From March 18th to 20th, the "Leapfrog, Comparative, Huitong: High-end Forum on Foreign Literature and Comparative Literature", sponsored by the School of Foreign Languages of Zhejiang University, hosted by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Research, and co-organized by the Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), was successfully held online. Nearly 40 domestic and foreign experts and scholars, including Professor Jean E. Howard of Columbia University, Professor Zhang Longxi of City University of Hong Kong, Professor Yang Huilin of Chinese Min University, Professor Wang Ning of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Professor Cao Shunqing of Sichuan University, Chen Zhongyi, Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Jin Li of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese, Professor Of Shanghai University of Foreign Chinese, Professor Jian Jian of Shanghai University of Foreign Chinese, and Professor Candace Barrington of Central Connecticut State University were invited to participate in the forum. He Lianzhen, Vice President of Zhejiang University, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the forum. Xu Jun, a senior professor of liberal arts at Zhejiang University, served as the chairman of the academic committee of the forum. The conference held three forums on the afternoon of the 18th, the morning of the 19th and the afternoon, and 24 participating scholars made keynote speeches. At the same time, the meeting was broadcast live on station B, and more than 4,000 people listened online, benefiting both inside and outside the campus.
Group photo online of the forum
Xu Jun, senior professor of liberal arts at Zhejiang University and Yangtze River scholar, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. Professor Xu believes that the theme of this forum, "Spanning, Comparing and Huitong", expresses three important aspects of scholarship: leapfrogging is the starting point, comparison is the method, and Huitong is the goal. The arrangement of the forum reflects both internationalization and localization. Under the auspices of Professor Hao Tianhu, the organizer of the forum and a Yangtze River scholar, the Center for medieval and Renaissance Research of Zhejiang University has become an academic center in the same field in China and has produced international influence.
Professor Zhang Longxi's lecture was entitled "Aristotle's Poetics and Comparative Literature Studies"
On the afternoon of March 18, the pre-conference lecture was led by Professor Zhang Longxi of the City University of Hong Kong, and the title of his lecture was "Aristotle's Poetics and Comparative Literature Studies". Professor Zhang believes that Aristotle's Poetics was not well known in ancient Greece, but was discovered during the European Renaissance. Poetics discusses universal literary theory from specific works—epics and tragedies—pointing out that poetry is manifested by the concrete in general and by special revelations in general. This is not only an example of literary and artistic studies, but also provides methodological implications for literary studies, including comparative literary studies.
On March 19, the forum was officially held. The keynote speech of the conference, "passing on", was presided over by Professor Guo Yingjian of Chinese Min University. The three speakers were Professor Jean E. Howard of Columbia University, Professor Wang Ning of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Professor Candace Barrington of Central Connecticut State University. Professor Jean E. Howard's presentation was titled "Devil-Portering in Hell: Teaching Macbeth in Prison." Professor Howard explores the limitations and possibilities that the environment imposes on the teaching of literature and discusses how the teaching scene has changed her teaching of Macbeth's play. Why do disciplinary officers ask to learn Shakespeare's Macbeth? What can teachers learn from this? Her experience teaching at the Women's Correctional Institute shows that no matter what kind of environment you read literature, literature can enrich people's hearts and minds, and teachers can grow in teaching and learning.
Professor Wang Ning of Shanghai Jiao Tong University gave a speech entitled "Comparative Chinese Literature: Historical Review and Contemporary Trends". He believes that Chinese comparative literature as a discipline has actually gone through more than a hundred years. Important thinkers such as Lu Xun and Wang Guowei are regarded as pioneers of Chinese comparative literature. Comparative literature stagnated in China for quite some time, and was marginal for a long time before 1978. Before it entered China as a discipline, some famous Chinese scholars, such as Zhu Guangqian, Fan Cunzhong, Chen Quan, Qian Zhongshu, Ji Xianlin, Wu Mi, Yang Zhouhan, Fang Zhong, and Wu Lifu, had already conducted research on Chinese and Western comparative literature. Their work (which also included Le Daiyun, among others) undoubtedly paved the way for the renaissance of comparative literature as a discipline in the 1980s. With the successful convening of the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Comparative Literature Society in Macao, China, the academic achievements of Chinese scholars have attracted the attention of the international academic community, and a new genre of comparative literature with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese School, is rising.
