I. Introduction: The Lyric as Autonomous Form Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats has long been read as a meditation on art, beauty, and time. Yet within the methodological rigor of New Criticism, the poem must be treated not as a philosophical statement or historical artifact but as an autonomous verbal structure—a self-contained […]

I. Introduction: The Play as a Self-Contained System Hamlet by William Shakespeare has generated an immense body of interpretive discourse, often centered on psychology, history, and philosophy. Yet, within the methodological precision of New Criticism, the play demands to be approached as an autonomous verbal structure, where meaning is produced through internal relations rather than

I. Introduction: The Epic as an Autonomous Structure Paradise Lost by John Milton occupies a central place in the canon of English literature, often interpreted through theological, political, or historical frameworks. However, within the methodological discipline of New Criticism, the poem demands a different kind of attention—one that treats it as a self-sufficient verbal construct.

I. Introduction: The Autonomy of the Fragmented Whole The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot stands as one of the most intricate poetic structures in modern literature, frequently approached through historical, biographical, and cultural frameworks. Yet, within the methodological discipline of New Criticism, the poem resists reduction to external referents and instead demands close attention

1. Introduction: Literature as Cultural Diagnosis Modern Chinese realism emerges not merely as a stylistic shift but as a profound epistemic rupture in the history of Chinese literature. At its center stands Lu Xun, whose short fiction inaugurates a form of writing that no longer seeks harmony, moral refinement, or classical aesthetic balance, but instead

1. Introduction: The Canon of Chinese Narrative Imagination The Four Great Classical Chinese Novels constitute the highest achievement of premodern Chinese narrative fiction and form the foundational canon of long-form storytelling in Chinese literary history. These works are not merely popular narratives but complex symbolic systems that integrate history, myth, philosophy, political commentary, and psychological

1. Introduction: Poetry as the Core of Chinese Literary Civilization In the Chinese literary system, poetry is not merely a genre but the foundational mode of linguistic expression. For much of Chinese intellectual history, poetry functioned simultaneously as aesthetic practice, ethical cultivation, emotional articulation, and social communication. Unlike in many Western traditions where poetry is

1. Introduction: Continuity as a Literary Principle Chinese literature constitutes one of the longest continuous literary traditions in world history, extending from early ritual inscriptions to highly diversified digital narratives of the present day. Unlike traditions marked by radical breaks, it develops through sustained continuity in language, aesthetic norms, and intellectual frameworks, even while undergoing

1. Introduction: A Civilizational Literary Continuum Chinese literature constitutes one of the longest continuous literary traditions in human history, extending over more than three millennia. Unlike many literary cultures that undergo rupture and discontinuity, Chinese literature develops as a cumulative system in which classical forms, philosophical traditions, and aesthetic principles persist while adapting to shifting

1. Introduction: Two Philosophies of Self-Overcoming Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Friedrich Nietzsche converge on a shared suspicion of passive, inherited moralities and static conceptions of the self. Both reject resignation and emphasize becoming over fixed being. Yet their philosophical trajectories diverge at a crucial metaphysical point: Nietzsche’s self-overcoming is grounded in the will to power