As A Characterization Of The Literature

The dissertation falls into four parts: the Academic History, the Introduction, a Four-chapter Body, and the Conclusion. In the Academic History, the present situation and existing problems of the research of representation theory is reviewed. In the Introduction, the whole topic is argued and surveyed, based on a discussion on the translation of the English term"representation", and furthermore, its originality and theoretical significance is pointed out. There was a sharp gap in the contemporary Western theoretical context as the traditional concept of recurrence was concerned, during which a diversity of new connotations were nurtured which can be generally considered as"representation" or"representation theory." Through a brief analysis of the"linguistic shift","postmodern shift", and"cultural shift"relevant to the concept of recurrence, the dissertation sorts out and organizes the theoretical insights provided by the contemporary Western theory of representation, additionally, the organized concept of representation is introduced into literary research, as a result of which a series of original theoretical thoughts are put forward.The first chapter of the dissertation is about the constructive discussion on the contemporary Western theory of representation. The focus discussion of the dissertation, that is, the concept of representation, is mainly based on Stuart Hall's theoretical studies and critic practice, whose essential theoretical"components"are Ferdinand de Saussure's structuralist linguistics,"Mythological Studies"in Roland Bathes'cultural criticism, Michel Foucault's theory of discourse and Althusser's ideological"interpellation"theory. With Stuart Hall's theory of representation as its primary clue, integrating the theories of the theorists mentioned above, the dissertation systematically analyzes and constructs a structuralist semiotic theory of representation, the insights and topics of which is such as the following: representation connects linguistic symbols, senses and culture, the practice of which is a production in the cultural sense; any practice of representation is indispensable with"cultural code", which is actually the product of a set of social conventions in a particular period of history and also an unwritten cultural contract, therefore, the production of the order of signs through certain"cultural code"in the practice of representation is virtually the creation of an full and decodable text of signs through a certain culture and ideological values; since cultural codes were historically produced in a particular society and culture, the cultural senses and values produced in the practice of cultural representation were necessarily particular and historical; the significance of culture and the value system exert real effect upon establishing various rules, standards and conventions to maintain the society in order and under control and further to standardize human behavior, in such a sense, the recognition or overthrowing of the mainstream culture by literary representation really means the"interference"into the life of reality; besides the production of series of symbols relevant to matters (including those invented or in no real existence), the practice of representation bears the nature of discourse practice; the representation practice produces a series of"subject positions", promote the evolution of subjectivity and identity recognition of individuals in reality; blended with various power, the representation practice produces stereotypes relevant to"the other".The main contents of the upcoming chapters are the systematic investigations of literature by virtue of the theory of representation. In the second chapter, several main views related to literature which is as a kind of practice of representation are explicitly put forward, namely, the representation of literature is a production in the cultural sense and this sense, as a product of literary representation, unexceptionally maintains a relationship as constructing or overthrowing the cultural values dominant in a particular period of history; literary representation is a kind of convention and so is the mode of that of realistic literature which makes all its conventions natural by all means; literary representation bears the nature of discourse practice, as a matter of fact that literary writing has no existence in cultural vacuum and that literary representation is closely combined with various ideological discourse under any circumstance, thus making them produced, reproduced and circulated in literary discourse. In the third chapter, the modes of representations in realistic, romantic, modern, and postmodern literatures are discussed in detail. Such basic modes of representations formed in these different literatures as the posture of authors'creation and cultural interference, the way of creating an image, the criterion of"being real"and mode of production of sense. In the fourth chapter, the issues of literary representation and identity recognition are discussed. Characters created in literary representation provide many subject positions which are readers'cultural resources to build their own subjectivity and identity recognitions; literary representation, with few exceptions, constructs such status of a certain class, a nation, a gender, an ethnic group, either recognizing or overturning the cultural status already accepted by a mainstream culture; the production of stereotypes of"the other"by literary representation accounts for the occurrence of cultural prejudice, however, the"the other"always struggle for the power of uttering their own representation in their own interests, that is, to build better and fairer cultural status for themselves. In this sense, literary representation also serves as a field of cultural campaign.In the last part, that is, the Conclusion, the academic findings of the dissertation are briefly introduced.