YIN Qian
Journal of Guangzhou University (Social Science Edition). 2026, 25(2): 115-130.
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With the expanding influence of digital humanities within Chinese academia, literary studies are increasingly conceived as an integrated structure comprising the bit world, the atomic world, and the world of consciousness. Within this triadic framework, ″body″ and ″data″ have become crucial elements for reconfiguring interpretive approaches to literature. The ″body″ is understood both as the unity of the conscious and physical subject and as an operational manifestation of the ″intelligent body″ shaped by digital technological environments. As the key mediator linking the bit world with the realm of consciousness, the body contributes to meaning-making through interaction, operational choices, and perception, such that the textual world within the bit-symbolic system generated by digital interfaces is continually produced and reshaped through embodied engagement. Furthermore, ″simulation″ constitutes a third mode of world-observation, providing an intermediary methodological framework between the literary existence of the atomic world and the literary data of the bit world. It enables printed texts of the atomic world to be transformed into digitized and datafied materials, and through algorithmic modeling, facilitates the investigation of the generative logics underlying textual temporality and spatiality. Within this paradigm, digital humanities tools permit scholars to conduct cross-world simulation studies, while digital preservation and dissemination offer important pathways for literary interpretation. Meanwhile, ″distance″ as a critical condition for knowledge production, assumes heightened significance in literary interpretation, algorithmic criticism, and algorithmic aesthetics in the digital era.