Recoding and Reinventing Theories

ACLA 2016 (Harvard) CFP

http://www.acla.org/seminar/recoding-and-reinventing-theories/

Recoding and Reinventing Theories

Organizer: Nicoletta Pireddu, Georgetown University

Co-Organizer: Helen (Huiwen) Zhang, University of Tulsa

              This panel addresses critical literary and cultural issues by investigating theories beyond the framework of particular schools of thought or ideologies.  We focus on instances of recodification and reinvention of terms, concepts, and approaches that are essential to literary and critical theories, such as close reading, ethical translation, cultural hermeneutics, creative reception, and comparative criticism.  We strive to foster robust and impactful discussion on ways of moving theory forward through a synergy of tradition and innovation—

What is truly new in theory?
What is the purpose of new techniques and methods?
Is it possible to decontextualize notions and ideas and graft them into new frames of reference?
Is theoretical bricolage a viable strategy?
What do we gain by recoding, reviving, or reinventing ‘traditional’ theories?
How do we manage resistance to change in theories and handle critical reactions to technical, terminological, and conceptual innovations?

              We welcome papers that, independently of their research objects, demonstrate a sustained philosophical or (meta)theoretical reflection upon their own analytical tools—ideally with evidence of reinterpreting particular concepts and their scope.

Lu Xun Discussion Forum

Concealment & Revelation

Original Opening Remarks (Jan 2013):
      Welcome to the Open Discussion Forum—the online companion to our Reading Club (founded in Spring 2013) dedicated to Lu Xun, China’s most original and profound thinker whose ‘untimely meditations’ on modern civilization, world history, and the human condition resonate with those of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Strindberg, and Kafka and prove to be timely and timeless.  Lu Xun’s intense and idiosyncratic voice culminates in the prose poetry anthology Wild Grass.  Listed below are the 5 units of 13 prose-poems, each of which, however enveloped in a world of its own, contributes to the dialectic of concealment and revelation prevailing in Lu Xun’s writings.  Click on a title and you will be able to read the translation and interpretation and post your own comments.  Bold perspectives and experimental approaches are encouraged!
New Preface to the Reopened Forum (Nov 2014):

Huiwen (Helen) Zhang

Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea of “philology” and William Gass’s concept of “transreading,” I employ “transreader” to suggest the integration of four roles into one: reader, translator, writer, and scholar.  Transreading recognizes the interdependence of close reading, literary translation, creative writing, and cultural hermeneutics with its concern for the broad context and ultimate goal of these intertwined activities: to transfer, transvalue, transform, and transcend the canon.  In this sense, Lu Xun and his European interlocutors are “transreaders of the canon.”  Their architecture of the modern breakthrough is a joint transfer, transvaluation, transformation, or transcendence of pre-modern canons.

This method is proven in my newly published article, “‘Translated, it is: …’—An Ethics of Transreading” (Educational Theory, Vol. 64, No. 5, 2014).  The re-opened Lu Xun Discussion Forum continues to practice and reinforce the theory of transreading by utilizing prompts.  It departs from a hypothesis: prompts are textual phenomena that simultaneously demand and enable transreading. 

As a University professor, I have incorporated my own scholarship into undergraduate courses such as “Modernization and Its Discontents,” “The Dilemma of Modernity,” “Four Faces of the Wanderer,” “The Treasure of Sorrow,” “Blessed in Translation,” “Authentic Beauty: Modern Poetry & Prose,” and “Untimely Meditations: A Chinese Perspective.”  Common to all of my courses is the combination of the concept of cross-cultural dialogue and the method of transreading.

Fall Semester 2014:

Wild Grass: Inscription [updated on Nov 14 2014] 

Revenge [updated on Nov 15 2014]

Revenge (The Second) [updated on Nov 15 2014]

Tombstone Inscription [updated on Nov 15 2014]

The Shadow's Farewell [updated on Nov 19 2014] 

 

Concepts Minted, Myths Reversed:             

Revenge I (updated tr.) (Jan 24 2013)
Revenge I (initial tr.)

Revenge II  (Jan 31 & Feb 7 2013)
Revenge II (updated tr.)

Better Hell Lost (Feb. 21 2013)

Moments of Contemplation:                                    

The Beggar (Feb. 28 2013)

Autumn Night  (Apr. 4 & 11 2013)

A Wonderful Tale ( Apr. 11 2013)

Recollections of Childhood:                                    

Snow

The Kite (Apr. 18 2013)

Confronting Midlife:                                        

A Dried Leaf

Hope (Mar. 14 2013)

Oneself as Another:                                          

Such a Warrior (Mar. 7 2013)

Trembling of Degradation Lines

In Faint Ripples of Blood (coming soon!)

Discussion Topics from Fall 2012:

Dead Fire

The Wanderer

Epitaph

Wild Grass: Dedication

The Shadow’s Farewell

The Shadow’s Farewell (German)