An Ideological Study Of Stephen Greenblatt’s Cultural Poetics

Chinese literary criticism and western poetics have generated countless literature,and the critic schools have been mushrooming with a variety of supported theories.Rather than follow the accumulated notions of different critics or inflate the discoursespace with an individual opinion, it’s better to zoom in and focus on one specific criticand one ideological structure. The study should originate from the theory and opt tobe analyzed in details to extend beyond boundaries. As the major concepts or logicaldimension is distinguished, the theoretical structure is drawn in a synchronic fashionto set up the logical framework. The diachronic network, which is interactive andordered, is to be further constructed so as to achieve the purpose of holistic study.Therefore, based on the case studies of Cultural Poetics of Stephen Greenblatt inNew Historical Vision and combined with his concrete criticism, the thesis is apt toanalyze his classical ideas and masterpieces and thread through the main criticalthinking. Such inter-textual concepts as "literary subject" and "subjective culture","textual history" and "historical text","discourse power" and "powered discourse"are distinct from the theoretical origin and the practical cases. In the inter-texualdimension from the perspective of culture, history and politics, the cultural poetics ofnew historicism reaches a new peak in academic world. Meanwhile, the thesisrevalues and rebuilds the historical line and theoretical structure of cultural poetics ofnew historicism. It reveals the theoretical value and historical boundary open andclear, and sheds new light on the modern interpretations and subjectivereconstructions of Chinese cultural poetics in epistemological and historical register.The thesis attempts to numerate and demonstrate various classics of culturalpoetics of new historicism and related textual classics via the axis of historical context,cultural influence and poetic readings. Initiated from the New Historicism founded byGreenblatt and based on the epistemological interchange between Greenblatt’sinterpretations of western poetics and Chinese counterparts, it makes a research oftext interpretations and self-fashioning according to the origin, change, nature and epistemological value, and manifests the fundamental notion of cultural criticism. Theaim is to mirror the close relationship between contemporary criticism and modernlife in order to comprehend humanities and spiritual science and to offer a brand newperspective for living situations nowadays.First and foremost, the entire framework is to be drawn up. The opening probesinto the origin, register, choice of topic, academic background, literature review homeand abroad, and the basic notions and realms so that the logical and theoretical frameis set up. The first chapter, from a macroscopic view, shows the academic upstream ofGreenblatt’s cultureal poetics, including the methodological background---theisomeric relation with the Cultural anthropology of Geertz in methodology, theepistemological origin---the intertextuality with new hermeneutics of Gadamer andRicoeur, the axiological perspective---the identical nature with the political poetics ofJameson. Furthermore five concepts of Greenblatt’s cultural poetics are presented.They are the new historical vision, the ontological and holistic cultural criticism, thehistory oriented and epistemological criticism, the subjective view of poetical value;the boundless text theory in practice. The following three chapters elaborate on thecenter of Greenblatt’s cultural poetic forms. One is to analyze the textualhermeneutics in details including the summary of the theory, the comparative view,the fragmented comprehension of historical texts, the holistic approach of culturaltexts, and the poetic hermeneutics of literary texts.The second is about self-fashioning, including the landscape of culturalinterpretations, cultural and philosophical expression of textual bond, the flow ofsocial power in cultural production, the discourse and practice of self-fashioning, thepublic cultural spectrum in cross-cultural register. The third part is the ideologicaltheory divided into four parts, the change of register in the meaning fashioning ofcultural interpretations, the contextualized field of critical thinking, the ideologicaldiscourse system of gaze understanding, the metaphorical surface of power structure.Later the thesis is categorized into four parts to study of Greenblatt’s cultural poetics,such as the criticism change of the diverse cultural poetics according to several concrete fashions like hermeneutic oriented criticism, the epistemological diversion ofcomplex criticism, the resonating text in comparative image poetics.Last is to apply Greenblatt’s criticism into practice and the poetic register todescribe the interpretive modals, such as contextual interpretation of literary meaning,ontological existence of literary hermeneutics, and resonance text from theperspective of comparative imaging. The last procedure is to apply Greenblatt’scultural poetics into the analysis of literary practice, such as the contextualinterpretation of literary theories, the ontological existence of literary dimension, andthe subjective consciousness in Chinese literary criticism. The final session concludesthe comprehensive judgment and multi-level exploration faced by world literarysituations, and summarizes various historical divisions of poetics criticism.In the meantime, the process develops stronger sense of questioning, morepresumed possibilities of textual interpretation, and broader understanding space forcriticism. We have adequate reasons to believe that new historic poetics, onceimplanted in the great soil of Chinese literary criticism, will help improve and extendour own critical situations, concentrate on the contemplation of theories and values,and finally stimulate the sustained development of Chinese literary creation andcultural poetics.The following investigates several academic innovations as follows:The thesis faces squarely the complexity and uncertainty of Greenblatt’scriticism, especially the critical practice wins over the reality of literary criticism viathe approaches of inner constructions, the comparisons on various levels anddimensions based on different critical forms, and the macroscopic view. With the startof comparative view and cultural and historical dimensions, the plausibility andinevitability of Greenblatt’s textual interpretations and self-constructions are analyzed.With the background of realistic demand nowadays, the thesis points out the necessityand urgency of textual hermeneutics, self-fashioning and ideology. These aspects arecentered by Greenblatt’s literary theories, i.e., the new historicism.Through the organization of Greenblatt’s new historic criticism, the thesis looks into the inter-subjectivity and interrelated network in spite of its complication, andtries to describe it. When it comes to the theoretical structures of Greenblatt’s culturalpoetics, disrupted historic vision and holistic cultural vision are mostly discussed.However, the thesis approaches from the perspective of new-born cultural poetics andreaches the whole view on epistemological level, the ontology oriented historicism,poetic subjectivity, boundless text, etc. More importantly, these four aspects areinterrelated and interdependent, and thread through the whole process. To put it otherway, they exist in the shaping of individual power and self-fashioning and bridge eachother, making it possible to reflect the paradigm and space which is theself-fashioning mentioned in the thesis. Hence these multiple aspects form the diversesystems of Greenblatt’s poetic criticism. With the aid of new historicism, Greenblatt’stheory has the preparations of thought and methodology, and highlights the specificityand originality of cultural poetics provided the logical relation in a precise, objectiveand distinctive manner. The thesis not only concentrates on this and manifests certainlogical thinking and academic innovation through the special axis of cultural poetics.The thesis absorbs the notion of Lu Jiuyuan (the philosopher of Song dynasty)that classics can be interpreted by anyone and can help anyone interpret oneself inturn. Firstly it uses situational critical method, namely the critical subject takes step tointegrate cultural images and classics, restores and denotes the resonant texts from theoriginal marks and critical objective thinking of writers, and sketches the history andtheme of Greenblatt’s cultural poetics. On the surface, the critical subject indentifieswith literary texts and deviate from the original creations, followed by "to put itanother way" or "to paraphrase it". The process reveals the bold transition fromliterary texts and non-literary texts, and connects several structures of culturalinterpretation and historic narrative, political discourse and power structure, andcultural world and living world in the construction of imagined fashioning bond andsubjectivity and objectivity integrated combination.For a critic theory, it’s already great to have some breakthrough in literaryinterpretation and construction of critic paradigm and thinking method. It’s our firm belief that new historic cultural poetics, once implanted on Chinese critic landscape,will rejuvenate the entire Chinese criticism on its way to ecological criticism that isharmonious and interactive, and finally generate a wholesome atmosphere withtradition and modernity integrated for the best.