Transcultural Comments On The Text Of Chinese Literary Theory

Stephen Owen is University Professor in Harvard University and a Sinologist known for his studies in Chinese classical literature. His work Readings in Chinese Literary Thought is a classic chrestomathy on Chinese poetics with 12 years of selecting, translating and annotating elaborately, when instructing Chinese literary theory in Yale and Harvard. As an authoritative teaching materials of Harvard, the book possesses high reputation in Western Sinological field, and its Chinese version arouses extensive attention and praise in Chinese academic circles likewise by opening a angle to rethink our indigenous literary theory and create a bridge for understanding the West, providing a platform for transcultural communicating, offering a way breaking through the system of literary theory and producing new thoughts and new constructions through interaction.As for methods of study, firstly, Stephen Owen breaks through restricts of traditional means, centers on texts, and adopts unique idea -- not based on the system but the phenomenon, regarding texts as "process of thought", opening wide for history, and making literature, thought, cultural history and society enlightened. Secondly, he emphasizes close reading of classical literary theory texts, especially the delicacy, complexity and contradiction, equates literary theory texts and literary ones, digs up the ambiguity and contradiction of meaning. Thirdly, he selects texts newly based on rethinking and reconstruction to traditional criticism, stressing the power of explanation, and then discovering theoretical meaning of many texts ignored by history.On the point of explanation, Stephen Owen emphasizes intensive explanation to terms, offers thorough examination to various usages of terms in Chinese literary theory, and introduces 51 important terms in the appendix. In addition, Stephen Owen possesses considerable acute consciousness to genres of texts and methods of explanation. He uses flexible methods of explanation according to different genres, and styles as well as thoughts of Chinese literary theory take on vivid images in his comments and explanations.For the horizon of explanation, Stephen Owen finds a new angle in the extrinsic context of western literary theory, enabling us to examine and interpret newly to familiar Chinese literary theory in the other horizon, to discover a lot of new features not found in the past. In transcultural translation, he seeks cultural grounds in explanations to discourse of literary theory under historical and holistic view of traditional poetics, not only stressing synchronic cultural discrepancies between original and objective languages, but also considering diachronic ones of habits of language in special time, modes of discourse and expressions of language. In this way, bridge of communications between the west and the east, between ancient and modern times will be created.