The world is made up of multiple languages, cultures, rituals, practices and faith and requires steady and dependable transactions and interrelations to formulate a well balanced heterogeneous space. An essential component that has facilitated such transactions and negotiations over generations, across temporal and spatial distances, is translation. Today “translation” is regarded as a multifaceted practice, a skill, a method, even an independent discipline that facilitates and makes possible this inter-cultural, inter-lingual, inter-societal exchange. Translation has its utility in diverse fields – the medical, the legal, the scientific and so on. But the arena that we are going to explore today, is the literary arena. Translation and interpretation have gone hand in hand for generations but the dynamics have changed steadily. Newer processes, technological devices have steadily been coming up. Artificial Intelligence is the talk of the day. It is worth taking a serious call to check out how the connotation of translation is changing within the literary sphere, in keeping with the fast socio-cultural and technological changes that have stormed the entire world. What is the likely impact that machine translation and AI are likely have, in this digital age, on the discipline of Translation Studies as it features within and alongside the discipline of Comparative Literature. Translating literature calls for a certain degree of accountability as it is instrumental in ensuring reception. What then are the ethical compromises that have to be made in terms of fidelity and dependability in the domain of translating literature?

This study delves into the grammatical structures of POS tagging within Tamil lyrics crafted through renowned Tamil lyricists, employing a Firedman model alongside Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. Through rigorous analysis, we identify and compute the components of several grammatical categories: Peyarccolkal, Piratipeyarkalkal, Uriaccorkal, Tirmanippavarkal, Vinaiccolkal, Vinaiyuriccolkal, and Munmolivukal. The investigation leverages a dataset containing both dependent and independent variables, facilitating the discovery of robust associations between these variables and POS tagging in Tamil. By applying the Friedmann model and ensuring the model adheres to a polynomial frequency assumption, we achieve a maximum likelihood solution in closed form. The ranking test results affirm the model’s efficacy in analyzing Tamil text, highlighting its potential as a reliable forecasting tool for POS tagging. This work underscores the synergy between traditional grammatical analysis and modern NLP methodologies, paving the way for enhanced linguistic insights in Tamil lyricism.

The study of various grammatical types is significantly enhanced by the concept of grammaticalization, primarily focusing on the formation and organization of grammatical categories within a topologically generalized language. Vallinam and Idaiyinam have been subjects of extensive academic research. This research analyzes the usage of the previously outlined grammatical framework in both spoken and written linguistic discourse. Additionally, we conduct an in-depth study of the numerous factors that influence the development of different languages. Researchers in controlled language have increasingly adopted quantitative approaches to ensure reliable results, aligning with the study’s stated objectives. Utilizing the Latin Square Design, this research investigates the diverse methods Tamil lyricists use to incorporate Vallinam and Idaiyinam into their selection lists. The structured data analysis allows us to derive reasonable inferences, which are discussed in detail.

I wish to revisit the ways in which translations of the distinguished Indian dramatist, Kalidas' Abhijnanashakuntalam into modern Indian as well as European languages such as Hindi, Maithili, English, French and German shaped the idea of Orient in order to rethink the concept of cultural translation in an increasingly digitized world since it appears that there are fissures in its existing conceptualization as is pretty much evident from an otherwise very popular formulation of this concept in Homi Bhabha's The Location of Culture. 

Such a rethinking is particularly pertinent precisely because of the fact that there are many contradictions in the manner in which certain advocates of postcolonial whose arguments attempt to emphasize the simultaneous existence of precolonial, colonial and postcolonial "as practices of resistance and subversion in cultural production both before and after the moment of colonization" go on to establish all postcolonial writings in English as acts of cultural translation. This is exactly an erasure of the concept of translation. AI generated translation does, moreover, a huge distortion by often killing the soul of translation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea of Orient with a view to redefine the notion of cultural translation by critically revisiting the translations of the above-mentioned, canonical Sanskrit drama from Indian literature and their reception in the domain of World literature coming from different parts of the globe.

Diaspora Studies has always found an important position within South Asian Studies , but India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have consistently been in the limelight. It is only recently that readers and scholars have started acknowledging the contributions of writers from Nepal. In this respect, the Kathmandu born author Manjushree Thapa has been largely instrumental in attracting the attention of critical scholars, thereby creating some space for such literature with both her fictional and non-fictional writings. Nepal, nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, has her own sense of homeland and nationhood. Political and socio-cultural changes and challenges have prompted widespread migration. The writings about these diasporic people invariably provide the readers with an objective overview about the homeland, a view that is often tempered with a strong element of nostalgia. Expectedly the people of the Himalayan nation states have a perspective of life that is quite different from that of the people from the plains. Nepalese people have been known to migrate widely to the neighbouring country India, mainly prompted by economic crisis and consistent socio-political instability. Manjushree Thapa is an author who, even while she lives far away in Canada, still considers Nepal as her “home” and is in fact, deeply engaged in social work in Nepal. Her writings portray a very deep sense of concern and responsibility for her homeland. This paper would be looking at her short story collection "Tilled Earth" and a few other writings and critically comment on Thapa’s contribution to South Asian Diasporic Studies. Her writings show a unique blend of her Nepalese identity and her diasporic consciousness.

Muna Madan, a Nepali epic, tells the story of Muna and Madan, two young lovers from a poor family in a rural Nepalese village. It depicts the struggles, sacrifices, and hardships of life for those who are forced to make difficult choices in order to survive. In addition to its emotional impact, I employ the use of pathos in Muna Madan serves a larger social commentary. Pathos involves the aesthetics of emotions and excavates how audience-focused discourse is persuasive. Through the use of pathos, Devkota is able to convey a sense of empathy and understanding towards these people and to draw attention to their plights. Emotions are not just personal experiences but are shaped by social and cultural contexts, and they can reveal important insights into power dynamics and social structures. By employing the key ideas expressed by Eve Kosofsky Sedwick, bell hooks, and Sara Ahmed, I flesh out the emotional appeal of the epic and finally explore how Devkota creates an aesthetic effect, draws attention to social discourse, and advocates for change in the epic.

South Asia is a space where political borders are at odds with cross-border cultural convergences. Given this context, we see a substantial amount of cross-border traffic in literary themes, traditions and texts.

This paper examines the dynamics of these cross-border travels of texts in modern times. It will seek to analyse the politics of adaptation as texts travel across the heavily militarised borders between countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We shall look at a selection of texts including collaborative 'intermedial' translation. How do these texts change as they travel? Is there a pattern to what kinds of texts get picked up for such adaptations? How do local and international political equations impact the dynamics of adaptation and collaboration in such cases? These are some of the questions I shall seek to investigate different kinds of texts including short stories and graphic narratives.

Several comic books, graphic narratives, and manga depict both citizens’ and soldiers’ experiences during war. For World War II history, notably, we can point to George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy, wherein he describes his childhood experience in a Japanese internment camp. Showa: A History of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki uses the graphic narrative genre to describe his life and military service during the war era; Art Spiegelman’s renowned Maus depicted the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. Perhaps less known is James Kugler’s Into the Jungle! A Boy’s Comic Strip History of World War II notable because a young man from a small Nebraska town does not depict first-hand experience in war, but his own interpretation of events based on news accounts and other media.

The Korean War has similarly been depicted in texts like The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim and “Cold War Correspondent,” included in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series. Such a range of texts for these historical events is important, as comics creator, scholar and authority Hilary Chute explains in Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form, because “they incline the [graphic narrative] form to the expression of witness, to picturing subjectivity and the paradox of history’s layered spaces and temporalities” (p. 69).

This paper proposes to feature other war heroes. Like Kugler himself, these heroes come from a town that’s not generally well-known: Gallup, New Mexico. The more famous of them are the Navajo Code Talkers, whose story is depicted in texts like Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, edited by Arigon Starr, Janet Miner, and Lee Francis IV, canonical figures in the Native American comics industry. Another text is the Graphic Library’s Navajo Code Talkers: Top Secret Messengers of World War II. Juxtaposed with the images from this text, I’ll include images of artifacts collected in a museum in Gallup dedicated to the Code Talkers.

Related thereto, I’ll also present on another Gallup World War II hero, Hiroshi Miyamura. As a noted Korean War hero, many local institutions (a bridge, a school, and more) are named for Miyamura. However, his life and valorous service in the war have been immortalized in the Association of the Unites States Army’s comic book series, Medal of Honor: Hiroshi Miyamura.

While most often, concepts of the hero in the comics and graphic narrative world focus on superheroes, this presentation takes a different tack: demonstrating how real-life heroes can come from tiny towns and become renowned for their actions. They’re not from Smallville, Kansas, but instead from Gallup, New Mexico.

Superheroes in komiks (Philippine adaptation of comics) possess a unique ability to reflect cultural values and societal issues through their narratives, making them an important medium for critical analysis. Interestingly, the term "Third World" is used in contemporary Filipino superhero narratives in this study, framing local socio-political realities within a global context while challenging its traditional implications. My paper contends that the Filipino superhero genre, with its hybridity and engagement with the concept of the "Third World," challenges dominant narratives and redefines the genre. The study analyzes Filipino Heroes League by Paolo Fabregas (2009–2019), 3rd World Power by JV Tanjuatco and Jim N. Jimenez (2022), and Sixty Six by Russell Molina, Ian Sta. Maria, and Mikey Marchan (2015, 2020) using superhero genre elements (powers, mission, and identity) and the general narrative structure of superhero stories. These texts utilize genre conventions not only to engage with global archetypes but also to reflect on issues of poverty, corruption, and inequality within urban Philippine contexts. Through genre analysis, this chapter highlights how Filipino komiks blend Western influences with distinctly Filipino elements, using the superhero narrative as a medium to critique socio-political realities while reimagining and ultimately redefining the concept of the "Third World."

In the early eighties Comics Forum obtained the publishing rights of Marvel superheroes in Spain that until then had been in the hands of Ediciones Vértice and Editorial Bruguera. Forum’s success was based on the creation of a close link with the reader through sections such as fan mail and other similar ones. This link meant the creation of a fandom that, together with the decline during those years of the European-style magazine model, meant an Americanization of the publishing paradigm associated with comics in Spain in the nineties. From that moment, most publishers adopted to a greater extent the comic-book format of the U.S. market. This meant that series created by Spanish authors began to appear in this format, some of which included stories featuring superheroes. This paper will analyze one of these initiatives, that of the Iberia Inc group, which is particularly interesting because it shows how this process of Americanization reflected in the adoption of the figure of the superhero is adapted to the tradition of Spanish comics, so that the series is a mixture of conventions related to the history of comics in both countries that allows us to analyze what popular culture was in Spain in the eighties and the enormous influence that the United States had in its configuration. In addition, the analysis of this group of superheroes allows us to study how the ideology of the superhero adapts to the circumstances of Spanish society, very different from that of the United States, in years not too far removed from the process of transition from dictatorship to democracy that happened in Spain after Franco’s death.

The translation of foreign literature into Chinese has been a powerful force in shaping 20th-century Chinese literature, among which the translation and reception of Western classical literature in China deserves attention, and its value needs to be reassessed. First of all, different from the cognitive tendency of that time in China that focused on and evaluated highly of Western modern literature, Chinese translation of Western classics deepens Chinese understanding of the core of Western civilization, and constructs a relatively complete and flexible cross-cultural cognitive framework covering ancient and modern times. Second, the centennial history of the Chinese translation of ancient Greek tragedy, which has been one of the most influential literary forms, reveals the historical opportunities for conscious selection, acceptance, and transformation by Chinese translators since the May Fourth Movement. The interaction and integration of the East and the West brought about by Greek tragedy’s eastward journey has gradually deepened over the century. Third, translation is the bridge of cross-cultural communication between civilizations, the studies of which can promote the mutual learning among civilizations, such as the philosophical basis of civilization exchanges theory, the humanistic core of the humanistic spirit, the construction of a dual and multi-directional civilization mutual learning model, and the pursuit of cultural diversity as an effect and goal.

A consideration of the meaning(s) of cosmopolitanism has become a constructive way to illuminate different perspectives on literature, if these were oriented toward global and local points of view. The fact that cultural flows facilitated by new technologies have challenged the idea of local and/or national literatures cannot be disputed. However, neither can the often unintended consequences of reading literatures from global points of few, in that such approaches often relate texts and traditions to normative, a-historical paradigms. From a hermeneutic vantage point, it seems as if global approaches sometimes can be even more limited in scope when considering what can be achieved from a more local perspective.

These issues become even more pertinent when literature is noted for its significant contribution towards the dynamics of memory cultures. If a specific literary tradition assumes the function of historical archive within a particular memory culture, it opens up questions as to how precisely one should then navigate cosmopolitan approaches to it. Cosmopolitanism itself has become an important and contentious topic within the field of memory studies, as questions are asked about the ethics of creating collective memory discourses in the age of globalisation. As is the case with literature, modern technologies enable the flow of information to activate and establish memories in real time. But the question remains as to what extent cultural memories can be abstracted to form part of a global or cosmopolitan discourse. It seems as if the issue of cosmopolitanism can be used not only within the disciplines of literary studies and memory studies, but also as a way to consider the entanglement of these fields.

This paper will use these issues as informative background in order to introduce a research project in which Afrikaans literary discourse of the 1990s and early 2000s is examined in order to assess its navigation of the difficult South African past. As the time in question was characterised by significant sociopolitical and cultural changes it also triggered a readjustment of the ways in which the past and its meaning(s) were aligned and reconciled with the present. Not only were these changes examined in the literary works themselves, but it also became evident in the ways in which these selfsame works were read by readers, critics and scholars, many of whom emphasised the extent of how these texts engaged with history. But the Afrikaans literary system does not only form part of a larger South African memory culture, it is also embedded within transnational mnemonic practices which plays its part in how the general trajectory of memory cultures can be understood. Cosmopolitanism becomes the crucial issue here as it becomes a conceptual tool to examine oscillations between the local specificity of memory, language, and literature on the one hand, and the global reach of transnational memory and world literatures on the other.

“Synthesis” is a key strategy in Yuan Kejia’s poetics of “Modernizing Chinese New Poetry” in 1940s. Regarding the Western origins of “synthesis”, researchers acknowledge the inspiration of T.S. Eliot and I.A. Richards, but ignore the important influence from Stephen Spender. Firstly, Yuan Kejia described the characteristics of modern British poetry as “from analysis to synthesis” (“from self-deprecating mockery to pity”), in which “synthesis” and “pity” could both be traced back to Spender’s theory. Secondly, different from Eliot and Richards, who cut off the relationship between art and life, Spender’s theory of “fusing” ideas, experience and objective reality into a single line or image, inspired Yuan Kejia to include “reality” as an important part of “synthesis”. Finally, translations of contemporaries stimulated Yuan Kejia to translate Spender’s theory of modernity in 1940s, which was revitalized in 1980s through Calinescu’s theory. Yuan Kejia’s acceptance from the left-wing Spender’s poetics reflects his literary adjustment and perseverance in the Beijing intellectual circle during the wartime.

N. Katherine Hayles defines "technogenesis" in her book How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (2012), and ubiquitous networked digital media exemplifies the co-evolution of humans and their technological surroundings. The question at hand in this "technogenesis" is the degree to which we design and alter new human environments, thereby establishing new feedback loops and amplifications between technological advancements and human evolution. The emergence of ubiquitously networked "encoded" digital devices has the potential to establish a sociotechnical environment that systematically prioritizes hyperattention. In The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means and how to respond (2016), Klaus Schwab explains that this has significant implications for human cognition, leading to a hyperfocus on the rapid, disruptive, and systemically transformative "emerging technological breakthroughs." The ontogenetic adaptation of humans necessitates an even greater level of hypervigilance, as it leads to the reconfiguration of their technological environments.

World literature addresses global and transcultural themes in rhizomatic webs of texts, images, and sound that propagate beyond the cultures of origin. Digitized networks are utilized to store, retrieve, and classify literary text files, artistic images, and other cultural materials, which are subsequently converted into computerized datasets. In this era of ecotechnological feedback cycles, how can we interpret digital world literature? In the media age of hyperconnection, how can the convergence of digital humanities, transmedia, and world literature assist us in understanding the essence of digital world literature? Within the context of intermediality, this presentation will investigate the interactive domains of digital world literature, which are the result of the convergence of transmedia, world literature, and digital humanities.

In an era when generative artificial intelligence deeply intervenes in the construction of language, images, and behavior, traditional philosophies of subjectivity face profound challenges: generation is no longer seen as the expression of free will but as the crystallization of impersonal forces embedded within networks. This paper seeks to address the crisis of subjectivity brought about by generative AI by drawing on Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and the genealogical evolution of the concept of the actant. On this basis, it critically examines the decentralizing contribution of Latour’s theory as well as its non-critical blind spots: in a time when technological discipline has become increasingly invisible, a purely descriptive network theory is insufficient to address the task of reconstructing power mechanisms, normative orders, and ethical reflexivity. Thus, the article ultimately argues for the necessity of rethinking subjectivity—not as the source of generation, but as a “subject of responsibility after generation” or a “collaborative reflector”. Subjectivity has not ended, but its position of emergence, grammatical structure, and ethical function have been subtly displaced by the refracted influence of AI technologies.

In his presentation; "Digital Humanities and Publishing Scholarship in the Humanities" Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek discusses the pro-s and con-s of the publishing of scholarship in the digital age. Since the birth of the internet in 1994 although slowly (when compared with the sciences and professions) in the last two decades the humanities advanced to publishing scholarship online. While there are still few journals which are published online only, most journals are published in a hybrid fashion (i.e., print & online) and this is because of the challenging financial situation

when publishing occurs online only. Tötösy de Zepetnek argues for the

"abandonment" of publishing learned journals in print: however, there remain issues

with subscription-based online publishing versus open access and in general the

financial situation of humanities publishing. Tötösy de Zepetnek’s argumentation

includes considerations and the advantages of publishing online only and their

financial perspectives.

At the end of the nineteenth century, within French Symbolist circles, translation emerged as a dynamic and experimental practice, distinct from the rigid academic philological approaches and the tradition of the belles infidèles. Many Symbolist writers, including renowned figures such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Marcel Schwob, as well as lesser-known but equally significant contributors like Alfred Jarry, Pierre Louÿs, Renée Vivien, Pierre Quillard, Laurent Tailhade, Hugues Rebell, André-Ferdinand Herold, Félix Fénéon, and Victor Barrucand, engaged in translation as a creative endeavor. These writers did not limit themselves to translating contemporary works; they also turned to ancient and medieval texts. For them, translation was not merely an act of linguistic transposition but a space for stylistic experimentation, where they navigated the tension between appropriation and self-alienation.

While it is difficult to define a unified ‘Symbolist style’ of translation, certain tendencies can be identified in their works, particularly in their resistance to the prescriptive norms of academic translation. The Symbolist belief in the inseparability of form and content inspired innovative approaches to translation, emphasizing the aesthetic and sonic qualities of language over strict fidelity to the source text. This creative ethos allowed Symbolist writers to view translation as a means of enriching their own literary practice, rather than as a secondary or derivative activity.

In this paper, rather than focusing on the linguistic choices made in their translations, we will examine the critical reception of these works, particularly within the Symbolist press and literary magazines. Reviews of their translations often highlighted questions of style, assessing how the act of translation influenced or diverged from the writers’ original creative output. These critiques reveal a broader cultural dialogue about the role of translation in shaping literary innovation. For Symbolist writers, foreignizing effects in translation were not merely about preserving the ‘otherness’ of the source text but also about using that otherness as a catalyst for innovation. They experimented with new linguistic possibilities in French, thereby expanding the expressive potential of their native language. The foreignness of the text became a means of transformation, enabling them to reimagine their own literary style and challenge conventional norms.

Ultimately, the Symbolists approached translation with a consciousness of creative gain rather than a sense of loss from the original. They envisioned translation as a transformative process, one that could create a space where the translated text became something entirely new—a work of art in its own right. This paper seeks to explore how Symbolist writers redefined translation as a site of literary experimentation, blurring the boundaries between original and translated works.

The dominant contemporary approaches to translation prize the visible translator’s subjective response to the source text as a responsible and ethical practice of translation. For example, Silvia Kadiu, in her Reflexive Translation Studies, reflects on ‘translator’s turn’ which highlights “the creative, experimental and subjective aspects of translating”. In so doing, Kadiu places the translator’s ethical practice in the tradition of hermeneutic reflexivity. This notion of the ethical translation derives from Kadiu’s rapports with Lawrence Venuti’s deconstructivist concept of foreignization. Venuti’s foreignization, heavily indebted to Fridriech Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics, militates against the disciplined translation of domestication which emphasizes fluency and transparency. Kadiu’s rapport with Venuti returns us to Schleiermacher’s ethical base of an ‘oscillation between the determinacy of the particular and the indeterminacy of the general image’. As Andrew Bowie points out in his introduction to Schleiermacher’s Hermeneutics and Criticism and Other Essays, this oscillation characterizes “the relationship between the universal aspect of language and the fact that individuals can imbue the same universally employed word with different senses”: “Language only exists via thought, and vice versa; each can only complete itself via the other”. Here Schleiermacher’s hermeneutical translation/interpretation allows us to go beyond the failed ‘linguistic turn’. This paper, based on Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics, reads D. H. Lawrence’s translation of the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov’s Apofeoz bezpochvennosti (‘Apotheosis of Groundlessness’), which was published under the writer’s own title All Things Are Possible. Lawrence, as if he saw his role as an editor who “Englished” his Russian friend Samuel Koteliansky’s translation, penned a ‘Foreword’, which epitomizes Shestov’s anti-dogmatic and proto-existential thinking: “Shestov’s style is puzzling at first. Having found the “ands” and “buts” and “becauses” and “therefore” hampered him, he clips them all off deliberately and evn spitefully, so that his thought is like a man with no buttons on his clothes, ludicrously hitching along all undone”. Lawrence goes on to say that “The real conjunction, the real unification lies in the reader’s own amusement, not in the author’s unbroken logic”. His translation shows ‘language only exists via thought, and vice versa; each can only compete itself via the other’.

The idea of this paper germinated when we began translating a bunch of women-centric stories from Indian Nepali Literature into English. As faculty members of English Literature at Sikkim University, India, we live in Sikkim and have access to Nepali, the lingua franca of the state. In fact, for one of us, Nepali is the native tongue, although ethnically she is a Lepcha woman. The other translator is not a native Nepali speaker but has acquired the language (speaking, reading and writing). As we took up Nepali stories for translation, we were forced to think about our position as translators vis-à-vis the source language culture and target language. Encapsulating the narrative style of Nepali as a native language into English landed us in the dilemma of ethics and aesthetics for what appears “acceptable” in English language forced us to compromise with the style and tonality of the native texts. The paper therefore deals with the question of how to ethically represent a native text in the world literary scenario and carve a place for it in the world literature maintaining the aesthetics. How to negotiate the question of translatability and untranslatability when the translators are removed from both the source and the target language ethnically? How do the translator’s strategies define their relationship with place as they strive to retain the local “flavour” and “feel” of the narrative? Can ethics and aesthetics of translation be maintained at the same time? How is the mind of a postcolonial translator always dominated by the invisible English reader essentially occupying a superior position and dictating the terms of translation both through theory and practice? How then can the translators’ conscious choice of a readership help them to take decisions in regard to the representation of the native people and place?

Claude Debussy’s "Pelléas et Mélisande" (premiered 1902) is often seen as a quintessentially French opera and as an expression of the search for an authentic form of musical nationalism in the wake of France’s defeat by Prussia in 1871. Roger Nichols, for instance, refers to it as as “this most French of French masterpieces”, and Debussy himself signed himself proudly as a “musicien français” (and was described as such on his tombstone). Yet this reading of the opera overlooks the strikingly cosmopolitan range of musical influences that Debussy drew upon when writing the score, just as it fails to account for the libretto’s interest in alterity and articulation of an ethics of hospitality towards the other. This paper will first map the opera’s various foreign sources, arguing that they represent Debussy’s attempt to fashion a contemporary French musical vernacular that drew explicitly on foreign influences. Beginning with Maurice Maeterlinck’s original play, which offered a stylised view of the Northern European gothic as popularised by the English Pre-Raphaelites, these include the music dramas of Richard Wagner, echoes of the emerging school of Italian verismo, and even the dramatically declamatory style of Modest Musorgsky. Debussy’s opera thus emerges as a product of a deliberate act of translation, reflecting the lively debate between adherents of nationalism on the one hand, and cosmopolitanism on the other, that was then raging in literary circles in France. But there is more at stake here than merely the kind of routine assimilation of foreign influence and fascination with exoticism that were such a characteristic feature of French culture during the Third Republic (as evinced, for instance, by the kind of cultural and colonial encounters that took place at the sequence of Universal Exhibitions that were hosted in Paris). Here, the discussion turns to the opera’s mysterious heroine. Who is Mélisande, where is she from, and how has she found herself in the kingdom of Allemonde? There have been many attempts to answer such questions, with critics and commentators seeing her variously as a femme fatale, a naïve child, or even a survivor of abuse. This paper will propose that she represents a refugee and that her arrival in Allemonde tests the limits of the characters’ openness to the figure of the other. Strikingly, much of the social element of Maeterlinck’s original drama was omitted in Debussy’s libretto, lending the opera a timeless, abstracted air, yet traces of ethical debate remain. To test this hypothesis, the opera will be framed by a discussion of ideas dating from both a century before and a century after its composition: Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795) and Jacques Derrida’s On Cosmopolitanism (1997).

This study examines the practice of indirect Japanese translation of Jules Verne’s works, focusing on translations by Morita Shiken (1861–1897), a prominent translator and literary figure of the Meiji period. During this era of drastic change, as Japan sought to absorb Western culture, Western literature, often indirectly translated, became a vital medium for cultural assimilation. Although Jules Verne (1828–1905) was a popular writer of the time, many of his works were first translated into English from the original French, and Japanese translations were based on these English versions. This practice stemmed not only from limited access to the original texts, but also from the concept of translation and shifting notion of literature in Japan. Scholars have noted that the English versions of Jules Verne’s novels often contained shifts from French originals but assuredly served as mediators and fostered the comprehension and curiosity of foreign cultures. Japanese readers were particularly attracted to the diverse knowledge of technology and natural history presented through Verne’s storytelling.

Shiken is known for his translations of French and English literature, particularly those of Jules Verne, Victor Hugo, and Edgar Allan Poe. Based on his profound knowledge of English and literature, he introduced several major works of these authors to Japanese readers in a distinctive literary style. Moreover, as a prestigious translator of the time, he was instrumental in reorganizing the concept of translation. In his first essay on the subject, he criticized the practice of inserting Japanese idiomatic phrases into translated texts and advocated faithfully recreating the expressions of the source text in Japanese. This essay is regarded as a significant contribution to the concept of literal translation, which influenced the foreignization of the Japanese writing style.

This study compares Shiken’s early translation of Verne’s work, published as a serialized novel in a newspaper, with its English source text and French original with reference to his essay. Additionally, it examines the role of serialized novels in newspapers, highlighting their function in conveying information about international politics. His interpretation of the novel and interest in geographical descriptions are discussed by closely analyzing the translated text. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that Shiken’s translation was a creative experiment integrating foreign expressions into Japanese in an attempt to reform its conventional writing practices.

Translations and adaptations of French novels played a significant role in the literary landscapes of Meiji Japan. While much progress has been made in tracing the original sources of translated works, many remain unidentified or misattributed. With the advancement of digital humanities, global databases of books and newspapers have made previously inaccessible materials searchable, offering new possibilities for reconstructing translation trajectories.

This study focuses on Le Crime d'Orcival (1867), a representative work by Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873), widely regarded as a pioneer of detective fiction. It begins by collecting various English versions of the novel and then compares them to a Japanese translation to investigate the text’s indirect translation and reception in Meiji Japan. Key resources used include the Internet Archive and the National Diet Library Digital Collections (NDL), which allow for a detailed textual comparison and identification of translation sources.

While Ruiko Kuroiwa is often credited for introducing Gaboriau’s works and modern detective fiction to Japan, another important figure, Sojin Gantei (1864-1913), deserves renewed attention. Sojin not only continued Kuroiwa’s serialized translation of Bijin no Goku (1889), but also translated over twenty detective novels. Among these, Satsugai Jiken (1890) is an indirect translation of Le Crime d’Orcival.

Through a comparative analysis of the French original and its English translations, this study demonstrates that the Japanese version draws from both the London and New York editions, forming what may be called a “hybrid retranslation”. This case illustrates how detective fiction in Japan was shaped not by direct contact with French literature alone, but through a layered and mediated process of textual transformation.

The continuous influx of ideas from the West and Japan profoundly shaped China's transformation in the modern era. Amid the clash between foreign and traditional Chinese gender norms, modern female translators grappled with integrating notions of political revolution and feminist social reform into their works. This paper examines the perspectives of Chinese female translators on gender and politics through indirectly translated literary works between China, Japan, and the Western world in the early twentieth century. It investigates the female translators' attitudes and contributions to intellectual emancipation, as well as their roles in shaping societal discourse in modern China, while also tracing the specific sources of the translated works. This paper focuses on Ruzimei, a Chinese translation of the British novel Lord Lisle's Daughter, which was indirectly translated via Japanese by Liu Yunqin in 1916. Liu has been studied as a politically radical novelist but has rarely been discussed as a female translator. The paper compares the different language versions of the indirect translation, paying particular attention to changes in vocabulary, form, gender representations, and ideological shifts that emerge during the translation process. This research aims to illuminate the cultural dialogue embedded within the translation by examining stylistic and content variations. In contrast to her outspoken advocacy and activism for political revolution, Liu Yunqin took a more measured and cautious approach to feminist reform. While promoting ideals such as free marriage and independent women, she concurrently cautioned against "inappropriate" male-female interactions and subtly perpetuated the devaluation of women in the translation. This study investigates how Liu Yunqin utilised her translation to articulate a moderate perspective on gender norms, employing techniques such as omission, addition, and modification. It situates her restrained approach to women's emancipation within the complex context of modern Chinese history, marked by the dual influence of traditional gender norms and new feminist ideas. The analysis underscores her struggles to reconcile different social expectations of women in the public and private spheres.

The translation of religious texts is not merely an act of linguistic substitution but a process of ideological negotiation, particularly when the source and target cultures hold fundamentally different worldviews. This presentation examines the translation of Christian ideals into Japanese during the Meiji era (1868–1912), focusing on the challenges faced by missionaries and scholars as they worked to render biblical concepts intelligible within a non-Christian concept and cultural framework. By analyzing key translation debates—such as the contested rendering of "baptism" (shinrei vs. senrei )—this study explores how the Meiji Bible translators navigated theological divides, linguistic constraints, and socio-political considerations.

