The Political Dimension of Literary Criticism

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter sums up a threefold meaning of the concept of politics for classical Marxist writers which are intrinsically unified in historical materialism: (i) politics as a component of the superstructure in the social structure; (ii) politics as class interests and class struggle; (iii) politics as human emancipation. Since the twentieth century, the relationship between literature and politics has undergone a process of politicization (or over-politicization), depoliticization, and eventually repoliticization. In our new historical context, the connotation and extension of politics are changing from class politics to people’s politics, from macro-politics to micro-politics, and from explicit politics to implicit politics. The repoliticization (or the turning-back) and transformation of politics urge the Chinese form to re-examine the complex relationship and transformation between aesthetics and politics from theoretical and practical ways. On the relationship between politics and aesthetics, the Chinese form is supposed to deterritorialize the boundaries extrinsic or intrinsic in current literary criticism by envisioning that the criticism and its emancipation function are gestated precisely in aesthetics.