Culture as Text

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Culture as Text provides a forum to consider the notion of culture and the methodology of cultural studies, and to analyze cultural phenomena and practices in both ancient and contemporary times, particularly emphasizing theoretical, empirical and historical analyses to rethink the laws of cultural development and the role of culture in human society and civilization. Concerns, perspectives, traditions and debates, both in the East and West as well as other countries and regions about cultural studies, are preferred. We encourage cross-disciplinary studies especially, including original research articles that could contribute to the field of cultural studies itself as well as to the development of humanities, social sciences and more in a broader sense.

Culture as Text publishes original research articles. Areas of research relevant to Culture as Text include cultural traditions and creative industries, the histories and notions of "culture", the histories, politics and globalization of cultural studies, philosophical perspectives on culture, comparative and world culture studies, artistic culture, diaspora, popular and literary culture, media, urban culture, digital culture and material cultures, etc.

Culture as Text welcome special issues on cutting edge topics in the field of cultural studies as well as those concerning cultural issues in specific countries and industries.

Open Access
Imagining the Cosmic Mind: Uncertainty, Fecundity, and Translation

9. März 2026

Dennis M. Kratz

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The practice of literary Translation can provide valuable insights into scientific inquiry and humanistic interpretation as complementary aspects of the ongoing human quest for wisdom. The paper explores this complementarity, related specifically to Cosmology, in the thought of four transformative figures – Heraclitus of Ephesus, Titus Lucretius Caro, Sir Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein – all of whom sought to identify and describe the nature of the “supreme intelligence” that created and maintains the comprehensible order of the universe.
Open Access
Willa Cather Revisited: Aesthetic Resistance in My Ántonia

6. Januar 2026

Lin Yang, Yuwei Liu

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The literary classification of Willa Cather has long been contested in academia. While her contemporaries directly engaged modernity’s crises, her works are often oversimplified as nostalgic retreats. Yet a close reading of My Ántonia reveals her pastoral nostalgia as a deliberate aesthetic strategy. Through the cultural resilience of Ántonia, a Bohemian immigrant, Cather critiques Enlightenment modernity beneath a pastoral surface, transforming immigrant experience into an alternative modernist practice. Her work moves beyond mere nostalgia, using regional storytelling and non-confrontational critique as a subtle yet avant-garde response to modernity’s crises. This approach, rooted in yet transcending local experience, solidifies Cather’s place as a modernist writer and expands the scope of American modernist literature.
Open Access
Are Artists Canaries in the Coal Mine? Interviews on AI, Attention Economies, and New Directions in Contemporary Chinese Art

6. Januar 2026

Lingling Yao

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Open Access
The Emergence and Formation of “Human Feeling” During the “Literature of Humanity” Period in China

1. Januar 2026

Xianfei Zhang

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This article takes Zhu Ziqing’s writing activities during the May Fourth Movement (the “Literature of Humanity” period) as an example to explore the way in which the themes and forms of “Literature of humanity” as well as the special influence and writing style of humanitarian writers came into being. It argues that modern Chinese experience originated with the “literature of humanity” which was developed to serve the goal of humanitarian social transformation during the May Fourth Movement. Zhu, an unswerving believer in modern humanism, developed new experiences and feelings when facing the real society which includes not only brother love and the acute awareness of the existence of one’s own life, but also the affection such as sadness, helplessness, and anger arose when “new man’s” ideal human love was ignored by the reality. Zhu Ziqing showed extraordinary sensitivity and extremely intense emotional response. His “surprising sensibility” and writing style make him the most representative writer of “Literature of Humanity”. Through this study, this article not only reconstructs the structure of the literary history of this period, but also finds that “Literature of Humanity” is the first stage of modern Chinese literary development.
Open Access
The Establishment of Music Aesthetic Education and Music Education in Chinese Primary and Secondary Schools in the Early 20th Century

3. Dezember 2025

Zonghua Chen

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People such as Wang Guowei (1877–1927) and Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940), who were ahead of their time and became early supporters of the School Song Movement, were already starting to think that music education was the best way to teach music aesthetics at the start of school music education in modern and contemporary China. Wang and Cai talked about the aesthetic aspects of music education, and early supporters of the movement also thought about the aesthetic aspects of music education and the purpose of music education when they talked about the practical use of songs. After the Republic of China was founded in 1912, it made music aesthetic education a part of its educational programme and national educational system. Music education, which is a big part of music aesthetic education, was made a permanent part of education in Chinese primary and secondary schools. Because of this, even though the national school system and curriculum standards changed in the early 20th century, music aesthetic education stayed the same. This made it easier to build the music education system in Chinese primary and secondary schools and the educational practice framework.
Open Access
A Modern History of Smell

1. Dezember 2025

Silin Chen

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Open Access
Naughty Boys as Heroes and Redefining the Father–Son Relationship: Examining Mo’s Mischief Series by Hongying Yang

16. Juli 2025

Haifeng Pu

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As one of the most important writers of children’s literature in the 21st century in China, Hongying Yang has not only topped the list of children’s literature and started a “craze” phenomenon but also aroused particular controversy in academia over the issues of the commercialization and literariness of her works. Despite the criticism of the commercial aspects of her work, Yang has taken the lead in writing for primary school children in this century. In this study, by analysing Mo’s Mischief Series, one of Yang’s bestsellers in recent years based on the quality-oriented educational context, I argue that in the transition from exam-oriented education to quality-oriented education, Hongying Yang depicts young characters who are regarded as naughty boys at school in a positive light by revolting against the good boy examples set by traditional children’s literature. The interplay between school and family introduces the possibilities through which education emerges not only as coercive but also as formative, carrying profound implications for children’s socialization and creativity.
Open Access
Study on the Overseas Marketing, Application and Collection of Chinese Silk Exported in Late Ming Dynasty

