Modern Characteristics in Modern Chinese Literary Theory

Abstract

Being in accord with the great transformation of modern Chinese literature, modern Chinese literary theory is formed against the backdrop of changing modern cultural values in modern China. The multi-roles it has played in modern Chinese society include cultural intervention, social act, and construction of anesthetic experience and literary appreciation. It thus, through a dynamic dialogue between authoritative Western literary theory and traditional Chinese literary theory, manifests distinct features of modernity: vernacular written language, academic institutionalization, cultural explicitness, revolutionary radicalness, Westernization of inner system, and implicit Chinese traditions. It also has developed to a new stage where the localization of Western literary theory in China needs to be constructed and addressed.

Keywords

literary theory / modern characteristic / modernity