A Review Of Literary Healing Research

The research of literary healing(someone used "literary cure", while the others used "literature heal") in mainland China began in the late 1990s. It has been a new topic in the humanities and social science research circle in China. The literary healing is a holy therapy that was found in the original language environment. In the perspective of literary anthropology, the oral literature has got attentions again, the literary healing is regarded has a close connection with the prehistoric Shaman Voodoo ritual activities. The chanting of mantras, prayers and ritual behaviors in the Voodoo ritual activities create a magic interspace for the healing to realize a good curative effect. After the end of the Voodoo age, the holy therapy has the symbolic inheritance in the literature which still has the function of healing. With the coming up of the literary healing, scholars has made theoretical study on it and also has conducted literature criticism research and social practice research. All of these have obtained certain achievements. The theory of literary healing provides a new territory for the current literature study and is very meaningful for maintaining the physical and mental health of modern people. However, there is still no comprehensive study on the literary healing currently which is the focus of this thesis. The main part of this thesis is a review of the existing literary healing history. Making a bold stage division on the study of literary healing and highlight the different development characteristics of the two periods before and late. Going back to the ideological and cultural background against which the theory of literary healing is coming up, that is, in the context of combining the thought of cultural seeking root led by the crisis of modernity and the post-modernism, there are three diversions in the global ideological and theoretical circles:the Easternism, the Primitivism and the Ecologism. Make three summarizations on the main theories about literary healing:the literary anthropology holy healing, the narrative healing and the psychological healing. The research on the criticism of the existing literary healing is generalized from three aspects:the "study of oral literature and ancient Chinese literature", the "study of modern literature" and the "study of foreign literature". The characteristics of literary anthropology are putting in a prominent place compared with the narrative practice, the art therapy and the bibliotherapy. And then point out the advantages and disadvantages of the literary healing, and vision for the future of it. The topic of literary healing is discovered from the perspective of literary anthropology. However, its value is not limited in the literary anthropology. It has a wider range of academic research value which is worth being explored, developed and employed.