Literary theory refers to the principles and principles related to the essence, characteristics, development laws and social functions of literature. A category of literature and art. Literature and art in a broad sense is the science of studying literature and art; Literature and art in a narrow sense only studies literature. Traditional habits divide it into three categories: literary theory, literary history and literary criticism.

They all take literature as the research object, and all require the combination of historical and realistic literary theory with the study of literary history and logic. The history of literature focuses on the historical study of literature; Literary criticism focuses on the realistic study of literature; Literary theory focuses on the logical study of literature. From the literary phenomena of past dynasties, we can find the essence and laws of literature and reveal the characteristics of different literary forms.

As a superstructure and ideology, the study of literary theory has qualitative stipulation, including its universality with other superstructures, ideologies and all arts, and its particularity different from other arts;

Study the social function and function of literature as a social phenomenon, including its function and function with other social phenomena and its unique function and function different from other social phenomena; Study the content, form and relationship of literary works;

Study the characteristics of different literary forms (lyric, narrative and drama), as well as their mutual influence and infiltration, as well as the various literary types and genres formed from them; Study the creative process of literature and its laws, including methods, styles and genres.

Literary theory is not a fixed law about literature, but a summary of literary practical experience. It came into being and developed on the basis of literary creation and literary criticism, which in turn promoted the progress of literary creation and literary criticism. Literary theory also absorbs the research results of literary history, which in turn has an impact on the study of literary history.

Literary theory itself has a historical development process. The same is true of the development of China's literary theory (see Criticism of China's Literary Theory) and Marxist literary theory (see Marxist Literary Theory).

Theoretical nature of literature

Usually, the subject of studying literature is called literary science or literary science. It includes three branches, namely, literary theory, literary criticism and literary history. Literature and art include literature and art in a broad sense and literature and art in a narrow sense. What is mentioned above is literature and art in a broad sense, and literature and art in a narrow sense mainly refers to literary theory. Literary theory is one of the three branches of literature and art (literary history, literary criticism and literary theory). Taking literary activities as the research object, this paper systematically expounds the aesthetic characteristics of literary activities and the historical law of literary development; On the other hand, it has the dual significance of understanding and practice to literary activities, and provides a systematic value system and method system for literary criticism and literary history research. It is closely related to other branches of disciplines. Taking the basic principles, conceptual categories and related scientific methods of literature as the research object. The four elements of literary activity (world, writer, works and readers) stipulate four tasks of literary theory: concept theory, creation theory, text theory and reception theory.

Literary theoretical character

Literary theory has strong practicality and distinct value orientation. Its practical character lies in that it comes from and is tested by literary practice, thus guiding literary practice.

The characteristic of its value orientation is that, as a summary of literary practical experience, it always bears the brand of class or stratum and embodies a distinct value orientation. The same object can form multiple objects and can be studied from multiple perspectives and methods, so it forms multiple forms.

fundamental form

Literary philosophy, literary sociology, literary psychology, literary semiotics, literary value, literary informatics and literary culturology.

independence

The so-called autonomy of literary theory mainly means that literary theory has got rid of the shackles of politics and returned to itself. Under decades of heavy political control, China's literary theory has completely become the equivalent of some constantly changing political behaviors in the hands of some politicians, and literary theory has completely lost its dignity and value.

Nowadays, literary theory has been separated from politics, and as an independent science, it has begun to establish its own academic theory. Naturally, politics, as an administrative consciousness and means, may still interfere with literary and artistic phenomena, but it is not easy to get practical results, which is called deconstruction. Deconstruction also shows that many theoretical principles that were regarded as important in the past have now withdrawn from literary theory, which is also a fact. This is one aspect.

Modern development

The autonomy of literary theory lies in the theoretical construction of the theory itself. The second half of 1980s and the whole 1990s were the periods when China's literary theory established its own theory and subjectivity.

In the exploration and construction of literary theory, western literary theory undoubtedly has an important influence; In the early 1980s, western literary thoughts flooded into China, and the westernization tendency in China's literary theory was very popular. However, the internal study of aesthetic research, the form and structure of works in western literary theory, and the great discussion of China's aesthetic problems at that time all played a very good role in the transformation of China's literary theory.

At the same time, in the discussion, many scholars critically absorbed the tradition of modern literary theory and tried to get through the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries. Therefore, in the late 1980s and 1990s, China's literary theory research presented an unprecedented vivid scene, with new theories and excellent works.

The new works in literary theory all appear on the basis of deconstructing the old theory, and at the same time they are new constructions. Therefore, the literary theory of this decade is not blindly deconstructing, not blindly listening to foreigners, not simply transplanting the literary theory of foreigners, but criticizing. On the basis of reference, he not only reformed the literary theory, but also tried to innovate and effectively created some new categories of literary theory.

Under the tide of commodity economy, literary theory is constantly marginalized and ignored by people. However, it should be admitted that literary theory is a successful department, and real theoretical innovation will leave its own mark. Naturally, there is no need to overestimate your achievements, but there is no reason to underestimate yourself. The deconstruction and construction of the new rational spirit is the embodiment of the modernity of literary theory.

Viewpoint morphology

The history of Chinese and foreign literary theories shows that any theoretical science is a rational understanding and logical summary of the practical experience of literary activities. History also shows that so far, any theoretical generalization about literature has not been and can not be recognized by all experts engaged in literary theory research. Up to now, there is still no theoretical form, which has been unanimously recognized by all theorists who hold the same cultural and ideological position.

The repeated appearance of this fact shows that the practice of literary activities, like other objects of human understanding, is infinitely extensive and rich. The possibility, superiority and limitation of human understanding of literature lie in that people's theoretical generalization of literature must obey the universal thinking law formed by human rational thinking function in history and culture.

The usual work of theoretical generalization is to put the empirical facts of literature into a rational framework, or in theoretical generalization, theorists use a pre-existing rational framework to "get rid of the rough and get the essence, get rid of the false and keep the true" and seek and establish a clear understanding within the framework. In the research and construction of literary theory, the importance of rational framework is far greater than the influence of culture and ideology on literary theory.

Because the pre-existing framework of rational knowledge is a processing tool for human cognition to rise from concrete perceptual experience to theoretical knowledge, and it is a cognitive structure for human cognition of concrete things. Of course, this cognitive structure is formed by human beings in practice, history and culture, not before or beyond human beings themselves. From the perspective of mankind as a whole, yes.

But as far as the specific existence of an individual is concerned, it is external and pre-existing. Individuals always understand reality and literature by accepting cultural traditions, forming a relatively stable cognitive structure.

In other words, any formed literary theory has its theoretical framework, its theoretical presuppositions, conventions and assumptions. The fruitful achievements of Chinese and foreign literary theories in ancient and modern times are reflected in the fact that it is not the product of a single framework, but the result of observing, analyzing and summarizing literary experience and facts from various frameworks and viewpoints.