Abstract:

“Theoretically Studying literature” is the primary paradigm of literary theory that has been developed since 1960s in the West and influenced China. However, it has been more and more clear that it has the limit of deviating literature in literary interpretation by force and following the track of grand narrative. As a new paradigm in the international academic frontier, “literarily theorizing” will help to overcome the limit and promote the study of literary theory. Historically speaking, while “literature” in a narrow sense is a subject developed since the 18th century, which takes pure literature as its content, the original meaning of “literature” is a creative activity of language, which has been deepened from the perspective of modern theory of language and integrated into theories of humanities and social sciences as a living thinking way. Logically speaking, “literarily theorizing” is to develop what is useful and discard what is not in Chinese classical poetry criticism characterized by taste orientation and inspired thoughts on the one hand and to sublate modern ontological poetics that still presupposes fundamental power on the other. Methodologically speaking, while literary signifier integrated in theory includes unfamiliar details, cases and narratives, literary signified integrated in theory, which is brought out by signifier, overcomes speculative meta-narratives with implications on the one hand and emancipating meta-narratives with imagination and sympathy on the other. What is significant is that “literarily theorizing” can help us go out of the dual predicaments of literary crisis and reluctant interpretation with theory.