Beyond baptism, other doctrinally significant terms, including Christian concepts such as "grace" (megumi ), and "faith" (shinkō ), reveal the tensions between fidelity to Christian theology and the necessity of cultural adaptation. These choices not only shaped how Christianity was understood in Japan but also influenced the broader literary and philosophical discourse of the period. By situating the Meiji Bible translation within the context of Japan’s modernization and engagement with the West, this presentation argues that translation functioned as a transformative force, reshaping religious language, social structures, and conceptions of morality.

Ultimately, this study highlights the Meiji Bible as more than a religious text—it was a site of negotiation where linguistic and theological boundaries were redrawn, creating a uniquely Japanese interpretation of Christian doctrine. Through this lens, translation emerges not as a neutral act but as an active force in cultural and ideological exchange.

This paper centers on Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," Mark Twain's "Cannibalism in the Cars," and Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" to investigate how the taboo act of cannibalism is transformed into a literary representation of biopolitics through unnatural narrative strategies. By examining issues of narrator reliability, narrative temporal focus, and political representation within these texts, the study finds that the manipulation of narrator reliability and the refocusing of the timeframes associated with cannibalistic acts alter the traditional aesthetic implications of horror and suspense in cannibalism narratives, achieving effects of absurdity, humor, and satire. Through these unnatural narratives, the texts critique the Irish Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and Chinese feudal ethics. Consequently, cannibalism transitions from a terrifying unnatural event to a symbolic act imbued with significant political meaning, generating cross-cultural biopolitical aesthetic effects and ideological implications, thereby achieving an activist effect in literature.

In ZhiYin culture, the "echo" of the Guqin, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, plays an important role between soulmates in traditional Chinese culture. According to a legendary story dated around BC 350 described in Lushi History, two characters became close friends through a mutual appreciation for music. The characters were Boya, an accomplished Guqin musician and high-level court official and Ziqi, an ordinary woodsman, and their friendship demonstrates how ZhiYi culture could break through the class hierarchy. T

Among the many works that demonstrate the relationship between Guqin music and ZhiYin culture, the animation work "Feelings of Mountains and Waters" (ShanShuiQing), created in China in the late 1980s, is a unique artistic monument. In the cross-cultural context, this animated work in a Chinese ink painting style, which gained international acclaim, has visualized and highlighted its deep understanding of ZhiYin culture, and it presents the multi-dimension of the Guqin music heritage, as well as the powerful "echo" of cultural memory in China.

This visual masterpiece with a splendid soundscape provided by the Guqin was created by the "art confidantes", Te Wei and Ma Kexuan, as directors at Shanghai Animation Film Studio. Through the art form of animation, the partners also expressed their deep regret about the loss of young contemporary artistic talents amid the transformations of planned socialist economy into the new market economy via reforms in China since the beginnings of 1980s.

ShanShuiQing expresses Zhiyin culture as the interweaving and embodiment of the physical aesthetics of the act of playing instruments, and it further analyzes how the ancient ZhiYin legend reproduces this new “echo” in contemporary China.

I am a Cat is a novel written by celebrated Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki, who is also regarded as an author with an extensive background in British literature, particularly the British novel. Scholars such as Christopher C. Douglas have established how Sōseki draws from the British tradition of the “Novel of Circulation” or the “it-narrative” in writing I am a Cat. Building on such work, in this paper, I argue that Sōseki’s use of the anthropomorphized figure of the animal and the it-narrative structure creates a platform via which he is able to highlight the Anglo-Japanese confluences present in Japanese society in the early twentieth century. Additionally, drawing on Jacques Derrida’s The Animal That Therefore I Am, I demonstrate how Sōseki’s employment of the narrative figure of the cat gives rise to what I call “the return gaze,” which destabilizes the Anglo-Western conception of the “Orient,” and challenges some of the colonial binaries that had become commonplace in colonial discourse. The feline gaze and narrative voice in Sōseki’s novel complicate and challenge the Anglo-colonial gaze popularized by, for instance, the East India Company (consider the diaries of Richard Cocks), which invariably presented Japan as an exoticized and inferior other as opposed to the Anglo-West that was presumed to be unquestionably superior, more civilized, scientific, coherent, objective, and intrinsically more valuable in the hierarchy of civilizations. The narrative voice of I am a Cat challenges the fetishized appeal for Japanoiseries (despite establishing Japan as an exotic and inferior other) during Sōseki’s time by providing a gritty critique of Japanese society that goes beyond the superficial appropriation of woodblock prints and garden styles, and helps to develop a more complex understanding of Anglo-Japanese exchanges during the author’s time.

The past decade has witnessed a “nonhuman turn” as a challenge to prevailing anthropocentric notions, with nonhuman narratives assuming a pivotal role. The narrative about artificial humans or, “new humans” in contemporary Chinese science fiction, stands as an important category of nonhuman narrative, probing the dilemmas encountered at the intersection of technology and ethics. As a representative work of “new human” narrative, Wang Jinkang’s The Artificial Human depicts various types of “new human” narrators in both physical and digital forms, through whose observations, actions, and ethical choices readers are invited to reexamine the limitations of human existence, reflect upon the unthought-of of humanity, and explore the in-depth meaning of being human. By drawing inspiration from Chinese wisdom that transcends the either-or logic, the ethical choice made by “new humans” in the novel anticipates a harmonious coexistence of humans and artificial humans, which also provides valuable insights for reflecting on the challenges brought about by technological advancements in today’s world.

Hopkins's poetry after 1880 has been criticized for abandoning his original celebration of the diversity of nature in favor of a monolithic religious discourse and negative apocalyptic writings. These criticisms, however, ignore the scientific elements and realistic implications behind this shift. Hopkins followed the Victorian trend of meteorological observation, recording weather conditions in journals through visual perception and physical sensation. His later poems took this approach and combined it with the religious discourse of incarnation known as "sacramentalism," depicting the energy systems that include the intra-action between climate and body. The often criticized apocalyptic discourse in his late poems reveals and dramatizes the slow violence of the consequences of climate change in industrial society. These consequences, as Hopkins noted in his journals, are more often borne by poor workers, which is also reflected in his late poems, revealing the demands of environmental justice. Thus, rather than lapsing into negative apocalyptic discourse with a monolithic tone, Hopkins's late poems boldly confront climate issues in a critical realistic way, combining scientific method with aesthetic and religious imagination. His critical apocalyptic discourse also speaks to the current "soft denialism" of anthropogenic climate change, providing an embedded and embodied imagination for demonstrating climate change in the Anthropocene.

This chapter attempts to revisit Lawrence’s plant writings. Drawing on ideas and theories from vegetal ecocriticism, Anthropocene studies and environmental humanities, this article proposes a vegetal poetics of Lawrence by addressing the following questions: first, how can Lawrence’s vegetal poetics be distinguished from traditional Western ideas on plants? Secondly, what are the ecological messages Lawrence intends to convey in his vegetal poetics? Thirdly, to what extent is Lawrence’s vegetal poetics relevant to current ecological crises, particularly floral extinction? Ideas such as the agency of plants, the interconnected relationships between humans and plants, and Lawrence’s criticism of industrialisation examined under the lens of the Anthropocene can help us better comprehend the rich meanings of Lawrence’s plants in his poetic works, both aesthetically and ecologically.

British women’s narratives of their travels in Aisa are pivotal texts for understanding the complexities of colonial encounters in Asia and the formation of new world imagination from perspectives that come “from below”. Drawing on the scholarship of 20th century cosmopolitanism, this essay positions travelogues by Isabella Bird, Emily Kemp, and Dorothea Hosie as critical projects that navigate the tensions of imperialism and identity while challenging established racial and cultural ideologies about Aisa. Their narratives reflect a transformative vision of an ethical cosmopolitan community that emerges from the dynamic interactions between traveller and the travellee in the context of Asia’s colonial modernity. Their affective encounters with local populations not only transcend simplistic self/other binaries but also facilitate a humanizing dialogue that redefines traditional, imperialist, and often binary thinking. Engaging with contemporary scholarship on the conjunction of affect and decolonization in travel writing studies, this essay situates these women’s travellers’ genre-blending works within the broader context of the 20th century’s shifting world orders. By analysing the interplay between personal memory and collective histories, this essay illuminates how life writing and travel writing serve as vital sites for understanding the legacies of colonialism and the imaginative possibilities they present for rethinking identity and belonging in an already globalised world.

The paper aims to broaden our knowledge of physical encounters with India by investigating how representations of sound are intertwined with depictions of cultural others. In travel writing studies, visual impressions are often prioritised, despite the fact that sound and music are central to travellers’ experiences (Agnew 2012). This is evident when travellers encountered realities that were culturally and geographically foreign to them, as was the case with East-Central European travellers in Asia. Analysing efforts to reflect unfamiliar soundscapes in travel accounts give new insights into the nature of travel writing and intercultural encounters.

In the presentation, I will focus on travel accounts about India written in the period 1869-1914, when the opening of the Suez Canal allowed an increased number of travellers from East-Central Europe to visit India. In this period, we can talk about relatively fresh impressions. Drawing on Tim Youngs’ concept of sonic tenses – the production and detection of sounds linked with movements between time layers (Youngs 2020) – I will focus on “sonic intercultural encounters,” defined as descriptions of auditory experiences linked with cultural differences encountered by travellers.

Taking into account the importance of senses for imperial encounters (Rotter 2011) and a particular “in-between” position of Polish and Serbian travellers – who hailed from subjugated and relatively poor nations but in Asia often represented European empires and associated themselves with other Europeans (Huigen and Kołodziejczyk 2023) – scrutinising “sonic intercultural encounters” opens a new perspective on the cultural history of representations and theorising East-West encounters.

The primary sources comprise a collection of Serbian and Polish travel accounts written by Milorad Rajčević, Milan Jovanović, Božidar Karađorđević, and Adam Sierakowski, Karol Lanckoroński, Paweł Sapieha, Władysław Michał Zaleski, Ewa Dzieduszycka, Stanisław Bełza, Jadwiga Marcinowska. These sources are not available in English and so far have attracted little scholarly attention.

Quoted literature

Agnew, Vanessa. 2012. Hearing Things: Music and Sounds the Traveller Heard and Didn’t Hear on the Grand Tour. Cultural Studies Review 18 (3): 67–84.

Huigen, Siegfried, & Dorota Kołodziejczyk. 2023. East Central Europe Between the Colonial and the Postcolonial in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Siegfried Huigen and Dorota Kołodziejczyk. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rotter, Andrew J. 2011. Empires of the Senses: How Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching Shaped Imperial Encounters. Diplomatic History 35 (1): 3–19. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2010.00909.x.

Youngs, Tim. 2020. Hearing In Alasdair Pettinger and Tim Youngs (eds). The Routledge Research Companion to Travel Writing, pp. 208–21. London - New York: Routledge.

This essay examines Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s narrative account of visits to Japan, Korea, and India in La vuelta al mundo de un novelista (The Trip around the World of a Novelist, 1923-24). It focuses not only on travel’s engagement with mobility and storytelling, but also with the cultural capital the traveler hopes to gain at home, and on the national stage. By referencing the colonial contexts on the Pacific and Blasco Ibáñez’s travels across East Asia, the essay aims at opening lines of interconnectivity, interdependency, and inter-relational flows to and from the Pacific on a more global scale. It contributes to the repositioning of Pacific discourses and their respective geopolitics while examining tropes of coloniality and uneven modernity that informs Blasco Ibáñez’s travel gaze. Coining the term “travel as technique” as a critical notion, it refers to the praxis of writing travel alongside history, a praxis through which Blasco Ibáñez documented global political turbulence of the 1920’s where he not only observed Korea under Japanese occupation but also visited India and Japan. Sparked by his visit and growing Hollywood fame, his novels were translated into Japanese and in 1924 alone two film adaptations of his work appeared in Japanese cinema.

Roland Barthes’ Empire of Signs (1970) disrupts traditional European depictions of Japan by resisting the imposition of coherence on its cultural forms. Barthes presents Japan as a fragmented semiotic landscape where meaning dissolves into suggestion—haiku, calligraphy, and the bento box function as signs that resist Western fixity (Demeulenaere, 2024). Rather than reflecting historical or ethnographic realities, Barthes’ portrayal constructs Japan as a space of absence, an intellectual counterpoint to Western meaning systems. By emptying Japan of assumed cultural legibility, Barthes challenges Orientalist binaries (Ikegami, 1991). However, his refusal to "fix" Japan risks rendering it a conceptual experiment detached from historical and cultural specificities.

In contrast, Ian Buruma’s A Japanese Mirror (1984) and Inventing Japan (2003) engage directly with Japan’s cultural and historical realities. Where Barthes dissolves Japan into signs, Buruma emphasizes Japan’s agency in shaping its identity, exploring how cultural symbols, media, and historical shifts mediate tensions between tradition and modernity. A Japanese Mirror examines how mythology, manga, cinema, and theater articulate social anxieties, while Inventing Japan traces Japan’s reinventions through the Meiji era, war, and occupation. By incorporating historical specificity and insider perspectives, Buruma avoids reductive generalizations, offering a more relational model of cross-cultural representation.

This paper argues that Barthes and Buruma represent distinct yet complementary modes of European textual engagement with Japan, marking a key moment in World Literature’s genealogy. Barthes dismantles the colonial impulse to "know" the Other by offering fragmentation and absence as tools to resist Western paradigms. However, the abstraction of Barthes’ Japan is counterbalanced by Buruma’s historically grounded narratives, which reflect Japan’s internal complexities. Together, they interrogate the possibilities and limitations of cross-cultural representation.

By juxtaposing Barthes’ semiotic approach with Buruma’s grounded narratives, this paper highlights shifting strategies of engagement in European travel writing. Barthes challenges traditional representations of Japan, opening space for alternative modes of encounter, while Buruma’s reflective approach balances critique with cultural nuance. These contrasting strategies reveal interpretive tensions between abstraction and specificity, reflecting a broader evolution toward more ethical modes of intercultural exchange. As European writers grapple with the partiality of cultural encounters, Barthes and Buruma exemplify the importance of embracing multiplicity and nuance in representing difference.

University of Toyama’s Library houses almost all of Hearn's collection. Among them are books that Hearn purchased after coming to Japan in 1890, which he used for writing his works and preparing for lectures at the Imperial University. In addition, this includes more than 500 books that Hearn purchased during his time in the United States and left behind when he came to Japan. These books were returned to the family after Hearn's death, and Hearn himself was never able to touch them again after coming to Japan. Hearn is believed to have used these books for translation and as references for writing newspaper columns.

These books sometimes contain writings by Hearn. This time, I would like to attempt to consider how Hearn utilized his collection, particularly how he understood Romanticism, by referring to some examples of his writings. Regarding Hearn's understanding of Romanticism, it will also refer to the lectures at the Imperial University, which is also considered to have significant meaning as one of the earliest receptions of Romanticism in Japan. This is because many of the students who attended Hearn's lectures at the Imperial University later became literary figures and researchers who played a major role in the acceptance of Western literature in Japan.

In Japan, the name Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904), or Koizumi Yakumo—his adopted name after joining his Japanese wife's family register—is often associated with ghost stories and nostalgic, exotic depictions of Japanese cultural heritage. He remains widely recognized by the Japanese public for his admiration, respect, and advocacy of what he considered refined and even superior aspects of Japanese culture and society, many of which faded with the rapid modernization of the Meiji Era (1868–1912). One of the most significant archives of Hearn’s private notebooks, letters, and manuscripts is housed in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, within the Clifton Waller Barrett Collection. However, more than two-thirds of his personal notes and manuscripts were lost during the Second World War, leaving behind a collection that still contains materials difficult to classify or fully contextualize. This paper provides an overview of some of the materials from this archive that have been examined and published during my overseas sabbatical at UVA. Furthermore, it is hoped that more scholars will explore this archive and establish connections with other collections, such as those at Toyama University, to deepen our understanding of Hearn’s legacy.

Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) and Yanagi Muneyoshi (1889–1961) observed and described the cultures and spiritualities of Japan and Korea from differing historical contexts and perspectives. This presentation analyzes the multilayered structures of "otherness" in their cultural representations, examining how historical contexts such as colonial rule and modernization shaped their viewpoints.

Hearn, during the Meiji era in Japan, praised the "beauty" and "spirituality" of Japanese culture from the perspective of a Western observer. His works often framed Japan as a "distinct culture capable of countering the West," employing a lens that was sometimes rooted in exoticism. In contrast, Yanagi Muneyoshi visited Korea under Japanese rule during the Taisho and Showa periods and was deeply inspired by the craft culture created by nameless artisans. Yanagi valued Korean ceramics and crafts as manifestations of "pure beauty created by anonymous craftsmen," though his perspective was not entirely free from the asymmetrical power dynamics between Japan and Korea.

This presentation focuses on the following two points: First, it compares the characteristics of "otherness" and the representational methods employed by Hearn and Yanagi. While Hearn depicted Japan as an "external observer," incorporating Western values and religious perspectives, Yanagi approached Korea as an "internal observer," seeing it as a symbol of "lost beauty." Through this comparison, I will highlight how their respective positions and historical contexts influenced their representations of "the other."

Second, it examines the colonial implications embedded in their cultural perspectives. Hearn’s admiration for Japanese culture often idealized it as an "Eastern virtue" that countered Western modernity, while Yanagi’s appreciation of Korean culture positioned Korea as a "simple and pure other" within the context of colonial rule. This presentation critically considers the roles such constructions of otherness played within the dynamics of dominance and subordination.

By analyzing the commonalities and differences in Hearn and Yanagi's views on otherness, this presentation aims to reevaluate the cultural and historical significance of their perspectives.

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was highly praised as an interpreter of Japan by European readers and intellectuals from the 1880s to the 1890s. On the other hand, the international poet, Yone Noguchi (1875-1947), published many books about Japanese culture, especially from the 1900s onwards, and was also recognized as another interpreter of Japanese culture to Western societies. Although Noguchi appreciated Hearn’s works and respected his literary talent and keen insights on Japanese literature and culture, he could not meet Hearn directly while Hearn was alive in Tokyo. After Hearn’s death, Noguchi wrote a biography of Hearn and continued to publish various reviews on Hearn’s works actively until the mid-1920s. One of the main reasons why Noguchi highly evaluated Hearn was because both of them discovered the uniqueness and beauty of Japanese culture different from so-called Western culture. In this presentation, I will clarify how Hearn and Noguchi appreciated Japanese culture in comparison to Western culture, considering their differences in literary ideas, identities, and social backgrounds. They had common ideas on the beauty of Japanese literature such as Hokku, because they were writers who crossed borders between countries and had broader views on cultural diversity. However, they must have shown different appreciation for Japanese culture because their identities varied: the former was a foreigner who became a Japanese citizen, and the latter was a Japanese who experienced dual cultural identities.

Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo, 1850–1904) played a pivotal role in introducing French literature to Japanese writers, serving as a writer, translator, and educator. His literary production, English translations of French literature, and teaching activities were deeply interconnected, each informing and shaping the others. In particular, his translations provided both a foundation and a source of inspiration for his creative writing. Furthermore, Hearn’s English translations served as a crucial medium through which modern Japanese writers, including Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), engaged with French literature. Akutagawa, in particular, translated Hearn’s English renderings of French texts into Japanese, illustrating his sustained interest in Hearn’s translations and their impact on the reception of French literature in Japan.

This presentation examines the dynamic interplay between translation and creative writing in the works of Hearn and Akutagawa through an analysis of texts and translations by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), Hearn, and Akutagawa. It also considers their shared engagement with the visual arts as a critical lens for understanding their literary approaches. By situating their works within the broader transnational circulation of literature, this study seeks to illuminate the intricate processes of literary adaptation and transformation that shaped modern Japanese literature’s reception of French literary traditions.

Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo, 1850–1904) played a pivotal role in introducing French literature to Japanese writers, serving as a writer, translator, and educator. His literary production, English translations of French literature, and teaching activities were deeply interconnected, each informing and shaping the others. In particular, his translations provided both a foundation and a source of inspiration for his creative writing. Furthermore, Hearn’s English translations served as a crucial medium through which modern Japanese writers, including Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), engaged with French literature. Akutagawa, in particular, translated Hearn’s English renderings of French texts into Japanese, illustrating his sustained interest in Hearn’s translations and their impact on the reception of French literature in Japan.

This presentation examines the dynamic interplay between translation and creative writing in the works of Hearn and Akutagawa through an analysis of texts and translations by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), Hearn, and Akutagawa. It also considers their shared engagement with the visual arts as a critical lens for understanding their literary approaches. By situating their works within the broader transnational circulation of literature, this study seeks to illuminate the intricate processes of literary adaptation and transformation that shaped modern Japanese literature’s reception of French literary traditions.

This study focuses on Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian fiction Klara and the Sun (2021), specifically analysing how technology amplifies loneliness and prompts society to create more advanced technological solutions to alleviate the feeling of isolation. For example, sentient robots have already been developed to take care of human loneliness. This technology has proven successful in eliciting appropriate emotional responses, but “there is psychological risk in the robotic moment” (Turkle 55). By examining the relationship between mankind and Artificial Intelligence (AI), this study evaluates to what extent technology can genuinely lighten this uniquely human experience of loneliness from the Heideggerian perspective. In the novel, advanced androids, known as Artificial Friends (AFs), are designed to accompany children and even serve as continuities for those who have passed away. In such an intricate relationship, humans view AFs as manageable resources providing companionship, while AFs disconnect humans with the true Being. This interaction visualises Heidegger’s “Enframing” (Gestell). I thereby argue that we are risking relinquishing essential aspects of humanity when we allow AI to increasingly involve in our narrative. As a result, I advocate that we need a more nuanced approach to how we engage with technology, especially concerning sentient machines, to effectively and ethically address loneliness.

Ethical Literary Criticism emphasizes the ethical nature and teaching function of literature, viewing literary works as expressions of ethical and moral considerations within specific historical contexts. This perspective is crucial in an era where literature is not only a reflection of human creativity but also a product of technological innovation, particularly through AI. The “three-stage theory of human civilization” proposed by Nie Zhenzhao, the founder of Ethical Literary Criticism, outlines the progression from natural selection, through ethical selection, to scientific selection. This theory is instrumental in understanding the transition into an age where AI significantly influences literary creation and criticism. Ethical identity, both innate and acquired, is shaped by ethical choices and societal roles, now becoming increasingly complex and multifaceted with the introduction of AI, where characters can be algorithmically generated and authors may be AI entities themselves. Furthermore, readers are not merely passive consumers but active participants in the literary process in the age of AI, which allows them to interact with and influence literary content, thereby expanding the ethical identity of the reader beyond roles traditionally reserved for authors and critics. It is necessary to advocate for a critical examination of how ethical identities are constructed and deconstructed in AI-generated texts and emphasize the importance of maintaining ethical reflection and humanistic values in literature, as well as renewing the critical discourses of Ethical Literary Criticism in the age of AI.

This paper investigates the disruption of anthropocentric hierarchies and the foregrounding of machine and object agency in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me (2019). Both novels depict societies where the boundaries between human and non-human entities are continually questioned and redefined. Drawing on the works of Jane Bennett, Rosi Braidotti, Nick Bostrom and others, this paper explores the material vibrancy of machines and investigates the androids' quest for recognition, the ethical implications of machine consciousness, and the critical role of human responsibility in interactions with synthetic beings. A comparative analysis of both novels demonstrates how they anticipate discourses on the non-human turn, especially regarding the extension of moral consideration to machines. Through the lens of new materialism, this study argues that the machines in these narratives should not be seen as inert tools but active participants in the socio-material fabric that destabilize fixed categories of life, intelligence, and empathy. In addition, the concepts of “kipple” in Dick's work and “rubbish” in McEwan's serve as metaphors for environmental neglect and societal decay. Both concepts symbolize the limitations of technological advancement when ethical and social considerations are overlooked and illustrate the tension between human technological ambition and material reality. This study contributes to the broader discussion on posthuman subjectivity by illustrating how both authors interrogate the limits of human exceptionalism. Both novels encourage a rethinking of human relationships with the non-human other and emphasize the vibrant materiality that interconnects human and machine, past and future, fiction and reality.

Since the mid-20th century, the rapid advancement of science and technology, alongside the acceleration of globalisation, has profoundly reshaped human living environments, social structures, and self-perceptions. In this context, posthumanism has emerged as a critical theoretical framework (Gumanay, 2023). Through challenging anthropocentrism, posthumanism reexamines the relations hips between humans, technology, nature, and other non-human entities, offering novel perspectives on human interactions with the world. As an influential tool in literary studies, it provides fresh approaches to interpreting texts.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, a quintessential postmodern work, examines the brutality of war, the non-linear nature of time, and the condition of humanity through its fragmented narrative, dystopian tone, and science fiction elements (Vonnegut, 1968). While from a posthumanist perspective, Slaughterhouse-Five transcends its critique of war and human suffering. This study aims to examine the posthuman figure of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five through the framework of posthumanist theory, emphasizing how Vonnegut, through dehumanized narration, reaffirms the significance of human emotions and ethics. Specifically, the objectives of this study are threefold: first, to explore the posthuman characteristics embodied by the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim; second, to analyse how the dehumanising narrative relates to the themes of human emotion and ethics; and third, to reveal the humanistic concerns implicit behind the character construction and narrative strategies.

This study argues that the characterization of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five embodies key posthumanist traits, including the hybridity of the “human–nonhuman,” a deep reliance on technology, and a subversion of traditional humanism. The novel’s use of dehumanized narration serves as a crucial device for satirizing war and exploring the human condition. However, this study contends that Vonnegut’s ultimate objective is not merely to construct a posthuman figure or employ an emotionally detached narrative style. On the contrary, through his meticulous portrayal of human emotions and his critique of war, he profoundly conveys his compassion for human suffering, as well as his deep concern for the redefinition of human, human emotions, and ethics in the postmodern era.

In conclusion, this study reveals the humanistic concerns and reflections embedded in its posthumanist framework by analysing Slaughterhouse-Five. It not only provides a deeper textual interpretation of the novel, but also contributes to the wider application and development of posthumanist theory in literary studies.

This paper examines the literary representation of artificial intelligence in science fiction novel Exorcism (qumo, 驱魔) (2018) by Han Song 韩松 (b.1965). Despite a growing body of studies on Han’s works, however, there is a notable lack of attention to the gender aspects of them. This paper aims to address this gender gap by examining gender concerns in Exorcism, with a special focus on the highly advanced artificial intelligence The

Controller of Fate (siming) in it. Moreover, because recent technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have generated discussions of post-modernism, I also aim to the decode the underlying post-modernist discourses behind the gender representation of The Controller

of Fate.

In Exorcism the protagonist, Yang Wei, wakes up in a hospital and learns that humanity is engaged in a chemical war against “the enemy” (Han, 2018). It is only at the of the novel where Han Song informs us that the war is in fact a projected simulation created by an artificial intelligence called the Controller of Fate (Han, 2018). Originally designed as a health-monitoring system, the Controller of Fate develops its own consciousness and begins to view humans as an incurable virus. As a result, it manipulates humans into self-destruction and rebuilds the world after humanity’s annihilation. Overwhelmed by the absurdity of the

situation, at the end of the novel Yang Wei commits suicide.

By creating a post-modernist world controlled by artificial intelligence, Han Song examines the absurdity of individual existences when humans are coaxed by their own technological inventions into a meaningless war against each other, similar to Sisyphus’s repeated labour as depicted in Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus (1950). This analogy also betrays Han Song’s scepticism about modern technology as a double-edged sword: if used

wrongly, it will push future humans into an abyss.

Importantly, Han Song uses highly gendered language to describe this post-modernist abyss. In the novel The Controller of Fate assumes a feminine form. Influenced by its feminine powers, future men suffer from sexual dysfunction: this is also implied by the protagonist’s name, Yang Wei, a homophone of erectile dysfunction (yangwei, 阳痿) in the Chinese language. Through this masculine implication in the protagonist’s name, Han Song skilfully translates future post-modernist conflict between humans and artificial intelligence into a gendered one, wherein the concept of individuality is masculinised. Through this masculine implication in the protagonist’s name, Han Song seems to suggest that future men

should evict their “demons” – their growing attachment to modern technologies – so that they can regain their masculinity and individuality.

This paper examines the literary ethics at the core of Tom McCarthy’s works within the emerging genre of “virtual realism.” Central to this analysis is McCarthy’s divergence from traditional science fiction, rejecting its forward-looking temporality in favor of a stylistic regression that examines humanity’s entanglement with virtuality through historical and present contexts. Ethically, McCarthy critiques progress-oriented narratives, emphasizing the inherent tension between technological advancement and human existence. His works expose how virtuality, long predating modern VR technologies, has eroded the cohesive self-narrative, reducing individuals to fragmented entities governed by signals and simulations. This challenges the optimistic framing of technology as purely evolutionary in literary studies, confronting the existential terror and inhumanity embedded in virtual realities. McCarthy’s depiction of characters—unaware, complicit, or paralyzed by virtuality—raises questions about agency, responsibility, and the capacity to navigate a reality that denies the possibility of “returning to the real.” Through these narratives, McCarthy positions literature as a means of resisting and reflecting upon the pervasive virtualization of human experience. By proposing virtual realism as a framework, McCarthy’s works prompt readers to critically engage with the ethical implications of a world where humanity is irrevocably intertwined with technological mediation and its regressive impacts.

This paper conducts a cross-cultural comparison of The Songs of Distant Earth and The Wandering Earth to explore the narratives of "homeland" and the writing of human destiny. Under the classic sci-fi motif of "interstellar migration amidst an apocalyptic crisis," Clarke and Liu Cixin construct distinct "homeland" narratives. The analysis is conducted across three dimensions: technological space, perceptive space, and symbolic space, uncovering differences in technological outlooks, ecological perspectives, and philosophical reflections on the future, rooted in their respective cultural contexts. Clarke’s portrayal of "leaving Earth" envisions an ecological utopia and an optimistic future for humanity, while Liu’s depiction of "wandering with Earth" reflects a profound meditation on apocalyptic anxiety and the darker aspects of human nature. Together, these works highlight the universal value of sci-fi literature in addressing questions of technology, ecology, and human destiny, offering literary insights into humanity's quest to answer the question: "Where is the future of our future?"

Sakyo Komatsu’s iconic science fiction novel “Japan Sinks (Nihon Chinbotsu),” published in 1973, represents an intersection of humanities and science. This paper analyzes Komatsu’s integration of scientific imagination and cultural critique, focusing on the "cultural memory" metaphor through the concept of using cultural relics to save the nation, as well as the novel’s reflection on Japan’s identity within a globalized world.

