AestheticsSocietyPolitics

—An Interview with Tony Bennett

■Wang JieXu Fangfu

Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai200240

China University of PetroleumBeij ing102249

Abstract

Tony Bennett is a famous scholar of social and cultural studies and a research fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Currently Prof.Bennett is Professor of Social and Cultural Studies at the Centre for Cultural ResearchUniversity of Western Sydneyand Research Fellow in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Melbourne. He had held previous positions as Director of the Research Centre of SocioCultural ChangeOpen UniversityU.K. and Director of the Australian Key Research Centre of Cultural and Media Policy. Tony Bennett’s numerous publications cover the areas of literary and aesthetic theorycultural studiescritical museology and cultural sociology.This is an interview with Professor Bennett by Professor Wang Jiethen Professor at Nanjing University but now at Shanghai Jiao Tong Universityand by Professor Xu FangfuProfessor at China University of PetroleumBeijingan interview made during Bennett’s attendance at the International Conference on Key Issues of Cultural Studies at the Nanjing University on May 122009.

Key Words

AestheticsSocietyPoliticsCultural StudyMarxist Aesthetics

The Task of the CriticTerry Eagleton in Dialogue with Matthew Beaumont

■Jia Jie

School of Liberal ArtsNanjing UniversityNanjing210093China

Abstract

This dialogue is focused on the basis of Terry Eagleton’s critical work in the early and mid 1970s. The questioner Matthew Beaumontsenior lecturer at Department of EnglishUCLis trying to probe into Terry Eagleton’s thoughts on politics and aestheticsand the process of his growing into a critic.

Key Words

Terry EagletonCriticPoliticsAesthetics

HumanismAntiHumanismMarxism

■David Alderson

University of ManchesterUK

Abstract

This paper makes an elaboration of the theoretical vitality of the British Marxist tradition. After a brief look at the conservative humanismthe author turns to the role of structuralism in powerfully associating antihumanism with the Left and reveals the contradiction among the above mentioned groups by resorting to the challenges to antihumanism from British Marxism. Finallythe author argues that it is not antihumanism but British Marxism that may enable us to effectively address political possibilities under neoliberalism.

Key Words

MarxismNeoliberalismAntihumanismIdeologyAgency

Alienation and Aesthetics

■Lu Guishan

Department of ChinesePeople’s University of ChinaBeij ing100872

Abstract

With his analysis and criticism of the theory of alienation proposed by Hegel and FeuerbachMarx avoided the problems and defects with the former two and absorbed Hegel’s views on alienationforeignizationconversionobj ectificationand negation of negationwhich are part of the latter’s dialectics. He regarded the alienation of man as the one of labourwhich uncovered the secrete of man’s alienation and the root of social inequalityand which for the first time in the history of human thoughts accurately defined the concept of alienation. With their analysis of alienation and aesthetic relationsMarx and Engels discovered the key to understanding the life and fate of the masses and ultimately enabled the interpretation of man’s liberation in light of the theories of surplus valueeconomic exploitationpractice criticism and class struggle.

Key Words

MarxAlienationAestheticsCriticism of Practice

Who Succeeds Zhu Guangqian The Logical Expansion ofSubjectiveObjective Unity”

■Yan Guozhong

Department of PhilosophyBeij ing UniversityBeij ing100871China

Abstract

Zhu Guangqian’s notion thatAesthetics is the unity of the subjective with the objective”justifies the monistic ontology and methodology. Li Zehou’s interpretation ofnatural personification”provides the logical and historical prerequisite for the concept ofsubjectiveobjective unity”. Following the logic ofnatural personification”Jiang Kongyang proposed the notion that“Aesthetics exists with relations”Yang Enhuan proposed the concept of“aesthetic experience”Zhu Liyuan and Wang Xuxiao proposed the concept of“aesthetic activities”constituting the components of the aesthetics of monistic ontology and methodology. Fromunity”torelation”experience”and“activities”the core concept of Aesthetics underwent three evolutions. After thataesthetic activitiesrooted in and expressive of the existence and activity of lifeare or maybe approved of its transcendencygenerativityand intersubj ectivity.

