process of mutual attraction, beginning no later than the 1960s, as exemplified by E. P. Thompson's work. Building on his reading of Gramsci's class theory, Thompson sought to move beyond economistic narratives of class by foregrounding class subjectivity. Yet, due to his inattention to Marxist theories of the state, this anti-economistic turn led to a misreading of Gramsci and ultimately reinforced the tendency within British Marxism to privilege superstructural analysis.

As a doyenne of the Beat Generation, Diane di Prima's literary trajectory epitomizes the movement's philosophical evolution. While the Beats' initial pursuit of liberation through Dionysian excess manifested in sexual liberation, substance experimentation, and performative rebellion which constituted an illusive union between existential angst and utopian idealism, di Prima's engagement with Zen Buddhism catalyzed a paradigmatic shift. This epistemological rupture transcended the Western dialectical tradition, embracing instead the Buddhist principles of "enlightenment, emptiness, interdependence, and compassion". This study aims to trace the Beats' spiritual negotiation with and poetic appropriation of Zen Buddhism through diving into the Buddhist imprint in di Prima's open form creation as the poet abandons western binaries and poses as an enlightened intuitive perceiver, impermanent mindful syncretist and compassionate ecological protector. The non-dual Zen ideas cooperate well with her open form poetics which emphasizes the interaction among the poet, the poem and the reader, the body engagement in poetry composition, and the dependent relationship between human and nature.

A. R. Ammons's poetry demonstrates a profound engagement with oriental philosophy, particularly bearing the traces of I Ching and Dao De Jing, which informs his distinctive poetics of motion. Central to his thought is a metaphysical model grounded in the dynamic interplay among zero, one, and many—corresponding respectively to the notions of "Wuji," "Taiji" and "yin-yang" in the Chinese philosophy of changes. Beyond poetic principle, these elements structure Ammons's exploration of changes as both personal emotion and ecological existential condition, forming what might be called an "E-motion" that links his inner transformation with natural movement. Through recursive patterns, Ammons constructs a poetics that affirms flux and order, offering a unique philosophical vision of poetic being, that is, the idea of change inherent with a balance between permanent change and changelessness.

David Greig's Europe delves into the profound identity crises triggered by the seismic political and economic transformations of 1990s Europe. Set against the backdrop of globalization, post-Cold War geopolitical realignments, and industrial decline, the play exposes the collapse of stable identities—individual, existential and communal. Europe interrogates the human cost of these upheavals by portraying characters grappling with the erosion of familiar spaces and the fragmentation of belonging in a world marked by violence and border-crossings. This article argues that Greig not only critiques rigid, exclusionary notions of identity and space but also offers a compelling vision for a more dynamic and pluralistic Europe. By employing a dialectical structure, the play unpacks the dangers of clinging to static, essentialist identities—whether rooted in nationalism, economics, or geography—revealing how such attachments breed both personal and societal stagnation. At the same time, Europe gestures toward transformative possibilities of belonging, emphasizing the creative potential of boundary-crossing, dialogue and collaboration within an increasingly globalized world. Through its nuanced critique, the play challenges audiences to reimagine identity and community as fluid and adaptive, offering a hopeful blueprint for navigating the uncertainties of modern Europe.

In the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, the resurgence of epidemic films has attracted attention and research from scholars, and the discourse of such works and research status should be comprehensively examined in the post-pandemic era. Quarantine is often the most traditional non-medical intervention in epidemic prevention and control, and it often becomes a typical narrative space in epidemic films. The Korean film The Flu (2013), the representation of quarantine serves as a form of social critique. It not only dramatizes conflicts surrounding the pandemic but also reflects Korea's desire for independence, offers a critique of the economically privileged class and reframes the relationship between facts and values. During the prevalence of the novel coronavirus, cultural debates involving Agamben, Nancy, Esposito, and others serve as a reference point for the film the Flu, offering a rich interpretative space within its quarantine scenes. This paper conducts a biopolitical analysis of the isolation scenes in "Flu," revealing the power dynamics and ideological nuances inherent in the represented quarantine through a contrast analysis of reality and visual narratives.Through a comparative analysis of how the quarantine is represented, this paper decodes how the epidemic prevention and control measures serve to construct and dismantle the binary opposition between the unhealthy/healthy, people/government, poverty/privileged, science/politics, and facts/values, highlighting the reality concerns of literary and art research. The dismantling of binary oppositions eliminates the estrangement resulting from prejudices or preconceptions, facilitating the construction of a genuine community of life.

This paper examines Margaret Drabble's The Millstone as a critical intervention in feminist debates on reproductive agency in postwar Britain. It argues that the novel redefines motherhood not as a biologically determined role but as a consciously chosen identity shaped by lived experience, social class and institutional power. Through the protagonist Rosamund Stacey, Drabble challenges essentialist conceptions of womanhood by portraying motherhood as a site of negotiation, resistance and selfformation. Drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of disciplinary power and Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, the paper explores how medical institutions discipline the female body and how maternal identity is performed through care and choice. By presenting diverse female experiences, Drabble challenges monolithic narratives of both motherhood and femininity.

This paper investigates how large language models (LLMs) restructure global linguistic hierarchies by introducing the concept of symbolic sovereignty—the capacity of a language to shape meaning, discourse, and cultural visibility within AI systems. This concept is grounded in a key empirical observation: certain languages, such as Chinese in DeepSeek, are not only used more frequently but also serve as default generative frameworks, guiding semantic construction across multiple outputs. This privileged role is evident in how Chinese manages stylistic variation, initiates rhetorical structures, and frames meaning for other languages. Rather than mere technical inclusion, such dominance constitutes a form of symbolic power. To support this claim, the paper combines semiotic theory and comparative analysis of multilingual outputs from ChatGPT and DeepSeek. Drawing from Saussure's structural linguistics, Barthes's mythologies, Eco's open systems, and Bourdieu's linguistic capital, the study reveals how AI models embed linguistic hierarchies into their internal architecture. As a response to this emerging power structure, the paper introduces the ethical notion of the right to linguistic generation, advocating structural parity in model design, semantic flexibility, and cultural representation. Ultimately, the paper argues that generative AI is not merely a technical tool but a regime of meaning production, where language is not just spoken—it speaks back, shaping who gets to define the world and how.