| As a well-known critical theorist, literary theorist and communication theorist, Leo Lowenthal enjoys great fame on both sides of the Atlantic. As one of the core members of The Institute of Social Research, he always applied critical theory of Frankfurt School to analyze the literary, cultural and social problems in the whole life of the academic research, which had made many outstanding contributions in the field of literary theory, popular culture theory and critical communication theory. Lowenthal's study of literature communication not only opened the prelude of the communication turn in the field of literary research, but also combined availably critical theory, literary theory with communication theory, "Lowenthal transforms this position into a Copernican revolution in the sociology of culture", being the pioneer of critical cultural studies and a model of cross-disciplinary studies.As founder of critical theory of literature communication, Lowenthal's basic themes, theory principle and research paradigm could be considered the beginning of a theoretical foundation of critical theory of literature communication. Lowenthal's books involve lots of realistic and profound ideas about literature communication, which would enrich the study of literature communication with Chinese characteristics. Current research on Frankfurt School concentrates primarily in the aspect of critical theory and mass culture theory, and research on Lowenthal concentrates primarily in the aspect of popular culture theory and communication theory. The dissertation focused and thoroughly analyzed Lowenthal's theory of literature communication for the first time, drawing basic aspects and main characteristics of his literature communication research paradigm, revealing its main theoretical value and its significance to our contemporary literary research. It not only provided a kind of new importance angle of observing literary phenomenon nowadays, extended scope of literature interpretation, expanded belletristic theoretical space, but also developed a new critical interdisciplinary research method aiming at literature communication problems, provided a kind of viable literature communication research paradigm, enriched comprehension of essence and characteristic of literature, deepened studies on the literary history and the literary criticism. By systematically studying Lowenthal's theory of literature communication, the dissertation deeply discusses the basic problems of developing theory of literature communication, summarizes some regular recognition about literature communication problems, and provides a more wide reference system, a more profound theoretical context for further understanding the essence of literature and literary theory, and transformation of literature and literary theory in mass communication context.The dissertation is composed of six parts: an introduction and a conclusion and a main text made up of four chapters.The introduction part of the paper introduces the original intention of selecting the topic, namely, the theoretic value and practical significance, the main subject, and the logical arrangement of the dissertation. The introduction generally reveals theoretical value and main characteristics of Lowenthal's theory of literature communication, by exploring it in the context of communication transformation of literary research and his theoretical system.Chapter one generally introduces the generation and development of Lowenthal's theory of literature communication. The first section gives a sketch of Lowenthal's academic career, trying to reveal the relationships between the experiences of his life and his academic achievements. This section consists of four parts for the analysis and generalization of his whole career life: The Weimar Republic, The Institute of Social Research, The Voice of America, and Berkeley. The second section hackles academic resources of Lowenthal's theory of literature communication. The intellectual traditions Lowenthal grew up with were Marx, Hegel, Goethe, Freud, Dilthey, Simmel, and Max Weber, Alfred Weber. More importantly, he had not only inherited and developed the Germanic philosophical tradition and humanistic paradigm, but also he had come to recognize that American positivism was completely respectable theoretical approaches and research methods, and he had adopted some methods of American social science. The third section draws a development track of Lowenthal's theory of literature communication: his sociological study, by applying critical theory, on literature communication and mass acceptance in Europe, his communication study, by adopting critical communication theory in the USA, on literature, and his synthesis, on the base of the aforesaid studies, on those theoretical achievements of Europe and the USA, established a series of cross-disciplinary categories including force fields of theory, force fields of communication and force fields of understanding, thereby created a brand-new belletristic paradigm to master the essence of literature in the "force fields" between literature and communication.Chapter 2 mainly analyzes the communication's angle of view and methods in Lowenthal's literary study. As a literary theorist who first regards literature communication problems as main research object, it is main characteristic of Lowenthal's literary theory that literary problems are researched as a kind of communication phenomenon. In the effort to free the methodologies of literature researches from the author-and-works -centered research paradigm, his complete set of methodology be illustrated by the concept of communication. It is exactly a brand-new angle of view and research paradigm that make Lowenthal swiftly seize historical trend of communication transformation of literary development in age of mass communication, and transcend Empirical School and Critical School of communication, and shape special theory of literature communication. Aiming at transformation of literature and literary theory in mass communication context as well as the insufficient of the existing various research methods, Lowenthal created a brand-new methodology of "force fields of theory", his synthesis on critical theory, communication theory and literary theory, which makes Lowenthal's theory of literature communication to show up cross-disciplinary research background and theoretical characteristics. Robert Merton praised "such a successful synthesis" as "one of the few successful examples of