Variables and Constants in Literature: A Discussion of “Extrinsic Research” and “Intrinsic Research”

AbstractThe variables and constants in literature are as difficult to separate and understand as the intricacies of quantum physics. This is the basic mode of literary existence and also an important precondition for the longevity of literary classics. However, since the late 19th century, literary currents have been turbulent, and wave upon wave of critical theory has evinced a discord between “the intrinsic and the extrinsic,” even amounting to mutual exclusion, with the result that literary constants or common sense have been intentionally or unintentionally ignored. This is not only clear evidence of the accelerated development of human society, but also the result of the interaction of many complex factors. For this reason, a dialectical analysis of the relationship between variables and constants or “extrinsic research” and “intrinsic research” has long been a major issue not easily avoided.Keywords: literary principlevariablesconstantsextrinsic researchintrinsic research Notes1 Lu Xun, Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 9, p. 19.2 Aristotle, Poetics, pp. 42, 58, 64.3 Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel, pp. 9-11.4 Madame de Staël, De la literature, pp. 48-54.5 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Collected Writings of Marx and Engels, vol. 10, p. 571.6 Aristotle and Horace, Poetics · Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry), p. 141.7 Zhu Guangqian, Poetics, pp. 4-5.8 Emmanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, vol. I, pp. 39-40.9 Friedrich Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, pp. 18-19.10 Johann Eckermann, Conversations with Goethe, p. 12.11 Karl Marx, “Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, April 19, 1859,” p. 171.12 Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, vol. III, p. 861.13 Fu Lei, On Eileen Chang’s Novels, pp. 164-165.14 Ibid., p. 165.15 Liu Xie, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, pp. 200, 212, 182, 202.16 René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, p. 15. The citation has been adapted from the Chinese translations by Liu Xiangyu and others.17 Friedrich Engels, “Engels to Margaret Harkness in London,” p. 571.18 See the works of E.E. Stoll, L.L. Schücking, L.C. Knights, S.L. Bethell, and G.E. Bentley on Shakespeare—Original footnote.19 René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, p. 17.20 René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, p. 28.21 Ibid., p. 67.22 Ibid., p. 75.23 Ibid., p. 106.24 Ibid., p. 107.25 In regard to the form of literary works and the poetic quality of language, the latter includes the expressive function, pragmatic function, metaphor, and metonymy of poetry. See Raman Selden’s The Theory of Criticism, pp. 369-373.26 René Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, p. 140.27 Ibid., p. 141.28 Lao She, Lectures on Literary Theory, p. 72.29 Ibid., pp. 73, 74.30 Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction, p. 10.31 José Ortega y Gasset, La rebellion de las masas (The Revolt of the Masses), p. 10.32 Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology, p. 21.33 Although Eagleton subsequently revised his views and argued that literature has five characteristics: fictional, moral, linguistic, non-pragmatic and normative, he ignored other important characteristics such as truthfulness, functionality, aesthetic nature, variability, and individual uniqueness, among others. See Terry Eagleton, The Event of Literature, Chinese translation by Yin Zhike, published by Henan University Press in 2017.