Professor Candace Barrington, a professor at Central Connecticut State University, a trustee of the New Chaucer Society, and a prominent expert in medieval studies, discussed "Chaucer's "Countrefeted termes": Chaucer's The Physician's Tale and Faux Translation. The study considers the ways in which translation practice permeates and shapes Chaucer's work and explores one of the manifestations, namely pseudo-translation. The study examines The Doctor's Tale by drawing on five models of Chaucer's translation practice: appropriation, conversion, transportation, hermeneutics, and marginalization. Chaucer combines it to give non-translated texts (such as The Doctor's Tale) a translated look, resulting in a huge creative space.
After the keynote speeches, the five groups of general assembly statements were successively held. The theme of the first group of speeches was "Leapfrogging", and Professor Yang Huilin of Chinese Min University made a speech entitled "Re-reading the 'Knowing' and 'Doing' between Epictete, Matteo Ricci and Wang Yangming from Foucault". The study takes Matteo Ricci and Foucault's reading of Epicteide as a reference, and takes into account the origin of the compilation of Matteo Ricci's "Friendship Theory" and "Twenty-Five Sayings" and its interaction with Wang Xue's disciples, and explores whether the "knowledge-action relationship" is implemented in moral practice or reconstructs a structure of understanding through "action". Professor Yang believes that the meaning may be clearer in the comparison of "within language" and "interquiste", and should be "two-way elucidated" in "mutual criticism". Professor Yang's speech brought a lot of inspiration to everyone. Professor Cao Shunqing of Sichuan University discussed the topic of "Mutual Learning of Civilizations and the Formation of World Literature". Professor Cao believes that the formation of world literature is the result of mutual learning and integration of civilizations. Western culture actually has a relationship of diverse origins, and even modern and contemporary Western culture is still the result of mutual learning among civilizations and the exchange of civilizations between the East and the West. Proceeding from the historical facts of mutual learning among civilizations, we can fundamentally abandon the arrogance and prejudice of Western civilization and advocate the equal dialogue of civilizations and the mutual learning and symbiosis of civilizations. Professor Zhu Guohua of East China Normal University discussed "The Problem of Free Will in The Outsider." He argues that, on three different levels, the "outsider" Meursault lacks freedom of will, and therefore he violates the taboos of human society and must be punished with capital punishment; but because of this, Camus offers a critical reflection on the self-evident premise of modernity through his revelation of the plight of the human free subject. Professor He Chengzhou of Nanjing University gave a speech entitled "New Directions for Cross-media Research in Literature and Art". Professor He believes that cross-media is a common phenomenon in literature and art, but it has taken on new characteristics in the digital age. It is necessary to combine literary and artistic works, use relevant theoretical resources, and explore new directions for cross-media research. How to problematicize the phenomenon of cross-media? Professor Ho believes that there are four perspectives, namely the historical perspective, the interdisciplinary perspective, the cross-cultural perspective and the performative perspective.
The theme of the second group of speeches was "Comparison", and Professor Jian Jian of Shanghai University of Chinese made a speech entitled "On the Problem Awareness and Academic Intention of Parallel Research in Comparative Literature", and he believed that parallel research still has high academic value and is closely related to the core goals of comparative literature. The difficulty of parallel research lies not in what objects to study, but in what theoretical problems can be extracted from the research objects, and what kind of literary theoretical significance the research conclusions may have. Problem awareness is the logical premise of "comparability", and the meaning of the problem determines the academic intention and academic value of parallel research. Professor Peng Qinglong of Shanghai Jiao Tong University discussed the topic of "World Perspective and Comparative Perspective: Changes in Civilization, Culture, and Literary Discourse and Power Transformation". From the perspective of civilizational discourse, cultural discourse and literary discourse corresponding to the long-range, medium-view and close-up view, he discusses the relationship between discourse change and power transformation in the evolution of the world pattern, and believes that the civilization discourse of Eurocentrism and the cultural discourse of Euro-American monism, the Western vision of dualistic opposing ideas and racial superiority, which are limited or one-sided world vision, are directly or indirectly expressed in his literary narrative discourse. The hegemonic thinking contained in it is not only the cultural source of world turmoil and conflict, but also the deep-seated cause of the deterioration of contradictions between China and the West. The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, the people-centered literary and artistic policy and the practice of literary creation put forward by China are completely different from the Western concept of discourse and power, and have won more and more recognition from the world. Professor Han Jiaming of the School of Foreign Chinese of Peking University explained the "comparative study of Clarissa, Tom Jones and Dream of the Red Chamber". Professor Han believes that "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Tom Jones" can be compared from the perspective of panoramic novels and ironic narratives, "Tom Jones" and "Clarissa" can be compared from the perspective of tragic novels, and the comparative study of three novels can also be carried out from the perspective of family and marriage novels. Comparing and studying these three masterpieces of Chinese and British novels created in the mid-18th century is beneficial for us to correctly understand the social development and cultural similarities and differences between China and Britain in the 18th century, to promote the study of foreign literature on the mainland, to strengthen the mutual understanding and learning between China and Britain or between China and the West, and to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. Professor Jiang Chengyong of Zhejiang Gongshang University gave a speech entitled "Literary Thought, World Literature, Comparative Literature: The 'Systematic Organizational Mechanism' of Literary Studies" and Literature Studies. Professor Jiang believes that Western literary trends usually spread under the threshold of transnational boundaries, and the cross-cultural and cross-ethnic "cosmopolitan" effect it has implies the matrix of "world literature". The in-depth and comprehensive study of Western literary history is inseparable from the study of literary trends, and the study of literary trends is inevitably inseparable from the concepts and methods of systematic and comprehensive thinking and comparison, and the research results naturally belong to the category of comparative literature and world literature, and this comparative vision and concept make literary research have a "systematic organizational mechanism".
