The Alter Ego Perspectives and Literary Historiography

The overview of Chinese literary histories and the generalizations of modes in literary historiography help us to have a better understanding of the alter ego perspectives in the West. The investigations of these new perspectives pave the way for theoretical explorations in literary historiography. The implications and insights will shed new light on writing Chinese literary history. Chapter 2 is a history of Chinese literary histories in China and in the West. A comparative survey brought our attention to the new perspectives in the West since the 1990s. The investigations through the two case studies of “Discursive Communities” and the “Cultural Tang” necessitate a further step in metahistoriography or philosophy of literary history—its ontological, epistemological, methodological framework and empirical implications.