Key Words

Subjectiveobjective UnityNatural PersonificationAesthetic RelationshipAesthetic ExperienceAesthetic ActivitiesMethodological Monism

Theodicythe Logic Standing of Terry Eagleton’s Theory of Tragedy

■Xiao Qiong

Institute of MediaYunnan University of Finance and EconomicsKunming650221China

Abstract

The combination of theodicy with Marxism forms an important aspect of Terry Eagleton’s research of tragediesand it also effects his unique perspective and conclusion. This article tries to outline Terry Eagleton’s logic standing and to elucidate his viewpoints based on theodicy. Terry Eagletonin his theory of tragedydiscusses how to link tragedy to hope and how to treat misery and evil in realitywhich makes up the new content of his defense of socialism.Identifying and defining Terry Eagleton’s logic standing is essential not only to better understanding Eagleton but also to finding solutions to the problems with Chinese tragedies and the problems we encounter in reality.

Key Words

TheodicyTragedyTerry Eagleton

The“NationPeople’s”and the Cultural Hegemony—On Gramsci’s Thoughts of Culture

■Xie Dongbing

Department of Media and ArtJiangsu Open UniversityNanjing210036China

Abstract

Gramsci put forward the theory of Cultural Hegemony and the literary concept ofNation“People’s”in hope of attaining his political aim of ideological revolution whose subject is the civil society and whose leader is the intellectual.The establishment ofNation“People’s”literature was the first step toward achieving the cultural hegemony in Italy where people’s literature was lacking.Only through the education ofNation“People’s”literature can the new people and the new culture be cultivated. For that purposeGramsci greatly emphasized the educational function of“NationPeople’s”literature.

Key Words

Gramsci“NationPeople’s” “Cultural Hegemony”Civil Society

An Incomplete Rupture A Study of the Relation Between Leavis’s Group and Early Cultural Studies

■Zhou Hailing

School of Chinese Language and LiteratureNanjing UniversityNanjing210093

Abstract

To the early Cultural StudiesLeavis’s Group is not only opponent but also resource. Leavis’s Group affect English Marxists on four aspectsimmediate literary inspirationthe critical mode of culture resisting modern industrial civilizationpopular aesthetic education systemthe academic method of textual analysis and ethnography. In view of the fact that Leavis’s Group determined the appearance of the early cultural studies and influenced the form of its theoretical frameworkthere is not an incomplete rupture between Leavis’s Group and the early Cultural Studies. In order to open up new territories in the field of popular cultural studies conducted by Leavis’s Group and New Criticism which have been occupying the center of academicsCultural Marxists such as WilliamsHallTony Bennett are sure to go through the ritual of rebel and rupture.

Key Words

Leavis’s GroupEnglish MarxistCultural StudiesAffectRupture

Conversational Interaction between Literature and Politics

■Shi Lijun

School of HumanitiesShanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai200240China

Abstract

The relationship between literature and politics is a key issue in the field of literary studies. In recent yearsthe academic inquiry into autonomy/heteronomyenlightenment/aesthetic modernity revealed on the one hand the paradox of literary aesthetics and the implications of real contexts and exposed on the other hand the theoretical problems regarding the relationship between literature and politics. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between literature and politics in the modern context and from the perspective of aesthetic conversation and interaction in order to break loose of the constraint of autonomy/heteronomy structure and to establish the aesthetic conversation and interaction between literature and politics. This will contribute to a solid and multiple understanding of politics and a command of the literary values and qualities of literature in light of the potential significance of literature to politics.

