HistoricalandCulturalConsciousnessinForeignLiteratureStudies:InterviewingProfessorYuJianhua/SHIJingYUJianhua

Abstract： This study is an interview with Professor Yu Jianhua of Shanghai International Studies University. As editor in chief, Professor Yu recalls the motive and the principles of compiling the award-winningACompaniontoAmericanLiterature, emphasizing his understanding of the nature of literary dictionaries and histories as narratives and the principle “from our perspective and for our ends” as the guideline so as to highlight our standpoint and to meet the needs of the Chinese users. He talks about his experiences of new media literature teaching with an example of his popularly acclaimed MOOC course “Short Stories in English.” Professor Yu then concentrates on his recent works on American historical fiction and discusses what literary studies can contribute to the changed and changing international situation, emphasizing the critical function of American historical fiction in revising the whitewashed official historical narrative. Throughout the interview, Professor Yu has demonstrated his high historical and cultural consciousness which he believes we all should have in the studies of foreign literatures.

Keywords： American literature; lexicography; literary research; literature teaching

OntheIntegrityandInnovationofForeignLiteratureJournals:XiJinping’sReplytotheEditorialOfficeof“JournalofChineseHumanities”/SUNYi

Abstract： On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding ofJournalofChineseHumanities(Wen Shizhe), Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, replied to the editorial department ofJournalofChineseHumanities, encouraging the staff to scale new heights and make persistent efforts while fully affirming its brilliant achievements in running the journal. Xi Jinping’s Letter of Reply to the Editorial Staff ofJournalofChineseHumanities(hereinafter referred to as the Important Reply) is of great guiding significance to all academic journals. Therefore, this paper, based on careful learning of the Important Replies, studies its profound ideas and applies them to the cognitive guidance of editorial responsibilities, journal positioning, operating strategies and approaches, so as to provide a practical prospect for the development path ofJournalofGuangdongUniversityofForeignStudies.

Keywords： Xi Jinping’s letter of reply; journal of foreign literature; editor responsibility; journal positioning; strategy and path

TheDilemmaof“Tobeornottobe”andItsSolution:AConcurrentDiscussionofCurrentMethodologicalIssuesinForeignLiteraryCriticism/LIUJianjun

Abstract： “To be or not to be”, the line of the protagonist of Shakespeare’s tragedyHamlet, is in fact an essential question throughout human society in ancient and modern times. It indicates that people have shifted from focusing on objective “circumstances” to subjective “situations” to understand various social conflicts, which marks a great progress in human thinking. But then they cannot extricate themselves from the “situation” of “to be or not to be”, which is essentially the result of a faulty way of thinking. By drawing on the wisdom of Chinese philosophy, we try to solve the dilemma and point out the way forward in the “connection and transformation” of contradictions, the “interdependence and mutual transformation” of opposites, and the “special analysis of specific problems”.

Keywords： To be or not to be; circumstances and situations; solutions

OntheInnovativeApproachesfromthePerspectiveofNewHumanities/HEHuibin

Abstract： Translation, which scarcely creates anything new in the general storehouse of world knowledge, can make the works of one country travel through one language to another, and bring something new to the other country with relative innovation. Because of the limitation of reference works and ability of understanding foreign culture, the foreignized studies of foreign humanities, which are characterized by running after with aim of overtaking, have not achieved much. Chinese studies through the Western perspective have broadened Chinese people’s horizon and modernized the Chinese learning, with the possible inconvenience of Eurocentrism. The studies of Western humanities through Chinese perspective have not fully realized its potentiality, due to the difference of academic paradigms and the limited influence of China. Self-initiated studies once provided vital innovation for the Pre-Qin period, and also helped to create the Confucian School of the Song and Ming dynasties, by absorbing the Buddhist ideas, after a long period of stimulation and inspiration. The industrial revolution, based upon new science and technology, can completely change the life style of the people, and bring new problems to humanists who create new ideas and help to lead the world comprehensively. After several industrial revolutions, science and technology have reached a mature stage, and it is easy to blend science and humanities. With the growing specialization of knowledge, the one-sided profundity has displayed the shortcomings, and made the interdisciplinary study more important than ever before, with the combination of science and humanities as a very promising area, in which it is easy for the contemporary Chinese humanists to reach international standard.

