Literature and Power (A Critical Examination of the Legitimacy of Literature)

Author: Zhu Guohua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: This book argues that power is the fundamental condition for the legitimacy of literature. On one hand, power serves as the driving force behind literary forms; on the other hand, it is the result of literature's decline or loss of legitimacy, as its position in the realm of representation has sharply declined, pushing literature to the fringes of power. To strengthen the book's arguments, the author has included three case studies. The first article examines the Mid-Tang Classical Prose Movement from the perspective of symbolic power, analyzing the reasons for its rise and fall by re-evaluating cultural and social capital. The second article, in line with the diachronic rupture of literary concepts analyzed in the book, conducts a structural analysis of the historical evolution of Chinese popular literature and its potential future directions. The third article explores the relationship between economic power and literature, offering a structural analysis from the specific angle of film art. The article contends that as a dynamic visual art form, film can provide audiences with a more intense sense of immediate sensory pleasure than literature.