Art History, Narratology, and Twentieth-Century Chinese Art (Routledge Research in Art History)

✍ Scribed by Lian Duan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 231
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This study constructs a framework of narratology for art history and rewrites the development of twentieth-century Chinese art from a narratological perspective.

Theoretically and methodologically oriented, this is a self-reflective meta-art history studying the art historical narratives while narrating the story of modern and contemporary Chinese art. Thus, this book explores the three layers of narrative within the narratological framework: the first-hand fabula, the secondary narration, and the tertiary narrativization. With this tertiary narrativization, the reader-author presents three types of narrative: the grand narrative of the central thesis of this book, the middle-range narrative of the chapter theses, and case analyses supporting these theses. The focus of this tertiary narrativization is the interaction between Western influence on Chinese art and the Chinese response to this influence. The central thesis is that this interaction conditioned and shaped the development of Chinese art at every historical turning point in the twentieth century.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, critical theory, Chinese studies, and cultural studies.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Meta-Art History
Subject and Approach
Periodizing Twentieth-Century Chinese Art
The Anxiety of Cultural Identity
Defusing the Intrinsic-Extrinsic Opposition
The Narrative Model and the Narratological Framework
References
1 Before 1949: Context and Modern Art
The Importance of Context
Historical Pre-Text and the Westernization Movement
Cultural Con-Text and the New Culture Movement
Internal Context With Two Layers
The Beijing School
The Shanghai School
The Lingnan School
The Central Text
The Tertiary Narrativization
Three Waves of Western Influence
Four Avenues of Western Influence
Four Generations of Chinese Responses
The Great Divergence and the Two Sub-Splits
Reframing the Sub-Split of Traditional-Style Art
Focalizing the Sub-Split of Western-Style Art
Conclusion
References
2 Since 1949: Possible Author and Realist Art
Theorizing the “Author-Text-Reader” Relationship
Art Historians: From Empirical Authors to Model Authors
The Possible Author Transformed From a Reader
The Possible Author Rewriting On the “Red Art” of 1949–1966
Reinterpreting the Political Propaganda Art of 1966–1976
Narrative Identity, and the Continuation of Propaganda Art
Realism Since 1978 and the Transformation of Narrative Identity
Conclusion
References
3 1979–1985: Textual Space and Historical Transformation
Textuality and Spatiality: Theorizing the Textual Space
The Lived Real World as the First Space: The Rise of Non-Realist Art
The Misperceived World as the Second Space: The Case of Wu Guanzhong
The Imagined World as the Second Space: Formalism Misperceived
The Conceived World as the Third Space: The Event of the Stars Exhibitions
The Textuality of the Third Space: Conceptuality in Formalist Art
Conclusion: An Integral and Inclusive Textual Space in Art History
References
4 1985–1989: Unfolding the Events of the Avant-Garde Movement
Narrative Event and the Causal Context of the Avant-Garde Movement
The Deleuzian Event and the Change in Avant-Garde Painting
The Fold of the Event and the Event of Unfolding
Unfolding the Double Transitions in a Triangle Fold
Performance Art and the Grand Exhibition of “China/Avant-Garde”
An Evental Writing and the Experimental Paintings
Conclusion: The Great Confluence as an Evental Fold
References
5 The 1990s: Postmodern Characterization
Figure Painting and Marxist Theory About Characterization
Postmodern Art and Three Types of Characters
The Political Dimension in Fang Lijun’s Characterization
Yue Minjun and the Intertextual Characterization
Zhang Xiaogang’s Characters and the Reader’s Identification
The Integral Reader and the Characters in Zhang Xiaogang’s Third-Phase Art
Conclusion: The Integral Reader and Character Theories
References
6 Towards a Conclusion: Conceptual Art Through to the 2020s
First-Hand Fabula
Secondary Narration
Tertiary Narrativization
Coda: The Spectacle Continues
References
Glossary: A List of Chinese Names and Terms
Index