"Survival or destruction, that's a question!" More than 400 years ago, the great writer Shakespeare made such an exclamation in his theatrical work Hamlet, and more than 400 years later, people still talk about Shakespeare and his classics. The 3rd Shanghai International Shakespeare Forum & Annual Meeting of shakespeare branch of the Chinese Society of Foreign Literature was held at Donghua University from October 22 to 24, 2021. Experts and scholars from many universities and research institutes at home and abroad gathered online to discuss the important topic of "cross-cultural phenomena of Shakespeare's works from a comparative cultural perspective". The forum advocates theoretical innovation and knowledge innovation, encourages bold exploration, carries out equal, healthy, lively and fully reasonable academic controversy, shows the latest achievements of Chinese Shakespeare research to the world, and enhances the academic discourse status of Chinese scholars in international dialogue.
(Forum Opening Ceremony Site)
The forum attracted more than 50 domestic and foreign scholars from more than 30 schools around the world. Professor Yang Lingui of Donghua University and Professor Zhang Chong of Fudan University respectively presided over the conference. Professor Gu Zhengkun from Peking University has looked into Shakespeare's future in world literature and culture by comparing the missions of Chinese and foreign literature, commented on the classic expositions on literary missions at home and abroad, proposed that the highest mission of literature is to shape a beautiful human nature, praise the light, and help mankind build a beautiful society, and make corresponding predictions for the future development of shakespeare from the standpoint of historical materialism. Professor Chiu, from National Taiwan University, shared the importance of Shakespeare's sonnets in cross-cultural language learning; Howard Machtello, a scholar at the University of Logos in the United States, explored Shakespeare's collisions with different artists in different mediums; Lisa Hopkins, a scholar at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, explored Shakespeare's allusions and national identity in Ellie Griffith's series of detective novels; lawrence M. Wright explores the roots of Shakespeare's international popularity and success from a textual perspective.
In particular, expert discussions and group discussions were set up at the meeting. Senior scholars from the domestic art community, such as Professor Hao Tianhu of Zhejiang University, Professor Huang Bikang of Peking University, Professor Luo Yimin of Southwest University, and Professor Li Weifang of Henan University, were invited to preside over the forums of various groups. Leituo Winkler, an international teacher at South China Normal University, shared his thoughts on Shakespeare's universality; Maud Rizman Khan and Viba Sharma, scholars of Arigor Muslim University in India, discussed Shakespeare's film adaptations in India and Shakespeare's local performances from a cross-cultural perspective. Domestic scholars have conducted in-depth cross-cultural discussions on Shakespeare and his native works from the perspectives of intertextuality, adaptation, media, and translation.
(Forum Site)
This forum reflects the changes in literary research in recent years, and the important position of the historical materialist method in Chinese Shashe studies has been re-recognized. International guests from the United Kingdom, the United States, Asia, Africa and Latin America were invited to discuss Shakespeare's cross-cultural issues from different cultural perspectives. From a cross-cultural perspective, scholars have studied the relationship between localization and globalization under the new world economy and cultural pattern, and discussed how to re-understand universality and diversity. The forum breaks with the previous influence-led methods of literary comparison, emphasizes the equal relationship between different cultures and the cultural relativism based on it, and promotes equal dialogue among different cultural groups.
Drawing experience from the global dissemination of Shakespeare's works and promoting the transformation of comparative studies and cultural communication models are conducive to the exploration of the mode of Chinese stories disseminating to the outside world. In his speech, Professor Huang Bikang proposed the strategy of "borrowing a boat to go to sea", that is, to learn from Shakespeare's theatrical form to disseminate Chinese drama to the outside world. In the process of "borrowing a ship to go to sea", we should not only consider the reading habits of the translated readers, but also pay attention to the changes in the readers' cognitive habits of literary forms and the dialectical relationship between form and content, and correctly understand the relationship between Shakespeare's classics and current culture. In recent years, Chinese translators and adaptors have creatively transplanted Shakespeare in the form of opera, providing a reference for the external dissemination of Chinese literature. Professor Yang Lingui believes that the "borrowing a ship to go to sea" of Chinese classic literary and artistic achievements and the "adaptation and transplantation" of foreign classic works should go hand in hand, publicize China's excellent cultural achievements in a way that is easily acceptable to readers in the target language, and avoid simple and rough comparisons between the high and the low in the process of dissemination.
It is reported that the "Shanghai International Shakespeare Forum" approved by the Ministry of Education, hosted by Donghua University, hosted by the School of Foreign Languages of Donghua University and the Shakespeare Institute of Donghua University, has been successfully held twice since 2011, and has gradually become a bellwether for domestic Shakespeare research. As the organizer, Donghua University has begun to lead domestic Shakespeare studies in recent years and move to the forefront of the world, and has received funding from 2 national social science funds and provincial and ministerial projects, and the published "Chinese Shakespeare Series" has become a landmark achievement of Chinese Shakespeare.
(China Daily Shanghai Branch)