a synthesis of the European theoretical stance and American empirical research", which exerts a profound and lasting influence upon studies of literature and communication. Upon profound analysis on the conflict and fusion between literary theory and communication theory, critical theory and empirical method, and upon study of comparison among Lowenthal, Adorno and empirical school, does this dissertation not only highlight the features of his theory, and reveal "the other face" of critical theory, fill the blank of study in this respect, but also provide a new theoretical context for understanding Frankfurt School much more completely and scientifically, thereby deepen the study on Frankfurt School.Chapter 3 discusses Lowenthal's new belletristic paradigm, expounds its literature view in his theory of literature communication. He thought that the existing categories and paradigms cannot explain phenomenon of literature communication in mass communication context, so he tried to establish a series of categories including "force fields of communication" and "force fields of understanding", and created a brand-new belletristic paradigm to research the essence of literature in the "force fields" between literature and communication. In his view, literature communication activities must be investigated in the culture and the society theories, not only in terms of its communicators, its texts, and its receivers, but also in terms of cultural contexts, social processes, and economic relations. In the process of communication researching on literature and popular literature, he constructed "force fields of communication" which is composed by complex communication phenomenon was employed to interpret the phenomenon of literature communication which is in a certain historical period. But if literature communication activities are interpreted only by way of "force fields of communication", specific characteristics of Literature communication will be diminished.He held that as a means of communication in the human interactions, literature occupied an indispensable value and influence because literature could regain true connotation and human contents of communication, to reinforce interpersonal communion and understanding and to share inner experience and to liberate and free human beings. So he combined "understanding" with Germanic cultural philosophical tradition with "force fields" of Frankfurt School, thereby established thoughts of "force fields of understanding" literature communication research. Lowenthal thought that "literature itself is media of communication", no matter the essence or functions of literature, it plays a intermediary role, namely, is media of communication, exchange, and understanding, the generation of literary essence, and aesthetics, sociology, culturology characteristics of literature is connected with communication closely. In view of "force fields of understanding", the core of literature communication activities is to create, comprehend and share meanings. Therefore, if the probing of essence of literature can be based on the communication and literature communication can be explored as an existing means of literature itself, the literature transition phenomenon can be better understood how it developed from cognitive literature to mass communication. The existing literature itself is communication, which illustrates and enriches the comprehension of the essence of literature and makes up the vague concept in the spiritual history. This dissertation holds Lowenthal's literary viewpoint that he revealed the essence and functions of literature in the "force fields" between literature and communication, and researched literature from the viewpoint of communication is a kind of literary viewpoint of communication, which reveals that Lowenthal is one of the first generation who propose the literary viewpoint of communication.Chapter 4 mainly analyzes Lowenthal's research on the various links and their relation of literature communication activities, and proves the effectiveness of its theoretical analysis through his two cases of case studies. He investigated how the "forces" of authors, literary media, booksellers, critics, communication channels and readers played their roles in the "force fields of communication" and how the corresponding historical changes of their interactive relationships and respectively analyzed the problems of communicator and text construction, horizon of expectations and text structure, and historical changes of literature "force fields of communication" and literary transitions. In his view, new communication subjects including professional writer had exerted a widespread and fundamental influence on the textual construction. Appearance of masses was an origin of the decisive change which took place in the world of literature communication, it not only induced "The debate over art and popular culture", but also changed the relation among author, text and reader, "the decisive change was to have the most far-reaching effects both in theaesthetic and ethical domains, on the body as well as the form of literature......the types of literature and literary institutions were affected by this change and which, in turn, fostered it; the shifting ideational patterns which illuminate". Research on communication situation of a certain author, work and type of literature in history of literature is Lowenthal's belletristic focus in 1930-1940. Lowenthal's a series of content analyses of biographies in popular magazines and research on The Reception of Dostoevski's Work in Germany can be regarded as the double jade of literature criticism by applying literature communication theory in 20th century. Therefore, he is also honored as the forerunner of reception theory and real pioneer of reader-response criticism.Epilogue outlines the values and limitations of Lowenthal's theory of literature communication. His theory was set up on the basis of playing type communication stage, so its historical limitations are inevitable. Now "The First Media Age" is getting into "The Second Media Age". In this case, we can't more simply receive his theoretical hypothesis and research results, even if for some verified conclusions, they also need further investigation. But Lowenthal's research perspective, theoretical space, basic themes, theory principle and research paradigm still have theoretical value and significance to our contemporary literary research.
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