The Evolution Of Chinese American Literary Criticism: Ethnicity, Literariness, Worldliness

Chinese American literary criticism is the product of the American multicultural movement in the 1970s,being branded as "ethnicity" from the date of its birth.The study of Chinese American literature was lack of systematic and theoretical points before 1982.The study of Chinese American literature criticism between 1982 and 1995 aims at finding the collective characteristics of Asian American or Chinese literature and establishing the literary classic.So far since 1995,many literary theories have been used to study Chinese American literature,such as postmodernism,psychoanalysis,globalization discourse,dispersion and so on.This thesis aims at studying the evolution of Chinese American literary criticism paradigm:ethnicity,literariness,and worldliness.Firstly,the author summarizes thehistorical development of the Chinese American literature,the respective historical stages of the Chinese American literary criticism,and the historical and cultural background of Chinese American literature.The name of Chinese American literature itself contains a strong political appeal and ethnic characteristics,which also laid the foundation for ethnic Chinese literary criticism.Secondly,the standard of using Asian American sensibility as the criterion to determine whether Chinese American writers are true or false started the ethnic studies of Chinese American literary criticism.The value of ethnic criticism reflected in the following aspects:the use of China town English style deconstructed the hegemony of English,corrected the stubborn image of ethnic Chinese male,and explored the forgotten history of ethnic Chinese.The ethnic Chinese make their own sound with rebellion.The limitations of ethnic criticism reflected in too much emphasis on Asian American sensibility of the works,thus making a single dimension as to criticism and falling into the nest of essentialism,making Chinese literature criticism difficult to move towards the center of discourse system from the edge.At the same time,too much emphasis on the ethnicity of the works just covered the literariness of the text,that is,the aesthetic significance and value of literary works.Chinese American literary criticism should not be limited to ethnic disputes.As a product of the times,on the one hand,it has the characteristics of the times and on the other hand,it also has the basic characteristics of literature.The concept of literariness given by Russian formalism and Jacobsen's made an important contribution to the study of literature,which completely changed the paradigm and method of literary research.Starting from the most basic cognition that art is a kind of language,we grasp the organization of language and the structure of the language as intrinsic characteristics.Chinese American literary criticism was influenced by the change of significance in literary and connotation of ethnic text itself,the focus of criticism changed from ethnicity to literariness,the content of criticism is beyond the traditional model of immigrant literature,turning to the search for the characteristics of literature itself.Chinese American women's literature criticism became the core and theme of literary criticism,King-kok Cheung,AmyLing,Sau-ling Cynthia Wong,these Chinese American literature research scholars all explored deeply into the trait of literariness from different perspectives.The critical dimension using literariness as the theme made Chinese American literary criticism gradually broke away from the heavy historical mission brought by text,and from the perspectives of feminist criticism,psychological analysis,narrative strategies to explain the literary significance and aesthetic value of Chinese literary text.The change of literature of Chinese American literary criticism is closely related to the change of the subject and content of Chinese American literature.Using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as an example,they consciously diluted the ethical identity of the characters during the process of creation,using the narrative mode of female style to weaken the strong position of male narrative,focusing on narrative skills and strategies,showing the universal value of literary works.Chinese American literary criticism is an open system of discourse.Under the globalization,the new concept of world literature,the diaspora and the language of literature,the Chinese American literary criticism presents a global perspective.Damroch's new idea of world literature advocates that every nation and country,the literature at anytime has the power and opportunity to enter the perspective of universal literature,with no center and edge,each get an equal status and the right of speech.As an ethnical literature,Chinese American literature also has the power to win a place on the stage of the world literature.At the end of the twentieth Century,the creation of new immigrant literature brought about the cross-boundary of language,as well as new challenges to the Chinese American literary criticism.After that,the study of Chinese American literary criticism should also have a cross-border attitude,drawing on the criticism methods and paradigms of other ethnic minority literature in the United States,and integrates the critical theories and discourse systems of other countries.Not only can they make horizontal comparison between Chinese American literary criticism and other ethnic groups,and draw lessons from the criticism paradigm to enrich their criticism.They can also make a longitudinal comparative study of Chinese American literary criticism and American literary criticism to find its relationship with the United States mainstream literary criticism is both dependent and independent.Under the global discrete culture,the creation and criticism of Chinese American literature also shows the dimension of over China and American.The content theme of Chinese American literature is no longer limited to the history and experience of ethnic Chinese history,but then focus on the common destiny of mankind with universal value.In a word,the critical paradigm which integrates ethnicity,literariness,and worldliness reflects the pluralistic discourse system of Chinese American literary criticism,highlights the particularity and universality of ethnic Chinese literature,and it is the supplement of the discourse system of traditional American literary criticism and it is an opening system of discourse integrating theoretical research and practical significance.