20世纪五六十年代，美籍华裔学者夏志清受当时冷战格局影响，用当时流行的“新批评”方法来评价中国现代文学，其突出的特征是将中国现代文学看作是在世界文学谱系之外。20世纪80年代以来，美国中国文学史强调从中国内部与文学价值等角度来研究中国现代文学。近年来，美国中国文学史观念不断更新，文学史家打破整体历史观，采用跨文化研究方法，将中国文学看作是处于变动的“世界中”的文学，这有助于重新定位中国文学在世界文学史上的地位。

During 1950s and 1960s,under the influence of the Cold War,Chinese American scholar Chihtsing Hsia applied the fashionable approach “New Criticism”to the criticism of modern Chinese literatureOne of the most significant features of this approach is that Chinese literature was treated outside the scope of world literatureSince1980s,the USScholars advocated studying Chinese literature from the inner part of China and the perspective of universal valuesRecently,American literary ideas keep updatingBreaking through holistic historical ideas and employing various crosscultural approaches,scholars viewed Chinese literature as one part of the volatile world literature and emphasized treating Chinese literature with equal mindset