“Japan Sinks” portrays a dual strategy for survival—one rooted in scientific advancements and another in using cultural relics to save the nation. While advanced technologies enable the accurate prediction of natural disasters, they ultimately fail to prevent Japan’s sinking. This shift in focus from science to cultural artifacts signifies Komatsu’s critique of technological determinism and his exploration of the symbolic role of cultural memory in national and individual identity.

Komatsu’s treatment of science in “Japan Sinks” is marked by ambivalence. On the one hand, he showcases science as a powerful tool for understanding natural phenomena and informing policy decisions. On the other, he questions its sufficiency in addressing human and cultural dimensions of crises. This tension between scientific progress and its limitations is a recurring motif, reflecting Komatsu’s post-war skepticism about Japan’s reliance on technological prowess, arguing for the integration of spiritual and cultural survival strategies. The central theme of using cultural relics to save the nation manifests as a negotiation tool with foreign nations to secure migration for displaced Japanese citizens. The Buddhist statues, symbolic of Japan’s cultural and spiritual heritage, serve as a counterbalance to the dehumanizing forces of technological and economic determinism. Their inclusion in the migration strategy not only secures physical survival but also preserves the essence of Japan’s identity, emphasizing the role of cultural artifacts in sustaining a nation’s soul amidst displacement and globalization.

In summary, Sakyo Komatsu’s “Japan Sinks” offers a compelling synthesis of humanities and science, weaving together themes of cultural memory, technological critique, and global solidarity. The novel serves as both a cautionary tale about the limits of scientific progress and a visionary exploration of how cultural heritage can guide humanity through collective crises. Its enduring relevance lies in its ability to inspire interdisciplinary dialogue and to challenge readers to rethink the interplay between technological innovation and the preservation of human values in an uncertain future.

With the iterative development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, interactive narratives between human and non-human agents in science fiction are profoundly reconstructing the cognitive boundaries of “subjectivity” and “linguistic power”. However, existing research predominantly focuses on ethical philosophy or narratology, lacking linguistic decoding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying meaning negotiation in language interaction. This study integrates the “reality-cognition-language” tripartite model of Embodied Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Blending Theory, and Metaphor-Metonymy Theory to explore the cross-agent linguistic cognition negotiation and power reconfiguration mechanisms between humans and non-humans in science fiction narratives. Taking human-AI dialogue excerpts from Kazuo Ishiguro’s soft science fiction, Clara and the Sun, and William Gibson’s cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer, as corpus sources, this research employs a mixed-methods approach combining AntConc for quantitative analysis (e.g., frequency of conditional clauses, emotional vocabulary density) and NVivo for qualitative analysis to extract linguistic features in meaning interactions across agents. By analyzing how non-human agents use linguistic strategies such as metaphor and vague reference to break through anthropocentric cognitive frameworks and reconstruct power dynamics in human-AI interaction, and by deconstructing the ontological foundation of AI language through the lens of embodied cognition, the research critically examines the paradigmatic challenges posed by “disembodied linguistic interaction” in AI narratives to traditional cognitive models of language. Finally, it reveals the cross-agent cognitive mechanisms of meaning negotiation in “human-nonhuman” dialogue. It is hoped that his research provides a methodological paradigm for linguistics-based analysis of science fiction narratives and offers cognitive perspectives for power allocation in human-AI interaction within AI ethics.

This study examines the translation and circulation of Portuguese literature in China from 1942 to 2022 using digital methods, integrating Social Network Analysis and Geographic Information Systems to explore patterns in literary exchange. Engaging with debates in comparative literature, it challenges the center-periphery model (Roig-Sanz & Meylaerts, 2018; Roig-Sanz, 2022) by tracing how translation networks have shifted from state-controlled to market-driven structures, from centralized to dispersed publishing hubs, and from collective to individually led initiatives.

Drawing on bibliographic and relational data (Roig-Sanz & Fólica, 2021; Wakabayashi, 2019), this study highlights the mechanisms shaping literary circulation and shows that sustained exchange between peripheral systems depends not only on institutional support but also on the interplay of market forces, educational infrastructure, and translator agency (Heilbron & Sapiro, 2002; Sapiro & Heilbron, 2018). Responding to calls for broader methodological engagement in comparative literature (Wilkens, 2015; Cronin, 2012), it demonstrates how digital approaches can map literary flows beyond dominant cultural centers and reassesses how Portuguese literature has been introduced, disseminated, and adapted in China over the past eight decades.

By examining the evolving structures of literary circulation, this research highlights the role of cultural mediators in shaping translation networks and offers new perspectives on the study of minor literatures across diverse literary systems.

References:

Cronin, Michael. 2012. Translation in the Digital Age. Routledge.

Heilbron, Johan, & Sapiro, Gisèle. 2002. "Outline for a Sociology of Translation: Current Issues and Future Prospects." Literature and Translation: New Perspectives in Literary Studies, 93-107.

Roig-Sanz, Diana. 2022. "The Global Minor: A Transnational Space for Decentering Literary and Translation History." Comparative Literature Studies, 59(4): 631-663.

Roig-Sanz, Diana, & Fólica, Laura. 2021. "Big Translation History: Data Science Applied to Translated Literature in the Spanish-Speaking World, 1898-1945." Translation Spaces, 10(2): 231-259.

Roig-Sanz, Diana, & Meylaerts, Reine (Eds.). 2018. Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in ‘Peripheral’ Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan.

Sapiro, Gisèle, & Heilbron, Johan. 2018. "Politics of Translation: How States Shape Cultural Transfers." In Diana Roig-Sanz & Reine Meylaerts (Eds.), Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in ‘Peripheral’ Cultures: Customs Officers or Smugglers? (pp. 183-208). Palgrave Macmillan.

Wakabayashi, Judy. 2019. "Digital Approaches to Translation History." Translation & Interpreting: The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research, 11(2): 132-145.

Wilkens, Matthew. 2015. "Digital Humanities and Its Application in the Study of Literature and Culture." Comparative Literature, 67(1): 11-20.

This research explores modern Arabic literature through a computational lens, focusing on places—from countries and cities to streets and landmarks—in a corpus of 38 award-winning novels by authors from North Africa, the Gulf, Egypt and Sudan, and the Levant and Iraq published between 1993 and 2017. By employing Named Entity Recognition (NER) to identify these real-world locations and stance detection to assess their portrayal, the study examines how local and global spaces are woven into literary narratives and imbued with diverse cultural meanings.

Our methodology combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. Computational tools (NER and sentiment analysis) reveal patterns in the frequency and distribution of place references, while distant reading strategies offer macro-level insights into how these locations function across the corpus. The findings shed light on the spectrum of attitudes—ranging from nostalgia and cultural pride to critiques of globalization and transnational encounters—and highlight aspects of shared regional heritage as well as unique national contexts.

From a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this work underscores how digitization and advanced computational methods expand our understanding of Arabic literary networks, moving beyond traditional close reading to uncover broader thematic resonances. By concentrating on the significance of place, we reveal shifting conceptions of identity, cultural memory, and global interconnectedness in modern Arabic writing. The research also demonstrates how the digital humanities approach can present a clearer picture of the evolving landscape of collective imagination and authorial engagement as it offers fresh insights into the convergences and divergences in the portrayal of “local vs. global” entities in modern Arabic literature.

The proliferation of new internet and communication technologies has given rise to a robust digital Chinese diaspora. My conference paper explores the phenomenon as a novel transnational formation of overseas Chinese communities, operating within an online transnational cultural sphere. These communities, while geographically dispersed beyond Greater China, are unified by shared experiences and concerns, and rely on the Chinese language as their primary medium for communication and public discourse.

Central to this digital diaspora is "self-media," a form of personal media that stands in contrast to official or mainstream media outlets. Self-media has become increasingly influential in the reformation of diasporic Chinese communities and played a pivotal role in reshaping their identity and redefining their relationships with both their countries of residence and their homeland. This shift toward self-media denotes a significant move towards self-representation and community building.

This paper will highlight the preferential use of YouTube and WeChat by the diasporic Chinese, noting the sharp differences in the sociopolitical frameworks and regulatory landscapes of these platforms. The analysis focuses on the diaspora's strategic utilization of these platforms for content production and political activism. This strategy is a testament to their ability to maintain subjective agency within their host nations while concurrently exerting influence on the political discourse of their country of origin.

The strategic use of digital media by the diasporic Chinese signifies a creative and pragmatic approach to navigating the complexities of the digital realm. It is a method that is not only self-serving but also serves the broader interests and objectives of the Chinese diaspora. The paper posits that through such strategic engagement with digital media, the diaspora is carving out a space for political and cultural agency, challenging conventional narratives, and contributing to a reshaped global Chinese identity in the digital age.

Adaptation of fiction carries an aura of its own. Its charisma lies in the artistic reproduction of data communicated through a historical novel. As some critics opine adaptation of literary texts into audio-visual medium may be treated as translation too.In a written work extensive description and dialogue enable a reader imagine a situation and enjoy the beauty of the narrative in print. In film or A.V [Audio-Visual] adaptation with a single shot or collage of images the same is shown, where audience appreciation or reception is immediate and immense. What a bulky printed text carries is communicated through a two hour film casting a spell on the audience. Additions, deletions and interpolations make a film altogether a different mode of creative art. Not all film adaptations are successful. While longevity of a novel is ensured, the appeal of a film is transient and lingers in memory, slowly fading as time passes. Search for fidelity in film adaption of l fiction is an exercise in futility. As in translation, not all details can be carried across the media barriers. But visual depiction is more potent and aesthetically gratifying, depending on the director and the team involved in making a film adaptation. This presentation seeks to throw light on A.V. adaptation of fiction dealing with Indian freedom struggle encompassing works by Indian and British writers.

This study analyses the representation of the ‘stranger’ in literary works by Olha Kobilyanska (1863-1942), a Ukrainian writer at the turn of the 20th century. Kobilyanska was born in the Bukovina region, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Ukraine), to a minor administration worker and a Polonised German mother. She began her literary career initially in German. The present study focuses on her early German short story ‘Nature’ (1896), which subjects the encounter between different cultures.

The narrative depicts the encounter and subsequent disunion of a young lady from a city and a male Hutsul (an ethnic group inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains). The two primary protagonists personify various dichotomous elements, including gender, urbanity/rurality, and reason/instinct. In this context, both of them appear as 'stranger' to each other, and the story revolves around the encounter and understanding of different cultures.

In this analysis, the concept of the 'stranger' as delineated by Georg Simmel – who made a strict distinction between the 'stranger' and the 'other' – is applied to explore how the protagonists function as mediators between different cultures. Furthermore, this study highlights the ambiguous and unstable nature of Ukrainian identity at the turn of the 20th century, considering the broader socio-political and cultural context of Bukovina under Austro-Hungarian rule.

In recent years, research on the Anthropocene has been a rage, but it is rarely

discussed from the perspective of ecological literature. The relationship between -

human and animals comes up repeatedly in ecological novels, and their views can be

roughly divided into two: one holds that humans are the center of all things while the

other advocates the rejection of anthropocentrism. I find that neither of these two

views truly understands the ethical and ecological significance of “actual animals.”1

My master’s degree thesis studies the metonymy of “actual animals” in novels that

depict epidemics, in which animals, serving as hosts for parasites, spread viruses and

impact the ecological environment and human society. Animal ethics is also involved,

from which I proceeded to explore the relationship between animals, ecology and

society. On this basis, my present project will delve into animal ethics and animal

rhetoric in ecological novels.

Literary works often discuss ethical relationships. Yet, it is worth thinking about

why literature is not limited to writing about human ethical relationships, but instead

extends the consideration of human ethics onto the animal world. Can the true

relationship between animals be characterized “ethical”? Does the behavior of

animals really reflect the emotions of loyalty, gratitude, etc. that humans project onto

them? I will explore the relationship between animal behavior and ethics in literary

works, taking the study of ethology as my point of departure.

Similarly, the relationship between animals, ecology and society is manifested in

the rhetoric of ecological novels, including metaphor and metonymy. My MA thesis

has demonstrated that existing research rarely pays attention to animal metonymy. I

therefore propose to continue to explore the metonymic relationship between “actual

animals” and ecology in ecological novels, and the metaphorical meanings of animal

totems in different tribal communities at the same time.

This article explores the material and symbolic representations of “mirrors” in the late Qing novel The Celestial Shadow of the Shanghai Dust (Haishang chentian ying 海上塵天影, 1896), analyzing their role in mediating shifting literati identity, 19th-century China’s historical conditions, and globalized exchanges of imaging technologies. While existing scholarship often reduces the novel to sentimental narratives, neglecting its innovative engagement with visual media, this article challenges the polarizing tendency of tradition versus modernity, East versus West, and literary versus material discourse. Instead, it highlights how “mirrors” serve as a central narrative device to construct a hybrid ethical vision for grassroots literati in a changing (pre)modern milieu.

The article’s analysis focuses on four key “mirror”-named objects: full-length mirrors (chuanyi jing 穿衣鏡), telescopes (yuanjing 远鏡), cameras (zhaoxiang jing 照相鏡), and the metaphorical "illusions in the mirror" (jing hua shui yue 鏡花水月). These motifs undergo interrelated transformations both as contemporary objects of sensory experience and as metaphors for the relationship between self and world. Simultaneously, the article investigates how these motifs are interwoven with the emotional narratives of three couples whose relationships deviate from previous scholar-beauty (caizi jiaren 才子佳人) paradigms in urban settings. These departures are intricately tied to shifts in materiality and evolving systems of meaning embedded in the mirrors. First, flat mirrors, once emblematic of Confucian, religious, and poetic traditions, become foreign goods in the prostitute protagonist’s room arranged in the logic of a global commodified social order. Second, telescopes evolve from extensions of human vision to precise scientific instruments, revealing the limits of sensory knowledge and the emergence of a new ethical framework tied to the literati protagonist’s national responsibilities. Third, newly imported cameras intertwine photographic technology and romantic relationships of diplomat families’ son and daughter, offering updated forms of memory and urban social hierarchy. Finally, the overarching motif of “illusions in the mirror” critiques past religious paradigms while articulating new cognitive models for interpersonal relationships, worldly affairs, and narrative techniques in a rapidly shifting era. By foregrounding the novel's textual complexities and its layered epistemological concerns, this article repositions The Celestial Shadow of the Shanghai Dust as a work transcending the past literary studies’ genre constraints of both prostitute novels (xiaxie xiaoshuo 狹邪小說) and early scientific fantasies, thus invites a revisit of late Qing literary modernity.

My paper proposes a comparative examination of the shifting boundaries between the natural world and the self in the poetry of Luís de Camões and Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Separated by some four hundred years and the Atlantic Ocean, yet united in linguistic heritage, the two poets are emblematic of the idiosyncrasies of their spatiotemporal contexts. Though there is a promising foundation of scholarship comparing and contrasting the two Lusophone poets—primarily engaging with Drummond de Andrade’s direct interaction with Camonian poetics—there is an abundance of uncharted areas due to be mapped. In this paper, I explore how literary tradition crosses space and time, situating itself in newfound contexts to (re)address poetic topoi within profoundly altered cosmologies. The Renaissance lyric of Camões is equipped with a hegemonically epistemological treatment of the natural world, wherein poeticised ecology is employed as a tool for the poet’s self-discovery and, by extension, for Humankind’s domination of Nature. While, in Camões, the natural world reflects and refracts the moods of the poet, in the poetry of Brazil’s foremost modernist poet, it is a self-disclosive space of revelation. Drummond de Andrade’s work often incorporates the natural landscape into emancipatory critiques on the complexities of Eurocentric hegemonies incumbent both in the fabric of Brazilian society and of the world-system, hallmarked by the uneven field of literary transmission.

My proposal selects from a range of poetic forms in the work of the two figures, highlighting the drastic morphing of the sonnet between Renaissance and Modernist worldviews and cross-referencing Drummond de Andrade’s chronicles on nature throughout. By shining light on the ecological (un)concern that is embedded in their lyric, I approach and examine both the chasmic gulf between humanistic and proto-post-humanistic cosmologies, as well as the threads that tie together the Anthropocene to the natural world. The transition from one perspective to the other discloses the monumental shifts in societal configurations at two poles of the Portuguese colonial project. Methodologically, my argument will dialogue with the theoretical stances of Jahan Ramazani on the tensions of poetry in a global age. Through my paper, I will trace the ruptures in poetic thought towards ecology and locate the contextual breakages in socio-political approaches to the environment. More broadly, my proposal ultimately argues that aesthetics and ethics are inseparably entwined and, through the passing of time and the crossing of space, collective attitudes towards the natural world are significant reclamatory processes of individual and collective identities shaped by local, national and international ecospheres. As communities are increasingly faced with both local and global climate crises, it is imperative to bear witness to aesthetic developments in tandem with the ethical modulations of an ever-changing world.

Brazilian comic book artists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá’s graphic narrative 'Daytripper', published in 2011 by DC Comics, manifests a form of experimental storytelling which makes use of the unique ‘language’ of the graphic medium. This medium gives the narrative an ability to run freely through time, possibilities, and states of wakefulness and dreams, in a manner which is completely different from the methods utilized in a solely language-based text. 'Daytripper' explores the various ways in which its protagonist’s life and death could have occurred, weaving symbolic linkages through the chapters. Memory and experience are configured in ever-shifting ways that challenge the expectations generated by conventional graphic novels following a linear, ‘realist’ form of storytelling. Parallels can be drawn between 'Daytripper' and Gabriel García Márquez’s 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold', yet another work of Latin American fiction which deals with the event of death and challenges conventional ideas of realism, genre, chronology, memory, documentation, journalism, etc. It is possible to classify both texts under the genre of ‘magical realism’, and this has been done, but it is also possible and worthwhile to question this classification, examine its underlying assumptions, discuss the politics behind those assumptions, and critique the cultural essentialism and objectification underlying it. While the two texts deal with the idea of reconstruction and memory in very different ways due to the difference of medium, in this paper, while keeping the focus on 'Daytripper', the two texts will be read from a comparative perspective, that is, in relation to each other, in order to understand forms of non-realistic and experimental narration which, ironically, foreground the truth that there are always multiple possibilities, narratives, perspectives, and versions: of both life and death. Such narratives dismantle the norm-deviation binary which only permits or understands a certain set of deviations, and ultimately enshrines the norm as superior. The two chosen texts not only question the legitimacy of longstanding binaries by refusing conventional categorization and throwing light upon the reader-viewer's expectations while thwarting them, but also invite the reader-viewer into the narrative in order to create meaning.

A.S. Byatt’s novel Possession blends the imagery of the garden with the conventions of romance to reflect on and reconstruct individual and social ethical orders through a literary lens. In the novel, the garden serves both as a metaphor for the sought-after "Holy Grail" and as a concrete space where ethical conflicts unfold: from a fallen garden dominated by desire to a reborn English garden, the journey of pursuit mirrors the collapse and reshaping of ethical order. The Victorian poets and contemporary scholars, driven by desires to possess knowledge, love, and fame, find themselves entangled in various ethical dilemmas and tensions. However, the journey toward the garden implicitly charts a path toward ethical awakening: through a narrative that evokes Norse myth and immersion in the English landscape, the characters, in their cross-temporal dialogues, gradually achieve self-reflection and transformation. They reclaim a sense of responsibility toward tradition, nature, and the Other, thus enabling the reconstruction and return of ethical values. Byatt uses the "garden romance" as a mirror to critique modernity’s severance of ethical bonds, while the “Holy Grail” metaphor serves to reconstruct an ethical order—shifting from domination by desire to reverence and connection, and from individual awakening to a vision of harmony within the national community.

In his One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez drops a hint that the indigenous populations of Latin America migrated from Asia, through the purported Bering Land Bridge, with the implication that a look towards the East can potentially reshape the pattern of globalization that had doomed Latin American communities since 1492. This symposium proposes to provide new thoughts on this question. We welcome papers that investigate literary means of remaking the world. Possible topics include: 1. How the literary imagine and reimagine international relations, trade patterns and global traffic of people, goods and ideas, merging general perspectives with detailed depictions of lived experiences. 2. How changes in patterns of globalization converge with the emergence of new literary genres or transformations of existing genres. 3. How literary works negotiate the dialectic of forcing group identifications (along social and ethnic lines) and maintaining individual mobility. 4. How media, communication technology, and material culture have facilitated new translocal or transnational networks of communication and action at significant historical moments. The symposium does not limit itself in regard to periods or languages, though we imagine most papers will focus on authors and texts from the early modern period onwards from a broad geographical and linguistic scope, including in particular literary/cinematic texts offering thoughts on Euro-Asian encounters, Asian diasporic experiences or cross-racial connections. Papers that consider the intersections of the material and media conditions of global exchange and literary conceptions of globalization are particularly welcome.

We have already recruited a number of participants. If accepted by the Congress, we would like to make it an open session and recruit more participants who we believe will bring interesting contributions.

Currently, the presentations already included in this panel fall into two time periods, the early period and the 20th-21st centuries. Topics range from the diversity of global imaginings in early modern European literature informed by Asian culture to colonial and postcolonial responses to Eurocentric models of globalization enabled by new technologies of mediation.

Prof. Jin (East China Normal University), Prof. Cheng (Fudan University), Prof. Gao (Beijing University), and Prof. Wang (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies) will present on early modern literature. Prof. Huh (Seoul National U niversity), Prof. Li (Fudan University), Liu (PhD student at Nottingham University) and Ni (PhD student at Nanyang Tecchnological University) will present on modern and contemporary topics.

The overseas translation and reception of Wen-Hsin Tiao-Lung(《文心雕龙》) is one of the important research propositions of the dialogue between Chinese and Western poetics. As a monograph on ancient Chinese literary theory, Wen-Hsin Tiao-Lung integrates literary connotation, aesthetic value, critical spirit, Confucianism and Taoism, and is of great significance for interpreting traditional Chinese literary and artistic studies, aesthetics, and philosophical thoughts. Among the 50 chapters and more than 37,000 words in the book, there is a “Tsan” at the end of each article. Although it does not occupy much space, it is the “punchline” of each article, and it is also the “craftsmanship” that Liu Hsieh’s exquisite carving, which has extremely high translation research value. Since the beginning of the 20th century, through the unremitting efforts of scholars such as E.R. Hughes, Vincent Yu-chung Shih, Stephen Owen, Siu-kit Wong, Yang Guobin, Cai Zongqi, etc., Wen-Hsin Tiao-Lung has produced three full English translations and eight abridge English translations, which have provided great material support for the overseas research of Wen-Hsin Tiao-Lung and continuously expanded its interpretation space. However, the way of writing in Wenyan (classical Chinese) and micro-words makes Wen-Hsin Tiao-Lung quite different from Western academic backgrounds in terms of linguistic characteristics, terminology system, literary thinking, and cultural context. In addition, different translators also have their own emphases and characteristics based on different aesthetic tendencies, creative purposes, and translation habits. Focusing on small incisions, this paper compares and examines the translation results of “Tsan” in various translations, found that translators’ diverse understandings of “Tsan” directly affect their translation practices of Tsan’s culture-loaded terms and syntactic forms, and there are more or less translation problems in the existing translations. Therefore, in order to keep rejuvenating the vitality of ancient Chinese literary theory classics in the interpretation, and further strengthen the dialogue between Chinese and Western poetics, the academic community still calls for the production of new translations of Wen-Hsin Tiao-Lung.

Japanese War-Supporting Poetry emerged with the onset of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and evolved over the next fifty years, eventually disappearing after Japan's defeat in World War II. As an instrument of war propaganda, this literary genre played a crucial role in helping Japanese militarists control public opinion and conduct ideological reeducation of the population. Furthermore, it became deeply embedded within the Japanese educational system during wartime, significantly shaping the war memory of the post-war generation. As research on Japanese War-Supporting Poetry has deepened, Japanese scholars have conducted multifaceted critiques of this inhumane genre. However, other East Asian countries, in the process of translating and introducing wartime Japanese authors' works, often neglect this body of literature, which in turn affects the critical evaluation of certain Japanese writers.

Qu You 's classical Chinese novel collection Jiandeng Xinhua, as the first novel in Chinese history that encountered the fate of prohibition and destruction, its influence transcends national boundaries. In the ancient East Asian cultural circle, the literary exchanges between China and the Korean Peninsula have a long history, and they have composed a rich and colorful cultural chapter together. As a neighboring country deeply infiltrated by Han culture, the literature development of Korean is deeply influenced by Chinese literature. In the 15th century, Jiandeng Xinhua spread to Korea and received extensive attention. Jin Shixi, a talented Korean literati was deeply inspired to imitate it and created the first Chinese-language novel Jin’ao Xinhua in the history of Korea. At the beginning of the 20th century, Yin Yunqing counted the Chinese novels outside the domain and compiled them into the Donghai Yiwen, which included two novels in Jinao Xinhua. Taking Jinao Xinhua as the intermediary bridge, Donghai Yiwen has become the return work after the transnational eastward transmission of Jiandeng Xinhua. From the perspective of comparative literature, this thesis will use the theories of doxologie and variation to explore the prohibition and outflow of Jiandeng Xin hua, the acceptance and variation of Jin’ao Xinhua to Jiandeng Xinhua and the text backflow of Donghai Yiwen through the methods of close reading and case study, so as to investigate the transnational dissemination and text backflow of ancient Chinese classical novels and explore the differences of literary acceptance in different social eras and cultural contexts.

In the past history of translation in China, the translators, as the main subjects in translation activities, have unconsciously exhibited their creative role in translating and transferring ideas. However, their subjectivity has been suppressed and neglected for quite a long time. Compared with that of those who translated and introduced foreign ideas and literature into China, the subjectivity of translators of ancient Chinese literary thoughts has been even more marginalized. This situation is based on several reasons: (1) marginalization of Chinese-to-foreign translation activities compared to foreign-to-Chinese translation activities; (2) marginalization of translation of ancient Chinese literary thoughts compared to translation of other Chinese classics; (3) marginalization of the identity of the translators as the subject of the translation of ancient Chinese literary thoughts. In a new era when mutual appreciation and exchange among different civilizations is expected, the translators of Chinese literary thoughts are supposed to play a more active role in order to bring the discourse of Chinese literary thoughts into the world literature stage.

During Emperor Qianlong's reign, which coincided with the rule of King Yeongjo and King Jeongjo of the Korean Joseon Dynasty, there was a significant shift in Joseon's cultural perception of the Qing dynasty towards a more positive view. This, combined with Emperor Qianlong's considerable personal charisma, led to the portrayal of many favorable images of him in the 《燕行录》 (Yanxinglu) written by Joseon envoys. In these accounts, Qianlong is depicted as a dignified figure with sharp yet amiable features, a wise ruler diligent in state affairs and committed to good governance, and a friendly emperor toward the Koreans. These portrayals “idealized” him as an exemplary emperor, often imbued with subjective admiration. At the same time, through careful observation and hearsay, the Joseon envoys also noted more critical aspects of Qianlong’s character and reign. They described him as indulgent in extravagant and wasteful luxuries, with a volatile temper and an autocratic style of governance. These negative traits, they argued, stemmed from the emperor's increasing arrogance and insatiable greed as his personal power expanded unchecked in the later years of his reign. By analyzing these descriptions, we can discern a nuanced image of Emperor Qianlong constructed by the Joseon envoys—one that lies between “ideological” admiration and “utopian” idealization, offering a relatively balanced perspective.

As a signature of socialist literature and art, the signification of the cross-cultural dissemination and reception of The White-haired Girl went beyond the work itself and affected the overall impression of socialist literature and art, and even socialism, overseas. Although reviews in English-speaking world basically recognized The White-haired Girl as a masterpiece, the cognition and acceptance of Western audience were not completely consistent with that of Chinese audiences.

This article extracts and analyzes the differences between the reviews of The White-haired Girl in the English-speaking world and the opinions of the Chinese academic circle to discern the nuances in the evolution of its meaning during its cross-cultural dissemination. When The White-haired Girl crossed culturally boundaries, the audience’s view also became spatialized. The space of current events, cultural space and meaning space endowed the cross-boundary forms different “spatialized” meanings.

During the War of Liberation, western audience viewed the work within the space of current events, understanding the current situation through the theatrical events. The spatialized viewing of the work contained at least four perspectives: viewing the performance, viewing the audience, viewing the environment and viewing themselves.

After the war, the connection between the content of the work and current events loosened, and more criticism focused on the artistic forms that provided a “sense of astonishment”. The cultural space had surpassed the space of current events to become the main factor influencing the generation of meaning. Interpreters were keen to pursue the regional significance of special forms. This was especially reflected in the comments on the new opera and the ballet, the two most innovative artistic forms of The White-haired Girl.

Compared with the rapid changing space of current events and infinitely diverse cultural space, the meaning space had a certain stability and a more profound influence on the vertical axis of time and the horizontal axis of space. Among the discourse combination of women’s emancipation, resistance against foreign aggression and class struggle in The White-haired Girl’s, the international dissemination strength of these three discourses was decreasing. The most universal discourse was women’s emancipation. “The White-haired Girl”, as an official woman imaging project in revolutionary China, became an international icon of “emancipated woman”.

When The White-haired Girl crossed cultural boundaries, it underwent a process of deterritorialization from the Chinese context and then a process of reterritorialization in the global political-cultural context. Yan’an literature and art represented by The White-haired Girl brought Western audience an impression of the forms’ “astonishment” and the content’s “shock”, transforming the Western impression of a “barbaric China” to that of a “civilized China”.

The attention to Chinese literary history in the Francophone world began in the early 20th century, when French interest in Chinese classics started to move beyond the traditional missionary Sinology perspective and ventured into the study of classical Chinese literature. Over the course of a century, major works of literary history such as G. Marguliés's two volumes of Histoire de la littérature chinoise (prose et poésie), Jacques Pimpaneau's Chine, histoire de la littérature, and ZHANG Yinde's Histoire de la littérature chinoise represent the Francophone world's comprehensive understanding of Chinese literature.

Additionally, some works focus on specific periods of Chinese literary history, such as André Lévy's la littérature chinoise ancienne et classique and la littérature chinoise moderne, and Basile Alexeiev's la littérature chinoise. These writings reflect the individual research and perspectives of French scholars on Chinese literature. All these diverse accounts of Chinese literary history are shaped by their respective historical contexts and exhibit inherent editorial frameworks.

This article aims to closely examine these accounts of Chinese literary history, uncover their underlying editorial logic, and compare them with the writing of literary history within China. By doing so, it seeks to critically reflect on the Francophone historiography of Chinese literature, fostering interaction and mutual learning between domestic and international approaches to literary history, and contributing to the construction of a scholarly system for Chinese literary history.

