On The Influence Of The Concept Of Balance On Riccizi's Literary Thought

Known as “The father of modern critical theories”,Ivor Armstrong Richards(1893-1979)is a British literary critic and theorist in the 20 th century.Richards has put forward a series of ideas,which have covered many fields,such as linguistics,psychology,literary theory,aesthetics and so on.During the 19 th and 20 th centuries,the impressionist criticism which resorts to emotion and the social and cultural criticism which emphasizes external factors were popular in Britain.Richards introduced psychology and semantics consciously to rectify the situation.At the same time,he realized that the emotional functions of the poem could overcome the social and psychological problems caused by the overdeveloped science in the period of “Neutralization of Nature”.As a result,he believed that the poem could save human's future.In terms of western social reality,Richards turned his attention towards China and regarded it as an ideal country.He thought absorbing Chinese comprehensive cultural traditions and ambiguous thinking patterns would help to solve the confusion of western society,so he promoted the cultural communication between China and western countries on his own initiative.Based on the consideration of human's souls,Richards developed his substantial literary ideologies marked with “equilibrium”.The paper is divided into the following parts:The introduction consists of the present situation of Richards' literary ideologies studies and the connotation of equilibrium.At present,the whole framework and some important aspects of his literary theories and the communication and contact with Chinese culture(reprensented by The Doctrine of Mean)constitute the present studies.Based on Richards' theories,characterized by the dynamic equilibrium,equilibrium concept refers to a unite consciousness or thinking state maintained by the exertion of all faculties.The first part are the reasons why equilibrium has influence on Richards' literary thoughts.The western philosophy traditional pursuit of the integral and unified organicism,and the Chinese cultural traditional emphasis on The Doctrine of Mean which is characterized by equilibrium and harmony have provided external conditions for the influence.During his life and academic course,Richards has formed a knowledge network of multiple subjects(including literature,history,philosophy and psychology)and inclusive horizons,which contribute to the direct reflection of the influence.The second part is the equilibrium's influence on Richards' literary theories.It mainly includes four aspects.The first is the literary value theory: the general value theory which emphasizes on coordinating intrinsic value and hidden value and the psychological value theory which pursues the equilibrium and mediation of impulses.The second is the literary communication theory.Based on the common experience,writers and readers communicate to each other through the medium of literature texts.The third is the poetry's function theory.Poetries can equilibrium the crises caused by science and save human's spirits through emotional languages,the emotional beliefs and the imagination.The fourth is the semantic aesthetic theory,which regards the equilibrium state(that is the synaesthesis)as beauty on the basis of the mediation of all impulses.The third part is the equilibrium's influence on Richards' critical methods.Richards pursues the construction of literary theories and emphasizes the practice of critical methods.Close Reading seeks to have a comprehensive investigation of the tetrad language meanings through the medium of literature texts.Semantic Triangle inspects the language meanings from the entirety of words,thoughts and referents.And Multiple Definition aims to achieve the communication and equilibrium between Chinese and western countries by means of analysing lists of key terms and revealing their interrelations.The fourth part is the equilibrium's influence on the literary theories after Richards.Under the influence of inclusive poetry and close reading of Richards,New Criticism theoriests have put forward a series of concepts marked with the equilibrium characteristic,such as tension,paradox,irony and metaphor.Meanwhile Richards has visited China many times and influenced many scholars at that time.They have come up with many unique and distinct theoretical propositions.Qian zhongshu has put forward the der hermeneutische Zirkel,Zhu ziqing has used the tetrad meanings of language to summarize the Chinese literary reviews,and Ye gongchao has used experience to link writers,texts and readers together.The epilogue part concludes the equilibrium's status in Richards' literary thoughts.Throughout the entirety,the equilibrium has been guiding Richards' literary thoughts as the methodology and running through every aspect as the core(whether in terms of the macro communication between Chinese and western countries and the micro life pursuit,or in consideration of the origins and contents of literary thoughts).As a result,the equilibrium hasbecome the most distinctive feature of Richards' literary ideologies.