Over the past two decades, Stuart Hall’s theory of articulation has been received and studied by Chinese academia, gradually evolving from a key concept in cultural studies to one in cultural criticism. Initially rendered into Chinese through various translations, the term has since stabilized as“接 合 ,”with growing emphasis on its connotations of connection and combination. Hall’s early thinking was influenced by Louis Althusser, which led him to explore the complex articulations between, on the one hand, Marx’s theory of production and theoretical reflection, and, on the other, historical reality and historical materialism. By the late 1970s, drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, Hall argued that language achieves articulation with the external world through conflicts and struggles over meaning—thereby not only assigning meaning to the world but also constructing and expressing specific historical conditions. In the new century, contemporary Chinese literary theory applied articulation to cultural criticism, regarding it as a potential means of dynamically linking theory and reality; yet this application tended to overlook the theory’s capacity to represent complex historical conditions. Thus, the reception of articulation in Chinese literary theory should not only return to its specific historical context to grasp the theory’s complexities, but also emphasize the ongoing formation of new articulations and the authentic historical conditions they express.

Stuart Hall, articulation, connection, expression, cultural studies, cultural criticism