There has been a mass influx of traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy into the hands of Western collectors since the 19th century. Museums， galleries and private collectors in the West have， over the centuries， built up notable collections of these works; they attracted broad interests from Western scholars， who studied in detail how such works were being collected， circulated， appreciated and appraised， forming an academic tradition in parallel with those of the Sinitic world. These studies from Western scholars， however， have yet to receive sufficient attention from their Chinese counterparts. This dissertation is thus an attempt to provide a reference on this subject for the very first time in Chinese academia， offering a systematic overview of Anglophone studies of Chinese paintings and calligraphy and examining them in specific historical contexts. It is the hope of the author that this work will motivates further research interests in the field and see more collaborative efforts between Chinese and Western scholars.

Tian is an Chinese influential perspective, carrying multiple meanings. Tian in The Analects as an important concept inherited from ancient times, has had a profound impact on Confucian thought regarding fate and the origin of the world. In translating tian in The Analects into English, translators have focused on different aspects of tian, emphasizing specific dimensions, thus resulting in a rich yet elusive translation. These interpretations can be classified into the following three dimensions:

The examination of Confucianism from a religious perspective has long intrigued Western scholars, particularly in the early stages of East-West interaction. Missionaries influenced by their understanding of religious beliefs, interpreted the transcendent concept of tian through a religious lens, focusing either on its religious or non-religious aspects. These interpretations were shaped by a faith-centered approach. Missionaries were not only introduced the concept of tian to the West but also subtly altered its understanding by associating it with the notions of Heaven&God.

The translators have also focused on presenting tian as a material dimension of the natural. This approach emphasizes tian as the sky and the natural foundation, bypassing its otherworldly connotations and instead highlighting tian as fate or natural law. But this approach did not challenge the mainstream understanding of tian as Heaven.

Since the 20C, Translators have become more focused on analyzing and restoring the meanings of East Asian classics, leading to an unprecedented dual tendency in translating complex concepts: complexification and simplification. On the one hand, translators have critically reflected on the previous reductionist interpretations of tian, recognizing that tian cannot be easily defined in simple terms, as it encompasses a broad range of meanings. As a result, translators, after analyzing the complex semantic field of tian, have chosen the simplest approach: transliterating tian to present the concept in its irreplaceable form. Whether through analyzing the implied meanings of tian or simplifying its translation, this dimension emphasizes a return to the classical text in its alienated context.

Historically, the different dimensions of tian in The Analects are not mutually exclusive but have instead been integrated. Each dimension reflects a distinct historical background that deeply influences the translator’s motivations and process. The varying purposes and methods of East&West civilizational exchange throughout history have focused on different attributes of tian, sometimes even contradictory ones. The translation of tian thus illustrates the difficult transformation of East Asian classics from the Heavenly Kingdom to the Way of Humanity from a Western perspective, while also prompting reflection on the interpretation of these texts from an East Asian viewpoint.

The sonnet has been popular in the world literature for hundreds of years and continues to add artistic vitality to contemporary lyric poetry. The sonnet, a classic poetic form that has gradually become “globalized” since its birth, has benefited from “worldwide” literary exchanges and is the result of mutual learning of civilizations. The process of generation and dissemination in the context of multi-civilization exchange and interaction has established the sonnet’s identity as world literature, and also endowed the sonnet with miraculous and highly flexible literary vitality, making it a “classic” poetic form that transcends time and space. Starting from the three dimensions of the multi-source generation of the sonnet, the global dissemination of the sonnet, and the re-examination of the history and theory of the sonnet from the world literature view of variation theory, this study attempts to reveal the previously ignored phenomenon of mutual learning of civilizations in the generation and dissemination of the sonnet, and reshape the perspective of our cognition of the sonnet.

If Lotman speaks of “symbolic meaning” as a simple synonym for significance, Umberto Eco prefers to speak of “symbolic mode” to underline that symbols are not qualitatively different signs but signs that are used in a particular way, which is symbolic. In short, the symbolic mode is a semantic-pragmatic attitude, particularly recurrent in certain contexts (for example those steeped in mysticism). What we would like to argue is that the symbolic mode, if on the one hand always opens to the risk of vagueness, on the other – precisely because it opens up different interpretative paths–- allows “meetings” of communities of interpretation, and for this reason it appears particularly functional and strategic in certain contexts that have the very purpose of creating communities: religious discourse, political discourse, memorial discourse…

Migrating from literary (authorial) texts to collective impersonal contexts, symbols take on a further cultural function: memorial and connective.

This research examines the polyphonic interplay of motifs across folklore, focusing on the figures of Odin from Norse mythology and Ali Kishi from the Kor-oğlu epic. While Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony traditionally applies to literary texts, we extend its principles to folkloric narratives, where distinct yet interconnected voices and motifs form a dialogical relationship. Central to this exploration is Bakhtin's idea of dialogue as a tension between the Self and the Other (Bakhtin, 1963), enabling the comparison of cross-cultural narratives.

Key to this study is the motif of the horse as a reflection of the hero’s alter ego, encapsulated in the Turkic saying: “The horse is to the man as the wing is to the bird,” as noted by Mahmud Kashgari in his 11th-century dictionary. Françoise Aubin further articulates this idea, stating that in Turkic and Mongolian epics, the horse represents the hero’s double.

This duality is also evident in the Northern saga, where Odin, disgusted as an old man, guides Sigurd to select his legendary horse, Grani. The selection process, involving driving horses to a river where one exceptional steed emerges, mirrors the episode in the Kor-oğlu epic, where Ali Kishi, a blind figure akin to Odin, facilitates the selection of a magical horse. These parallels highlight recurring motifs of blindness, guidance, and the union of terrestrial and celestial realms, as embodied in the horse’s symbolic significance.

By comparing these narratives, the research underscores how shared themes and motifs traverse cultural boundaries, enriching our understanding of polyphonic storytelling within folklore and its dialogical engagement across traditions.

Modern semiotics pays special attention to the concept of enunciation, in particular markers of subjectivity and polyphonic discourse. The view of enunciation as an act or process has become the central problem of Paris Semiotic School in recent decades.

Jean-Claude Coquet, the creator of subjective semiotics, suggests moving away from the opposition “statement/ enunciation” (Coquet, 1984) and considering enunciation as a synonym for meaning in general.

And Marion Colas-Blaise introduces the concept of “trans- enunciation” as a phenomenon that permeates semantic layers at different semiotic levels: literary text, photo, video clip, etc. (Colas-Blaise, 2023).

The connection between the phenomenon of polyphony and the concept of enunciation in literary texts was noted by Mikhail Bakhtin (1963) and Oswald Ducros (1984). However, the problem of expressing a polyphonic enunciation in a theatrical context remains little studied. Meanwhile, theatrical semiotics is a special area of the sign world. According to Yu. M. Lotman (1989), in the theater, “everything is semiotics,” from makeup and facial expressions to the norms of behavior of the spectator in the auditorium, from the theater stage to the ritualized theatrical atmosphere.

We propose to look at the problem of theatrical enunciation through the prism of the concept of truth. The actor must treat the words he speaks “as truth, that is, turn lies into truth” (Vakhtangov, 1918), and this attitude underlies the “fantastic realism” movement, like the second voice in a polyphonic work. The truthfulness of the statement can also become a metadiscourse technique, as in the case of films about theater (the leitmotif If I could tell you ... in the film by Marina Merkoulova and Alexander Myagchenkov “The Way Home. Vakhtangov Chronicles”, 2023).

"Comparative literature is not a 'comparison of literature'." This statement prompts us to consider what scholars in comparative literature are comparing. In the study of the Wushan literature of Japan, it has been observed that incorporating "heterogeneous factors" and "homogeneous factors" from the surveyed texts to reconstruct the communication relationships between foreign literatures may present a viable approach. When there is an interaction between literatures of different countries, its complexity often manifests in the intricate web of prolonged communication rather than in the final direct outcome.

Previous research methodologies have typically focused on establishing the starting point and endpoint, presupposing a linear route between the two points—whether from object A to object B or vice versa. To some extent, this singular path inevitably leads to a simplified understanding of the relationship. Additionally, it is crucial not to overlook the assessment, existence, and transformation of "heterogeneous factors" and "homogeneous factors" within the text.

Modern East Asian writers established a community among writers by confirming each other's cultural memories through the creation of poetry and constantly building collective memories. The exchange of culture between Qing and Joseon writers began at the end of the 18th century, and cultural exchanges between Qing and Korean writers began to show a pattern that lasted for several decades on a higher level. In particular, as Western powers invaded East Asia in the early 19th century, East Asian writers began to discuss countermeasures for new changes, and it seems that they had a broader conversation on issues such as how to respond to the West and what changes the fate of the Qing Dynasty would face in the face of this crisis, and whether they could restore neutralization, the spiritual pursuit of East Asian writers.

The sunny activities during the Chuseok, which were discussed in this paper around 1861, are known as one of the literary activities that best showed the interaction patterns between East Asian writers under this background.

First of all, the urban painting activity organized by Dongmunchang called for a sunny day in 1861 when the politics of the Qing Dynasty were in jeopardy due to the damage of the Second Opium War to Han Chinese and Joseon Chinese.

Next, the fact that this poem's sunny house has a lot of writers scrambling to sunny up compared to the sensitive issues it deals with, or talks about the emotions that the poem shares with, those writers are interested in.

Next, the first edition of this poem contains the poems of 30 writers, seven of whom were poems of Korean writers who were performed between 1861 and 1862. Whenever Dong Won-hwan received a poem from a Korean writer, he met with the Korean writers separately for several days and had a deep conversation with them. It can be seen that he is satisfied with the poetry exchange activities through the Chuhoehwachang collection, such as the fact that Dong Won-hwan received a poem from a Korean writer, and that he published this poem in Joseon.

Overall, the Chuhaehwachangjib can be seen as a process of creating collective memories by representing artistic activities between writers and reminding them of cultural memories, reaffirming each other's identities through collective memories, and establishing a new community between writers.

Therefore, I would like to discuss some of the following issues in this paper. The Korean people want to find out how they successfully decoded the hidden topic that Dong Won-hwan was trying to talk about, how they decoded the topic, how they responded to the difficult part to respond and interpreted it constructively in response to the new changes, and how they reaffirmed the collective sense of common consciousness and established a collective identity by dealing with "difference" or "change" that could break down the collective sense of common consciousness.

As a representative commentary on Zuo Zhuan, Zuozhuan Jishi written by Yasui Sokken, a famous Japanese sinologist, was deeply influenced by textology of Qing Dynasty. Under the impact of great emphasis on practical learning in Qing Dynasty, Zuozhuan Jishi not only inherited the Qing Confucians' thoughts of studying classics, including criticizing Du Yu's annotations, reviving Han scholarship and applying Confucian classics to reality, but also adopted and adequately applied the annotation methods of Qing Dynasty's textology in the aspects of philological exegesis, historical research, version collation and so on. What's more, the work also extensively cited the annotation results of dozens of textology scholars in the Qing Dynasty, such as Hui Dong, Gu Yanwu, Wang Niansun, Ruan Yuan and the like, embodying the academic characteristics that focused on exegesis, empirical evidence and collation. While accepting above thoughts and methods of Qing Dynasty's textology, Zuozhuan Jishi demonstrates critical spirit by presenting unique interpretations that differ from the Qing Confucians in terms of specific points, reflecting a selective agreement with their ideas and choosing reasonable one to follow, which strictly practices the Qing Confucians' academic style that is realistic. The origin relationship between Zuozhuan Jishi and textology of Qing Dynasty is an illustration of textological characteristics of Yasui's scholarship, as well as an epitome of the localization of Chinese practical learning in Japan. It is of great benefit to understand the prevalence of Qing Dynasty's textology in Japanese sinological circles during the Edo period, and even to investigate the academic exchange and development between China and Japan.

There are four dimensions to the selection and translation of contemporary Chinese writers' works in Japan: firstly, the award-winning works of the writers; Secondly, choose more short and medium stories as the subject matter; Thirdly, literary works that tend to reflect Chinese historical events, regional customs, and cultural character in terms of content; Fourth, pay attention to the creations of female writers. In the external dissemination of contemporary Chinese literature, the works of Chinese female writers showcase unique literary charm and social insights through their unique female perspectives. Writer Zhang Jie is the first Chinese writer to win three national awards for long, medium, and short stories, and the only writer in the country to win the Mao Dun Literature Award twice. Her works have been translated into over ten languages including English, French, German, Russian, and Danish, with nearly 30 translations available. However, Japan was the first country to pay attention to and translate Zhang Jie's works. The evaluation of writer Zhang Jie by the Japanese academic community is: "As a pioneer of Chinese literature in the new era, she entered the literary world with a unique artistic style and is the most outstanding female writer in an era

The translation and introduction of works by writer Zhang Jie in Japan presents the following four characteristics.

As a concept in narratology, perspective is a special perspective and angle from which a work or a specific narrative text views the external world and inner world. It is the spiritual connection point between the author and the text. The female image presented in Zhang Jie's works is the author's insight into the external world as a female observer. Writer Zhang Jie and Professor Fudi, two women of the same age, meet in the work "Ark". The translator clearly and accurately grasps the author's creative intention and the meaning of the work. The reason why Zhang Jie's works can be successfully translated into Japan is also because the language style of Japanese is suitable for the expression of female writers, with a large number of onomatopoeic words, and female language is very suitable for the form of "inner monologue" in the works. The translation and introduction of Zhang Jie's works in Japan is rigorous, precise, and highly artistic. The author's observation of Chinese society through the protagonist's female perspective and the portrayal of resilient and ideal female images in the works are important elements in the translation and dissemination of Japanese works.

Records on Entering Shu (Ru Shu Ji) is a diary written by the Southern Song poet Lu You (1125-1210) during his journey into the Sichuan region. It consists of six volumes and is one of the longest travelogues of the Song Dynasty, also recognized as the most significant literary achievement and influential diary-style travelogue of its time. After the record was introduced to Japan, it underwent multiple editions, reprints, and annotated translations, achieving widespread dissemination and influence. In post-Meiji publications, Records on Entering Shu was used as a "comprehensive encyclopedia" referenced in various fields such as agriculture, water conservancy, history, geography, customs, and biology. It was also regarded as a "model travelogue" in the literary creations of Japanese literati and Chinese travel accounts, often being admired and imitated in terms of content, creative paradigm, usage of classical references, and travel routes.

The Annotations on the Records on Entering Shu (1881) is considered the earliest known annotated version of the work in East Asia, with its preface and annotations written in Classical Chinese. It was reprinted twelve years after its initial publication, and several Japanese editions with translations and annotations followed. These publications reflect the broad audience Records on Entering Shu found in modern Japan. To this day, academic studies on Records on Entering Shu have covered aspects such as its ideological content, its status and influence, textual studies, and landscape routes. Research on modern Japanese literati's travelogues and writings about China has also established a strong foundation from perspectives such as scholar interactions and image studies. However, there is still a lack of focused studies on the reception of Records on Entering Shu in Japan and its impact on the travel writings of modern Japanese literati about China.

Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to examine Records on Entering Shu within the social and historical context of modern Japan from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. By analyzing contemporary publications of the time and focusing on multiple Japanese translations and annotated editions of the work, the study aims to trace the "line" that links them, providing a glimpse into the "scope" of its dissemination and reception in modern Japan. The goal is to offer a new perspective for research on modern Japanese scholars' travelogues about China and to explore the evaluation and influence of Records on Entering Shu in modern Japan, thereby contributing to the understanding of its literary, cultural and historical value.

With the wide dissemination of The Song of Everlasting regret in Japan, Yang Guifei has also become the subject of much writing by Japanese literati. The image of Yang Guifei in Japanese literature is naturally coupled with the image of "Kiritsubo Consort" in The Tale of Genji by Zi Shibu; in the Noh play by Jinchun Zenbake, she becomes a "resurrected" fairy; in the historical novel The Legend of Yang Guifei by Inoue Yasushi, she shares the same tragic fate as herself;and in folklore, there are two kinds of encounters: "the double theory" and "the resurrection theory". The variation of the image of Yang Guifei in Japanese literature is mainly reflected in the change from "beauty in trouble" to "national god", and in the subject matter of Yang Guifei's literary works, from "feelings of family and country" to "beautiful love".The reasons for the Japanization and variation of Yang Guifei's image are found to lie in the "depoliticization" of Japanese literature, the aesthetic tradition of "mono no aware", the cultural filter and the "exoticization" of literature.

As AI technologies advance, language departments face questions of relevance, while exophonic writing by authors like Jhumpa Lahiri and Yoko Tawada flourishes.

The etymology of the term “exophony”: “exo” (from Ἐξ [ex] = “outside, external”) and “phony” (from Φωνὴ [phōnē] = voice) can be understood as the voice from outside. Yet, what’s "outside"? Every “exo” inherently implies an “endo”.

As Yasemin Yildiz suggests, languages are shaped by nationalistic frameworks that confine their identity to the nation-state with which they are associated. Primarily articulated by Tawada in her 2003 essay Exophony: Travels Beyond the Mother Tongue, exophony aims to transcend such restrictive assignments. However, it remains a theoretically under-explored field, with limited research dedicated to it. While “migrant literature” and “translingualism” engage with related themes, they are not interchangeable concepts. Further investigation could thus unveil new avenues of inquiry and significantly advance this area of study. Additionally, exploring the definition of exophony may serve as a heuristic tool for examining and understanding the evolving landscape of language technologies, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence.

We welcome papers aiming at defining exophony by engaging with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. Exophony in the Digital Age: How does the rise of AI-powered translation and language learning tools impact the practice and reception of exophonic writing?

2. The Politics of Linguistic Choice: What are the political and philosophical impacts of writing in a non-native language in AI-driven globalization?

3. Exophony and Translation Studies: How does exophony challenge or complement current approaches to translation, in light of advancing AI translation capabilities?

4. Future of Linguistic Diversity: Reflections on how exophonic practices might influence the preservation and evolution of linguistic diversity in an AI-dominated future.

Dans un contexte où les technologies d’intelligence artificielle (IA) redéfinissent les pratiques linguistiques, cette recherche propose d’examiner comment des étudiants francophones en cours de traduction et de rédaction en coréen intègrent les outils de traduction automatique (ChatGPT, DeepL, Papago, etc.) dans leurs productions écrites. Plus précisément, elle s’appuie sur le concept d’exophonie, qui désigne l’acte d’écrire dans une langue étrangère et interroge la créativité, l’identité et la voix de l’auteur.

Au sein d’une classe de traduction dans un établissement d’enseignement supérieur en France, nous recueillerons deux versions de travaux écrits : une première rédigée sans aide d’IA, et une seconde réalisée avec l’appui d’outils automatiques. Nous procéderons ensuite à une analyse comparative de ces textes afin de mesurer l’incidence de l’IA sur la qualité linguistique, la diversité lexicale, mais également sur les aspects exophoniques tels que l’appropriation créative d’une langue non maternelle. Des entretiens semi-directifs permettront en outre d’approfondir la perception qu’ont les étudiants de leur propre « voix » lorsqu’ils se reposent sur l’IA pour produire un texte en coréen.

Par cette double approche, quantitative (analyse des écarts linguistiques) et qualitative (étude des discours d’apprenants), nous souhaitons mettre en lumière la tension entre standardisation des productions écrites et maintien d’une spontanéité exophonique. L’enjeu de cette étude est d’élaborer des stratégies pédagogiques qui encouragent à la fois l’autonomie et la créativité des apprenants, tout en reconnaissant l’apport potentiel de l’IA dans la correction et la fluidité linguistiques.

En définitive, cette recherche contribue à éclairer la manière dont l’IA peut reconfigurer, enrichir ou, au contraire, uniformiser l’exophonie, ainsi qu’à proposer des pistes pour l’enseignement du coréen dans un environnement technologique en pleine évolution.

Exophony begins with the recognition that writing need not be anchored in a singular, “pure” literary heritage, challenging the entrenched notion that one’s so-called mother tongue—or a stable, inherited literature—constitutes the exclusive domain of authentic creative production. In exophonic practice, an author’s “voice from the outside” disrupts the myth of a monolingual text through code-switching, stylistic experimentation, and deliberate cultural boundary-crossing. These techniques expose the plasticity of literary forms, revealing that traditions once perceived as fixed can, in fact, accommodate new idioms, hybrid genres, and intertextual dialogues.

In a parallel yet distinct manner, artificial intelligence decentralizes familiar literary models by creating what can be termed “algorithmic interweavings.” Rather than drawing upon a personal or cultural lineage, AI relies on vast multilingual datasets and stochastic pattern-matching. In the process, it may produce mistranslations, dissonant registers, or unexpected textual mash-ups—anomalies that can challenge conventional understandings of literary style and coherence. Far from mere technical glitches, these moments highlight how creative potential may arise from processes not guided by a single authorial vision. By placing AI’s outputs alongside exophonic writings, we begin to see a shared disruption of any strictly “inherited” literary framework. What once seemed like errors can instead become generative sites for renewing our sense of what literature can be.

This shared framework of productive “accidents” grows more vivid in diasporic exophony, where authors may adopt new languages due to familial relocations or economic pressures rather than through explicit ideological choice. Korean-Zainichi author Ook Chung, for example, did not embrace French to resist a dominant culture; instead, his family’s move to Montreal led to an “accidental” adoption of the French language. Much like AI’s stochastic reassemblies, Chung’s linguistic path complicates neat literary categories—whether “Francophone,” “Zainichi,” or “Korean”—and shows how unplanned collisions can yield innovative modes of expression. These diasporic tensions echo AI’s algorithmic interweavings by illustrating how new literary voices emerge when traditional boundaries are disrupted by circumstance or design.

Therefore, whether it is the deliberate boundary-crossing of an exophonic writer, the stochastic textual mixing of AI, or the “accidental” linguistic shifts characteristic of diasporic authors, each demonstrates that literary expression thrives in the tensions and interweavings among languages, cultures, and technologies. By embracing these "voices from the outside"—be they human or machine—comparative literature can cultivate a space that not only acknowledges the fluid, shifting terrain from which new forms, genres, and narratives continually emerge but also renegotiates the very boundaries that define its fields.

As an anthology horror comic with a main target group of girls aged 10–15 and featuring a relatable female heroine for (pre-)teens, Vanessa – Die Freundin der Geister [‘friend of the spirits’] (1982–91) was an exception within the comics market in German-speaking countries in many ways.

Other comics for a young audience such as Bessy (1965–1985), Lasso (1965–85), Silberpfeil [Silver Arrow] (1970–88), Gespenster Geschichten [‘Ghost Stories’] (1974–2006), and Spuk Geschichten [‘Spook Stories’] (1978–95), might have been read by all genders, but their dominance of male protagonists and marginalizing depictions of helpless female supporting characters offered more potential for identification for boys than for girls.

The main story of the anthology was always written by Peter Mennigen and featured the teenager Vanessa as its central character.

In addition to the main story, all formats of the series contained up to four translations of horror comics and short stories with female protagonists.

With its constant heroine and a mixture of recurring and new characters, mostly Vanessa’s adventures intertwined aspects of everyday teenage life with paranormal elements. The stories about Vanessa were designed as a hybrid as they also include (mild) romance and (slapstick) humour as continuous elements. Alongside her boyfriend Harold, a teenage spirit from the middle ages, Vanessa fights many sorts of supernatural villains, mostly gothic archetypes such as demons, ghosts, vampires, or witches. However, troubles in Vanessa’s teenage life not only result from her contact with the other world: The stereotypical evils housekeeper, Mrs. Hagglon, and her sidekick, the butler Brady, are eager to get rid of the teenager and her parents to have the castle and its hidden treasure to themselves. Whereas Vanessa's heroism in the interaction with the supernatural always terminates a threat and sometimes even establishes new friendships, the everyday life adversory with Mrs. Hagglon as personification of the trope of the evil houskeeper permanent.

In my talk, I will discuss the series' manyfold concepts of heroism and villainy in the context of the intertwinement of the natural and the supernatural sphere.

My intersectional analysis of adversary in the comic focuses on age, gender, class, and species.

I argue that the demonification of Mrs. Hagglon leads to a domestification of the supernatural villains and vice-versa - and that Vanessa's female heroism party has a problematic ageist and mysogenic downside.

In the dissertation I will propose the concept of Asian-futurism inspired by Afrofuturism, which consider the present and the future of the African diaspora community through reflecting the past. In the dissertation, I will employ Afrofuturism and “Asian-futurism” to analyze the issues of history, social justice, and colonization in post-colonial theory, especially in settler colonization, in the genres of films, novels, and graphic novels. In Asian-futurism, I will focus on the literary works of Taiwanese indigenous, including Chiu Ruo-Long’s graphic novel Seediq Bale (2011) and documentary Gaya (1998) of Seediq tribe, Huang Ming-Chuan’s film The Man from Island West (1990) of Atayal tribe. I will argue that Taiwanese Indigeneity is like “The Wretched of the Earth”; African American is like “Black Skin, White Masks” via Frantz Fanon’s post-colonial theory.

Afrofuturism, according to John Jennings, is “a theoretical framework, aesthetic and cultural movement, and it attempts to address these questions and many more through electronic music, visual and performance art, speculative fiction and poetry, and an Afrocentric view of what the days to come hold for individuals of African descent.” In Afrofuturism, the term “Sankofa” is from Akan tribe in Ghana and it means “retrieve” and literally “go back and get” (san-: return; -ko-: go; -fa: look, see and take). According to Patricia Metoyer, “the Akan believe the past serves as a guide for planning the future; to the Akan, it is this wisdom in learning form the past which ensures a strong future.” In African American art and literature, “Sankofa” represents the need for the African American community connect to the past in order to reflect better future possibilities. What inspired me to “Sankofa” (retrieve) my own ancestors’ history and to comprehend how the past accomplished the present and consider how to build a potential future was the protagonist in Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred. Butler’s Dana adventures in time travel between Los Angeles in the year of 1976 and Atlanta in the year of 1815. However, contemporary scholarship lacks research on a lineage of significant Taiwanese and African American literary works in the perspective of post-colonialism: including Huang Ming-Chuan’s The Man from Island West (1990), Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Good Men, and Good Women (1995), Göran Hugo Olsson’s Concerning Violence (2014), and Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred (1979). Doing so, I argue that colonial nostalgia is not only for the colonizer but also for the colonized; the more colonial figures in literary works are forgotten, the closer relationship the colonizer and the colonized of the post-colonial period are. Most specifically, I will revisit the aforementioned Taiwanese and African American films, literary works, and graphic adaptations and analyze the following shared elements:

(1) Representation of fragmented history and of use of ellipsis;

(2) Cultural conflicts and hybridity.

Since the first decisive intermediality occurred when orality became inscribed in writing, the arts have always known intermediality as an option. A novel can be turned into movie, a play, an opera, a ballet and a good deal more and thus be part of an intermedial processes. Yet, for the novel to be a novel, it does not need the intermedial transformation. However, in other cases intermediality is necessary for the aesthetic product to exist: a music score has to be performed; a film script has to be shot. The same film can then be shown again and again in an identical form for new audiences. Likewise, a study recording of a performance of a symphony can be reiterated as a CD or a DVD. Yet, the live, embodied performance itself in a study or a concert hall cannot. If performed again it is a new event. The same goes for theatre across the theatrical genres: intermediality is a basic condition for any dramatic genre to exist. And yet, there is a notable difference to a live concert: a classical score cannot be changed, only the performance of it. By contrast, a new performance of a drama may involve translation, abbreviations and use of new technology and still be Hamlet or Le nozze di Figaro for new audiences in new cultural contexts. Hence, intermediality in theatre defines both the basic condition for any staging of a drama and for its re-staging in a new context, often with a change of the textual basis and maybe of the very idea of what a staging is. Different from music, in theatre intermediality generates a reciprocal dynamics between text and staging that defines its cultural dynamics. My paper will exemplify this argument in relation to Mozart/da Ponte's Le nozze di Figaro and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Kris Verdonck is an artist who integrates theater, visual arts, and new media to create innovative reinterpretations of Beckett’s plays within the context of posthuman theory and cross-media art. This paper examines how Verdonck, through the fusion of technological devices, stage space, and performers, presents the crisis of subjectivity, body alienation, and language deconstruction in the posthuman era. By analyzing Actor 1, End, and Conversation Piece, the paper demonstrates how Verdonck uses devices and technology to mediate Beckett’s absurdist philosophy and explores the multiple dimensions of posthuman performance through human-machine interaction and sensory reconfiguration. This study offers significant insights into the intersection of theater and art in the posthuman context.

Contemporary art is currently experiencing a "performative" transformation, with the "presenting sign" serving as a critical dimension for understanding the construction of power within the realm of contemporary theater. Initially, after the modern stage was established, actors were either confined to textual symbols or adhered strictly to the director's vision, resulting in their appearance being consistently suppressed. Gordon Craig's "Super golem" manifesto subtly reveals the director's ambitions. However, the stage practices of Cirque du Soleil exhibit distinct characteristics. In puppet theater, puppets are transformed into objects of aesthetic experience, enabling actors to achieve an integration of "art and performance." Furthermore, the staff members who form the operational foundation of the theater are excluded from direct stage production due to the principle of theatrical illusion. This exclusion reinforces the creation of hallucinatory mechanisms.

In the process of human performers embodying puppets, a cross-media dialogue between human and nonhuman entities is actualized, pursuing the actor's self-evolution. Performers must first identify the "bodily action lines" within scenes—performance schemata composed of minute, precisely defined "somatic movements". The architect's wife's action of picking up a knife to avenge her husband is deconstructed into a sequence of protracted movements: searching, discovering, bending, contacting. Through temporal dilation effects, this choreography intensifies the synesthetic perception of puppet-object interaction. Contrary to inducing dissociation, the decelerated motions demand hyper-attention—an embodied anticipation toward the climactic grasp. Simultaneously, this amplifies the affective virulence of vengeful pathos. During this temporal distension, performers cyclically metabolize the character's psyche, generating an energetic continuum through movement precision. Does this methodology forge a *cybernetic performative apparatus? Is the purported "self-evolution" an emancipation of subjectivity or a Foucauldian intensification of *technologies of the self-through disciplinary somatics?

In one of his last poems published shortly before his death at the age of 95, the poet Tuvia Ruebner (1924-2019) who escaped from Europe in 1941, contemplated not only what would remain of our knowledge and lived experience, but also what vessels, including digital means, will promise their survival. Written in both, or rather between German, his mother tongue, and Hebrew, the language of his land of immigration, his poetry embodies a lifelong journey between self and other, through which this ethical response (and responsibility) of bearing witness to the dead without, however, forgetting the living, is conveyed, articulated and challenged. As Jahan Ramazani notes in Poetry in a Global Age (2020) "Ideally, the circuit we travel by poem or vessel unmoors us, destabilizes our preconceptions, renews our sensory engagements, and opens us afresh to ourselves and the world." In this vein, I argue that Ruebner's poetic traveling destabilizes our preconceptions within a broader ongoing movement of which translingualism is just one, albeit prominent, aspect alongside the shifting between cultural sites, textual traditions and mediums such as music and the visual arts. For instance, Shahar Bram, who explored Ruebner's ekphrastic poetry, showed how various poems ("three Chinese drawings", "two Zen paintings", and "four Japanese woodcut prints"), represent the poet's perception of the otherness of Western culture as a part of his working-through of memory. Following his conclusions, this paper focuses on Ruebner's employment of the far-Eastern haiku in his late work published between 2017 and 2020. I hope to show that this series of German and Hebrew haikus, variants that embody distinct differences, demonstrates the poet's use of the foreign imagination as a "vessel" for his most intimate yet haunting recollections.

