1st Edition

Aesthetics Across Borders Comparing Chinese and Western Literary Theories

Edited By Guohua Zhu, Riccardo Moratto, Di-kai Chao Copyright 2026
182 Pages
by Routledge

182 Pages
by Routledge

Zhu, Moratto, Chao and the contributors bring readers on a captivating journey into the intersections of Chinese and Western intellectual traditions. Through a diverse collection of chapters, the book navigates the complex terrain of literary theory, aesthetics, and cultural analysis with depth and insight. From exploring ancient Chinese literary theories to examining contemporary... Read more

Introduction: Aesthetics Across Borders: Comparing Chinese and Western Literary Theories

1. Facing the World: The Modern Vision of Chinese Literature in the 20th Century

Xiaoming Chen, Yingchun Fan (translator) and Hao Wang (translator)

2. The “Poststructuralist” Poetics of The Great Preface to the Book of Songs: With a Discussion on the Modernization of Traditional Chinese Literary Theory

Mingdong Gu and Riccardo Moratto (translator)

3. Self-Absorption and Performance in Tanci Fiction: 18th-century Chinese Conceptions of Identity in Comparative Perspective

Wen Jin

4. Wugan and Affectus: Two Inventions of Emotion and Their Interpretations in China and the West

Xuan Liu

5. Contemporary Chinese Literary Theories in the Context of East-West Literary Theory Interaction

Fa Zhang and Riccardo Moratto (translator)

6.  The Other in the Self’s Horizon and the Self in the Mirror of the Other: The Issue of “Canonical Reconstruction” in the English Translations of Wen Xin Diao Long in the United States

Pengfei Gu

7. Footnote, Reference and Theory: On “China” in Western Theories

Yuyu Wu

8. Theory as Wen/Xue: Lyrical Tradition and Chinese Modernity

Yonghua Tang and Pengfei Zou (translator)

9.  Aesthetic Potential in the Age of Intelligence

Feng Wang

Biography

Guohua Zhu is Changjiang Scholars Program Distinguished Professor, Dean of School of International Chinese Studies, East China Normal University, Editor-in-Chief of TSLA (Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art), and Chair of the Chinese Association of Literary Theory, specializing in Eastern and Western literary theories. His books include The Cultural Logic of Power: Bourdieu’s Sociological Poetics (2016 expanded edition).

Riccardo Moratto is Distinguished Professor (特聘教授) at the School of Foreign Studies (SFS), Tongji University, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Chinese Discourse and Global Communication, AIIC Member, Expert Member of the Translators Association of China (TAC), Executive Committee Member of the World Interpreter and Translator Training Association (WITTA), and member of numerous other associations. Professor Moratto is General Editor of Routledge Studies in East Asian Interpreting and Routledge Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature. He is a chartered linguist and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (FCIL), a hyperpolyglot, an international conference interpreter, and a renowned literary translator. He has published extensively in the fields of translation and interpreting studies and Chinese literature.

Di-kai Chao is a postdoctoral researcher at East China Normal University, China. His research focuses on contemporary Chinese and Sinophone fiction and the global circulation of Chinese literature.