Key Words

Conversational InteractionPoliticsAutonomyHeteronomy

Psychological Mechanism of Ideological Practice in Literature and Arts

■Li Shengqing

School of Humanities and Sciences

Hunan University of Science and TechnologyXiangtan411201China

Abstract

The reaction of literature and arts ideology to real life and economic base is a practical process which takes social psychology as its media. The practical psychological mechanism runs through the whole process of aesthetic ideology.Specificallyit is embodied in four aspectspsychological motive of subjective formpsychological narrative of text contentpsychological implications of artistic formsand psychological experience of arts reception. The four aspects and their interrelationship construct the unique aesthetic process and mechanism of the ideological practice in literature and arts.

Key Words

Literature and Arts IdeologyPracticePsychological Mechanism

The Logic Evolution of Nature and Freedom in German Classical Aesthetics

■Hu Youfeng

School of HumanitiesWenzhou UniversityWenzhou325035China

Abstract

Nature and freedom were both core subjects in German classical aesthetics.By means of judgement of tasteKant interpreted and harmonized nature and freedom. Kant’s theory of harmony between nature and freedom based on prior knowledge only has theoretical rather than practical significance. Schiller harmonized nature with freedom in light of game impulseHegel did it through ideationand Marx through practicejointly serving as a key to the historical riddle of nature and freedom.

Key Words

Nature and FreedomGerman Classical AestheticsSchillerHegelMarx

Critical Resources and Semantic Transference—Qu Qiubai’s Views on the May 4th Movement

■Liu Zhongwang

College of Literature and JournalismXiangTan UniversityXiangTan411105China

Abstract

From the angles of bourgeois revolutionEuropeanization and art sectarian controversyfollowing the theoretical logic of cultural hegemony contentionconcrete rules of popular literature and translation of resources from the Russian culture construction experienceQu Qiubai analyzed the May 4th Movement.Qu explained the conflicts between the theoretical paradigms of the 1930s and the May 4th Perioddisplaying a distinct Leninist characteristic and representing the highest theoretical level of Chinese Marxists of the time. Qu radically advocated the abolition of Chinese charactersdespised the revolutionary significance of the ideology and culture of the May 4th Movement. Qu overwhelmed humanities with social sciences and submitted criticism of resources to semantic transferencerepresenting the initial establishment of radical revolutionary discourse of the May 4th Movement.

Key Words

Qu Qiubaithe May 4th MovementCultural HegemonyLeninism

Bondage and Freedom—On the Opera Before I Could See

■Ding Wenxia

School of ArtsAnhui Polytechnic UniversityWuhu241000China

Abstract

The paper discusses the relation between bondage and freedom represented in the opera Before I Could See. A hurt living individualby instincttries to protect herself by pretending to be indifferent to the world. The wound means actually loss of freedom of the person. Deprived of freedombeing aware of the possibility of freedomshe develops a desire of breaking the bondage. The paper also discusses the significance of female narration and the origin of grand narration.

Key Words

BondageFreedomFemale NarrationGrand Narration

The Problem DefinedThe Need for an Anthropology of Art

■Alfred Gell

Abstract

The existing theory of artistic anthropology deals with the art of the colonial and postcolonial societiesand the socalled‘primitive art’the approach of which is to apply the Western theory of art to studies of art in nonWestern societies. This theory admits that each culture has a culturespecific aesthetic systemand the task of artistic anthropology is to define the characteristics of each culture’s inherent aesthetics. This kind of study is essentially geared to projecting and expanding the aesthetic sensitivity of the Western audiences of artand does not really constitute anthropology of art.Anthropology is a social sciencenot a branch of humanitieswhich means that anthropology of art focuses on the social context of art productioncirculationand reception. Work of art is not defined by art institutionit is not an object of semioticaesthetic and expressional meaningbut a system of actionsintended to change the world. Within the theory of anthropology of artthe actioncentered approach to art is to study the social relations in which work of art mediates among social agents. Anthropology of art differs from artistic sociology in that artistic sociology concerns the institutional parameters of Western societieswhereas anthropology of art is more concerned with the relational network surrounding art objects. Artistic anthropology uncovers the implications of human behaviors in the context of some concrete social environment. Its objective is to account for the production and circulation of art objects in this relational context.

