Faithful to Life: Selected Collections of Yen Yuan-shu

About the Author

Yen Yuan-shu (1933 -2012)

Emeritus Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University. During his tenure as the dean of the department, he established a doctoral program in Comparative Literature and founded the The Monthly Study Guide on English Newspapers and Magazines, Chung Wai Literary Quarterly, and the English Tamkang Review. His work not only provided a space for literary works but also made the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of National Taiwan University a center for literary research. With others, Prof. Yen established the Association for Comparative Literature of the Republic of China, organized international conferences on the subject, and promoted exchanges in Chinese and foreign literary research.


A pioneer of literary criticism, Prof. Yen introduced "New Criticism", emphasizing that literary works have their own life and unity, and are a self-sufficient whole. He promoted close reading to grasp the structure and meaning of the text, and opposed the impressionistic approach at that time. Considering literature is an engagement with life, he advocated "social realism " and emphasized that literary works should present all aspects of life instead of being disconnected from them. He also advocated "national literature" and believed that although all literary works reveal universalities or general principles of humanity that transcend different ethnic groups, their authenticity must be couched on the soil of their nations. Prof. Yen is also a master of prose. His writings are sometimes witty and delicate, but always sharp and self-reflexive, showing a great concern for the weak and humanities at large. While his literary views often triggered debates, he always maintained a high spirit and was never afraid of challenge, as the sparks of the debates often inspired deeper introspection in writers and literary scholars and raised the profile of literature in the society.


About the Editor

Chih-ming Wang
Chih-ming Wang is a research fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, with a joint appointment at the Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies at National Yangming Chiaotung University, and the current Chair of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society. He was the chief-editor of Router: A Journal of Cultural Studies (2017-2023), and the author of Transpacific Articulations: Student Migration and the Remaking of Asian America (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2013) and Rearticulation: Trajectories of Foreign Literature Studies in Taiwan (2021; in Chinese). He specializes in Asian American literature, inter-Asia cultural studies, and postcolonial theory, and is now working on the intersections of border, post/Cold War, geopolitics, and institutional history.

「人文大師系列」編輯前言／梅家玲
凡例
導讀──文學與人生／王智明

輯一 文學批評人生

期待一種文學
文學與文學批評
朝向一個文學理論的建立
民族文學及其創作與研究

輯二 西洋文藝思潮的引介

西洋文學批評的重鎮──「西洋文學批評史」譯序
現代文藝思潮的開端──休謨與古典主義
歐立德的文學理論
現代英美短篇小說的特質
原始類型及神話的文學批評

輯三 比較文學與批評的介入

何謂比較文學
比較文學國際會議的回顧與前曕
對中國現代詩的幾點淺見
中國古典詩的多義性
現代主義與歷史主義──兼答葉嘉瑩女士
「白蛇傳」與「蕾米亞」──一個比較文學的課題
臺灣小說裡的日本經驗
社會寫實文學的省思
也是「鄉土」，更是「鄉土」

輯四 時代的印記

回歸故里
老夏的一生
長巷
柏拉圖式的對話

輯五 外文學人的精神氣質

中國人與外國文學
一切從反西方開始——為《中外文學》
我們不要學英文

附錄 顏元叔先生事略／顏學誠
顏元叔生平與著作年表