文史哲lecture

1、Gan Wenping-Tradition and ChallengeHistory Literature PhilosophySchool of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University of Technologyw If literature takes a step backward, it is historyw If literature takes a step forward, it is philosophyw Literature is the reflection of history and philosophyw Literature be

2、comes history and vice versa; literature participates in the creation of historyw Literature deconstructs philosophyI.General IntroductionII. History and Literature -Literature describes historyw Definitions: 1.History is “the whole series of events in the past which relate to the development of a c

3、ountry, subject, or person.” (Cambridge Learners Dictionary) 2. Literature refers to “stories,poems, and plays, especially those that are considered to have value as art and not just entertainment.”(Macmillan English Dictionary) It consists of four types: fiction, poetry, drama and prose.w Literatur

4、e is the study of human beings who write about how human beings behave themselvesw Literature is a mirror of history. Classical literary works always depict and externalize those important historical events. They bring the reader the consideration of history and human nature and some other aspectsEx

5、amples:1. All Quiet on the Western Front ( Erich M. Remarque)2. The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)III. History and Literature -Literature creates history/discovers new history The uniqueness of history invites challengew Concern is showed with the power and ideology behind the present Historyw

6、 Texts on history always serve the people in the ruling classw Other histories are marginalized and oppressed by the present Historyw Such words as power, control, social oppression and racial discrimination become the central concernw Some true histories have probably been buried by the present His

7、toryw History is poetic in nature (Hayden White). In other words, History is fictitious in naturew History (a historical text) is identified with literature (a literary text) and vice versaw “The historicity of texts” and “the textuality of history” (L. A. Montrose) By history of texts, I mean to su

8、ggest the cultural specificity, the social embedment, of all modes of writing-not only the texts that critics study but also the texts in which we study them. By textuality of history, I mean to suggest, firstly,that we can have no access to a full and authentic past, a lived material existence, unm

9、ediated by the surviving textual traces of the society I question-traces whose survival we cannot assume to be merely contingent but must rather presume to be at least partially consequent upon complex and subtle social processes of preservation and effacement; and secondly, that whose textual trace

10、s are themselves subject to subsequent textual mediations when they are construed as the “documents” upon which historians ground their own texts, called “histories”w The mission of literature is to “dig out” those hidden, marginalized and silenced histories. The present History will be disrupted an

11、d the dug-out histories come into being.w Examples: 1. China Men (M. H. Kingston) -“racial discrimination” 2. In the Lake of the Woods ( Tim OBrien) -the true nature of the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War: aberration or atrocity?IV. Literature and Philosophy -Literature represents philosophyw Def

12、inition: Philosophy is “the study or writing of ideas about the meaning of life, or a particular set of ideas about the meaning of life” (Cambridge Learners Dictionary ); or “the study of the nature and meaning of existence, reality, knowledge, goods, etc.” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englis

13、h)w Philosophical ideas are always the themes of literaturew Two major philosophical thoughts exert great influences on American literature:Naturalism and Existentialism w Naturalism( 1890s: Zola, Darwin): environment and heredity; the survival of the fittest ; indifferent and objective description

14、of nature and man; nature is hostile to manw Existentialism(since 1930s: Sartre, Camus, Nietzche): absurdity, nothingness, meaninglessness; “Existence precedes essence”w Freudian Psychoanalysisw Marxismw Examples of literary works of naturalism: 1. The Red Badge of Courage 2. The Call of the Wildw E

15、xamples of literary works of existentialism: 1. Waiting for Godot; 2. Invisible Man 3. “Black humor” fiction V. Literature and Philosophy -Literature deconstructs philosophyw Metaphysics(or called meta-narratives) characterized by philosophy meets with parody or deconstructionw “Simplifying to the e

16、xtreme the postmodern is characterized by and incredulity concerning metanarratives” (Jean F. Lyotad)w “Logos Centralism”is deconstructed (Jacque Derrida) - “A kind of supernatural spirit”, “Western rationalism”, “Son”, “Existence”, “Essence”, “Truth”, “Absoluteness”w Philosophy parodied, religion d

17、econstructed by literaturew Literature becomes a weapon through which philosophers, critics and writers challenge everything orthodoxw Examples: 1. Dog Soldiers (Robert Stone): the metanarrative (stereotype) of Jesus Christ is deconstructed-Christ becomes a heroin smuggler and a killer 2. The End of the Road (John Barth): parody and deconstruction of Existentialism and Freudian Theory (All human behavior is motivated ultimately by what we would call sexuality or libido; id-pleasure principle, ego-reality princip