Literature and Power

A Critical Investigation of Literary Legitimacy

Zhu Guohua

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781032489612
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000879452
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

With reference to the theoretical framework of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, this book offers a critical investigation into such epic issues as the end of art and the inherent laws of literature's evolution, while conflating the two into one major argumentation.

The book proceeds from Hegel's claim of "the end of art" to tackle the universal yet essential problem of literature: its legitimacy in a sociological sense. It invests Bourdieu's sociological terms – power, capital, habitus, field, and so forth-into the study of literature and art while taking on other theoretical enquiries, particularly the Marxist exploration into ideology, as well as aspects of economics and communication studies.

This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of the sociology of literature, cultural studies, and those with specific interests in Chinese literature, literary and art theory.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: A View on the End of Art in the Logic of Power
• Part I Literary Power: A Sociological Interpretation
• Part II Historical Evolution of Literary Power
• Part III Literature as the Signifying Strategy of Power
• Conclusion: Power Symptoms of the End of Literature
• Appendix 1: Literature and Symbolic Power: Another Interpretation of the Ancient Prose Movement during the Mid-Tang Dynasty
• Appendix 2: Genealogy of Popular Literature
• Appendix 3: Are Movies Terminating Literature?
• Appendix 4: Cognition and Wisdom: The End of Art from a Trans-Contextual Perspective
• Bibliography
• Index