Abstract
Lydia H. Liu's criticism on Lu Xun's discourse of national character is not an isolated case in literary criticism, but part of the theoretical nomadism of “translated modernity.” Be it Lydia H. Liu’s conceptualization of “translated modernity,” Leo Ou-fan Lee’s “pursuit of modernity,” David Der-wei Wang’s “repressed modernity,” Rey Chow’s “repressed visuality” or Shu-mei Shih’s “lure of the modern,” the theoretical purport of theirs tends to examine the complex relationship between Chinese literature and politics in the 20th century from the perspective of power criticism, and reflect on the “repressive regime” behind the modern nation-state. The formation of this knowledge production mechanism is isomorphic with the development of American cultural studies, and it exposes two issues in the cross-cultural theoretical travel. On the one hand, under the influence of postmodernism, when the theory game is pushed to the extreme, it falls into a loop of discursive games and is dominated by theoretical presuppositions. Such discursive game fails to delve into the real experience and core questions of the literary texts. On the other hand, the kinship between works of Chinese American scholars and cultural studies has led to their great dependence on the nomadic “hunting” of Western cultural theories and methods, which results in their influence in Chinese domestic academia. However, thanks to the accentuation of Chinese academic subjectivity and more extensive intellectual sharing, this knowledge group is facing the challenge of enhancing its own theoretical originality.
First Page
207
Last Page
216
Recommended Citation
Li, Shi. 2021. "Cultural Studies and the Intellectual Genealogy of Chinese American Scholars: The Controversies on Lydia H. Liu's Study of the “National Character” and Beyond." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 41, (5): pp.207-216. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol41/iss5/6