Key Words

Anthropology of ArtArt ObjectArtistic SociologyAgentSocial Context

The Progress of Material in PostHistorical Context How to Rescue Critical Art into the Present and Beyond

■Ronel Alberti da Rosa

PUCRS University and IDC Philosophy FacultyBrazil

Abstract

This paper aims to show the falsity of predicament of the contemporary art by applying to postmodern experiences Adorno’s concept of‘Verfransung der Künste’to reveal the possibility of art to continue to be critical and enlighteningrenouncing neither to universality nor to the utopia of reconciliation of the most unlike human languages. To rescue the Ursinn of materials is taken as the major task in the processand in posthistorical context postmodern artwork needs to overcome rationality by anchoring its critical basement no longer in the advancing of the material but rather in its treatment.The intertwining of arts and techniques means receiving elements of the world in artwork and returning them to the world transformed by aesthetic rationality.From this point‘Verfransung der Künste’can be understood as the progress of art in the appearance of regression and stagnation.

Key Words

Posthistorical ContextProgress of MaterialVerfransung der KünsteDialectics

Folk Songs’Cultural Function of Relieving Modernity Anxiety

■Qiang Donghong

School of Literature and Communications

Xianyang Normal UniversityXianyang712000China

Abstract

In the rapid process of modernizationmodernity anxiety has been becoming a general and pervasive state of mindwhich drives many people into a selfidentity crisis. Consequentlymodern people develop a strong desire to return to their homelandindulging in an intense mood of nostalgia and obsessed with a desire to return to nature. In this contextas an expression of local experiencefolk song performs a unique and powerful cultural function of relieving the anxiety of modernitya function justified not only by distinct musical quality but also by its relation to traditionhomelandand nature. Based on an analysis of the folk songs of North Shaanxithe paper interprets this cultural phenomenon.

Key Words

Folk Songs of North ShaanxiModernity AnxietyIdentity

Evading the SublimeComment on the Film of Orphan of the Zhao Family

■Wang JieYin QinghongWang Yu

Abstract

Orphan of the Zhao Family is a classical tragedy in Chinese traditional culture. In an effort to deconstruct the traditional Chinese sublime concepts like revenge and loyalty and to illustrate the themes of respecting life and humanityChen Kaigedirector of the film of Orphanof the Zhao Familyin the course of adapting the historical playomits the historical context and alters the types of characters so that the new plot is contradictory and the themes are confusing.Owing to Chen Kaige’s confused understanding of values and his superficial recognition of life and humanityhis adaption fails to produce a tragic effect.Furthermorebecause the plot does not devote enough to the representation of humanitythe film appears theme-oriented.

Key Words

Chen KaigeOrphan of the Zhao FamilySublimeHumanityPlot

Writing of Aesthetics that Surpass Theorism—Comment on Duan Jifang’s Ideology and Aesthetic Discourse

■Wang Hongchen

Institute of Language and Literature of Europe and America

Xi’an International Studies UniversityXi’an710128China

Abstract

As a monograph on Terry Eagleton’s literature criticcal theoriesDr.Duan’s Ideology and Aesthetic Discourse reflects a tendency of transcending Theorism. This is chiefly manifested in three dimensions. Firstlyguided by dialogical consciousnessabandoning the theoretical worship of logicit not only exposes the advantages and disadvantages of the critical theories of Terry Eagletonbut also elaborates on the literary concept of research subjects.Secondlyhe fully demonstrates sharp critical stance throughout his thinking processvalues reasonand adheres to the truth. Finallyin face of real Chinese experiencesit both stresses the basic significance of these concrete experiences and acknowledges the inspirational impact of Terry Eagleton on the construction of Chinese literary theory. All in allthe author’s writing of aesthetics not only provides us with a valuable AntiTheorism model but also leads us to the contemplation upon what aesthetics can do in the age of consumerism.

Key Words

Terry EagletonTheorismIdeology