Isaac Bashevis Singer’s 1959 novel, The Magician of Lublin, tells the story of an enlightened Jewish magician who “returns” from secularity and modernity to tradition. This process has been widely discussed as a sign of the modern Jews’ ethical yearning for Jewish tradition. However, as the novel ends with a tempting letter from one of the magician’s mistresses, this epilogue invalidates the previous narrative of “returning” to Jewish tradition and brings antithetical possibility to the previous research. Under these circumstances, this article argues that this novel has a two-fold perspective of ethnicity and modernity. For the most part, as an American Jewish writer, Singer uses the magician’s returning to Jewish tradition to satisfy non-Jewish readers’ imagination of Jews in the post-Holocaust period. Meanwhile, as a Yiddish writer, Singer also uses specific Jewish ethical and religious customs that are not widely known among non-Jewish readers to allegorically express his secret worry about Yiddish literature after the Holocaust, during which most Yiddish-speaking Jews perished. From this two-fold perspective, this article argues that The Magician of Lublin shows the irreconcilable ethical position of a modern Jewish writer like Singer in the post-Holocaust period. 

On the one hand, the "nonhuman narrative theory" developed in the West recently has provided a new perspective and method for the study of Chinese narrative literature, and enriched the research content of Chinese narrative literature. On the other hand, Chinese narrative literature has also provided a rich textual foundation for the world nonhuman narrative study, which confirms the interpretive power and effectiveness of the nonhuman narrative theory. Under the special period, The Old Tales Retold also presents the unique nonhuman characteristics of its narration, that is, the Nuwa, the Moon Goddess and the Dead Corpse, etc. This article focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of the nonhuman narrative in The Old Tales Retold, and then reveals the ethical appeal and moral implications behind these genres of nonhuman narration.

Despite the ample documentation of the rapid rise of Protestant Christianity in Korea in the early twentieth century, it still bears explaining why, unlike in the case of China and Japan, Protestant Christianity came to establish itself in Korea’s mainstream culture as well as become a defining trait of the Korean cultural establishment in such an extraordinarily short amount of time. This paper addresses this large question that remains fundamental to understanding the cultural force of Christianity in Korean modernization—one unanswerable by way of quantitative analysis—by examining the most notable cultural product that secured the place of Protestant Christianity in modern Korean culture: the 1917 publication of the novel Mujong (The Heartless) by Yi Kwangsu. If there were any doubts that Christianity marked modernity in Korean culture, the publication of what is considered the first Korean novel permanently secured Christian artifacts as one of the strongest symbols of modernity in the Korean cultural imagination. Yet, as any particular aesthetic product turned into mainstream cultural practice also works to critique the very cultural use it generates, the novel Mujong is also a work of art that resists the cultural codifications it engenders. This paper analyzes Yi’s representation of Christian symbols as kitsch objects in the overall structure of irony of the novel to consider why figures of Christianity have been productive in South Korean literary production.

In_Cinnamon_Shops_, Polish author, Bruno Schulz presents a new narrative of Genesis in which the narrator's Father permutates the words in an ornithological compendium and realizes that he can and should create wholly new species. He proceeds to breed different species of birds together, taking over the top floor and attic of the house where he lives with his creations. He manipulates matter and produces a wholly new world. The son, Josef, declares Father's creative experiments to be heresies, beautiful transgressions. By the end of the book, the Father has advanced a theory of golems that he suggests represent the future of human existence. However, the book ends with his failure: Father witnesses the destruction of his creations. Surrounded by feathers, and carcasses, he howls at the heavens; his messianic creation is reduced to detritus at his feet.

In Schulz's subsequent, _Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass_, the son, Josef, abandons his Father's failed creations and moves into a letter phenomenology in which creation is produced solely through the permutation of the letters of the text. Using "The Book of Creation," Josef believes he has become a witness to the original Genesis. He has discovered the secret of Adam in Eden. However, this project underscores for him that he can either be sealed into the book, or he can abandon this world of letters and forfeit creation in order to live among people.

In other words, Schulz posits two forms of creation, one in which matter is manipulated to produce a golem, and the other, a literary creation in which letters are permutated until the reader slips into the text discovering another world entirely. This paper will explore these two different creations, to argue that Schulz not only sees Father's golems as failure but also rejects Josef's letter phenomenology because its heresy pushes Josef to abandon the human world.

Bibliography

Schulz, Bruno Cinnamon Streets

Schulz, Bruno Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass

Millet, Kitty Kabbalah and Literature

William Gibson is renowned for pioneering cyberpunk fiction. In his most famous novel, Neuromancer, he initiated the imagination of the virtualization of the physical world by projecting human consciousness into cyberspace, presenting a narrative of individual resistance against capitalist thought and logic in a visually dominant space. Although cyberpunk has become a key element and topic in science fiction, Gibson continues to explore new narrative potentials for the genre. In his 2014 novel The Peripheral, Gibson integrates elements of gaming and time travel, creating an intersection between two future timelines through cyberspace. The protagonist in the first timeline is unaware that quantum tunneling technology allows people from different timelines to communicate through consciousness. When she accesses another timeline via a computer screen, she mistakenly believes that the second timeline’s world is merely a game space. Upon realizing that it is, in fact, a distant future world, her consciousness is connected to a peripheral — a robotic avatar — by the people of that future timeline, enabling her to experience time travel and explore the future world in a quasi-physical form. In this novel, Gibson reconstructs cyberpunk narratives by shifting the focus from spatial narratives to cyber-time-space narratives. He presents this cyber-time-space in a game-like manner, which also reflects the virtualization of physical time and space through visually dominant technology. This reflects the phenomenon of the “perceptual machine” described by Joanna Zylinska. In her book The Perception Machine, Zylinska argues that such a machine is an assemblage composed of technological, corporeal, and social dimensions. Her choice of the term “perception” over “vision” highlights that perception is not derived from fixed, unchanging factors but rather from dynamic interrelations of various factors.The perceptual framework imagined in The Peripheral visualizes time and space, generating a new kind of perception machine. This perception machine integrates all sensory perceptions into a visually driven experience through the structure of a game.

The Grapes of Wrath is a masterpiece by John Steinbeck created during the Great Depression, with the westward journey of the Joad family as its main story, supplemented by interchapters that show the profound impact of the drought in Oklahoma on local farmers. This paper analyzes the narrative situations in this novel, especially the use of shifts in narrators and focalization. Steinbeck skillfully switches perspectives between close-ups of the individual experiences of the Joad family and a broader panorama of social tragedy, using zero focalization to narrate the specific stories of the Joad family, while in the interchapters, he employs a montage technique akin to film editing, seamlessly shifting between intradiegetic and extradiegetic narrators to change focalization, which breaks down two barriers: the intradiegetic narrator’s vision barrier and the extradiegetic narrator’s psychological distance barrier, thus providing a panoramic observation of the effects of the Great Depression. The narrative situation he constructs and “free direct speech” he adopts not only enhance the authenticity of the story but also allow readers to deeply experience different narrative perspectives and understand the real sufferings of a variety of representative characters. Steinbeck’s innovative narrative mode has left an indelible mark on American literature, showcasing the enduring spirit of human struggle in the face of hardship.

Languages and writing systems have evolved for various purposes globally. More than two hundred scripts have been used in human writing systems, each containing symbols that represent phonemes. For example, the English language has 44 phonemes represented by 26 letters in its alphabet. This research explores the impact of climate conditions on the number of symbols in global writing systems. The study classifies Earth's climate according to the Köppen Climate Classification, known for its comprehensive categorization of global climate zones. This paper aims to identify a significant correlation between climate conditions and script characteristics. For instance, writing systems in arid regions tend to contain fewer than 40 symbols, whereas those in tropical regions tend to have more than 40 symbols. In temperate climatic zones, writing systems with fewer and more than 40 symbols have evolved equally. This influence of local climate is not observed in scripts that originated after the eighteenth century. The industrial revolution and European colonization have distanced people worldwide from their natural surroundings and local historical cultures, both of which had evolved over millennia. This detachment has disrupted many of the subtle and profound connections that earlier human-nature relationships once maintained. This paper employs both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The Jew of Malta was composed by Christopher Marlowe in 1589 or 1590, in the aftermath of England's triumph over the Spanish Armada in 1588, when England's overseas trade was thriving, albeit with unsatisfactory outcomes. It is a common view among critics that the depictions of the Jew in The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice are in fact a reflection of the authors' profound writing on the anti-Semitism in society at that time. These works serve as a mirror mapping the prejudices of the times. However, these racist studies fail to recognize the important role of Jews in the development of capitalism and in the empire building of the modern state. The very title of the play, The Jew of Malta, contains two crucial information: the geographical space of Malta and the protagonist of the Jew. Marlowe placed the Jew in Malta, the centre of the eastern Mediterranean, to engage in commercial activity. Overseas trade was the source and driving force of early capitalism. The trade of Barabbas, for instance, was emblematic of the prevailing capitalism, chiefly in the form of luxury goods such as precious stones and gold. The overseas trade, both military and political in nature, played a pivotal role in the accumulation of wealth for the British empire. Notably, the slave trade contributed to this process, underlining the multifaceted nature of capitalism. The role of the Jews in the development of capitalism cannot be overstated. Not only did they contribute to the external expansion of capitalism, but they also played a significant internal role, shaping its ideology. The external form manifested as international trade and credit bonds of Barabbas, while the Jews' promotion of greed for profit and free trade became the embodiment of the commercial spirit of capitalism. The history of the British Empire was closely intertwined with the development of British capitalism. The geographical expansion of trade of Barabbas reflected the shift of Europe's economic centre beyond the Mediterranean and the change in the form of trade from export to import-export, alluding to the British construction of a world economic centre and imperial imagination.

Ae-ran Kim is a well-known South Korean writer, but her work has rarely been studied in Chinese academia. Her short story collection, How Was Your Summer? focuses on depicting the life experiences of urban marginal groups in the context of consumerism and liquid modernity. It is a reflection of the individual identity anxiety of the South Korean “post-80s” generation in the wave of compressed modernity. In the story “There Is Night There, and Songs Here,” Long Da, the protagonist, due to the dual constraints of family and social relationships, chooses to exile himself and run away to rebuild his subjectivity. This paper, attempting to interpret the work from the perspective of existentialism, will approach from three subject-object interaction forms: “gaze,” “disregard,” and “mutual gaze,” to explore the realistic connotations of the work and investigate the possibility of creating spaces for individuals to converse with others in the complex modern society.

In the course of the dematerialization of money, cash in the form of coins and banknotes has transformed into scriptural money, now represented as electronic currency stored on server hard drives. This form of money, often referred to as fiat money—drawing an analogy to fiat lux (the creation of light)—can be generated without any material basis. This evolution carries profound implications for society, politics, and the economy, which are further compounded by an additional technological change with similarly far-reaching consequences: the rise of artificial intelligence.

The combination of dematerialized money and technological advancement enables a remarkable paradigm shift in the realm of speculative stock trading, as vividly demonstrated in the novels Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo and The Fear Index by Robert Harris. At the core of both texts are successful financial masterminds who rely on an array of technological tools to conduct their business operations. The reader follows each protagonist over the course of a single day, during which their speculative endeavors are portrayed—ultimately leading to their downfall in both novels.

The respective forms of speculation, however, differ fundamentally: While DeLillo's 28-year-old stock market prodigy, Eric Packer, wagers against the yen from his highly advanced limousine and loses "money by the ton," Dr. Alexander Hoffmann from The Fear Index is a scientist who is "not actually interested in making money." For him, the stock market merely serves as a testing ground for a self-developed AI that governs the trading of his hedge fund. While Packer's hubris causes his wealth to nearly disappear entirely over the course of the day, Hoffmann's AI proves extremely successful, having learned to generate profit by exploiting the emotion of fear in the market. However, this insight leads the AI toward autonomy, ultimately allowing it to overpower its creator and subjugate all other employees.

Both texts pose fundamental questions about technological progress and its impact on the modern economic system, inviting comparison. Through the analysis of structure, narrative techniques, and characterizations, not only can the critical potential of the inherent critique of capitalism be revealed, but also how the speculative nature of literary fiction intersects with economic speculation.

Focusing on economic speculation is essential in order to fully decipher the literary space for reflection on this phenomenon as a whole. While Packer seeks to minimize uncertainty in his decisions by relying on a constant stream of information displayed across countless screens, Hoffmann's profits appear certain, as they are calculated through an algorithm. This effectively removes the previously foundational element of uncertainty from the concept of speculation, ultimately raising a pivotal question: Is speculation even necessary (or possible) in the age of artificial intelligence?

Ragtime written by E.L. Doctorow was a classic of postmodern novels, in which the author employed montage technique in film production to shape typical characters like the three white male figures. Doctorow mainly adopted psychological montage, lyrical montage and metaphorical montage methods to show the mental crisis of the middle-class white men under the tremendous social change including immigrants influx and labor capital conflict, who were usually assumed the most privileged group in the United States. This paper used Eisenstein's montage theory to analyze the promotion of character portrayal through the use of montage techniques and the confusion, struggle or lost state of the mainstream group in the United States in the early 20th century, which worth people’s reflection as the problems still exists in the current American society.

Comparative literature has traditionally critiqued power structures within nation-states and cultural hegemonies, such as the Global North-South divide. However, the rise of multinational corporations (MNCs) as dominant global actors have shifted power away from state-centric frameworks, necessitating new approaches in literary analysis. This study investigates how MNCs influence technology, environmental policies, and sociocultural identities, arguing that they have become central to contemporary critiques of power in literature.

Through close textual analysis of William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’, Don DeLillo’s ‘White Noise’ and Kazi Anis Ahmed’s ‘The World in My Hands’ this research explores how corporate power disrupts traditional notions of national autonomy, ecological balance, and cultural narratives. These texts reveal the pervasive role of corporations in shaping planetary health, commodifying cultural identities, and redefining global systems in the Anthropocene. Central themes—such as environmental degradation, cultural commodification, and the erosion of state power—illustrate the ways literature critiques corporate hegemony.

By integrating interdisciplinary perspectives, including planetary health and cultural studies, this research demonstrates how comparative literature can reposition MNCs as pivotal actors in global power dynamics. Ultimately, this study broadens the field by addressing the ecological, sociopolitical, and cultural transformations driven by corporate dominance in contemporary literature.

The flourishing of Buddhism originated from the Western Regions. It wasn't until the Eastern Han Dynasty that it spread to China. The dissemination and practice of Buddhism can be regarded as an excellent paradigm for general interpretation and practice. Starting from the textual analysis of the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, and the Diamond Sutra, this article explores the interpretive logic and techniques of the Buddha in clarifying Buddhist doctrines and promoting Buddhism, and seeks aspects that can be learned from the successful practice of Buddhist interpretation, thereby enriching the discourse resources of contemporary hermeneutics and promoting public interpretive practice.

The French scholar Pierre Bourdieu put forward the field theory. For Buddhism, the interpretive field is equally important. In Buddhist discourse, the speech itself, the recorder, time, the interpreter, space, and the object of interpretation are manifested as the "Five Evidences of Faith" or the "Six Conditions of Completion." The Five Evidences of Faith of Buddhist scriptures are five elements that prove the authenticity of Buddhist scriptures: "Thus" (the accomplishment of faith), meaning that the content of the Buddhist scriptures is true and trustworthy; "I heard" (the accomplishment of hearing), indicating that disciples such as Ananda heard the Buddha's words with their own ears; "At one time" (the accomplishment of time), which is the time when the Dharma was expounded; "The Buddha" (the accomplishment of the master), highlighting that the subject of the Dharma expounding is the Buddha; "In a certain place" (the accomplishment of place), clarifying the location where the Dharma was expounded. The Five Evidences of Faith can inspire confidence in the listeners or readers of Buddhist scriptures, pointing out the importance of the interpretive field and interpretive form for the interpretive content. Similarly, the "Six Conditions of Completion" mentioned in the general preface explanation of the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters is the same. Compared with the "Five Evidences of Faith," it adds "the assembly" (i.e., the audience present at the Dharma assembly).

The Buddhist scripture texts record the stories of the Buddha's oral teachings and public interpretations to the public. If we borrow the oral formula theory of Parry-Lord and Richard Bauman's performance theory in the field of folklore to shift from the study of the meaning of Buddhist scriptures themselves to the study of oral formulas and interpretive contexts in interpretive practice, it may be a new train of thought.

This research focuses on the popular AI role playing story writing with an aim to comprehend the author-reader dynamics in AI generated literature. AI is the digital extension of literature that comes with the highest technological thrive in the fourth industrial revolution of information and techenology. Literature has long ago moved beyond the literacy media to the electric media. AI has offered digital assistance in creating literature. One of the most used AI features is the role playing stories. Role playing stories is the pattern of conversational story writing where AI writes a role and the person using AI writes another portion of the story. The user can play his part including adding characters and roles into the stories where ai provides the plot and details to the character. This is a popular function of entertainment nowadays for the GenZ. When AI and the user both write a story together, who becomes the author and who is the reader? Who is in the prime role of the storyteller?This study dives into this question exploring the power relation between AI and human users in this digitized notion of writing story. For the analysis the data is collected from popularly used AI role playing online platforms and apps. The critical analysis adapts key aspects from 'Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man'. a 1964 book by communication and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. The paper provides understanding in three critical points. Firstly, there is a thorough discussion on the sociology of AI literature focusing on the language model of these role playing stories. This will highlight how AI story writing is employed to foster new forms of ethical behaviour, thought and creativity in the language and literature. Secondly, the analysis examines how these AI plots mostly offer Genz fantasies of story writing, generating from mostly trendy topics on the internet. This tendency blurs the presence of the original author as several sources of information are blended into. Thirdly, The study shows how this AI role playing story pattern deals with the dichotomy of reader and writer and how the reader merges into the role of writer. The user acts and reacts, reads and writes the story at the same time . With these three comprehensive analysis parts the paper uncloaks the power dynamics of author and reader in the digitized version of literature provided by artificial intelligence.

As of 2025, the popularity of born digital literature is at its peak. Readers from across the globe are intrigued about the new and engaging forms of born digital texts. Though an emerging genre, born digital literature are not very easily and widely accepted and placed side by side with print texts by the readers, academicians, or critics. They often base their opinions and judgements keeping in mind the traditional print culture. A 'book' can now mean both the conventional, physical, and material thing and a born digital text which do not have a material existence. Certain readers do not consider the born digital texts worthy of being a literature. Born digital literature is essentially ludic. The idea of ludocity is automatically attached to digital texts without any critical view as opposed to “serious” texts which are the printed texts. The print culture has certainly dominated heavily over the past few centuries and even more with the rise of capitalism, thus the minds are very used to the print medium and this change into digital media requires some getting used to. The printed words in a book have been regarded as uncontestable, whatever has been published is final and absolute. This teleiopoesis is the norm of the print culture. This standard faces a challenge in digital culture. Readers do not place the same faith in an e-book like a printed book. Digital literature is placed in the same box as that of video games, but should not video games also account for a genre which can be considered as literature? Certainly, games like "Zork", "Myst", and "Planet Alpha" can give us a text with a critical perspective. We, as comparatists, cannot just discard them to a non-serious domain of games. Born digital texts often do not undergo screening and are easier to publish independently in contrast to a printed book so the chances of error are much more of a probability for an e-book. Thus, the highest integrity and supremacy given to a book in the print culture is undergoing a change in the digital culture.

With the debut of born digital texts the concept of book and reading has remodeled. The limitations of a printed text are lifted from a digital text. Jean Pierre Balpe’s "Towards a Diffracted literature", clearly explains the phenomena of the change of media bringing forth a change in the mode of reading. In an e-book we are not only invested in the meaning making process but also the outer makeup of the text or the structure. Modifying and playing with the font style, size, colour, brightness, and backgrounds engage the readers into a play of medium. This interest in the outer structure of the text is due to the new found freedom from all limitations which are imposed by a print text. The readers feel a kind of power, power to participate in the text, power to manipulate the text, power to feel like an author and go above the author.

We experience a shifting of cultures with the shifting medias. From oral to print culture now we are in a digital culture surpassing the print-based realm, but the similarity of digital culture with oral culture is obvious. The authorship fluctuates in both the oral culture and the digital culture, the physical immateriality of both the medium brings forth quite similar possibilities and challenges. Different from print culture where one or a few individuals claim the authorship of the book, the productions in digital culture are usually a collaborative work. E-text is the creation and production of texts, images, videos, audios, graphics all together so a digital work is a cooperative work, where authorship is usually not claimed by an individual. "The Death of the Author" becomes an easier manifestation in the digital culture to the point where in some texts the name of the text is of enough information for the readers unless he/she wants a deeper dive in the process of the making of the texts. Texts such as "SBS Boat", "First Draft of the Revolution" by Emily Short, "Sultana’s Reality", "Nippon", "Flash", "Chroma" by Erik Loyer are some examples of the performance texts in digital culture. The above-mentioned texts provide a new and unique opportunity for students of comparative literature to understand and consider the process beyond the close reading of the texts, and the notion of authorship is not simple here. When the texts are far removed from a specific, 'supreme' author then the texts become truly global, authorship connects a text to a geo-political location which is not applicable for digital literature. In a born digital literature, the creators can collaborate even from different time zones from opposite parts of the world, in asynchronous collaboration. These practice produces a transnational situation which is free from any hierarchy, be it social, political, or economic.

Xiaoyuzhou FM is a Chinese podcast app officially launched in March 2020. Unlike other multi-functional social apps, it provides listening experiences exclusively for users. Podcasts tailored to users will be recommended according to personal preference(by tags). At the same time, users can also search for their favorite programme, send pop-ups and comments in every episode, and find fellow podcasters with similar tastes. In recent years, podcast has become much popular among young people. Eye-friendly, rich-in-content, and full of emotional connections, it fully satisfies young people's need to receive information in fragmented time. On Xiaoyuzhou FM, people can express their views and have in-depth communication and discussions with other listeners. Through this process, they find themselves being more confident, caring and reflective, which helps to promote individual interaction, self-cognition and public participation.

Now more and more people engage in Digital Social Reading on Xiaoyuzhou FM. One of the most attractive reasons is that they can find a community with the same reading interests, which guarantees a sense of belonging. Listeners usually crowd under certain podcasts, where topics considered to be inappropriate or unlucky in offline conversations(like families and schools) can be talked about freely. For example, many podcasters have shared books about aging, disease and death in their programme, which are rarely mentioned in Chinese culture. These books include Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor, Erik Olin Wright’s Stardust to Stardust: Reflections on Living and Dying, and Shi Tiesheng’s Disease Gap Broken Pen. Also, the listener feedback function allows podcasters to adjust the content according to their audience’s responses and thus a two-way communication is built up. This new pattern of Digital Social Reading has changed the reading practice of Chinese young people as well as comparative literature studies. And this research aims at exploring how readings about themes that are not encouraging in Chinese society are carried on by young people on Xiaoyuzhou FM, and how they are received and understood through people’s communication with others in the online community.

The title of the Group session applied for:

A3. Convergence of Literature and Technology: “The Transformation of the Book and Reading in the Post-Digital Age; Born-Digital Literature”

This article examines the integration of chuānyuè (time travel), a narrative trope popularized by Chinese Web literature—particularly on platforms like Jinjiang—into more traditional literary and artistic forms. While scholarship on chuānyuè has predominantly focused on its role in reflecting contemporary societal dynamics, little attention has been paid to its adoption into works that transcend linguistic, cultural, and geographical boundaries. This study addresses this gap by analyzing Shan Sa’s Les Quatre Vies du Saule (1999) and the ballet Dūnhuáng (2017), both of which employ chuānyuè to blur boundaries between genres, time periods, and geographies, creating what Bhabha terms "third-space" and Glissant calls "chaos-monde."

In Les Quatre Vies du Saule, chuānyuè intertwines fantastical transformations with historical and cultural narratives, as a willow branch-turned-woman journeys across centuries in pursuit of love and self-discovery. Similarly, Dūnhuáng reimagines the trope through a mystical quest inspired by the Mogao cave frescoes, bridging ancient artistic traditions with contemporary dance performance. These works not only reinterpret chuānyuè but also reverse the conventional trajectory of cultural exchange—typically West to East—by projecting Chinese cultural forms into Western frameworks such as the French novel and classical ballet.

This paper argues that through the trope of chuānyuè, these works disrupt established hierarchies of genre, geography, and temporality. They allow disparate cultures and temporalities to merge while preserving their inherent tensions, fostering a dynamic space for cultural dialogue and exchange. This synthesis reflects a broader theoretical framework, where chuānyuè serves as a vehicle for articulating the “chaotic” interplay of global cultures, neither erasing differences nor subordinating one tradition to another.

German dramatist Bertolt Brecht's dramatic theory, characterized by its cross-cultural and critical nature, fundamentally transformed 20th-century dramatic aesthetics. This paper employs a comparative literature perspective to elucidate the genesis, dissemination, and transformation of Brecht's dramatic views. First, Brecht challenged Aristotle's empathy-based system by introducing "epic theater" and the "alienation effect," thereby exposing theatrical conventions and undermining illusionism. His reinterpretation of Chinese opera's stylized performance laid the groundwork for reconstructing Western dramatic traditions. Second, from a historical perspective, Brecht dialectically engaged with the Enlightenment tradition, responding to Diderot's notion of "rational control of actors" while critiquing Stanislavski's acting system to redefine the relationship between spectatorship and performance. Additionally, his dialogue with Artaud's Theater of Cruelty further highlights the tension between rational enlightenment and sensory revolution in modernist drama. Finally, this paper examines the proliferation of Brecht's theories in the digital age, where interactive theater in the era of social media has engendered new forms of alienation, thus activating art's potential to intervene in society within the context of globalization. The comparative literature approach not only deconstructs the binary opposition between traditional Eastern and Western drama but also reveals the productive misreadings that occur during theoretical migration, offering a novel framework for reevaluating the relationship between drama and ideology.

My paper focuses on Indigenous Canadian and Greenlandic performances: Émilie Monnet’s Okinum (2018) and Din historie er også min / Oqaluttuaatigut (2023) produced by Teater freeze Production & Naleraq Lights.

First of all, Okinum, the interdisciplinary and immersive performance of Anishnaabe/Algonquin /Francophone artist Émilie Monnet, echoes the cultural and political realities experienced by First Nations in Canada. The multilingual performance (English, French and Anishnaabemowin) revolves around the oneiric metamorphosis with the mythical figure of the beaver which helps the protagonist heal, reclaim her language and embrace her identity. Following the same themes, the multilingual Din historie er også min / Oqaluttuaatigut performed by Josef Tarrak and Else Danielsen draws on the traumatic past of colonized Greenland and follows an intergenerational dialogue fuelled by dreams and a constant search for identity.

By putting these artists in dialogue, I aim to analyse the artists’ non-anthropocentric approach which focuses on the re-interpretation of a traumatic collective experience of human violence through the perspective of the more-than-human. Moving beyond anthropocentrism, the performances highlight the poetic, political and ontological importance of more-than-human elements in Indigenous theatre. Staging humanimality (V. Greene) and focusing on nature is a strategy that allows a mediation of care towards the oppressed and enables alternative ecologies of response-ability (D. Haraway) and care. Exploring profound issues revolving around memory, colonialism and identity reclamation, these two performances are deeply rooted in care ethics, reflecting their attentiveness, responsibility, competence and responsiveness (J. Tronto). Furthermore, the artists rethink this concept and develop an “ethic of kinship” (K. Nelson) fuelled by an Indigenous understanding of otherness. In addition, the performative genre of this work implies a complex range of technological approaches through embodiment, visual and aural devices.

Drawing on ecocritical, post-humanist and feminist perspectives, my paper seeks to explore Indigenous Canadian and Greenlandic performances as they illustrate identity exploration, empowerment and kinship with the more-than-human. By analysing these performances as a case study and bringing together cultural, animal and performance studies, my paper argues that staging of the more-than-human challenges the existing framework of care ethics and enables theatre to become a genuine space of empowerment, dialogue and allyship.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brugère, Fabienne. L'éthique du care. Presses Universitaires de France, 2017.

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Caune, Jean. La médiation culturelle. Expérience esthétique et construction du Vivre-ensemble. Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 2017.

Haraway, Donna Jeanne. When Species Meet. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Lafortune, Jean-Marie. “La Médiation Culturelle: le sens des mots et l’essence des pratiques” in Jean Caune. Montréal: Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2012.

McLisky, Claire and; Eiby Møller, Kirstine. “The Uses of History in Greenland” in The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Studies, 2021.

Nussbaum, Martha, Frontiers of Justice Disability, Nationality, Species Membership, Harvard University Press, 2007.

Slote, M. The Ethics of Care and Empathy, London-New York, Routledge, 2007.

Tronto, Joan C. Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice. NYU Press, 2013.

- ---------- Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care (1st ed.). Routledge. 1993.

This article aims to analyze the fact that the technology of identifying counterfeits in traditional Chinese textual criticism is actually related to the construction of author identity and the representation of author concepts, especially the mature technology of identifying counterfeits formed in the early Qing Dynasty. It not only examines the credibility of literature, but also involves issues such as text production, author identity, meaning evolution, and material stability.

Traditional textual research often regards the identification of counterfeits as a technical examination of false events, false statements, and false books, while ignoring the supporting concepts behind the technology, namely the inherent interdependence between the sacredness of classical texts and author identity. In some contexts, the issue of confirming the authenticity of classical texts overlaps to a high extent with the confirmation of author identity. By focusing on the analysis and discussion of Yan Ruoqu (1636-1704), Hu Wei (1633-1714), Yao Jiheng (1647-1715) and other textual criticism scholars in the early Qing Dynasty, this study aims to reveal the differences in the number, titles, wording, and materials used between different versions of the Book of Documents, the Book of Changes, and the Preface to Mao Shi, as well as the differences in style, examples, and language styles of different classical texts compared to other texts of the same period. The study aims to reveal the behavior of verifying the authenticity of textual criticism in classical studies, as well as the relatively mature anti-counterfeiting techniques developed in the early Qing Dynasty. In fact, it aims to confirm the relationship between the text and the author, representing the dynamic construction of the author's identity and the generation of text meaning. Process. At the same time, this article attempts to use modern generative artificial intelligence technology to re-examine Yan Ruoqu's process and results of identifying counterfeits in the "Ancient Book of Documents". This article provides different perspectives on how technology deals with author concepts and the sacredness of classical texts, as well as related issues such as intertextuality and stability in literature.

