Sociology of Literature and ??

1
Sociology of Literature and ??s Discourses of
Love

1. Dialectic Materialism -- Marx and Vulgar Marxism
2. Literature, Society Ideology Althusser and
   Gramsci
3. Marxist Literary Theorists Macherey, Eagleton
   and Jameson
4. Foucault ???????????? (CY as an example)

• Methodology, Pattern
• and Implied Ideologies
• 2007 Fall

2
Outline

• Discourse a Review
• Sociology of Literature (Lin Intro.)
• Romantic Love ?? CY (Ref.lt??????????????????gt)
  
• Romantic Love a Review
• CY An Overview
• ?????
• 1. The Remote and the Poetic 2. The Sociological
  3. Destiny and ?
• Gender Relations women and sex
• Social Background and Development of Romantic
  Love (from the revolutionary to female fantasies)

3
Discourse Definition Review

• Discourse is "a group of statements which provide
  a language for talking about ...a particular
  topic at a particular historical moment."
• Constructed through some discursive practices
• Three major procedures of discursive formation
• Definition Prohibition
• Division and rejection
• Opposition between false and true
• (Ref. Textbook 154)

4
Discourse Definition (2)

• Influences
• -- productive produces knowledge
• -- regulative (not unlike penopticon) offers us
  subject positions which is hierarchical.
• -- controlling and discriminatory discipline the
  subjects and punish or exclude those who do not
  follow the rules.

5
Discourse example

• Sexuality as a discourse
• Discourses of sexuality have increased and become
  a science since the 17th century, when sex in the
  West became a taboo. ? for normlization and
  regulation.
• Produces different subject positions and objects
  of gaze and control. The sodomite had been
  temporary aberration the homosexual was now a
  species. (1979 43)
• Sexual identities regulatory fictions
  inscribed on our bodies. Womens in the Romantic
  Love Discourse?

6
Literary Discourse implications

• No fixed boundaries between literature and other
  social practices ? popular fiction such as those
  of ?? can be discussed with some literary work.
• The author is not the creator of his work. S/he
  serves as a label to put on a group of works
  related to him. (e.g. Wordsworth discourse ??s
  discourse of Romantic love)
• Defining some subject positions (of the author,
  the reader, the lovers, etc.)

7
Sociology of Literature 3 Kinds

• 1. Reflection Examine social phenomena in the
  text
• understanding of society through literature
• literature reflects society.
• 2. Influence Examines how social environment and
  structure influence the production and
  circulation of literature.
• sociology of literary production
• 3. Interpretive analysis and institutional
  analysis combined

8
Methodology

• Formal-Textual analysis structuralist approach
• looks for binaries
• defines roles/actant (e.g. princess, villain,
  etc.) and see how they develop or even change
  roles
• Motifs e.g. family vs. love in ??s novels
• Institutional analysis
• Crown (??)
• The emergence of culture industry

9
Methodology (2)

• Social-Historical Analysis
• How her work presents the lives of the migrant
  students and their rebellion against patriarchal
  families
• TV formula
• Critical-Interpretive ??/???? ? discourse
  analysis
• -- the text itself is already an interpretation
• 1. from the meaning of a text to the meaning
  structures (discourse) it is embedded in
• 2. Disclose the relations between power and
  meanings.

10
Methodology (2) 8 units

• Text narrative structure and structure of
  feeling
• Narrative structure falling in love (love
  conflict) ? (familial) disintegration ?
  reconciliation ? reintegration
• structure of feeling melodramatic, romantic,
  affective familialism (e.g. adoptive family, fear
  of incest)
• 2. Author e.g. the support of Ping
• 3. Reader e.g. teenagers release from reality
• 4. Genre conventions ? communitys consensus
  about melodrama or realistic novel (28)

11
Methodology (2) 8 units (2)

1. Literary community from being centralized to
   de-centered (?? in the late 80s?)
2. Rental Bookstore, Bookstores and Culture industry
   (for mass production and circulation) p. 31 the
   historic changes
3. Institution institutionalization (e.g. New
   Criticism-- with norms such as literatures
   autonomy, objective correlative, etc.)
4. Society social structure is involved in the
   production and reception of literature

12
Qs

• What is the difference between sociology thru
  literature and sociology of literature?
• How do we relate literary studies to her
  methodology? (What is ??????? 016)
• Is intrinsic, or formal-textual, analysis itself
  not enough? (??????????????. 020)

13
Romantic Love review

• The desire for union or merger
• Idealization of the beloved
• Exclusivity (e.g. always, never)
• Emotional dependency or powerful concern for the
  beloved. (Cf. J. 5)

14
Romantic Love Discourse of ??

• Not seen as popular romance first
• Gradually codified into Romantic love story
  (while other aspects of the novels are ignored or
  emptied out)
• Typical plot
• love at first sight ? passion obstacles ?
  overcoming the obstacles or death.
• In ??s novels,two basic forces are love and
  family the obstacles are usu. from the family
  (generation gap and/or family love) ?
  re-structuring of the family (Lin 20-21)

15
?? --her novels periodized

• Three periods Romantic Love de-politicized.
• 60s (dominant anti-Communist lit.) Nostalgia,
  Taiwanese as aliens conflicts between the two
  generations the older generation from mainland
  China gray and pessimistic. ( ????? 1966)
• 70s more focused on Taiwan dreams of the
  upper-middle classes in Taiwan marriage as the
  solution. ? turned into an industry. (e.g.
  ????1974)
• 80s when she became a collective phenomenon.
  (? pp. 36-37)

16
Romantic Love Discourse of ?? --Historicized

• Romantic Love 2 Kinds in CYs work
• Early years of the Republic (around the time of
  May 4) connected with social reform (p. 62)
• CYs personal and de-politicized

17
?? pattern her novels in the 60s (e.g.?????)

