A Study Of The Evolution Of Value Orientation Of New Period Literary Theories

The current studies of Literary Theories have efficiently acquired some theoretical achievements in translating and introducing western literary theories, in transforming Chinese classical literary theories into modern equivalents, in investigating Marxist literary theories and in some other aspects. Nevertheless, the study of the discipline itself has been neglected. Confronted by the impending advent of a new century, the academia, by request of emancipating the mind and unlashing literature from political restrictions, i.e. modernizing our literary theories, started in the 1980s to undertake retrospective examinations on previous 20^th -century literary theories, among which, theories constructed in late Qing Dynasty and May Fourth period have been hot topics, by reason that researches on the problem of modernizing our literary theories are feasible in a genesis view. The beginning of this century saw some changes in the retrospective examinations on previous literary theories. On the starting point of a new century, scholars like Cheng Guangwei, Wang Yichuan and Kuang Xinnian etc. turned to make deep researches on the rules of New Period literary theories. Last year, a national conference hosted mainly by China Academic Association of Chinese and International Literary Theories in the city of Changsha, Hunan Province concentrated on the topic of "The Retrospect and Prospect of New Period Literary Theories", and generally characterized New Period literary theories as being "scientific, modern and with Chinese characteristics." We argue that the characteristics and achievements of New Period literary theories are just the starting...