Abstract
Research on literary history is the most fundamental way to construct the knowledge system of literature, which is mainly divided historically into two schools: contextualism and formalism. They both have major defects, which are caused by their thinking in logocentric binary opposition. A shift of our perspective to poststructuralist binary complementation may enable us to realize that all texts of literary discourse are formed by a rewriting of other discursive texts. Correspondingly, the most proper approach to literary history is to probe into the dynamic complicated relationship between a text of literary discourse and its pretexts. This approach,termedrewritology,includes four major steps: analyzing the similarities and differences between a literary text and its pretexts; explaining the reason for its rewriting of the latter; elucidating the value of its content and meaning; and determining its achievements and status. It is a comparatively ideal approach that has the best of contextualism and formalism.
First Page
184
Last Page
192
Recommended Citation
Xiao, Jinlong. 2016. "Rewriting and Rewritology: A Poststructuralist Approach to Literary History." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 36, (6): pp.184-192. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol36/iss6/18