Keywords： new humanities; innovative approaches; interdisciplinary study

DilemmaandOutlet:BritishandAmericanLiteratureStudythroughDigitalHumanity/ZHENGFeiYUEShuangjia

Abstract： Digital Humanities has long penetrated into literary research as the crystallization of social science and computer technology. However, disciplinary differences, and the lack of research innovation or communication and cooperation are still the main barriers hindering this very research. Based on a large number of studies on Digital Humanities in CNKI, and a 13-year research achievement, this paper proposes an effective pattern of literary study in Digital Humanities in an attempt to provide new inspiration for researchers in this field.

Keywords： Digital Humanity; British and American literature; corpus; computer; big data

BeijingImagein18thCenturyBritishTravelLiterature:ReversalfromUtopianEulogytoDystopianCriticism/TIANJunwu

Abstract： The real contact between Britain and Beijing the imperial capital of China, began in 1720, in which John Bell, a British physician visited Beijing as a member of the Russian embassy to China. Although Bell gave a Utopian eulogy of the Beijing image, the general attitude of Britain began to reverse from former Utopian eulogies of China to dystopian criticism of the old empire. During this turn of ideological trend, Daniel Defoe began to writeTheFurtherAdventuresofRobinsonCrusoe, in which he made a dystopian criticism of Beijing through an imaginary description of Robinson’s activities in Beijing. The Macartney Embassy to China in the end of the 18thcentury, was the second real contact between Britain and Beijing. While diplomatically a failure, the Macartney Embassy to China was a heterotopian construction of Beijing image from the view point of travel literature and comparative literary imagology, spreading the Beijing image to the world as a deteriorating imperial capital.

Keywords： the 18thcentury; British travel literature; Beijing image; heterotopian construction

TravelNarrationinAncientRussianLiterature:Theme,GenreandImage/JIMingju

Abstract： The Middle Ages in Russia, namely the 10th-17thcenturies, was the birth and formation period of ancient Russian literature, during which travel narration was an important part of literary writing. The early travel texts were full of sacred religious discourses that mainly expressed the truth of Christ, while the mid- and late- travel texts gradually turned to secular discourses with the promotion of social ethical norms as the core. Related to this, the genre of the text is transformed from the “travel chronicle”, which mainly records real people and real events to the “bytova povest”, which is mainly literary fiction; the transformation into the prodigal son who wandered all over the Russian land in search of a “paradise on earth” profoundly reflects the historical development of medieval Russian society and culture from religious to secularization.

Keywords： Ancient Russian Literature; travel narrative; theme; genre and image

Banishment,DisplacementorEscape：JourneyNarrativeinCrimeLiterature/YUANHonggeng

Abstract： Detective fiction, a modern subgenre of crime literature, is evocatively regarded a game of “catching me if you can”，owing to its highly formulated narrative structure. A banishment, a displacement, or an escape of the suspect constitutes the dramatic plot. A weary or adventurous journey actively or passively taken is indeed an essential part of the allusive or metaphorical paradigm of the game, as read in seminal works of Sophocles, Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and Graham Greene. The toils of the unfortunate wayfarer may cause changes of the milieu, and increase the intensity of suspense, betraying the “expression of one’s encounters with the Law” (Roland Barthes) hidden underneath all supposedly escapist stories.