The theme of the third group of statements was "Huitong". Professor Chen Zhongwei, a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, gave a speech entitled "Convergence and Superposition". He believes that literature is not technology, transcendence and innovation are relative, and convergence and superposition are common sense. The same is true of literary research and critical methods. His research dissents the irreducible theory and absolute relativity of literature, arguing that literature and literary theory are both the products of the times and the result of convergence and superposition. Professor Liu Jianjun of Shanghai Jiao Tong University analyzed "the nature and value of Byzantine literature". He believes that the basic nature of Byzantine literature is the product of the fusion of cultural exchanges between the East and the West, and the result of interpreting Christian culture with ancient Greek philosophy as the core. It not only created a unique form of medieval literature, but also had a huge influence on later Western European, Arab and even Russian culture. Even today's conflict between the East and the West can find the cause in it. Professor Wang Lixin of Nankai University discussed the topic of "Hebrew Mythology: From the Controversy of 'Being' and 'Nothing' to the Discernment of the Characteristics of National Narrative Discourse". He argues that mythology is not only an important literary category of Hebrew literature, but also embodies a unique and distinct national cultural characteristic in narrative discourse, which is particularly evident in the narrative comparison of the "flood myth" from Sumerian, ancient Babylon to Hebrew. Considering that the textual form of Hebrew mythology was finally fixed in the Second Temple period of Hebrew national history, this precisely shows that Hebrew mythology broke through the mythological soil of the ancient Near East and became a unique mythological system along with the development and formation of national cultural traditions. Professor Wu Di of Zhejiang University gave a speech on the topic of "The Circulation of Zhuangshi Songs and the Presentation of Texts". The "Song of heroes" is a poem orally circulated in medieval Russia, which not only has the characteristics of an epic based on historical facts, but also has a legendary color. The circulation of the Heroic Song fully reflects the existence of the text as an "entity" and the function of the "rap poet" as the "living body" of the brain text. The same text, after continuous recitation, gradually formed a "collective text" that people are happy to accept, because it exists in different living bodies, it will also be mutated in circulation, but its ethical teaching function is consistent, especially heroic martial arts and patriotic enthusiasm, which plays an important role in the formation of national consciousness and the construction of national image.
The theme of the fourth group of general assembly statements was "Culture". Professor Ye Shuxian of Shanghai Jiao Tong University gave a speech entitled "New Horizons in Comparative Cultural Studies: Starting with Beowulf". He believes that the deep cultural genes that cannot be penetrated from the limited vision of comparative literature need to be traced back to the roots with the help of a grand new vision of comparative culture. The bear totem belief and shamanic practice of American Indian culture retain the fundamental clues of eurasian prehistoric culture, and also provide material and inspiration for Faulkner's novel Bear. Based on his own academic experience in writing Bear Totem and translating Shaman's Voice, Professor Ye systematically explained this problem, and combined anthropological and archaeological findings to introduce the latest advances in comparative cultural research in the Old and New Worlds. Professor Fu Qilin of Sichuan University discussed "On the Mathematical Poetics of Solomon Marcus". His research explores the mathematical poetics proposed by solomon Marcus, a famous Romanian mathematician and symbolic aesthetician, discusses its key problems from the dimensions of theoretical basis, mathematical model construction of literature, mathematical analysis of poetic language, etc., and excavates its unique contribution to advancing semiotic aesthetics from a mathematical point of view. Professor Fu believes that Marcus's interpretation and construction of poetics in a mathematical way of thinking provides a new perspective for the interdisciplinary study of contemporary aesthetics, and at the same time brings about the dilemma of mathematical poetics itself. Professor Yang Lingui of Donghua University gave a speech entitled "From Origins to Intercultural Intertextuality: A Brief Discussion on the Evolution of Comparative Literature and the Characteristics of Chinese Shakespeare". His speech explained the relationship between Shakespeare studies and comparative studies, and discussed the problem of "Shakespeare with Chinese characteristics" raised in the 1980s. Putting Shakespeare in the perspective of the mutual study of Chinese and Western literature and culture, we will find that Chinese Shakespeare not only reflects the changes in literary and