1. Lack and Discontent
2. Falling in love
3. Generation conflicts (mystery hidden and then
   revealed)
4. Resolution of the conflicts
5. Conclusion Love inside and outside marriage
   system. (?74)

1. Poverty of ?? and her daughter, ?? (past
   poverty and displacement during the war)
2. ??-??(?? -??)
3. The mothers objection
4. ??s self-sacrifice
5. Three kinds of love ??-????-??(?? -??)

18
Ref. In the 70s The Remote in the Romantic Love
Discourse of ??

• The remote romantic or a-political
• ???? (1974) http//www.qyhouse.com/ebooks/vol20.t
  xt)
• Historical background 70s after the white
  terror and the period of political upheaval and
  modernization
• 1971  ??????????
• 1973  Ten Major Constructions
• --
•  1975  Yang Hsuan ?? Modern Chinese Folksong
  Concert ????????,
• 1977 ??????
• 1979 ????Beautiful Island Event.?????

19
The Remote in the Romantic Love Discourse of ??

• ???? (1974 http//www.qyhouse.com/ebooks/vol20.tx
  t)
• The remote
• The dreamy and poetic signs poem, guitar
• The Western and far away signs ???,beautiful
  sceneries without identity.
• The unsaid the political, the economic and the
  sexual. Examples 1, 2, 3

20
The Sociological

• ????? 1966 (p. 69)
• Two generations
• The migrant students (p. 69) (clip 2 1048,
  1650)

????? ???
????? ??? (nephew)???
21
??s plot familial constraint destiny?

• 1. ?? -- Rebellious against the traditional
  society (e.g. match-making) (clip 2 31)
• released by the nanny
• in defiance of arranged marriage, but still in
  need of the rescue of ??
• 2. ?? Lack/discontent? a new and mysterious
  situation? the hero (??) solving the mystery ?
  marriage and withdrawal/separation/death
• 3. Obstacles are all external ones
• The lovers are born for each other.
• ?? Or part of the ideology of Romantic love?
• 4. Why reconciliation? (suicide or accident of
  the wayward)

22
??s plot familial constraint destiny?
23
??(3) Gender Sex

• Presentation of women (p. 76, 78)
• Weak, in need of support (?the novel as an
  expression of female fantasies)(e.g. ?? clip--1
  24 2 29)
• If strong, she is usu. not satisfied in love,
  stubborn and lonely. (e.g. ?? 34)

24
??(2) Gender Sex

• Presentation of women the weak
• e.g. (first encounter)????????????,?????????????
  ????,??????????,?????????,????????????????????????
  ?,????????????????????????????
• (meeting on the street)?????!????????????!????????
  ??,???????????????????????????,??????????????,??,?
  ?,????
• ??called ???

25
??(2) Gender Sex

• Presentation of women the weak
• e.g. ?? --?????????,????????????????????????????
  ?????,???????,????????,????,????????????,???????,?
  ?????????????????????????????????!???????????????!
  ??,?????????,????????????

26
??(2) Gender Sex

• Presentation of women the strong who is weak
  inside
• e.g. (after ?? creates troubles)??????????,??????
  ???,???????,??????,????????,????????,?????????????
  ???????????,?????????,?????????,??????,??????,??
  ????????,???????,?????? 
• Presentation of Man
• ?????,?????????,?????,??????????

27
????? Romantic Attraction (class no sex?)

• Past ??????
• Rich man and weak woman
• Poetry as a means of communication (2 clips)
• Attempts to overcome difficulties (since ?? was
  married)

• Present
• Rich man and weak/poor woman
• Coffee shops (2 clips)
• Feeble attempts to overcome difficulties

28
????? Romantic Attraction (no sex?)

• Present coffee shop
• ???????????????,????????????????????????,?????????
  ?,????,???????????????????,????????!
• ????????????????????????????,????????????,????????
  ??????????,???????????????,???????????????

29
????? Romantic Attraction (no sex?)

• Present coffee shop (2)
• ?????,?????????????,?????????????????????????????
  ???????,???????,??,????????????????
• ??????????,??????????????????,??????????????????
  ??

30
????? Romantic Attraction (no sex?)

• Present coffee shop (3)
• ?????????  ??  ???? 
• ??????,??????????????????  ???,?????????? 
• ?????????,?????????,???,????????????,??,??????????
  ,???????????

31
????? Romantic Attraction (no sex?)

• Present coffee shop (3)
• ????????,??????,?????????????????,??????,???????,
  ???????????????,???????????,???,??,???????????????
  ??????,??,??????????????,?????????????????????????
  ?,??????????????,???????????????

32
?? in the context of Chinese discourses on
Romantic Love

• Unlike the revolutionary spirits of May Fourth
  period,
• ??s women infantilized and innocent
• -- (????? age 18)
• -- ??high school student, in need of male
  support and family identification. (clip 22-24)
• (? pp. 80- 81)

33
?? in the context of Chinese discourses on
Romantic Love

• Romantic Love from the revolutionary to female
  fantasies
• Three periods
• Free-Choice Marriage during the May Fourth
  period a means to challenge traditional family
  structure (esp. arranged marriage) with
  revolutionary ideals
• 30s and 40s during the war more compromised.
  (The setting of ?????)
• 60 and 70s when ??s novels started to be
  popular. Free love and Free-choice marriage were
  not popular in Taiwan (58 among college students
  and 8 of the whole people).