Xiaoling Yuan

YUAN Xiaoling received her M.A. in English Language and Literature in 2001. She is now an associate professor in Foreign Language Department of Wuhan University. She has engaged in her Ph.D study on philosophy from 2007. Her interests are teaching methodology, cultural criticism, and a comparison between western aesthetics and Chinese aesthetics.

My Ph.D project is based on the study of Susan Sontag's publications. My aim is to analysis her writings from an aesthetic point of view. Currently the major characters in Susan Sontag's novels have attracted my attention.  In the second phase of my project, more effort will be put on the investigation of Susan Sontag's literary comments and critiques.  In the third phase, I will work on her essays and other publications. Currently, I am researching one of Susan's masterpieces, Benefactor. The hero in the book, Hippolyte, lives in a dream-like environment, whose activities and dreams are interrelated to the degree that the two become indistinguishable. This image is really thought provoking. Heidegger contends that men must accept the regulations of the world. I try to approach this image from Heidegger's thoughts on existence and also the perspective of the aesthetic of dream. A smooth combination of the two approaches may not be simple or easy to achieve.I perceive that a combination can only be achieved by responding to the call of the words and ideas.