The School of Foreign Language School of SEU had a fantastic opportunity to welcome the esteemed Professor Jincai Yang (PhD supervisor, vice President of the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing University) for an informative and thought-provoking speech on the Trend and Main Paradigms of Contemporary Foreign Literature Studies in the East Hall of LiuYuan Hotel of SEU on the December17th, 2014. At the very beginning of this lecture, Professor Meihua Chen (Dean of The School of Foreign Languages of SEU), gave a brief introduction of Professor Jincai Yang and expressed a warm welcome on behalf of the School of Foreign Language School of SEU. The whole lecture was presided over by Professor Jianhong Zhao (Director of the Institute of Foreign Literature and Comparative Literature of SEU).
In this captivating and anecdotal talk, Professor Jincai Yang drew on the main trend of foreign literature research in the new century, and noted the main themes of contemporary foreign literature studies by mentioning specific authors and literary works, the themes including: after postmodernism literature research; the Renaissance of literature of history writing and historical subject matter; reflection on science and technology and the new direction of ecological literature; consumer culture and urban literature creation; the origin and development of the literary, and artistic form transformation and aesthetic tracking after the “9/11”, etc.
Underpinning the main paradigms of contemporary foreign literature research, Professor Yang introduced some research works, and hoped to help foreign literature researchers better understand and master the research methods. He further explained a research method of transgeneric research, namely literature interface studies from the perspective of material cultural studies, and text study and systematical theories. At the end of the lecture, Professor Yang also gave his suggestions towards the guide on foreign literature study of the national social science project application in 2015. This inspiring lecture gave us the opportunity and information to expand our research visions and scope as well. After the speech, Professor Zhao Jianhong has recapped the main content of the lecture, and presided over the question-and-answer portion.
A sincere thanks to Professor Jincai Yang for so generously sharing your experiences and insights with us.
(Translated by Xi Chen)
