Volume 7, No. 2

Mrs. Dalloway is a novel full of sound, but there is scarcely systematic
research on soundscape, especially the formation mechanism of soundscape, in the
novel. Prof. Nie Zhenzhao’ ethical literary criticism and theory of brain text can help
to research on the formation mechanism and the aesthetic value of soundscape in
Mrs. Dalloway. As keynote sound in the environment of the characters in the novel,
the noise in London streets continuously disciplines people’s subconscious and
forms their brain concept that modern society featuring in modern transportation
and commodity equals prosperity and blessing. The sound of Big Ben plays the
role of the sound mark for everyone to arrange his or her activity and is in fact a
powerful force to discipline people’s brain concepts. Humans not only listen to
sound, but also respond to sound. And such responses are the externalization of
brain texts. Mrs. Dalloway’s misinterpretation of the sound of the explosion of
the tyre, Septimus’ failure to hear the sound of the explosion of the tyre and that
of the plane, as well as his extreme sensitivity to the sounds “kyar” “Kay” and
“Arr” all play the role of mirrors reflecting the typical traumatic aftermath of the
First World War in British people’s mind and is the externalization of the brain text
shaped by the sound of war. Characters in the novel also gradually clarify their
affective commitment and make their ethical choice through their affection for and
interpretation of sound. The process of Septimus’ enjoyment of the sound in his
daily domestic life is a process of clarifying his affective commitment; the process
of Peter’s and Rezia’s interpreting the song of the old woman is also the process of
clarifying their affective commitment and deciding on their ethical choice.

As literary responses to 9/11 terrorist attacks, American 9/11 novels
recently experiences the ongoing transition from homogeneous representation of
violence and trauma to reflective depiction of ethical identity which “self” tend to
take as victims and “other” as terrorists in the ear of disorder. From the perspective
of ethical literary criticism, this paper explores the changing ethical identity of
self and other presented in Falling Man, Extremely Loud & Incredible Close, The
Reluctant Fundamentalist and other American 9/11 novels. This paper further
examines how these 9/11 novels construct a discourse of self-other encounter in
which ethical identity of self and other is reformed not as enemies but as equal
communities with the aim of mutual understanding among different ethical groups. Thus, American 9/11 novels rely on a way of “saying” which could break the
homogeneous stereotype of self and other, call on self to get closer to other, and
perform the post-9/11 ethical responsibilities.

Ethical Literary Criticism aims to discover the essence of human nature
and promote the progress of human civilization through the analysis of the ethical
relations and their consequences described in literary works. This native Chinese
academic discourse system constructed by scholars represented by Nie Zhenzhao,
when interacting with Durkheim’s divinity and secularity dichotomy and the incest
taboo theory derived from it to interpret the incest plot setting in One Hundred
Years of Solitude in a complementary way, will bring us many new discoveries.
Nie’s Sphinx factor theory points out ethical rules may distinguish humans from animals, while Durkheim’s dichotomy explains the sanctity of family affairs and the
secularity of personal affairs. From the individual perspective and social perspective
respectively, they both illustrate the validity and necessity of incest taboo as a social
contract that exists widely in human society. These two theories have different
perspectives but intrinsic similarities. When combined together to elaborate and
criticize the incest history of Buendia family, their common conclusion is that the
behavior of violating ethics ultimately led to the destruction of the family.

Korean American novelist Chang-rae Lee’s novel A Gesture Life presents
through the memory of a Japanese army medic the miserable history of Korean
comfort women forced into sexual slaves by Imperial Japanese Army during
WWII, demonstrating the complex relationship between ethics of memory, identity
construction and grand history. The ethical identity chosen by the Japanese army
medic influences his remembering and forgetting, leading to his identity crisis. The
recollection of the repressed memory helps to reconstruct his identity. A Gesture
Life uses the dual narratives of war witness and victim to represent the Korean
comfort women history and attests to Japanese government’s war crimes of forcibly
enlisting, enslaving, slaughtering comfort women during WWII, thus challenging
the Japanese official versions of comfort women history and reconstructing the
history of Korean comfort women. The Japanese army medic’s memory of and
Chang-rae Lee’s literary representation of the Korean comfort women history embody the ethics of memory.

This article presents an introduction and evaluation of a new book
titled “Contemporary Marxist Aesthetics and Criticism: Interviews with Western
Scholars.” The aim is to provide a critical overview of the book. Using the
interviews with four prominent interviewees as an example, this article illustrates
and emphasises the significance of this book within contemporary Marxist studies
in China. Additionally, the article offers a positive appraisal, highlighting the book’s
contribution to the dissemination of the latest development in Western Marxist
research to the Chinese academia.

In Derek Attridge in Conversation, Derek Attridge reviews his academic
career and says that he became involved in the study of poetic rhythm and literary
theory because his extensive reading revealed important scholarly questions that
the academy had not answered or had not provided satisfactory answers to. He also
discusses the background and motivation for other scholarly research, and the social
impact of related studies. In this book he clarifies some important misconceptions,
sets out his own important scholarly ideas, and provides excellent commentary
on some of the figures and writings in academia. In particular, he addresses the
current unfriendliness of academia to young people, which is detrimental to the
development of their academic careers. In addition, he happily accepts an interview
with the author to give his views on some important current hot issues.

Danish Literature in the 20th and the Early 21st Century is a work of
literary history written by Anne Marie Mai, professor in University of Southern
Denmark and member of the Danish Academy. The author divides Danish literature
since the 20th century into three stages: 1900-1940, 1940-1970 and 1970-2015. The
first stage mainly reflects the emergence of modern Danish literature, the second is
about the development of modernist literature, and the third is the prosperity of post-
modernist literature. Based on the theories of New Historicism and Narratology,
Mai puts literature in the macro background of society and history, and combines
it with the changes of publishing industry, library and media. By doing this, she
makes a panoramic survey of literature in this period. This work is a masterpiece
of modern Danish literary history, which may not only help readers and academia
understand modern Danish literature in depth, but also provide some enlightenment
to the study and writing of literary history.