Abstract:

Modern Chinese literary theory (wenlun) has undergone three general evolvements as far as its general name is concerned: “introduction to literature” (wenxue gailun) in the Republic of China, “theory of literature and art” (wenyi xue) in the early period of the People’s Republic of China, and “literature theory” (wenxue lilun) after the reform and opening up. Mainly coming from the literary criticism in the English world, the introduction to literature in the period of Republic of China had three different models, that is, the model of English literary theory, the model of ancient China and the model of Soviet Russian literary theory. Although the term was translated from German “literary science” before 1949, theory of literature and art in the early period of the People’s Republic of China mainly came from the Soviet Union’s literary science. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the theory of literature and art evolved in three stages: the Soviet model in the 1950s, the transformation of Chinese content in the early 1960s, and the intellectual innovation with the times after the reform and opening up. However, after the reform and opening up, “literary theory” arose in the interaction with English literary, competing with “theory of literature and art” and “introduction to literature” at the same time. With 2010 as the mark, literary theory as the general name has basically gained consensus, and its significance should be understood not only from the evolution of Chinese literary theory itself, but also from the interaction between Chinese literary theory and world literary theory.

Key words: the general name of modern Chinese literary theory, introduction to literature - theory of literature and art - literary theory, interaction between Chinese and foreign literary theories