artistic thought since the 20th century, but also tries to draw a unique understanding in the dialogue between China and the West, and we also need to examine how to view the spiritual value of classical literature in the community of human destiny. Professor Shen Fuying of Shandong University discussed the topic of "On the Identity of Bard in Joyce's Novels". Professor Shin believes that there is a lot of discussion in Joyce's novels about the identity of the artist and his artistic creation, and Stephen has been called Bard many times. Bard was an artistic class of Celtic Druid priests, generally translated as "bard", and was actually the royal poet of the ancient Celtic people. Judging from the text of Joyce's novel, Stephen was deeply influenced by the Romantic poets, and according to their own situation, the characteristics embodied in these poets coincided with the characteristics of Bard, which were gradually constructed in the cultural circles of the European Continent and the British Isles. Joyce's novels contain modern expressions of Bard's topics of concern, with some depictions that characterize Celtic Bard's art.
The theme of the fifth cluster of statements was "Text". Professor Zhang Zhejun of Beijing Normal University gave a speech on "Error or Rheology: On the Entanglement of Cultural Collation and Annotation". Professor Zhang believes that collation and annotation can be used as a way to study the relationship between literature, and the problem raised by this is the culture of collation and annotation. Proofreading and annotation were originally two different ways, but because of the culture, the two are entangled. But this will not affect the research, only make the research more in-depth. Professor Cao Li of Tsinghua University gave a speech on the topic of "Never Ending Fit: Wang Zuoliang and Comparative Literature". "Affinity" is a core concept of Mr. Wang Zuoliang's comparative literature research, which is like a red line, which convincingly strings together the dialogue and encounter between writers and literature, as well as tradition and modernity, foreign culture and local culture, and China and the world. Professor Cao examined the following issues in the light of Mr. Wang Zuoliang's academic career and outstanding achievements: the disciplinary genealogy of Chinese comparative literature and Chinese stories, contemporary issues and social concerns in comparative literature and cross-cultural studies, and contemporary scholars need to have several important aspects of their education in order to become an excellent scholar of comparative literature and cross-cultural studies. Professor Wang Xin of Shanghai University of Foreign Chinese discussed the topic of "The Differentiation of Literary Communities and Genres in Britain in the Mid-to-Late 18th Century". She believes that in The Middle and Late 18th Century in Britain, with the development of the printing industry, the expansion of the readership, the commercialization of publishing and the rise of novels, literary genres began to appear more obvious differentiation, the emergence of new genres and the integration of multiple genres of literary creation, on the other hand, it is also manifested in the differentiation of traditional concepts such as genres, and genres gradually no longer become the standard for literary value judgment. At the same time, this period also developed and derived different forms of literary communities, including the gathering place of the literati's social activities at that time, but also referred to the friendship and group creation between the literati, which was an important source of power to promote the change of literary genres, and promoted the transition and development of neoclassical to romantic literary thought. Professor Hao Tianhu of Zhejiang University discussed the topic of "Shakespeare's Influence on the Creation of Chinese Sonnets". Professor Hao believes that Shakespeare's sonnets are widely popular in China, that the form of sonnets has been successfully localized in China, and that Chinese sonnets have largely developed from reading and transplanting Western sonnets, including those of Shakespeare and Milton. Shakespeare had an important influence on modern Chinese poetry because he inspired the creation of many Chinese poets, especially the writing of sonnets. Chinese sonnets inspired by Shakespeare can be divided into four categories: 1) combining translation and writing; 2) using Shakespeare as the theme; 3) imitating the form of Shakespeare's sonnets; and 4) imitating the structure, imagery, and themes of Shakespeare's sonnets. Shakespeare offered new content and new forms to modern Chinese poetry.
At the end of the forum, Professor Zhang Longxi, who has been listening online, was invited to make a commenting speech. Professor Zhang believes that the forum was very successful, the content of the speech was specific and practical, the topics involved a wide range, and many questions were raised in the theoretical aspect, which deserved further in-depth discussion and research, and it was also worth collecting and publishing. It is reported that the forum will continue to be held in major universities in a series of forms.