Keywords： crime literature; journey narrative; banishments, displacement and escape; game of “catching me if you can”

OnthePoliticalGeographicalLandscapeandCross-classTravelNarrativeinFreeAir/ZHANGHairongXUChaochao

Abstract： This paper regards Sinclair Lewis’sFreeAirpublished on theSaturdayEveningPostin 1919 as a novel with obvious spatial characteristics, focusing on the analysis of inter-class travel narrative from the perspectives of geographic landscape, clothing culture and communicative language. First, it examines how Lewis manipulates the travel narrative with the help of different spatial displacement, and then endows the geographical landscape with political implication, which becomes the main driving force of his travel narrative. Second, how “raincoat”, “socks” and “evening dress” become the material carrier of the characters cross class, participate in the construction of the fashion meaning system and promote the formation of inter- class travel narrative. Finally, how communicative language transcends the limitations of class, gives the novel new meaning from the discourse level, becomes the characters’ spiritual carrier, and facilitates class transcendence. Lewis pays attention to the political context when constructing the space, and connects the different geographical landscape and characters’ life experiences from east to Midwest of the United States with the macro-national construction, aiming to explore how inter-class transcendence becomes a positive factor in the travel narrative, participates in the democratic political construction of the country, and provides a new drive for the rising travel narrative at that time.

Keywords： Sinclair Lewis;FreeAir; geographic landscape; travel narrative

Bakhtinand“theOther”Losev:ADialogueaboutRabelais/YANGMingming

Abstract： M. M. Bakhtin and A. F. Losev, the opposite poles in Contemporary Russian aesthetics, have obvious differences in their positions and problem areas in the debate of Renaissance and Rabelais’ creation. Bakhtin’s “The Creation of Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” holds that Rabelais’ creation embodies the struggle between folk culture and official culture of the Middle Ages with carnivalization as the main content of his creation of the former. Religious philosopher A. F. Losev interpreted and evaluated Rabelais’ novels based on the view of the collapse of the Christian worldview during the Renaissance inRenaissanceAesthetics.

Keywords： M. M. Bakhtin; A. F. Losev; Rabelais; Dialogue; Renaissance

ParticipativeSpiritinBakhtin’sHistoricalPoetics/SUNMeiping

Abstract： Bakhtin (Бахтин，Михаил МихаЙлович, 1895-1975)is the world-famous master in the field of humanities. Historical poetics is an important part of Bakhtin’s theory, including folk literature and culture, dialogue in the novel, Chronotope in the novel and other thoughts. A deep exploration into Bakhtin’s historical poetics may reveal the profound participative spirit in it. This participative spirit gets expressed from participation in tradition, reality and construction of human, providing fresh vitality and eternal value to Bakhtin’s historic poetics.

Keywords： Bakhtin’s historical poetics; participative spirit; tradition; reality; construction of human

OntheTopicsinWesternCognitiveNarratology/SONGJie

Abstract： As an interdisciplinary approach of narratology and cognitive sciences, cognitive narratology is a major branch of western postclassical narratology. Cognitive narratology investigates the ways of worldmaking and regards it as an important element of readers’ narrative experiences; cognitive narratology also discusses the model of literary narrative communication in order to reveal the narrative experiences of participants at different narrative levels, especially the real readers’ cognitive mechanism in the process of literary reading; cognitive narratology emphasizes the relationship between structure of stories and emotion, explores the narrative strategies that arouse emotion and reflects on readers’ understanding and interpretation of literary works. The study on the theoretical concepts, research topics, research methods and schools of cognitive narratology will help domestic scholars to have a better understanding of the achievements in the past, problems at present and trends in the future of this subject in the hope of promoting the development of domestic cognitive narratology.

Keywords： cognitive narratology; worldmaking; literary narrative communication; affection

SolariswithintheContemporaryMetaphorology:InHonorofthe100thAnniversaryofStanisawLem’sBirth/LINXin

Abstract： Polish science-fiction writer Stanisaw Lem’sSolariswas a landmark in sci-fi history. This study argues thatSolarisdid not aim to replicate the total Other linguistically, but to stress the potential existence of the total Other, question anthropocentrism and mark the boundary of human cognition by imaging our futile communication with it. It is assumed that the prototype of the planet Solaris was the human brain, proposing the notion of “Black-box sci-fi”. Based on the Contemporary Metaphology, two conceptual integration networks were subsequently established and attested, thus revealing a sci-fi allegory- the boundary of human cognition lies exactly in what differentiates us most from other species: the human brain.

Keywords：Solaris; Stanisaw Lem; conceptual metaphor; conceptual blending; cognitive science