6. Juni 2025

Hui Ma

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In the late Ming Dynasty, the decline of the tribute trade and changes in China’s maritime prohibition policies led to a substantial export of Chinese silk. Late 16th century, the Portuguese occupied the triangular trade to Lisbon. The Spanish, through the Manila galleon trade, sold Chinese silk to their colonies in the Americas. In Europe, Chinese silk was used in household items, religious garments, and diplomatic gifts, symbolizing exotic luxury. In the Americas, Chinese silk replaced European silk, becoming widely used in the daily lives of the upper class as well as in religious and political activities. The wide spread of silk in the late Ming Dynasty, while forming cross-cultural influence, also unknowingly shaped China’s image overseas. Today, a considerable number of late Ming silk textiles are preserved in overseas collections. This study leverages representative Ming Dynasty silk textiles housed in international museums to analyze their incorporation of traditional Chinese styles and Western elements, exploring the overseas utilization of late Ming export silk. It aims to illustrate the artistic dissemination along the maritime Silk Road during this period and it also highlights the far-reaching influence of Chinese silk on global cultural exchanges in the late Ming Dynasty.
Open Access
Botsurisōronsō – The ‘Submerged Ideals-Debate’ in Meiji Japan by Tsubouchi Shōyō and Mori Ōgai

17. April 2025

Naomi Charlotte Fukuzawa

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In the early 1890s, the Botsurisōronsō debate on ‘submerged ideals’ took place between the literary theorist, translator and academic Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859–1935) and the writer, translator and medical researcher Mori Ōgai (1862–1922). The discussion was carried out by Shōyō in the pages of the literary journal Waseda bungaku , which he had founded as professor of Waseda University, and Ōgai in the journal Shigarami Zōshi, which Ōgai had founded. Initially responding to Shōyō’s advocacy of Shakespeare, Ōgai addressed the question of whether modern Japanese literature should absorb and reflect metaphysical ideals or not. Recently returned from a trip to Prussia, Ōgai introduced the aesthetic philosophy of Eduard von Hartmann, claiming it as compatible with Shōyō’s subdivision of the novel into three schools. The opposition of the two eminent literary figures was also reflected in Shōyō’s English-style philosophy and Ōgai’s German metaphysical idealism in the Romantic tradition. This means that Shōyō emphasized a poetics of literature emulating photographic portrayal as well as the incorporation of the Buddhist aesthetics of mono no aware , while Ōgai advocated an idealistic understanding of ideas in the German Romantic tradition. This debate showed the Japanese public for the first time the role of modern literature, bungaku , as notions of literary fiction were arising in Meiji.
Open Access
Goldene Edition. Bunte Götter: die Farben der Antike

2. April 2025

Ching-Ching Chiu

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Open Access
How Film Adaptations Make the Original Poetic

11. September 2024

Wang Chutong

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This essay argues that film adaptations make the original poetic because the mode of expression changes from “telling” to “immersion.” The author refers to Walter Benjamin’s translation theory to discuss the nature of adaptation and makes use of several widely celebrated novels and their film versions as examples.

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Special Issue on Reading; Guest Editor: Jonathan Locke Hart

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Die Zeitschrift Culture as Text veröffentlicht Sonder- und Themenhefte, die sich auf wichtige und neu aufkommende Themen im Bereich der Forschung konzentrieren. Die Zeitschrift hat ein strenges Verfahren eingeführt, um sicherzustellen, dass alle Manuskripte für Sonderausgaben denselben Qualitätsstandards und Peer-Review-Verfahren unterliegen wie reguläre Manuskripte. Weitere Informationen über die Peer-Review-Politik der Zeitschrift finden Sie in den "Hinweisen für Autoren".

Aktuelle Themenhefte

Band 2 | Heft 2 Special Issue on Reading; Guest Editor: Jonathan Locke Hart

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Manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s submission system at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cat.

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Please format your manuscript according to the Information for Authors.
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All initial submissions are checked for plagiarism via Crossref Similarity Check.
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Editor-in-Chief

Wang Ning,

Distinguished University Professor of Humanity and Social Science Studies, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; Changjiang Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Tsinghua University, China.

Members of Editorial Board:

Galin Tihanov,
George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary, University of London, UK.

Theo D’haen,
Emeritus Professor of English Literature, KU Leuven, Belgium.

Jean-Michel Rabate,ì
Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Thomas O. Beebee,
Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Comparative Literature and German, Penn State University, USA.

Paul Patton,
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Unive rsity of New South Wales, Australia.

Ming Dong Gu,
Katherine R. Cecil Professor in Foreign Languages, University of Texas at Dallas, USA.

Liu Kang,
Professorof Asian and African Languages and Literature, Duke University, USA.

Shang Biwu,
Changjiang Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Peng Qinglong,
Changjiang Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Sandro Jung
Distinguished Professor of English Literature, Fudan University, China.　

Lee Tong King,
Professor of Language and Communication, School of English, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Editorial Team

Responsible Editor

Zou Li,
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Associate Editors

Yang Chan,
Associate Professor of History, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Yang Yi,
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Flair Donglai Shi,
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Zhang Xun,
Postdoctoral Fellow in Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Xu Kejun,
Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Yao Lingling
Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Capital University of Economics and Business, China.

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eISSN:

2750-2562

Sprache:

Englisch

Verlag:

De Gruyter

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Erstveröffentlichung:

20. März 2023

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