The Expansion and Breakthrough of Marxist Literary Theory of Reflection in the 1990s

The period from 1990 to 1999 is the expansion and breakthrough stage of Marxist literary theory of reflection. The researchers have made new understandings on the basic questions of literary theory of reflection, such as the relationship between reflection theory and the theory of subjectivity, production theory and axiology; the relationship between literary cognition and aesthetics, and the literary aesthetic ideology. They also criticize the outstanding problems existing in the new theoretical proposition of literary theory of reflection. In 1993, Wang Yuanxiangdeveloped a new way of practical orientation of Marxist literary theory of reflection. In 1999, Tong Qingbing put forward a new judgment of Marxist literary theory of reflection, that aesthetic ideology theory is the first principle of literary and art theory. There are three significant theoretical orientations in the Marxist literary theory of reflection in the People’s Republic of China: the practical orientation occurs in the expansion and breakthrough stage, the other two are the cognitive orientation in the establishment and consolidation stage, and the aesthetic orientation in the development and deepen stage. In the expansion and breakthrough stage of Marxist literary theory of reflection, there are still some outstanding problems, such as paying not enough attention to the relationship between literary aesthetic reflection theory and literary aesthetic ideology theory, and not having the necessary theoretical consistency and systematization to understand and grasp the meaning of practice and the relationship between practice, cognition and aesthetic.