The Pursuit Of Modernity: The Research On Leo Ou-Fan Lee's Literary And Cultural Theory

Leo Ou-fan Lee is one of the most influential figures in modern Chinese literary studies within the realm of Sinology in America.Though emphasizing different aspects,together with C.T.Hisa and David Der-wei Wang,Leo demonstrates the continuity of the tradition in modern Chinese literary studies within the realm of Sinology in America with solid academic achievements.As the pioneers and backbone of this area,their unique theoretical perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches help to form the overseas perspective on the Chinese literary studies of the 20^th century.The theoretical concern underlying Leo's academic activities of decades is his pursuit of modernity.Whether it's his research on classic writers of "May the Fourth Movement" like Xu Zhimo,Yu Dafu and Lu Xun,or his observations on the press media during "the late Qing dynasty" and metropolitan culture of Shanghai city,the issue of modern transformation of traditional Chinese society remains the core of Leo's thinking and argument.Rooted in the historical and cultural context of China, Leo characterizes the modernity of China as "Fin-de-siecle Splendor".Based on his reevaluation of linear concept of time and the related model of enlightened modernity, Leo concludes that in China there is no polarity between tradition and modernization on the ground that the "splendor",the product of the combination of the emergent modernization and the residual tradition in the historical context of the late Qing dynasty,symbolizes both a sense of historical crisis which serves as a stimulus to cultural creation and the residual tradition which prepares the necessary conditions for the emergent culture.The "Fin-de-siecle Splendor",after three critical phases of the late Qing dynasty,the thirties and the nineties of the 20^th century,has been transformed into a complex of pre-modern,modern and post-modern situations in the context of globalization. Leo,through his perspective of modernity,offers a lot of unique and enlightening insights into Chinese literary and cultural studies of the 20^th century.By deploying Raymond Williams'spatial theory about "country","city" and "metropolis",Leo explores the spatial dimension of modern Chinese literary criticism and reveals the domination of rural narration over urban literature in "New Literature".By referring to Habermas'concept of "public sphere",Leo examines the role of press media in the expansion of "public space" in modern China,particularly in the case of "playful essays" from the "Free Talk Colummn" in Shen Bao Newspaper which contribute to the establishment of the imagined community of modern nation-state by creating a tolerable speech space through marginalized criticism and "irony" or "sarcasm".After the 1930s,while Lu Xun,under the press censorship imposed by the National Party's government,was gaining a limited space for personal speech with an evasive tactics of writing,the space for public speech was greatly shrunk.Leo starts his modern Chinese literary studies with "the romantic generation of Chinese writers".He uses literary texts to explore the romantic mentality of the writers in "May the Fourth"Movement" and completes a collective biography of how romantic spirit shapes modern Chinese intellectuals emotionally and subjectively. Decadence is not only another side of romantic mentality,but also one of the dimensions of modernity.Leo remaps the literary genealogy of decadence by tracing the process of marginalization of decadence in the context of Chinese language.Leo's research on "romanticism" and "decadence" in modern Chinese literature enriches the narrative discourse of the history of modern Chinese literature from the perspective of aesthetic modernity.Born in mainland of China and an English major student in Taiwan,Leo has done researches and taught Chinese literature and history in America.After his retirement from Harvard University,Leo went to Hong Kong to teach western literature and literary theory.All these reflect both differences and communication between China and the west in him.As a Chinese American scholar Leo has made a great contribution to the study of modernity in Chinese literature and culture from the late Qing dynasty to the present.The critique of his literary and cultural research thus becomes the significant subject within the realm of comparative literature studies.