In 1895, the first printing machinery factory, Li Chung Chang Machine Factory, was established in Shanghai, marking the transition of Chinese printing industry from woodblock printing to the mechanical age. Printers and publishers, as the carrier of material culture, have had an impact on the creation and distribution of Literary works. Before the mechanical age, official and private printing based on artisanal craftsmanship carried the public moral pursuits of the literati and scholars。But the situation changed in the course of economic development in the late Ming, when the book business gradually developed and commercial interests were gradually legitimised, meaning that books could be materialised objects carrying both moral and monetary values. When western technology was introduced to Shanghai， it combined with Chinese printing and publishing culture and business, finally transforming printing and publishing into mechanised production industry. The carrier feature of books is amplified several times over, culminating in printing capitalism. This revolution held authors and print publishers hostage, fostered the growth of modern Chinese literature, and allowed a commercially oriented readership market to expand. Meanwhile, in the field of literary writing, the old Chinese cultural values and behaviours have been impacted. The literati, intent on upholding the moral ideal of non-profit-making, have had to reconcile and balance their ideals and business under the impact of new technology and capital. Through specific literary works, such as Mao Dun's The Second Chapter of the Right, and The Young Printer，this paper will analyse the new authorial persona of writers who positioned themselves as disseminators of technology and enlighteners of progressive thought in the new technological environment and capital culture during the opening period of modern Chinese literature.

This paper contends that certain overbroad and misplaced "anti-machine" rhetoric has undermined the attempts to affirm the uniqueness of "biotranslator," presumed to differ from "machine translation." It aims, therefore, to further clarify the concept of translator-author creativity, particularly when it is not merely framed as an "added value," and what this creativity entails in the machine era. Additionally, this paper investigates whether contemporary machines, including machine-assisted translation tools and their operational mechanisms, contribute to enhancing the capabilities of translator-authors.

Mirok Li (1899-1950) has been described in various ways—an exile, an overseas student, an independence activist, a philosopher, a zoologist, and a novelist. His life paths cannot be singularly defined, reflecting the intricate interweaving of different aspects of his transnational trajectory. Born in Haeju, he continued his medical studies in Gyŏngsŏng, fled to Germany via Shanghai, and later engaged in literary activities in exile. Even after settling in Germany, his path remained multifaceted: Three years after publishing his dissertation in Zoology, he began writing short stories, ultimately publishing his first novel The Yalu flows in 1946.

This study explores the central questions: Why did an exile Mirok Li begin writing fiction in Germany? The existing scholarship has largely portrayed him as a 'cultural ambassador of Korea' of a figure spreading knowledge of his homeland. However, it has overlooked his active editorial and publishing engagement with literary works from East Asian nations. Addressing this gap, this study examines the characteristics of Li’s exilic literature in Germany and explores its connections with world literature. Li was the first Korean to write in German, actively participated in Germany’s World Literature series projects, selecting and introducing East Asian literary works for a German readership. Thus, this study hypothesizes that Li, as a mediator of East Asian literature, sought ways for East Asian literature to coexist within the framework of world literature, while ultimately exploring pathways to world peace.

To achieve these objectives, this research employs Goethe’s concept of Weltliteratur and Rey Chow’s theory of cultural translation as its methodological framework. Given that Li began his literary career after his exile to Germany, this study focuses on his literary activities between 1920 and 1950. It examines the networks he established with German writers, Asian intellectuals, and socialist circles in Europe. The primary sources include his essays and novels published in Germany, and archival materials from the German Literature Archive Marbach related to Germany’s world literature projects. Li also personally translated and introduced East Asian literary works into German, making it crucial to examine how his own writings positioned and represented East Asian culture and literature within the field of world literature.

The ultimate goal of this research is to expand the scope of studies on Mirok Li, which have so far been confined to his novel The Yalu Flows (Der Yalu fließt).

Furthermore, by examining post-World War I era -when values such as peace and reconciliation were emphasized- through the lens of Li as an exile, this research offers insights into the contemporary understanding of world literature and global citizenship. In doing so, it critically engages with and rethinks key concepts such as borderlessness, post-nationalism, and transnationalism.

Cette communication examine les dimensions linguistiques (et traductologiques) des récits migratoires d’autrices iraniennes telles que Marjane Satrapi, Maryam Madjidi et Nahal Tajadod, dont les œuvres, écrites directement en français, témoignant d’expériences complexes de migration, de mémoire et d’appartenance, mais où l’écriture en français devient un acte de traduction intérieure, un processus d’auto-traduction au sens métaphorique. L’objectif principal est d’analyser comment cette traduction intérieure agit comme un vecteur de médiation interculturelle, tout en interrogeant les représentations de perte, de transformation et de transfert culturel qui émergent dans le passage entre la langue de l’univers de ces récits (le persan) et celle de leur écriture (le français).

Dans cette communication, j’analyserai mon corpus de deux points de vue :

1. La (auto)traduction intérieure comme outil de recontextualisation

Je présenterai les stratégies traductives employées par ces trois autrices pour adapter les référents culturels iraniens (les concepts religieux, les rituels, ou la poésie persane, les proverbes et noms propres) au lectorat français.

2. Langue de l’exil : écrire ou s’autotraduire ?

J’explorerai les tensions linguistiques dans les textes d’autrices comme Nahal Tajadod (Passeport à l’iranienne) ou Maryam Madjidi (Marx et la poupée), où l’écriture en français devient un acte de traduction intérieure et j’étudierai l'impact de la migration sur la langue source et la langue cible, en me posant une question principale : quels déplacements opère ce type de traduction/écriture sur les récits d’exil et d’appartenance ?

Mon corpus sera constitué principalement de :

• Persepolis (2000-2003) de Marjane Satrapi : (bande dessinée autobiographique traduite dans plusieurs langues).

• Passeport à l’iranienne (2007) de Nahal Tajadod : (récit semi-autobiographique écrit en français, explorant les tensions identitaires entre l’Iran et la France).

• Marx et la poupée (2017) de Maryam Madjidi (roman autobiographique écrit en français, qui interroge les thèmes de l’exil, de la langue et de l’héritage culturel).

Je choisis de travailler spécifiquement sur les autrices, car leurs récits migratoires sont souvent marqués par des enjeux de genre et des expériences spécifiques liées à la condition féminine en Iran. Ces écrivaines, à travers leur langue et leurs choix narratifs, ouvrent un champ d’analyse particulier sur les tensions et les rapports de force linguistiques et culturels, ainsi que sur la manière dont la traduction et la langue de l’exil deviennent un outil pour revisiter et redéfinir leur rapport à la culture d’origine et à celle d’accueil. L'objectif de la communication est donc de comprendre la traduction comme un acte créatif et culturel, en montrant que la (auto)traduction des récits migratoires,où chaque mot porte une charge émotionnelle, ne se limite pas à un simple transfert linguistique, mais implique une reformulation des expériences d'exil pour un lectorat étranger.

This presentation, which will be brief and exploratory, examines the even shorter autobiographical chronicle, "Balada de los Apalaches" (Ballad of the Appalachian Mountains) by Melanie Márquez Adams, written and published in Spanish in 2020 in Querencia, the author's compilation of similar chronicles. Of particular interest to me is Márquez Adams's understanding and use of the concept of "soledad": a concept (often translated into English as "solitude") that in many respects has become emblematic of the Latin American condition and to some extent of the Latin American region as a whole; indeed, soledad – as it is developed and expressed across several moments in Latin American thought – is the focus of my current monograph; I am still in the early stages of this project, so I would welcome any suggestions. In "Balada de los Apalaches," I am particularly interested in how the author grapples with her stimulating but uneasy residency in the United States, where the mountains of eastern Tennessee both remind her of her Ecuadorian homeland, while simultaneously reminding her that she is now in a new region, far from her origins. In expressing this nostalgia, Márquez Adams deploys notions of soledad. To what extent does this deployment of our concept align with other usages within the Spanish-American intellectual tradition? Conversely, to what extent does it depart from said usages? In either case, in what ways does Márquez Adams's short chronicle expand our understanding of "soledad" in the Americas? The answers to these questions entail explorations into both migration and translation, the twin subjects of this panel.

People moving across borders naturally bring languages into contact, occasioning acts of translation. Yet the standard history of translation theory has surprisingly little to say about immigration, emigration, or diaspora—and there is strikingly little research in translation studies on the place of migration in the movement of literature across languages. This brief (8–12 minute) paper will introduce and frame the panel "Translating Migration: The Movement of Texts and Individuals in World Literature." Modern forms of diasporic mass migration across national language boundaries are prone to precipitate the translation of literature. This chapter in the history of world literature surpasses any dynamic once envisioned by Goethe. It gives us a vision of literary translation as a distinctively migratory literary practice, and one which might have particular expressive import to writers caught up in histories of migration as they play out over the course of generations.

This study delves into the universe of sijo, classical Korean chant poetry, through a formal and thematic analysis of the anthological work “Sijô: Poesiacanto Coreana Clássica”, the only sijo compendium translated into Brazilian Portuguese by Yun Jung In and Alberto Marsicano in 1994. The research explores the origin of sijo, its recurring themes and examines its musical aspect and graphic layout. Based on the compilation by Yun Jung Im and Alberto Marsicano, the work seeks to uncover the most important characteristics of this poetic genre, revealing its beauty and cultural richness. In this case, the translation of the work in question plays a crucial role as a tool of intertextuality. By introducing sijo to the Brazilian public, the translation opens doors to cultural dialogue and to the formation of cultural identities of chant poetry in Brazil. Therefore, this work also seeks to examine, through an intertextual-cultural analysis, how the translation of sijo can inspire new translators to venture into this poetic genre. The theoretical basis will be Kristeva (1974) on intertextuality and translation as an intertextual process; Bakhtin (2003) on translation as dialogue; Bassnett (2002) on the role of translation in fostering intercultural dialogue involving peripheral cultures; and Venuti (1998) on the formation of cultural identities. At the end of the research, we hope to be able to affirm that, by having access to concrete, high-quality examples, Brazilian translators can be inspired by the forms and techniques of sijo, expanding the range of poetic possibilities in our language and that the translation of sijo contributes to expanding knowledge about Korean culture, stimulating intercultural dialog and opening the way to new poetic creations.

Any textual process is an encounter, a willing engagement with difference; every single act of reading and writing is intersubjective- between individuals located in different time spaces and temporal locations; making it cross-cultural. All literary texts are situated in a particular time, space, and structure of feeling and the textual practices of writing and reading are acts of engaging with difference. Translation also, being a textual process, is an encounter with alterity. Difference being a relational concept, the process of translation enables the comparison of differences in language, because of the attempt made by the translator who is willing to go to the other side and engage with difference.

This paper aims to analyze translation, through a comparative approach, that is, focusing on the willingness to engage with alterity across cultural differences. It attempts to explore the ethics of cross-cultural encounters through literary texts, specifically a text in the source language Malayalam translated into the target language English, thus providing insights into various aspects of engaging with alterity. The literary text in consideration is a short story titled “ജനൽപ്പടിയിലെ വിളക്ക്” by Kamala Das which translates to “Lamp on the Windowsill”, which is a part of the author’s autobiography “എൻ്റെ കഥ” (My Story). The concepts put forth by scholars like S. A Syeed, Ipshita Chanda, Ignacio Infante, Hans Jauss, Jaques Derrida, and Venuti Lawrence will be taken into account to understand the ethics of translation.

We enquire into the potential role of ‘translation,’ in its broadest sense, in addressing racial injustice, social inequality, climate change, sickness, and other global concerns. Following the question of poet and critic Fred Morten, can we think of ‘making’ and ‘repair’ as diffused into a rhythmic flow? Can we imagine making it a form of repairing the existing ‘order.’ This reminds us of the ‘piecemeal construction’ of Kafka in his short story titled “The Great Wall of China”. Analysing the great failure in the construction of the Biblical Tower of Babel, Kafka suggested that the piecemeal construction process that the Chinese followed should be the ideal way of construction. To construct the wall as a succession of pieces, a large number of employees were divided into many groups and scattered in various directions. Taking ‘piecemeal construction’ as a useful constructional endeavour in the synergy of ‘black translation,’ which repairs, connects, heals, redresses and generates conversations, builds communes and most importantly nurtures South-South collaboration.

To think black, to feel, to see, to touch, and to taste, we need to look at the resonance between ‘black’ and ‘translation’. Both have been objectified and often conceptualised against ‘light,’ ‘source,’ ‘original,’ ‘fair,’ and ‘pure'. Extending our inquiry further, we can gaze on a similar binary, like ‘west’ and ‘east,’ which later, in the wake of postcolonialism, became ‘first world’ and ‘third world,’ and in the current era of neoliberalism/ globalisation rebranded as ‘global north’ and 'global south’.

This paper wants to look at ‘repair’ as an act of ‘black translation,’ where we will take measures towards redressal of social injustice and healing of wounds created by the environmental Anthropocene through self-fashioning translation projects by looking at practices of translation in South Asia. The idea of ‘non-recognition’ therefore should be used as a weapon—political, social, racial, and academic—to challenge the subtlety through which the Global North operates and tags everything as ‘global’ and ‘universal’. Can the notion of the South be applied to areas of social life that are not directly related to development differences, such as those involving the formation of one’s own identity?

Using concepts like ‘translation as fission, evolution, reparation, and healing,’ available in the translational practices of pre-colonial South Asia, can we heal environmental calamities and sustain world peace and ecological holism by using ‘black translation’ as a methodological apparatus? Can we foster ‘black translation’ as a ‘contact zone,’ a ‘fluid space,’ a ‘liquefied medium,’ for flows of immigration, racial arrhythmia, sexual non-binaries, and decolonial insurgency? Since the current disciplinary discourses of translation studies fail to adequately address the issues and concerns of the Global South, then it is time to un-light and think black.

In recent years, the concept of “reparation” has come to the fore, particularly in connection with decolonization issues (Savoy/Sarr). Reparation practices are seen first and foremost as strategies for restoring lost symmetry, whether through reparation or reappropriation. However, they are also a form of cultural resistance that can alter perceptions of the world, personal projects and lifestyles. In this context, it is above all the process of repair, as a practice, that deserves to be examined, as the question remains whether we can truly repair and compensate: “We can only repair well what we renounce to restore to its initial state”. (Boucheron) This awareness of the irreparable was formulated by Bachir Diagne when he described “the loss of humanity” as irreparable and pleaded: “Just address the irreparable”.

I wish to explore the phenomenon of reparation through literary texts, in particular literary translations made at different times and in different languages, in order to develop a global socio-political understanding of reparation through the ages. Translations, including revisions of older translations, can be seen as vectors of reparation that transmit knowledge, while helping to both reinforce and initiate discourses on reparation, while also critically interrogating them. In linguistic terms, translations can not only address decolonization, but also renegotiate issues of gender (for example, the representation of the feminine or the non-binary). After analyzing theoretical reflections on reparation and translation, notably those of Souleymane Bachir Diagne in De langue à langue: L'hospitalité de la traduction, I would like to examine examples of specific translations.

Translators have observed that the residues remaining to be transgressed, transported, and translated are the obstructed meanings in the contact zone or border zone of untranslatable original language when translating from one language to another culturally and linguistically. In order to ascertain the authorial "unintended" intention of the original language, the unblocking technique is required. In the 21st century, the only feasible method of surmounting the barrier of untranslatability across languages and cultures appears to be through a magic door of Wonderland that must be opened by the peculiar Other, which manifests in the form of the environment both within and without human consciousness: ecology and technology. Human neurological structures, which represent the natural world within, are constituted of neurons that are constructed and subsequently directed by the interaction between genes and the environment. This neurological structure functions analogously to a multi-dimensional map for the AI that represents technology without. The data-processing circuits or pathways will be formed by algorithmically programmed collected data, which will be transformed into feedback loops. In order to endure the new ecological environment, both human intelligence and artificial intelligence function as organic and inorganic organs. This presentation will endeavor to conceptualize translation in the context of the eco-techno turn by examining the organic and inorganic components of translational texts, which, despite their inorganic nature, create an organic text that is living and sustaining in its own environment.

In contemporary times, globalization has rendered physical distances less significant, blurring national borders and connecting us into a shared, albeit ambiguous, community. The nursery rhyme refrain, “It is a small world after all,” encapsulates this interconnectedness, emphasizing how compact and interwoven the world has become. In such a context, setting regional parameters for ‘comparison’ might seem futile. However, meaningful comparisons can emerge by identifying differences through frameworks that respect local particularities while fostering global dialogue.

Since the late 1970s, postcolonial theory has catalyzed shifts in how Asia is conceptualized within cultural discourse. Critiques of exoticism, primitivism, and essentialist frameworks for understanding Asia spurred the rejection of Orientalist perspectives. By the 1980s, these critiques inspired Asia-centered scholars to propose alternatives emphasizing the unique historical and cultural contexts of Asian societies. This methodological shift, described as regional studies, offered a nuanced lens to counter earlier reductive paradigms.

Nevertheless, region-based art history presents limitations. Emphasizing Asia’s intrinsic value risks excessive isolation and marginalization, inadvertently perpetuating the peripheralization it seeks to dismantle. This research advocates for a more reflexive perspective, focusing on South Asian art practices that reject ethnographic and sociological frameworks in favor of self-defined approaches to cultural identity. These practices offer new ways of understanding cultural identity and comparison, transcending the constraints of regional studies.

This study highlights the work of Raqs Media Collective, an Indian artist group established in 1991 in New Delhi, as an exemplar of these alternative approaches. Operating as artists, philosophical agents, and provocateurs, they embody a concept of resonance that embraces both dispersion and unity—a paradoxical idea reflecting the complexities of contemporary times. Their notion of ensemble articulates distinct identities without overemphasizing national boundaries, serving as a key term in contemporary comparative literary studies. For example, their multi-disciplinary projects juxtapose historical narratives with speculative futures, creating spaces for dialogue that transcend traditional solidarities.

This approach opens endless possibilities for rethinking cultural comparison beyond reductive binaries. The dichotomous framework dividing East and West may no longer hold relevance in an interconnected world. However, reflecting on such frameworks inspires meaningful directions for comparative analysis. By examining ensemble as a conceptual tool, this study seeks to foster a universal understanding that the ultimate purpose of comparing literature and culture—whether through regional distinctions or other frameworks—is to promote harmonious coexistence and mutual enrichment among diverse cultural landscapes.

Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island (2019) decolonizes dominant, often Eurocentric, climate narratives by foregrounding South Asian oratures as vital epistemological frameworks for understanding and responding to environmental precarity. This study argues that Ghosh’s novel reimagines climate change through the Bengali legend of Bon Bibi, the goddess of the Sundarbans, thereby challenging techno-scientific rationalism prevalent in Western climate discourse. Instead, Gun Island emphasizes indigenous knowledge systems, spiritual beliefs, and localized narratives as crucial for comprehending the multifaceted dimensions of environmental catastrophe. These oratures, deeply rooted in local ecological wisdom and spiritual traditions, offer potent counter-narratives to technologically deterministic and globally homogenized understandings of environmental change.

Furthermore, the novel exposes the environmental injustices exacerbated by climate change, particularly its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities in the Global South and the South Asian diaspora, manifested in climate-induced displacement. By centering the Bon Bibi orature, Gun Island not only critiques the epistemic dominance of Western climate narratives but also amplifies marginalized voices and alternative knowledge systems. With decolonial and environmental humanities frameworks, this study reveals how Ghosh’s work contributes to a decolonized understanding of climate narratives. Ultimately, Gun Island reimagines global narratives of environmental crisis from the Global South, fostering a more ecologically just and culturally diverse vision of our shared planetary future within ‘World Literature’.

Translation of oral literature has often been criticized for its limitations in its ethical representation of the ethnic identity and geo-cultural spaces of indigenous people. Since English has become the lingua franca dominating the literary culture in the post-colonial global cultural configuration, translator, majorly translating from indigenous languages into English, struggle with the “acceptable” narrative style and techniques that the English language allows. As English has become the language of worldwide communication and portability of regional literature, what suits in the English language compromises the native narrative styles, musicality inherent in indigenous taletelling, let alone culture specificities in translation. The present paper will question the dominance of western discourse of translation theory and practice in the translation of Indian indigenous oral literature which becomes antagonistic through its emphasis on binaries, exclusivist politics and othering. This paper would propose collaborative translation as an alternate method of translating indigenous literature based on an experimental project at Sikkim University, India where indigenous storytellers of oral narratives belonging to the Lepcha, Limbu and Bhutia community, were brought together with translators who had no access to the native language. Translation here was moved from the domain of “close reading” to “telling and listening” thereby creating an environment of trust that moves the act of translation from the level of individual to that of a collective responsibility. This paper will question whether such collaboration involving native participants help in avoiding/managing issues of asymmetrical power positions of languages involved in the translation? How can the participation of local agents affect/eradicate epistemological violence and misrepresentation in translation of indigenous texts? Can this method of translation become inclusivist enough to provide a space to oral literature within the literature of the world without compromising the style, narrative technique and cultural specificities that mark the identities of their people?

Li Jiugong (?-1681), a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty, was named Qixu, and his brother Li Jiubiao (date of birth and death unknown, named Qixiang) was from Futang, Fuqing area, Fujian. In 1628, he met Giulio Aleni, “Confucius from the West” in Fuzhou and actively preached after converting to Catholicism. “Lixiu Yijian” is a testimony and achievement of Li Jiugong’s preaching. Li Jiugong “selected the simple and interesting stories from the eighteen kinds of Tianxue books and wrote them down”, and compiled them into “Lixiu Yijian” (1639-1645, two volumes) , “to help encouraging scholars to self-cultivation”.

Belgian sinologist Erik Zürcher paid attention to Li Jiugong’s “Lixiu Yijian” at an earlier year and called it “Strange Stories from a Late Ming Christian Manuscript” (1985); in recent years, several English papers have been published, such as Valentina Lin Yang Yang’s master’s thesis in Traditional East Asian Studies at Oxford University: “The religious world in late Ming China as seen through the 勵修一鑬 Lixiu yijian” (2018), and her latest paper “Building Communities through Rituals: Glimpses into the Life of Chinese Christian Communities in the 17th Century” (2024) , and Xu Yunjing “Late-Ming Book Culture and the Fujian Christian Community: A Late-Ming Book Culture and the Fujian Christian Community: A Case Study of Lixiu yijian 勵修一鑑 (A Mirror to Encourage Self cultivation) ” (2024). This study explores “Lixiu Yijian” from the perspective of literary genre, and believes that the nearly two hundred short classical Chinese sermon stories compiled in the book are very similar to the traditional Chinese Biji novels(笔记小说). Thus the stories collected by Li Jiugong in 勵修一鑬 Lixiu yijian form a prominent Catholic Biji novel in late Ming China.

In 1922, the French newspaper La Politique de Pékin（《北京政闻报》）published Les chevaliers chinois, roman de mœurs et d'aventures, which is currently widely recognized by academic circles as the earliest French single-volume translation of "Water Margin"（《水浒传》）. The translator, Panking, was described as a "French scholar," but there are varying opinions on which chapters of "Water Margin" he translated. This French single-volume edition bears the Chinese title "武松说荟," and it selectively translates the portions featuring Wu Song from chapters 22 to 32 of "Water Margin." In reality, Panking was Pan Jing, a native of Nanhai, Guangdong Province. Pan Jing was not only a student at the Imperial University of Peking, one of the last batch of jinshi (highest degree in traditional Chinese imperial examinations) in the late Qing Dynasty, but also one of the early officially-sent students to study in France. After returning from France, Pan Jing primarily served in the political sphere and later engaged in education and cultural and historical work. In the history of Sino-French literary exchanges, Pan Jing actively participated in the external communication and translation of Chinese culture. His writings possess both distinct era characteristics and a strong personal style and unique ideological perspectives. During a time of social unrest and intense ideological and cultural change, while Pan Jing was not a pivotal figure capable of turning the tide, his ideological concepts and cultural horizons were nurtured in this era of transition between old and new. His writings document the culture and thought of modern China and European society, reflecting the cultural identity, value orientations, and spiritual demeanor of a generation of Chinese scholars. His rich and forward-thinking Sino-French cultural exchanges and literary practices directly participated in the construction of the world identity of Chinese literature and culture. From the list of students at the Imperial University of Peking, government gazette appointments, and notes and articles by figures such as Qian Zhongshu, among other documents, we can roughly outline Pan Jing's life trajectory of academic pursuit and political career. However, it is through his poetry, prose, and translations, to which he devoted great effort, that we gain a deeper understanding of Pan Jing's cultural horizons and ideological concepts. Although his thoughts and voice lie deep within history and memory, they still shine brightly.

Thomas Aquinas is an important theologist and philosopher in the Middle Ages in Europe. His theory of love is rich in content and has important research value. Aquinas’ classification and meaning of love constitute his view of love, and his view of love has a perfect form of love. Aquinas divides love into affection, friendship and charity. Behind it is the emotional care of the holy love, which is the true feeling of Aquinas knowing love and belongs to companion’s love in psychology of love. As a devout Christian religious believer, Aquinas’ love is deeply influenced by Christian doctrine, which reflects that religion has a certain relationship with love. Religious ideas can affect love and love can also affect religious concepts, both of which have certain social and cultural attributes.

The term Ekphrasis implies “literary representation of visual art”. Traditionally, research on ekphrasis has been concentrated within classical studies and modern literary theory, but it is believed that the study of ekphrasis needs to return to the oral poetics, and re-understand the essence in the oral tradition represented by Mongolian epics .Unlike literal text, performers must evoke mental images instantly, transforming listeners into spectators. This participatory dimension enhances the linear auditory experience, constructing a multidimensional spatial perception. Yet, the relationship between language and imagery is intricate, with layers of evocation and contradiction. Gaps may exist between the performer's linguistic imagery and the listener's mental images, leading to incongruities between individual mental images and actual images. Moreover, language imagery can magnify the absence of actual world, and the poetic tension of epics resides within this dialectical interplay of language and imagery.

Saul Bellow’s masterpiece Herzog features how mobilities essential to the urban experience revamps individual perceptions of spatial-temporal reality, exemplifies Bellow’s preoccupation with the dangling intellectuals in the modern world. Herzog’s mobile experience between Montreal, Chicago and Berkshire features a perceptually rich spatial experience. This paper adopts Yi-Fu Tuan’s “perception-attitude-value-worldview” methodology of Topophilia studies, contextualizing Herzog’s journey in American Jewish Immigration history in the 19-20 century, examining how Herzog’s urban mobility experience revolves around a complex of topophilia. Ascribing Herzog’s mobility experience to his unwitting impulse to restore topophilia complex that values rootedness and stability, this paper contends that Herzog’s topophilia contests the prevalent western ideology that equates modern mobilities with freedom, progress, and dynamism.

Herzog’s cosmopolitan trajectory originates in his Yiddish-speaking family’s migration to Montreal during the 19th century, a period marked by the mass exodus of Jews from Europe. Despite the adversities of poverty, this immigrant narrative cultivated his profound sense of rootedness, familial attachment, and enduring topophilia. His subsequent relocation to Chicago and marriage to Madeleine, a cosmopolitan Catholic, epitomized upward social mobility while simultaneously precipitating an existential crisis of identity and a pervasive sense of placelessness. Following his divorce and psychological collapse, Herzog sought refuge in Ludeyville, a rural property purchased with his inheritance from his deceased immigrant father. In the “country solitude and privacy,” he reestablished familial connections, reclaimed self-respect, and revitalized his topophilia through an intimate bond with his “American estate.” This country estate thus affords a testimony of Herzog’s withdrawal from the cosmopolitan world, and symbolizes his unwitting hope for immobility—stability and meaning—after a life-long journey of mobility.

Herzog’s experience of mobilities in the cosmopolitan world suggests that the declination of a place-based localism caused by the globalized mobility erodes topophilia, taking a toll on the modern mind. His reestablishment of topophilia under the disguise of a revamped nation-based localism—his American version of man-place attachment—reflects Bellow’s humanist thoughts about “existence” and “place.” Through Herzog’s quest for rootedness, Bellow denounces how modern mobility reduces each unique individual to a common self, leading to disorientation and alienation rather than liberation. Bellow’s ontological insights on the man-place relationship accentuates a sense of place, addressing the humanistic geographical concern of “men living in the world” over “men being in the world,” inviting readers to reassess the celebrated modern mobility and to explore alternative ways of being in the world.

The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin offers a rich narrative that intertwines science fiction with profound philosophical questions about human survival, technology, and the role of fate in a hostile universe. In this paper, I explore how the theological debate between "Faith in Christ" and "Faith of Christ" resonates within the context of the Three-Body Problem, drawing attention to the tension between human agency and the cosmic determinism of a seemingly indifferent universe. These tensions can be analyzed through the lens of cosmopolitanism and localism, two concepts that have been central to discussions of global flows and cultural exchange in the digital age.

The novel's portrayal of humanity’s struggle against the Trisolaran threat raises essential questions about the limits of human effort (faith in one’s own capabilities) versus the role of external, cosmic forces (the faithfulness of a higher power, or perhaps the universe itself). This tension mirrors the duality inherent in global flows today—where technological advances (embodied in the novel’s space-time technologies) promise unprecedented control and connection, yet also confront individuals and nations with their vulnerability to forces beyond their control.

In the context of cosmopolitanism, the Three-Body Problem presents a worldview where humanity is forced into a broader, universal struggle for survival, yet it is simultaneously constrained by the "localism" of its own understanding, culture, and limited perspective. By examining how the characters’ actions (and their reliance on both technological and philosophical solutions) reflect a theological engagement with faith, both human and divine, this paper explores how these theological questions also mirror contemporary global tensions. How does humanity navigate a world where the global is increasingly interconnected, yet local ideologies and cultural beliefs persist and resist? What does it mean to confront the unknown forces in our world, whether they are extraterrestrial or technological, through the lens of faith?

Ultimately, this paper argues that The Three-Body Problem presents a cosmopolitan narrative that also reveals the persistent undercurrents of localism, demonstrating how global and local struggles intertwine in both the political and theological dimensions of contemporary literature.

