Three Dimensions of the Generation of Literary Theoretical Knowledge in the Post-modern Context
后现代语境下文学理论知识生产的三个维度

The post-modern context is both a methodological shift of viewing the world and a new relationship with the modern context. There are three dimensions of the post-modern context in which the knowledge of literary theories are generated. Firstly, fact and value are in unity. Literary facts are preconditions and guarantees with which literary theories as knowledge can be established and spread, but value evaluation and value pursuit embody the creativity and humaneness in literary theories. The combination of the two is essential to the generation of the knowledge of literary theories. Secondly, demonstration and speculation are in unity, which results from the need of putting the two together, for they are, as research methods, complementary in the process of the generation of the knowledge of literary theories. Thirdly, what is important is not to discover rules but to reveal essence of literature. Essence should be approached in a way that is not essentialist but scientific and appropriate to the object being studied . Literary theory should get rid of the infatuation with discovering rules, but try to produce knowledge that is local and contextualized.