A Brief History of Foreign Literary Theory: 21st Century Series Textbooks on Foreign Literature

Author: Liu Xiangyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: A Concise History of Foreign Literary Theory was born in response to A Concise History of World Literature. What kind of character A Concise History of Foreign Literary Theory should possess, or what principles should guide its compilation? This needs to be clarified. After repeated discussions, we established three principles: First, the scope of "foreign" is roughly divided into "Western" and "Eastern" parts. Second, to highlight the chronological progression ("history"), we adopted the principle of compiling it in chronological order, dividing Western literature into four periods: "Ancient," "Medieval," "Modern," and "Contemporary." Third, as a "concise" history, it must emphasize simplicity in structure and brevity in length, while still maintaining clarity in historical context and prominence in key points. In each period, important theoretical schools and literary theorists should be highlighted; overall, the principle of "prioritizing the present and minimizing the past" should be adopted, emphasizing the contemporary era. In terms of length, the "Contemporary" period, which spans only one and a half centuries in the thousands of years of history, occupies more than half of the book.