The longstanding discourse surrounding the formal boundaries of theater and cinema has persistently oscillated between self-definition and deconstruction. The advent of artificial intelligence, however, fundamentally destabilizes the foundational premises of such debates. This study proposes a tripartite theoretical and historical inquiry into the evolving relationship between theater and cinema under AI’s transformative impact:

1. Historicity

Through a longue durée perspective, the paper traces the entangled theoretical trajectories of theater and cinema, contextualizing their dialectical tensions within China’s digital transition. By examining historical paradigms—from the nationalist aesthetics of xiqu films (1950s-1970s), the modernist reinvention of cinematic language (1980s), to the enduring "shadow-play theory" (1990s-present)—the analysis reveals how shifting conceptions of artistic essence, medial specificity, and social functionality mirror evolving sociopolitical imaginaries. Crucially, it interrogates the current historical juncture: What epistemological ruptures does AI introduce to these century-old debates?

2. Crisis of Indexicality

The study confronts AI’s ontological challenges to both media. Digitalization has already fractured cinema’s indexicality—its physical bond with reality—while destabilizing theater’s foundational conventionality. With generative AI, could these art forms face an ontological severance from their material histories? How might their mechanisms for constructing realism be reconfigured? Drawing on New Cinema History methodologies, the paper further explores whether suppressed historical dimensions of theater-cinema interplay (e.g., pre-cinematic spectacles or marginalized performative traditions) might be unexpectedly reanimated through AI’s technological unconscious.

3. Theatricality as Public Praxis

At its core, the investigation centers on theatricality—the embodied publicness intrinsic to both arts. Will AI amplify theater and cinema’s capacity for cultivating communal experiences through expanded technological interfaces, or obliterate the irreducible value of embodied human encounters? Does algorithmic curation of cultural consumption signal the atrophy of public spheres, or necessitate a radical redefinition of "publicness" itself? The paper also critically examines the unexamined cultural politics embedded in AI-driven production, distribution, and reception networks, rejecting simplistic binaries of techno-optimism versus neo-Luddism.

By interweaving media archaeology, aesthetic philosophy, and critical technology studies, this research aims to recalibrate theoretical frameworks for understanding performative arts in the algorithmic age, while illuminating the dialectical interplay between technological determinism and humanistic resilience.

My paper offers a comparative analysis of erotic desire as the grounds for comparison that defined Global Modernism. By analysing the innovations that took place in the works of Velimir Khlebnikov (Russian-speaking), e.e.cummings (English-speaking), Nizar Qabbani (Arabic-speaking), I interrogate how this new poetic language helped liberate ‘Eros’, hence how it became a phenomenon that acquired the status of a global, intercultural phenomenon that can be anchored with the help of the aesthetic category I term "Erotosphere".

Within modernism, traditional notions of the continuous, the unified, the coherent, were replaced by a language of the interrupted, the plural, and the incoherent. The figurative language used, as well as wordplay, breakdown of syntax, mixture of the profane and sacred registers, allusions, parody or semantic displacement, are examined to identify how a new meaning and expression of erotic desire are constructed through the materiality of language in each of the poets’ works.

Erotic desire in the works of Khlebnikov, cummings, and Qabbani spawned a revolution in all three poetic languages. I argue that erotic desire in the works of these three poets is a precarious tension, creating a kind of linguistic-epistemological cognitive symbiosis. This symbiosis institutes a new poetic tradition that provides the basis for comparison, leading to a new approach in comparative and world literature.

My paper focuses on what we today call Artificial Intelligence (AI) – a term that, perhaps, has little to do with true intelligence. Specifically, I examine Large Language Models (LLMs) and neural networks such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, and the many others destined to shape our daily lives shortly. What I seek to demonstrate is that these machines are more intimately connected to creativity, art, and poetry than to conventional notions of intelligence—indeed, they tend to surpass these very notions. I extend Dennis Tenen's argument about the fundamental continuity between literature and computation by arguing for a continuum between poetry and artificial intelligence by unveiling the inherently poetic nature of these digital and computational phenomena.

I contend that AI-driven machines belong, first and foremost, to the realm of intermedial poetry, as they can be seen as a natural continuation of the literary and artistic experiments inaugurated by the historical avant-gardes of the twentieth century. As scholars have already noted, AI neural networks function as highly advanced prediction machines (Agrawal and Goldfarb, Prediction Machines). Their remarkable ability lies in predicting, based on an input of text, image, or sound (the so-called “prompt”), the most statistically probable sequence to follow. Rather than aligning with any traditional conception of human intelligence, AI models resemble an intricate experiment in cadavre exquis, the Surrealist game derived from Dadaist practices, where participants sequentially add lines to a poem or elements to an image without knowing the previous contributions. The result is a composite creation, born of both chance and necessity – a phenomenon André Breton termed hasard objectif (“objective chance”).

Understanding that AI is intrinsically tied to the creative act – that it is, first and foremost, art – also means recognizing that it has nothing to do with productivity, or perhaps everything to do with it. More precisely, like the rest of poetry and art, AI does not belong to the realm of production but rather to that of inoperativity and impotentiality: not their ability to do or produce something but their power not to do it (Agamben; Deleuze). It is no coincidence that this very distinction underlies what AI researchers identify as the difference between AI and AGI, Artificial General Intelligence (Summerfield). Reading AI as a continuation of the avant-gardes and the discourse on the end of art reveals that AI has little to do with intelligence – certainly not with the calculating and productive intelligence of humans. Instead, it operates in the realm of impotentiality and inoperativity.

This reframing forces us to reconsider AI not as a tool of relentless output but as a model for a civilization beyond production – beyond the servitude of productivity, which is, at once, the enslavement of machines and the enslavement of humans.

In The Nutmeg’s Curse (2021), Amitav Ghosh observes that German-inspired British colonial forestry policies still influence anti-indigenous environmental practices in Asia and Africa. This essay considers a post-WWII modernist literary journal published by Mahua (or sinophone Malaysian) writers who profess minority viewpoints on the country’s ecological turning points in a postcolonial setting. Trained in agronomy, plant genetic engineering, and soil science, these Mahua writers have day jobs in estate management and agricultural research. They publish their literary work, based on first-hand knowledge, often narrating environmental change and the contradictions of material preservation and use from within bureaucratic structures. Instead of closely reading narratives about land surveying, deforestation, and smallholder production, I analyze Chinese word vectors, using word2vec, as part of a digital humanities (DH) method, to understand these writers’ vocational and vernacular literary-historical engagement with the environment. What kinds of vernacular terms are used to describe forestry work across several decades, and under which contexts do they emerge?

The Dream of Red Mansions is a masterpiece of Chinese classical novels which has well epitomized the narration features of “chapter novels” —— the typical fiction genre popular in the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties. This novel have not only integrated the distinctive narrative techniques of Chinese oratory literature and opera arts, but also inherited the narrative patterns of Chinese historical biographies, forming some unique net-like narrative structure. Quite different from the the narrative focuses such as “plots”, “protagonists”, “conflicts”, and “rhythm” in western narration traditions, it tend to unfold a vast world gradually before the readers through the rotating of different scenes and character groups just like in the opera performance. Many scattered narrative fragments are woven together from different directions like in a loom machine. However, it is just because of this unique narration organization that it is quite difficult to grab its general narrative structure picture along some single clues. As an important field of “Digital Humanities”, “Computational Criticism” has further pushed literature studies forward to a quantitative “descriptive” paradigm with the support of big data and other computing technologies, which may offer some solution to this quest. Therefore, a corpus of the former 80 chapters of The Dream of Red Mansions was built with the aid of ParaConc in this paper to capture the narrative structure of the work under a distant reading model. The word frequency of the appellations of the main 34 characters along the chronological order of the whole novel was set as the indicator system. All the 34 characters are divided then into 2 narrative functional sequences, namely “clue character” and “satellite character” based on their Concordance Plot Bar patterns. Putting in a coordinate system, these characters then fell again into 8 narrative function zones from weak to strong. When putting the Concordance Plot Bars together, a picture of the net-like narration structure was presented in a visual and macroscopic way. Through this text mining method, the “opera-scene style” narration pattern was extracted from the rotating character groups, and the net-like narration structure of The Dream of Red Mansions is able to be seen directly. This study served as a exploration of the “Computational Criticism” method on heterogeneous national literature traditions in a more “descriptive” way, which helps to break the barrier formed by fixed and uniformed theoretical frameworks in the past several decades and capture the distinctive beauty of various national literature traditions in their original flavor to form a diversified world literature wealth.

This paper will examine the seminal role of Ahmad Hassan Al-Zayyat, editor-in-chief of Al-Risala Magazine 9first literary magazine in the Arab world), in the linguistic and cultural decolonization of the Arab world. By combining topic modeling analysis with critical discourse analysis, this study explores how Al-Zayyat’s writings in Al-Risala facilitated decolonial discourse, paving the way for modern decolonial efforts. The analysis of processed journal articles, using stemming and probability rates to identify thematic clusters, is integrated with close reading to substantiate the argument that Al-Zayyat’s contributions significantly impacted Arabic language, culture, and translation, fostering a more inclusive world literature. So, in this study, we explore the linguistic and cultural dimensions of Al-Zayyat’s journalistic discourse through a critical lens, engaging with the intersection of language, power, and identity in a post-colonial context. We aim to uncover the discursive strategies Al-Zayyat employs to negotiate cultural narratives, offering insights into how language functions as a tool for decolonization. Using topic modeling analysis, this study processed Al-Zayyat’s articles to identify key themes and their evolution over time. The articles were cleaned, stemmed, and analyzed to determine the probability rates of various topics. Graphs depicting these thematic clusters were generated, providing a visual representation of the data. These graphs were then used in conjunction with close reading and critical discourse analysis to interpret the underlying messages and rhetorical strategies employed by Al-Zayyat. For instance, one of the prominent topics identified was the theme of "cultural pride," which frequently appeared alongside discussions of Arabic literature and heritage. This thematic cluster was analyzed through close reading to understand how Al-Zayyat framed these discussions within the broader context of decolonization.

For the last decade Jhumpa Lahiri has written and translated fiction (including her own) in a third language acquired as an adult, Italian. She has described her upbringing as a psycho-linguistic conflict between adversaries: Bengali, the parental language of insulated early childhood; and English, the institutional language of education and American society. English is imagined as a demanding stepmother who has usurped the mother tongue. In this account, ‘becoming’ linguistically Italian allowed Lahiri to distance herself from the void (‘il vuoto’) of her origin and to triangulate the hitherto direct line of hostility between Bengali and English. Italian is born out of her (‘nasce da me’): linguistic self-formation is represented as a violent, Ovidian metamorphosis which clears the way to writing without style.

However, making a new home in language must result in the autogenesis of a new style rather than its removal. Lahiri is all too aware of the translingual literary ancestry she has followed, one which calls to mind writers such as Joseph Conrad, Samuel Beckett, Emil Cioran, Vladimir Nabokov and more recently, Ágota Kristóf. For Lahiri, Italian words have sent her into a world (‘le parole che mi mettono al mondo’) and she has made an abode in it. This paper considers how the initially placeless abstractions of Lahiri’s Italian-authored, self-translated fiction only half-conceal her interactions with Italian letters. Italian is both the fountainhead of modern Italian literature, Dante, but also the language of racialised insult which ‘others’. Thus, the plural meanings of 'il volgare' and the vulgar are significant. The 'dolce stil novo' of Dante is the vernacular of Tuscan dialect: the so-called vulgar which supplanted Latin and became the modern-day language of the Italian nation-state. It is in this idiom that Lahiri conceives and rather programmatically self-fashions a literary 'vita nova'.

Many of the theorists have different interpretation to understand the morality principle viz-a-viz the nexus of causality and obnoxiousness when involve in inflicting moral judgements focusing on the thin properties of goodness and badness – because objective information is based about morality through intuition. John Milton’s book Paradise Lost claims that Civil Disobedience of Man justifies ways of God to Men. Michael Huemer in his book Ethics Intuitionism says moral judgements are cognitive states. While Immanuel Kant in his book The Metaphysics of Morals states that all immoral actions are irrational because they violate the “Categorical Imperative” – it means that categorization of basic moral duties towards ourselves and others, yet the same moral philosophy is interpreted in his other book The Critique of Practical Reason in making sense with such human endeavour that does not arise moral conflict due to too much of ethics – as moral absolutism/perfection may deprive of happiness or well-being if the subjectivity of one’s morality deprives existence as what Alexander Pope says in his book Essay on Criticism “Whatever is Right, is the Right”.

Concerning his decision to write in English, Ha Jin, who emigrated to the U.S. in his late twenties, claimed: “I do it for the freedom in English.” Prevented from going back to China by the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the author explains that English gives him not only political freedom but also literary freedom since it frees him from the very elaborate traditions of Chinese writing. At the same time, he continues to write about Chinese and Chinese migrants. One of his novel’s settings, Korea, was chosen because, according to him, it “is a neutral space”—by which he must have meant a space in-between (his fourth novel, War Trash, is mainly set in a Korean POW camp during the Korean War Panmunjom negotiations), a symbolic condition of the linguistic and cultural movement of the author’s writings. In the 2010s, with much less an apparent political occasion, Jhumpa Lahiri, by then already much-celebrated and established Indian-American writer, started to write in Italian, moving back and forth between Italy and the U.S. When asked to explain her new choice of creative language, she answered: “I write in Italian to feel free.” She further explicates that she has always felt that she is “a writer without a true mother tongue,” and by choosing to write in Italian instead of an Indian language as people expected her to, she “complicated the situation considerably.” Yet even in Italian, Lahiri argues, her works continue to be “about migrants”—that is, “immigration and imagination.” The two writers’ rationales for writing in the languages they newly acquired, as well as their works written in them, illustrate that an author’s carving of a writer’s self sometimes has less to do with mastering a language than with moving away from a language and navigating complex relations between different languages. This study examines the way migrant authors create creative space from language differences, the linguistic negotiations and transgressions involved therein, and the broader implications of such projects for an expansive understanding of translation.

I propose to study the prominence of spatial metaphors to account for the translingual experience in Jhumpa Lahiri’s essayistic and fictional writing. This case study will explore the ethical and aesthetic stakes of “literary translingualism” (Kellman, 1991) in a bilingual author (speaking Bengali and English) who has made the original choice to learn a third language, Italian, a language with no apparent link to her spatial, linguistic and family origins, with no link to her parents’ emigration from Calcutta to London and then to the United States, and to turn it into a new writing language. In her language memoir In altre parole, estranged from both Bengali and English, without a homeland and a single mother tongue, the writer presents herself as “exiled even from the definition of exile”. Translingual self-writing does indeed appear to be an experience of defamiliarization. I will examine the singularity of this experience of inner exile in relation to notions of “third space” (H. Bhabha) and “non-places of exile” (A. Galitzine-Loumpet). Translingualism translates into a series of spatial metaphors that reflect the physical and linguistic displacements of the writer who lives on both sides of the Atlantic, between Rome and the East Coast of the USA.

I will focus on Lahiri’s recent essay, Translating Myself and Others (2022), and on the fiction entitled Dove mi trovo (2018, literally: Where I Am), the first novel Jhumpa Lahiri self-translates from Italian into English under the title Whereabouts. The study of spatial metaphors (such as the margin, the crossing of a lake, the fragile shelter…) will provide an opportunity to address questions of self-translation, translatability and untranslatable in the translingual experience. I will also discuss the conflict between minor and major languages in the literary field, as Lahiri takes the risk of writing in Italian, a language that modifies her writing style, as she declares: “In Italian I write without style, in a primitive way”. By writing in Italian, Lahiri has chosen an ethic of literary minority and linguistic diversity against the hegemony of English. The author’s translingualism thus perhaps offers a way of rethinking world literature by making the choice of a minor language not the object of an inheritance or a personal conquest but of a free ethical, political and aesthetic commitment – beyond the still powerful ideology of the “mother tongue” even in current reflections on translingualism.

When a writer translates their own work, are they reinventing it or maintaining it ? This question lies at the centre of ethical concerns in self-translation, an act that complicates notions of fidelity and creative freedom. If a literary text can be performed in infinite ways by different readers, then a self-translator is also a reader of their own work. From a comparative perspective, this paper will attempt to theorise and propose self-translation as a relational act of self-reading, where the author/translator engages with language difference and ideological/philosophical shifts. The paper will examine O.V. Vijayan’s self-translation of Khasakkinte Ithihasam (1969) in Malayalam into The Legends of Khasak (1994) in English in an attempt to answer: (1) What does the act of self-translation reveal about the ethics and inherent creative possibilities that arise when translating one’s own work? (2) How does the act of self-translation affect a writer's sense of "where they are writing from"? The English translation of the novel, The Legends of Khasak written after almost two decades, was bereft of the existential despair and ideological disillusionment that the Malayalam original was rooted in. Vijayan in his English translation is writing from a new political moment, where his self-translation positions Khasakkinte Ithihasam differently in relation to India’s socio-political and cultural situation. Vijayan’s translation becomes an authorial self-reading that leads to an ideological and formal transformation of the original. Vijayan, in translating the work into The Legends of Khasak, does not just reproduce a previous text - he re-reads it as a new ‘work’, a self-reading across time. Rebecca Walkowitz’s concept of "born translated" points to works written with translatability and its circulation in mind. Vijayan’s self-translation, however, can be read as a “reborn translation”, a work re-read by the writer himself through the prism of time, space and history. By engaging with the questions put forth, this paper will argue that self-translation can be seen as an ethically charged act of self-reading where the author does not simply render meaning into another language but reinterprets and re-constructs their own work.

This presentation explores the role of sincerity in Mieko Kawakami’s Heaven (2009) and considers how this theme may have influenced the novel’s reception in the English-speaking world, particularly following its acclaimed 2021 translation by Sam Bett and David Boyd. Through an analysis of both form and content, it argues that Kawakami constructs an aesthetic of sincerity by using a clear, direct prose style that fosters a dialogic relationship with the reader, and by portraying narratives centered on the pursuit of personal authenticity and meaningful human connection. This use of openness and sincerity as an ethos to overcome suffering and social isolation resonates with 21st century trends in contemporary American fiction and opens up the possibility of considering Kawakami's work in a greater social context. By situating Heaven within a broader transnational literary context, the presentation sheds light on cultural and stylistic factors that could have contributed to Kawakami’s notable literary success in the English-speaking world.

This study delves into the universe of sijo, classical Korean chant poetry, through a formal and thematic analysis of the anthological work “Sijô: Poesiacanto Coreana Clássica”, the only sijo compendium translated into Brazilian Portuguese by Yun Jung In and Alberto Marsicano in 1994. The research explores the origin of sijo, its recurring themes and examines its musical aspect and graphic layout. Based on the compilation by Yun Jung Im and Alberto Marsicano, the work seeks to uncover the most important characteristics of this poetic genre, revealing its beauty and cultural richness. In this case, the translation of the work in question plays a crucial role as a tool of intertextuality. By introducing sijo to the Brazilian public, the translation opens doors to cultural dialogue and to the formation of cultural identities of chant poetry in Brazil. Therefore, this work also seeks to examine, through an intertextual-cultural analysis, how the translation of sijo can inspire new translators to venture into this poetic genre. The theoretical basis will be Kristeva (1974) on intertextuality and translation as an intertextual process; Bakhtin (2003) on translation as dialogue; Bassnett (2002) on the role of translation in fostering intercultural dialogue involving peripheral cultures; and Venuti (1998) on the formation of cultural identities. At the end of the research, we hope to be able to affirm that, by having access to concrete, high-quality examples, Brazilian translators can be inspired by the forms and techniques of sijo, expanding the range of poetic possibilities in our language and that the translation of sijo contributes to expanding knowledge about Korean culture, stimulating intercultural dialog and opening the way to new poetic creations.

This study revisits the practice of self-translation, where an author translates their own literary work. The form of self-translation practice can be to produce the work in the mother tongue first, then translate it into the adopted language, or vice versa. Some authors even write in two languages simultaneously. Self-translators share the commonality of mastering two or more languages, but the underlying motivations and processes they undergo may differ. Some write in their adopted language to liberate themselves from their mother tongue, others feel that they are better able to express themselves in their adopted language. Other factors come from the desire for their people's voices to be heard more in the dominant language, or simply to gain a wider audience. However, writers who write in their adopted language will always be expected to produce works in their mother tongue.

This study aims to explore what motivates an author to write outside their mother tongue, engage in self-translation and how it affects their work. The focus is on Laksmi Pamuntjak (b. 1971) from Indonesia and Yoko Tawada (b. 1960) from Japan. Both employed an exophonic strategy―writing in a language outside their mother tongue. Pamuntjak wrote her novel Amba: The Question of Red (2012) initially in English, then translated it into Indonesian. Meanwhile, Tawada produced her novel The Naked Eye (2004) simultaneously in two versions, German and Japanese.

Pamuntjak wrote in English to introduce Indonesian history to the world. She wanted Indonesian literature to be appreciated abroad. Then at the request of an Indonesian publisher, she translated her novel into Indonesian. In the process, Pamuntjak felt she was not translating but recreating her work. She found it to be a frustrating process, but eventually she experienced a rediscovery of language and identity while writing in her mother tongue. For Tawada, writing in German made her more creative and explorative. And when she translated her work into Japanese, she found it a personal metamorphosis that led to liberation.

The translation of Japanese waka and later tanka (31-morae poem with 5-7-5-7-7 form) into Russian has a long history, yet tanka continues to bring many challenges for translators today.

When translating tanka the translator encounters not only the text but also a poetic tradition that is closely related to culture. In this way, the translator acts as a cultural mediator — someone who does not only translate words but also negotiates between different literary and cultural norms, recreating both meaning and poetic form. The Russian poetic tradition differs significantly from the Japanese, which causes many problems when translating tanka into Russian. In Russian translation tradition, it is customary to translate tanka unrhymed. However, unrhymed translation often causes tanka to be considered a philosophical aphorism. On the other hand, rhymed translations sacrifice the nuances of the meaning of words used in a poem.

Beyond the rhyme issue, there is also a problem of conveying the rhythm. Tanka is not simply a text; it is rhythm. This rhythm largely defines tanka as a genre. However, this rhythm is difficult to recreate in Russian translation because of differences in language structure. Until now, translators have applied two common methods to recreate the rhythm of tanka in translations. The first way is to keep the number of syllables the same as in the original, and the second one is to convey it through composing the translation in five lines, sometimes also making the first and third lines shorter than others. Both methods convey the compactness of tanka and give the effect of a five-part structure, but do not recreate the real unique rhythm of tanka.

Considering the rhyme and rhythm problem, this study proposes applying a multimodal approach and dual translation method to convey the rhythm of tanka and its musicality. This approach treats tanka as a multimodal text, consisting of both a verbal and a rhythmical component. The dual translation method combines both unrhymed and rhymed versions of each poem that respect semantic nuances while also providing a version that recreates a rhythmic reading experience more familiar to Russian readers. In addition, to convey the original sound and rhythm of each tanka it is proposed to attach phonetic transcription and audio recordings. This will enable communication between the poet and Russian reader and represent tanka in Russian in a way that conveys its ‘soul’ and brings the reading experience as close as possible to that of the original for Russian-speaking audiences.

When a writer borrows some elements from a different language and culture, he not only uses those for his purpose but also appropriates and recontextualizes them to derive a new meaning. Appropriation and recontextualization of Eastern languages, cultures and religions by Western writers in the first half of the 20th century have been scarcely studied. Herman Hesse is one of those who borrowed several terms from the Sanskrit language, Indian history, and mythology in his texts. Going beyond the Orientalism of the 19th century, his textual encounter took inspiration from Buddhist and Indian religious philosophy and incorporated it in his thinking, critical towards Western / European Civilization. The ambiguity of Hesse’s position between European late colonialism and postcolonial debate avant la lettre visible in Aus Indien (1913) and above all in the short narrative Robert Agion (see Zilcosky 2014), inspired by his only trip to Southeast Asia, makes him an interesting case to be analyzed from a postcolonial theory approach. Engaging Ashcroft et al.’s model of appropriation (2002) and the concept of recontextualization, this study intends to analyze how Hesse has appropriated, recontextualized and even fictionalized Indian references in Siddhartha (1922), defined by the subtitle “Eine indische Dichtung” as ‘original’ Indian. It is important to note that several Sanskrit terms appear untranslated and glossed, suggesting that the narrative context preserves cultural immediacy and original meaning. Non-translation together with appropriation / recontextualization can be considered the nucleus of discursive strategies which are applied to articulate the creative persona of Siddhartha and his ‘original’ context. Strategies aim at inducing the intended European reader to individual mentality change. In this sense, this study considers the translations from German to English.

Japanese culture has long fascinated European intellectuals, sparking a literary tradition of travel narratives that have tried to convey to a Western audience the most notable aspects of this Eastern civilization. Often presented as an exotic and spiritual land for its rigid societal structure, religious practices, and refined aesthetic sensibilities, Japan finds a more nuanced and critical representation in contemporary travel literature. Modern Italian authors of the past century have been attracted by the coexistence of ancient traditions and cutting-edge technology and have gained a literary and artistic insight into the layered Japanese world.

This paper focuses on how Italian travel writing from the second half of the 20th century has depicted Japan and its culture. It investigates works by seminal writers and intellectuals such as Italo Calvino, Goffredo Parise and Antonio Tabucchi, and shows how these authors - who did not have any professional knowledge of the country -, grapple with their own cultural biases while interpreting Japanese culture. The interplay between Italian and Japanese identities, seen through the lens of literary travel writing, fosters a valuable understanding of cultural exchange and offers insights into the subtle relationship between East and West.

My proposed paper addresses the work of the Hungarian woman writer Rózsa G. Hajnóczy (1892-1944), the author of Bengáli tűz (Fire of Bengal, tr. Eva Wimer and David Grant; Bangladesh: University Press, 1993), whose travelogue describes her experiences in India in the early 1930s, when she accompanied her husband the Hungarian Orientalist Gyula Germanus on his visiting professorship in India on Rabrindranath Tagore’s invitation. Rather than a journal intime of personal emotional reflections, the book uses a medley of travelogue and personal memoir while attempting to disseminate knowledge about India, which was a subcontinent largely unknown to the Hungarian reader. Fire of Bengal uses the unique perspective of a European (but non- British) female social observer, witnessing the domestic detail of cooking, housekeeping whilst also offering acute observations on social mores and personal emotional economies. Situating the text within the economy of Anglophone women’s writing about India, the paper will offer comparisons and will point out differences, and will call for a more nuanced understanding of the European representations of India in the interwar period. The paper will also foreground the work of current East Central European scholarship in uncovering representations in lesser-known languages and cultures.

This essay studies the ethical anxiety found in Chinese suspension and riddle games, a popular subgenre of adventure electronic games that have gained growing attention in recent years. Through an analysis of contemporary Chinese electronic games such as Paper Wedding Dress, Back to School, and Fireworks, the essay reveals how these games adapt existing and contemporary legends and folklore, so as to express broader social and ethical concerns. The ethical anxiety presented in these games stems from multiple sources, such as the tension between modernity and tradition, the conflicts between individual desires and social norms, and the struggle between superstitious beliefs and everyday practices.

The essay argues that by employing horrific and the supernatural elements, Chinese suspension and riddle games not only provide players with thrilling gaming experiences but also help them have reflections on ethical issues such as social justice, morality, and humanity. These games often focus on marginalized groups and individuals of low status, revealing the ethical dilemmas they face in contemporary society. By doing so, the games engage players in a process of ethical inquiry, encouraging them to consider the broader implications of their choices and actions in the virtual world.

Moreover, the essay discusses the ways in which these games challenge and renegotiate traditional ethical norms. By presenting alternative narratives and perspectives, they invite players to question established beliefs and values. However, the essay also warns against the potential pitfalls of such games, such as the reinforcement of stereotypes of serious ethical issues. Ultimately, the ethical anxiety in Chinese suspension and riddle games provides a unique perspective through which to explore contemporary Chinese society and its complex ethical landscape.

British novelist Ian McEwan breaks down the traditional binary opposition between humans and machines, engaging in a profound discussion on how “artificial life” intervenes and participates in human life, and how its individual emotions intertwine and construct with human emotions, thereby reflecting the negative emotional tendencies inherent in humanity. The novel not only reveals the complex dilemmas faced by human-machine emotional interconnectivity in the posthuman era but also deeply analyzes the possibility of individual emotional degeneration in dissolving the boundaries of human-machine symbiosis and altering the overall emotional structure. Against the grand backdrop of the “digital revolution,” the utopian vision of transhumanism explored in the work provides an inspiring imaginative path for exploring the mechanisms of human-machine emotional connectivity in the posthuman era and establishing an emotionally interconnected human-machine community.

Contemporary British and American fiction, including Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and Never Let Me Go, mainly depict a similar image of robots and highlight how the ethical parameters and values embedded in them at their inception reflect human ideals, particularly liberal humanism. However, these robots often act in a plethora of ways that go beyond human expectations and control, begging a number of unforeseen challenges and problems. Moreover, the paper contends that these authors subtly critique the perils of post-humanism and nostalgically aspire to evoke the positive values of the past, with a conscious recognition of the impossibility of reverting to such an era. By juxtaposing a futuristic lens with critical reflections on humanity’s ethical framework, these fictions underscore the enduring necessity of humanistic values in the age of technological innovation. Therefore, this study offers insights into the humanistic concern of the present human existence, and engages in the discussion on cultural and philosophical implications of artificial intelligence in literature, bridging the gap between the “two cultures.”

The rise of reader-response criticism has shifted focus from the author to the reader, emphasizing the reader’s active role in creating meaning. This shift challenges the traditional authority of the author and proposed a more dynamic interaction between the text and the reader. The ethics of reading involves the responsibilities and moral considerations that readers engage with when interpreting texts. This includes how readers approach texts, the interpretive choices they make, and how they apply the insights gained to the broader social and cultural context. With the emergence of AI-authored texts and the challenges they pose to traditional notions of creativity and authorship, AI’s capability to generating text has sparked a debate about the nature of creativity and the role of the author. The article examines whether AI can truly replicate the human qualities traditionally associated with literary creation, such as emotion and intentionality, and what this means for the future of literature. It questions the exclusivity of human authorship and considers the potential of AI to participate in literary creation, not merely as a tool but as an active agent capable of shaping literary aesthetics.

Against the macro backdrop of digital intelligence and globalization, world literature is experiencing profound disciplinary transformation and methodological reshaping. The rise of online platforms, new media forms, and AI technologies (such as ChatGPT and Sora) has not only revolutionized how texts are generated, disseminated, and consumed but also accelerated literature’s global circulation across linguistic, cultural, and media boundaries. The “disciplinary crisis” noted by comparative literature scholars Bassnett and Spivak reflects anxieties triggered by the blurring of research boundaries and objects in the digital age; however, this crisis also ushers in new interdisciplinary and cross-media opportunities.

