| Abstract: | A common symptom of the blanket coverage of Western literary theory was the way Chinese intellectuals “kept harping on Greece,” to the neglect of their own literature’s distinctive features. Even worse were attempts to force Chinese literature into the Procrustean bed of Western literary propositions. How can Chinese literary theory be used more effectively to interpret native literature and culture, or Chinese experience? How can it throw off Western theoretical models and become a component of the Chinese nation’s own narrative? Reconstruction of the discourse system of Chinese literary theory must be a high priority. It is a complex project, one that necessarily entails stepping on to the discourse platform of modernity, accepting various kinds of open dialogue, and thence envisioning a new form of discourse system set amid multilayered overlapping perspectives and even the challenge of different ideas. |