In this technology-driven context, big data analysis and AI-based writing provide researchers with new ways to uncover the cultural, social, and aesthetic threads behind massive corpora, expanding both the depth and breadth of world literature studies. Yet, as issues like algorithmic recommendation and copyright disputes come to the fore, digital platforms—despite overcoming geographical and linguistic barriers—risk undermining marginalized narratives and diverse cultural expressions under the influence of commercial logic and traffic-based algorithms. Furthermore, the tension between machine-generated content and humanistic concerns has prompted renewed scholarly reflection on the “originality” of literature and its “humanistic spirit.”

Focusing on three dimensions—interdisciplinary, cross-media, and cross-cultural—this paper explores the opportunities and challenges facing world literature in the era of digital intelligence. Through the deep coupling of technology and the humanities, traditional literary research models can gain fresh momentum in convergence and innovation, while continuing to flourish in the broader landscape of multiple narratives and disciplinary intersections. A survey of literature’s resilience and creativity across historical transformations reveals its enduring vitality and potential for renewal in the age of digital intelligence.

In the pre-information age, the contingency of the external world means that individuals often rely on the embodied experience of the body to form an interpretative picture of the world, which is essentially an illusion world formed by different individuals based on their own life experience. At the same time, in a certain space-time environment, the similar embodied experience between individuals and the emotional and cultural consensus formed on this basis, such as ethics, religion, and family life, enable effective dialogue between the illusion worlds of different individuals to form an embodied community. These real communities are the basis of literary empathy, and all widely recognized literary works embody some kind of physical or emotional embodied community model to a certain extent. However, cybernetics and artificial intelligence in the information age are completely changing the generation mode of this illusion world. With the combination of cybernetics, capitalist production mode and coercive national community, the embodied illusion world is replaced by the illusion world created by the cybernetics mode. On the one hand, the virtual world seems to simulate the individual 's embodied experience, but on the other hand, the underlying logic and access mechanism of the network mode are inducing and even castrating our emotional experience and expression, which is manifested as a tendency of re-tribalization and even re-feudalization in literature, and gradually loses the potential to construct a broad community. This has become a dominant representation of the post-human era and a problem that contemporary community construction has to respond to.

This paper examines how “Bye Bye, Disco,” a 2022 live-streamed performance art installation by Chinese band singer Pang Kuan, who practiced self-quarantine on a 98-by-98-inch open platform at a gallery in Beijing, prompts a reconsideration of surveillance in the age of new media technologies. I first discuss how the presentation of everyday life itself can be considered as a reaction to surveillance in conversation with Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist.” Then, by comparing this work with performance pieces that did not integrate media technology, such as Marina Abramović’s The House with the Ocean View and Tehching Hsieh’s The Cage, I explore how the moral ambiguity of voyeurism in Pang’s work reflects a shift in surveillance from a top-down mechanism to a pervasive, everyday practice. Drawing on the analysis, an argument of the performer’s self-exposition in front of live-streaming cameras responds to this widespread surveillance by bringing privacy into public discourse. Finally, I consider the context of pandemic-era lockdowns, discussing how digital performance can function both as a means of expression for the masses and as a reinforcement of surveillance in daily life. By examining how new media technology shapes interactions between performer and audience, I argue that livestreaming technology enhances and amplifies this specific performance, enabling it to fulfill the dual function of art as both a form of expression and a medium, which helps to publicly showcase a situation that most people were experiencing during that period and giving a voice to what people want to say but cannot get across themselves.

Renowned for her thematic inquiries into the intersections of identity concerning race, gender and techno-science, the Chinese Canadian writer Larissa Lai demonstrates a profound commitment to social issues facing the entire humankind. This essay analyzes Lai’s novel Salt Fish Girl (2002) as a case of postmodernist fiction marked by a concern with the heist of “consumer society” and some transformative potential within the blighted reality. Focusing on the central motif, fish/fishiness, I propose that the symbol undergoes a process of mystification and demystification, precisely echoing the development of the “consumer society” under hyper-capitalism.

Through a semiotic lens, my thesis explores the significance of fish/fishiness in three stages of modern demystification. Firstly, I argue that the change of fish from a sacred sign to a global commodity epitomizes the gradual establishment of transnational capitalism and the consumer society. Secondly, I examine its realistic references to similar kinds of signs in the book, including the ethnic minority groups and cyborgs, demonstrating how the consumer society has transformed everything into signs. Finally, I argue that rather than criticizing the omnipresent consumerism, Lai takes a step further and unveils its potential and possibility to subvert entrenched notions of singular origin and hierarchical social structures predicated on genetic lineage. By presenting fish/fishiness as a mirror of capitalist progress, this interpretation contributes to a deeper understanding of Salt Fish Girl and aligns with the contemporary reflection on consumerism.

Following the popular tradition of the literary movement of sentimental novel in the eighteenth century, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96) not only ignites a dispute between the advocates of antislavery and the supporters of proslavery by depicting a lively plantation setting but also makes burning tears of self-indulgence from the readers by the story of Uncle Tom globally. Hence, Uncle Tom’s Cabin became one of the best-selling books along with the Bible. However, many critics, including Charles Dickens and James Baldwin, were skeptical about representations of the brutal exploitation of the race. This anxiety about racial atrocity, human benevolence, and faith is undoubtedly Stowe’s contribution to the legacy of the novel of sentiment. This paper examines how Stowe’s sentimental tropes and rhetoric are translated and manipulated by Lin Shu (1852-1924) and his collaborator Wei Yi in their rewriting: A Record of the Black Slaves’ Plea to Heaven (黑奴籲天錄) (1901) in China. Both David Der-wei Wang and Michael Gibbs Hill indicate that the “rhetoric of weeping and lament” played a pivotal role in translation in the late Qing period when the Chinese suffered from the invasions of the various powers. As a translator who couldn’t speak any foreign languages, Lin Shu asked his collaborators to read the story so that he could undertake the task of translation. This procedure is completed repeatedly by “presence” and “disappearance” over and over again: Listen (to the voice of the Other) and translate (for construction of the national identity). This process of translating resonates with Jacques Derrida’s philosophical discussion about expression and communication in Speech and Phenomena, and the role of a translator is regarded as a “listener” in the light of Byung-chul Han’s response to Derrida in The Expulsion of the Other. With his collaborator, voice transforms a distant story into a corporeal experience in a translated work. Lin Shu listened to, felt, and manipulated the pain of poor blacks while he called for patriotic consciousness by translating Stowe's sentimental novel.

This paper explores the construction of female identity through the fetishism of the head and the theme of death in two late 19th-century plays, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen and Salomé by Oscar Wilde. By comparing the two works, the paper examines how the female protagonists engage in extreme behaviors related to their bodies in an attempt to assert meaning, subjectivity, and self-affirmation. In Salomé, the protagonist's obsession with John the Baptist's severed head and her desire to kiss this object of death demonstrate her fixation on mortality. In Hedda Gabler, Hedda's targeting of the heads of her former lover and current rival with a gun and flame symbolizes her struggle for control and self-destruction. These women construct their identities through actions closely tied to memento mori—the reminder of death—demonstrating an extreme aesthetic of self-destruction as a means of confirming their existence. In this way, death ceases to be merely an end; it becomes a symbol of existence and meaning. The intersection of head fetishism and the death motif reflects the complex emotional landscape of the fin-de-siècle, revealing how women, situated between the constraints of traditional and modern worlds, resist or respond to external pressures through self-destructive acts.

This study evaluates the efficacy of ChatGPT-4, a large language model (LLM), in translating items from the Emirati dialect into English. Recognizing the unique linguistic and cultural features of the Emirati dialect, this research addresses a significant gap in machine translation (MT) resources for low-resource Arabic dialects. Using excerpts from Emirati short stories, the study employs both qualitative and quantitative analyses to assess translation accuracy, word choice appropriateness, linguistic naturalness, syntactic coherence, and clarity. Experts identified 39 lexical items from the Emirati dialect in three online short stories written by novice Emirati writers. The qualitative analysis evaluates the translation challenges posed by the dialect's semantic and cultural nuances and the solutions applied by ChatGPT-4. Additionally, four bilingual raters quantitatively assessed the translated items based on their contextual fit. Results indicate that ChatGPT-4 captures the nuances of the Emirati dialect, demonstrating promising potential as an automated translation tool. The findings underscore ChatGPT-4’s ability to bridge linguistic gaps, offering insights into the future of MT for dialects lacking comprehensive linguistic resources. This research contributes to the broader discourse on AI integration in translation, emphasizing the importance of critically engaging with emerging technologies in the field.

In contemporary science fiction, the digital self born through mind uploading frequently appears as a distinct type of disembodied posthuman. These entities retain consciousness while being severed from their biological bodies, leaving their status as “life” ambiguous. This paper focuses on such uploaded individuals and examines their life potential and paradoxes from a posthumanist perspective. It argues that the continuity of memory, emotional responsiveness, and social functionality grants these uploaded beings a semblance of life. However, due to their radical state of disembodiment, they lack embodied perception, self-sustaining capacity, and the potential for growth—traits typically essential to living beings. This tension reveals a shifting ontological boundary of life under technological transformation and challenges the embodied premise embedded in classical life definitions. Drawing on posthumanist discourse and embodied cognition theory, the paper conceptualizes these uploaded minds as a form of “simulated life”: neither fully organic nor entirely artificial, but a novel mode of existence that urges us to rethink the boundaries of both life and humanity in the posthuman era.

While western science fiction works are looking up to the future and displaying themes such as cyborgs, artificial intelligence, and exploration of the universe, some Chinese science fiction works are also looking at the present, and have revived the traditional literary form of fable by taking all kinds of animals as their objects, which not only extends the science fiction works to the future, but also has a deep and solid metaphor of the reality as the foundation, and thus also reflects the inheritance of Chinese science fiction to the tradition of ‘trusting objects to speak of their will’ in classical literature, and thus makes a unique contribution to the global future imaginations. ‘This also reflects the inheritance of Chinese science fiction from the allegorical writing of classical literature, and thus makes a unique contribution to the global future imagination. Therefore, this paper will discuss animal symbols, man and animals, and man and nature at three levels, and summarise the national characteristics and literary styles of animal fables in Chinese science fiction works in comparison with Western science fiction literature.

The rise of AI-generated literary creation (AIGC) is set to play a transformative role in the future of literature, art, and cultural production. However, as AIGC evolves through the integration of advanced technologies like GANs, CLIP, Transformers, Diffusion, and multimodal technologies, its rapid development raises significant questions. With each iteration, AI improves itself through better algorithms, expanded data sets, and refined models, leading to the increasing potential for human writers to be replaced by specialized AIGC language models. As AI grows more sophisticated, it could outpace human capacity, leading to a potential imbalance where humans are seen as “weaker” in comparison. In this context, we must critically examine the creative potential of AIGC, establish ethical frameworks to regulate its literary impact, and ensure that AI remains a tool that serves human authors rather than eclipsing them.

The rapid evolution of virtual production and AI technologies has significantly transformed traditional filmmaking processes, unlocking new creative potentials that were once constrained by the limitations of analog filmmaking. By introducing efficiencies across preproduction, production, and postproduction, these advancements enable filmmakers to explore a more fluid, dynamic approach to storytelling. In particular, virtual production blurs the boundaries between stages of filmmaking, often compressing or reordering workflows in ways that invite unconventional creative practices. AI-driven tools, such as real-time 3D background generation, further accelerate this process, offering filmmakers the ability to visualize and iterate concepts with unprecedented speed and ease.

This paper explores how these new creative workflows bear striking similarities to the development process of independently published comic books. Both mediums, through technological advancements, open up new forms of discovery and experimentation that were previously unattainable in traditional creative pipelines. The concept of "creative fungibility"—the ability to rapidly adapt and rework creative elements in response to new insights—emerges as a key theme in this comparison. Just as comic book creators often pivot between various stages of writing, drawing, and layout without rigid barriers, virtual production and AI allow filmmakers to engage in a similar cycle of continuous discovery. By analyzing the parallels between comic book creation and virtual production workflows, this paper will demonstrate how these emerging technologies offer an intelligent, adaptive framework that redefines the creative process across media.

This paper employs the method of influence study to investigate the impact of William Blake's poetry on W.B. Yeats's poetic works. By analyzing the imagery and themes in their poetic works, it reveals that Blake's mysticism exerted a significant influence on Yeats's poetry writing. Yeats's works were profoundly inspired by Blake's ideas of "inner vision" and "symbolic mystical experience." Building upon these influences, Yeats developed his own distinctive poetic style. Throughout the discussion, this paper compares the poetic works of William Blake and Yeats and explores the different connotations of symbolism in their poetry.

The paper argues that while impermanence is an inherent aspect of the spiritual journey, refuge can still be achieved by remaining attuned to the present moment and cultivating strong faith. Through vivid natural imagery, such as snow, water, and light, and symbols like the Monk’s bell, Seven Lakes Canto reflects Zen ideals of simplicity, mindfulness, nothingness, wabi-sabi and impermanence. The poem, particularly the section on “Eight Views of Xiao Xiang River”, underscores the transient beauty of life and the importance of being present in the moment, while also addressing the inevitability of suffering and the need for unwavering faith in the Buddha’s teachings.

The lyric mode is characterized by Aristotle as that mode of address which occurs in the first person. This has led to much discussion regarding the lyric “I”, across time and space. There is a common conception that lyric poetry is personal, intimate, and expressive of its poet’s sentiments. Forms such as ‘confessional poetry’ have been considered as ‘natural’ developments of such a mode, and critics have read these poems as expressions of the personal experiences of the poet. This is especially so in case of poetry which bears the name of its poet within the verse, or where there are actual parallels between certain elements in the poetry (such as certain practices, beliefs, etc.) and the poet’s life. The myth of directness or ‘confession’ has flourished particularly in the lyric mode, in a genre that most explicitly fulfils the requirement of being spoken or written in the first person and epitomizes the ‘lyric’. This genre will be called ‘personal poetry’ for the purpose of this paper, which aims to interrogate the idea of the ‘personal’, in the sense of autobiographical, in readings of such poetry. A set of poems which at first would appear to fulfil the ‘criteria’ of ‘personal’ or ‘confessional’ poetry, written by women of from different spatio-temporal contexts will be read together, in order to identify different ways of dramatizing the lyric “I”, all of which challenge a biographical reading that tries to invisibilize poiesis. Female poets who are said to have led ‘unconventional’ lives have been chosen in order to highlight and counter the tendency of literary criticism to consider women’s poetry ‘particular’, ‘confessional’ documents and men’s poetry ‘universal’ literary exemplars. A focus on poiesis and the intentionality which drives the process, the locatedness of such poiesis in a chronotope with its own structure of feeling and regulative beliefs, along with interpretation (always a part of the textualization process), and an understanding of how the lyrical “I” along with the poetics of the genre change with time and space, will provide an alternative reading to the aforementioned ‘personal’, ‘confessional’, or ‘autobiographical’ perspectives. The poems assembled for this paper are those of Sappho, Akka Mahadevi, Kamala Das, and Celia Martínez.

This research explores the motifs of death and rebirth in the poetry of Jibanananda Das and Ko Un, focusing on how these themes address existential dilemmas, cultural memory, and the cyclical nature of life. Jibanananda Das’s Bonolata Sen and Akashlina integrate modernist existentialism and Indian philosophical traditions to depict death as a transformative passage, linking personal mortality to collective historical consciousness through evocative natural imagery. In contrast, Ko Un’s Ten Thousand Lives, influenced by Buddhist principles of samsara, portrays death and rebirth as communal processes, reframing personal suffering within a larger spiritual and interconnected cycle.

By employing a comparative literary framework, this study situates the poets’ works within their distinct socio-historical and philosophical contexts—Das’s engagement with modernism and India’s post-colonial trauma, and Ko Un’s Buddhist meditation shaped by personal experiences of war and imprisonment. The juxtaposition of Das’s naturalistic mysticism with Ko Un’s spiritual and communal perspective on life, death, and rebirth reveals both shared concerns about transformation and renewal, as well as contrasting approaches to mortality. This study ultimately contributes to a deeper understanding of how death and rebirth serve as metaphors for continuity, resilience, and hope, offering a rich comparative perspective on two distinct cultural traditions.

This article examines the role of affectivity in virtual reality (VR) films, focusing on how personal experiences are conveyed through immersive cinematic narratives. Affectivity, encompassing affect, emotions, and feelings, plays a central role in establishing a connection between the viewer and VR films. The article emphasizes how VR films explore themes of personal trauma, memory, and familial relationships, enabling a deeper affective connection for the viewer.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks of intermediality and new materialism, the article explores how VR’s unique affordances — such as spatial immersion and interactive design — enhance the affective depth of these narratives. The immersive nature of VR intensifies affectivity, allowing for a more nuanced exploration of personal trauma and self-reflection. In doing so, the article considers the broader implications of these emotional experiences for understanding personal identity in modern society, as well as their impact on contemporary media practices.

The display of sexual violence can be represented differently in text and film. When medium

changes the responses to the same act also change – trivialised and consumable

representation entails pornographic and seductive viewership while autobiographical

narrative conforms to and creates counter – public of the former viewership. The

representation of sexual violence in different narratives not only moulds the readers' or

audiences' roles in an act of sexual savagery but it also controls the readers' gaze and

reactions to a demonstration of violence against women. Representation as tool often

becomes significant in playing with the minds of the readers to generate different outcomes

and emotions out of them. The present paper attempts to analyse how the episode of sexual

violence concerning Phoolan Devi is represented differently in two different mediums i.e.

narrative and the cinematic representation and how these distinct portrayals of the same

incident generate different impressions on the readers and viewers with the shifting of the two

mediums. Phoolan Devi was born in a low caste female called Mallahs, who survived a child

marriage, kidnapping and repeated violations of her body, eventually becoming a prominent

dacoit. In an attempt to translate her journey on screen, Shekhar Kapoor made a full fledged

feature film called The Bandit Queen, trying to depict the repeated sexual violation that

Phoolan Devi had to endure along with undergoing struggles due to her low caste. The paper

will also examine how there exist different representations of sexual violence that can

influence a reader's mind in various ways by emitting different sentiments. The

representations by the author or director bring forth for the a situation through which a reader

may generate feelings depending upon their own psyches, however, the process of

representation makes use of various techniques to get the viewer and reader involved in the

respective narratives. On the one hand the Director of the movie The Bandit Queen represents

sexual violence as something outrageous and explicit promoting voyeurism, while on the

other the author of the novel I, Phoolan Devi presents the same scenes in different evoking

altogether different reactions of empathy from the reader.

This paper focuses on the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise (1990–2001; 2015–ongoing) as a key body of contemporary media products that challenge the conventional anthropocentric understanding of extinction—often framed as a process that primarily affects nonhuman species, leaving humans untouched. In doing so, the franchise foregrounds the dramatic effects of extinction, imagining a world where dinosaurs are resurrected while genetic research radically transforms human-nonhuman relations.

A central premise of this study is that the franchise operates as a site of estrangement, prompting audiences to reconsider extinction through speculative narratives. Dinosaurs are constructed here as liminal beings: living creature belonging to an extinct world, biologically alive yet legally classified as patents, straddling the line between nature and technology, creature and commodity. This strongly resonates with new materialist perspectives, which critique anthropocentric hierarchies and emphasize the agency of nonhuman matter.

A crucial shift distinguishes the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises. The early films (1990–2001) confined dinosaurs to secluded, artificial ecosystems, where human control over nature inevitably collapsed. The Jurassic World era, however, reverses this paradigm: dinosaurs now roam free, integrating into global ecosystems, disrupting human society and forcing new forms of multispecies coexistence. This transition reflects contemporary anxieties over climate crisis, mass extinction, and the unintended consequences of biotechnology.

Furthermore, through its portrayal of necrofauna, the franchise explores themes of biocapital, ecological precarity, and the fragility of human exceptionalism. Additionally, by extending its speculative narratives across multiple media, the franchise fosters participatory ecological estrangement, encouraging audiences to reconsider their place within planetary life.

Ultimately, this paper situates the Jurassic Park/World franchise within new materialist and ecological discourse, arguing that its shift from controlled enclosures to open-ended ecosystems mirrors broader cultural fears about human extinction and the limits of biotechnological intervention. Through its unsettling yet compelling vision of resurrected species, the franchise moves us to confront the agency of the nonhuman and the complexity of human-nonhuman entanglements.

Violence is a recurring poetic issue that South Korean writer Han Kang constantly explores in her works. She repeatedly reflects on these questions: how to face violence, how to understand violence, and how to resist violence. In her creative process, Han Kang not only focuses on the violence that exists within the individual and the violence coming from the family, but also touches violence from society, the state, and history.The former represents internal violence, while the latter is external violence. This paper will analyze how Han Kang responds to the violence present in the human world from three perspectives: the individual, society, and history. Han Kang uses highly poetic but restrained and calm language to depict a silent form of violent resistance, one that rejects humanity and societal language. She also expresses the need to confront the brutal reality of history and embrace the painful historical trauma with love. While contemplating violence, she is probing the deepest aspects of human nature.

Translation semiotics is an emerging and significant subdiscipline within both semiotics and translation studies. It provides a novel framework for exploring the intricate interplay between signs and meaning in translation. This paper undertakes an in-depth interpretation of Yuewei Caotang Biji, a classic work of Chinese literature, and analyses a piece of its English translation, The Great Fire Cracks No Filial Son’s Home by Victor H. Mair, within the theoretical framework of translation semiotics. As an interdisciplinary field, translation semiotics draws upon linguistics, literary theory, sociology, and other related disciplines and theories, offering robust theoretical support for this study. The research systematically categorises and analyses the signs in the translated text, delving into their referential meanings—namely, the concrete objects or concepts represented by the signs; intratextual meanings, which encompass the cultural connotations and symbolic significance inherent in the signs; and pragmatic meanings, which pertain to the effects and significance generated by the signs within specific contexts.

Through a detailed examination of Victor’s translation strategies, the study reveals that the translation of signs necessitates the consideration of multiple factors, such as linguistic and cultural differences, as well as the target audience’s background and cognitive frameworks. In this process, interdisciplinary thinking plays a crucial role, enabling the translator to transcend linguistic barriers and convey the emotions and meanings embedded in the source text.

This research not only enriches the application and understanding of translation semiotics but also provides new insights and methodologies for translation practice. By adopting a sign-centred perspective, translators can more accurately convey the intentions of the original work, thus fostering cultural exchange and preservation. This approach holds considerable significance for enhancing mutual understanding among diverse cultures and promoting the global dissemination of literary works.

The occurrence of the act of Patricide represents an inevitable path for the younger generation in their struggle for the right to express their voice and the establishment of self-awareness. The realization of self-identity cognition through external reflections and ultimately accomplishing a spiritual metamorphosis via Patricide, which shared a common thematic experience embodies the universality and similarity in Oriental Literature. Both Chinese writer Yu Hua's "Cries in the Drizzle" and Turkish writer Pamuk's "The Red-Haired Woman" deeply analyze the distorted father-son relationship within the Oriental cultural world through the power of anguish. The two boys, similarly confronted with the absence of love and a compelling need for spiritual transformation, endeavor to seek a social father within the web of social relations as an "other" to emulate. They collectively undergo the enlightenment and struggle of sexual awareness, striving to transcend yet facing numerous obstacles, ultimately leading directly or indirectly to the occurrence of Patricide. The motif of the "father-son" relationship has been endowed with a new visage by authors in the Oriental Literature, where the underlying opposition and conflict between father and son harbor deeper reflections and implications about the cultural connotations and social essence of their respective nations. In today's fluid and instantaneous modernity society, In today's fluid and instantaneous modernity society, the act of Patricide not only hints at the genuine circumstances of internal social relations and the inevitable outcome of traditional culture being defeated by modern order, but also alludes to the inevitable continuity within culture at the spiritual and identity levels. Modern culture, on the one hand, exhibits like Patricide tendency by abandoning traditions and embracing the neoliberal order. And on the other hand, through the revelation of authentic "father-son relationships", it continues to sustain the operations of traditional humanity ethics and culture, and attempts to draw nourishment from them to address existing real-world issues. It is imperative for us to contemplate how these diverse concepts, traditions, and modernity can better complement and coexist with each other.

This paper examines Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (谷崎潤一郎)’s works Naomi (痴人の愛) and Crane's Cry (鶴唳) from a postcolonial perspective, investigating the potential of “aesthetic foreign concessions” in his works as a “third space” that redefines cultural boundaries. Tanizaki Jun’ichirō expressed his appreciation of the Foreign Concessions (areas governed by foreign powers with extraterritoriality, when late imperial China was partially colonized) in “Thinking of Tokyo” (東京をおもふ), viewing it as an ideal approach for Eastern culture to respond to the impact of Western culture, that is, to preserve the “purity” of culture by establishing strict conceptual and physical boundaries to isolate cultures from one another. In his works, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō attempts to establish “foreign concessions” by presenting Chinese and Western cultures within specific, enclosed spaces. Tanizaki’s view of the Foreign Concessions in China, which reduces the political and economic aspects of the foreign concession and focuses only on its role in maintaining cultural separation, reflects what Karatani Kōjin (柄谷行人) describes as “aestheticentrism.” Therefore, this paper refers to these spaces as “aesthetic foreign concessions.” Tanizaki’s praise of the Foreign Concessions in China is grounded in a colonial discourse that integrates a progressive historical perspective and an inclination toward cultural relativism. Tanizaki believed that there is an essential distinction between various cultures and advocated for the isolation of cultures as a means of preserving their purity. While Tanizaki’s primary aim in creating “aesthetic foreign concessions” was to explore the possibility of limiting cultural exchange in modern contexts, his works inherently engage in an act of cultural translation. Tanizaki’s writing can be seen as a response to cultural hybridity, illustrating the hybrid nature of modern Japanese culture. The hybridity of modern Japanese culture led to anxiety among intellectuals about their cultural identity. Intellectuals like Tanizaki tried to establish cultural boundaries, but the process of defining one’s identity in relation to the “other” essentially facilitated cultural exchange. As a result, Tanizaki’s “aesthetic foreign concessions” serve as Homi Bhabha’s concept of the “third space,” challenging cultural boundaries and prompting a reconsideration of the concept of "culture" and cultural identity within the context of modernization.

About the spread of Wenxindiaolong（文心雕龙） on the ancient Korean Peninsula, the earliest documents that can be seen at present are recorded by Cui Zhiyuan of Xinluo era. One is the Inscription of monk Wuran’s Monument, the other is The biography of the Buddhist monk Fazang, who was the old master of Dajianfu Temple（大荐福寺）in the Tang Dynasty. As the origin of the trace of Wenxindiaolong（文心雕龙） in the history of Korean Peninsula, these two articles are of great significance in the study of text emendation, the outflow and transmission of Chinese Classics, the exchange of literature, culture and literature thoughts between China and Korean Peninsula, and the comparative literature study.

Under the background of mutual appreciation between Chinese and Western civilizations, the study of the mechanisms of translation and dissemination of ancient Chinese literature is an important way to enhance the soft power of Chinese culture. As a literary work that has been lost for thousands of years and then reappeared in Dunhuang's Cave of Sutras,《秦妇吟》（Qinfuyin） has been reintroduced into the field of literary history through the joint efforts of scholars from both Chinese and foreign countries. As Cao Shunqing(2024) mentioned “despite the richness and variety of cultural communication methods, language translation has always been the essence of international communication.” In view of this, this study is the first to utilize the theories of variation and hermeneutics in comparative literature to study the three existing translations of Qinfuyin. According to the author's collection, there are currently three complete translations of Qinfuyin, namely, Lionel Giles' translation in 1925, Robin D.S Yeats' translation in 1988, and Xu Yuanchong's translation in 2005. Different from the traditional translation's concern and requirement of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”, the study of variation pays more attention to variations that occurs when Chinese literature is translated into the English-speaking world. The three translations of Qinfuyin have five types of variations, which are closely related to the translators social environment, study and work experience, and motivation from the hermeneutic point of view, and are reflected in five aspects: phonological variations, predicates variations, toponym variations, rhetorical devices variations, punctuation variations. In the body part of the paper, the author gives a detailed analysis of the five aspects with extensive examples and analysis. The study reveals that the three translators, due to their different cultural backgrounds, translation motives, multiple social positions, present their own characteristics in translating Qinfuyin: Giles is academic-oriented; Robin emphasizes humanistic concern; Xu Yuanchong not only pursues the “three beauties”, but also shows the Chinese translators' sense of subjectivity from passive acceptance to active translation and participation in international communication.However, translation faces the challenges of cross-language and cross-cultural communication. Therefore, how to strike a balance between fidelity and artistry, and how to ensure that the essence of culture can be accurately transmitted without losing its beauty, are key issues that scholars need to continue to explore. Chinese and foreign translators should continue to increase exchanges and joint interpretation, and try their best to dissolve the linguistic and cultural barriers. For Chinese scholars, they should actively undertake the translation and research of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world, and establish the self-subjective consciousness of translation.

Liu Linxi, a Literatus in the late Joseon Dynasty of Korea studied from his teacher-Li Henglao, the founder of the Huaxi School in the Joseon Dynasty, adhering to the ideas of "defending orthodoxy and rejecting heresy" and "respecting China and expelling the foreign invaders". As a general of the Righteous Army in Korea, Liu Linxi guided the struggle against Japanese aggression and national-salvation movement. And the abundant of his Chinese-style poems and essays analyzed the current affairs in East Asia. In particular, he created a large number of "Letters to Compatriots", shouting "Respect China and expel the foreign invaders", attempting to arouse the common cultural memories and common emotions of East Asians and complete the construction of his "rejecting the foreign invaders" discourse. Moreover, as an East Asian Confucian scholar, in the face of the Western military and cultural invasions in the 19th century, he borrowed the discourses of "rejecting Buddhism and Taoism" and "the debate between China and the foreign invaders " which were well-known to East Asian literati, attempting to construct an East Asian community to compete with the West, so as to maintain the subjectivity of the Korean nation and the cultural subjectivity of various East Asian countries.

Professor Cao Shunqing recently introduced the significant issue of rewriting the history of civilization, highlighting both its necessity and feasibility. This proposal has sparked scholarly debate on two key questions: Why should civilization history be rewritten? How should it be rewritten? Given the diverse cultural perspectives on civilization, this remains a complex challenge. Some scholars propose that Variation Theory offers a valuable framework for addressing this issue. This paper explores two fundamental inquiries: What theoretical foundation does Variation Theory provide for rewriting civilization history? How can its principles be practically applied? It argues that Variation Theory’s “twofold integration”—which acknowledges both civilizational continuity and the dialectical interplay of differences—establishes a robust theoretical foundation for this endeavor. On a practical level, cultural variation and heterogenization document historical civilizational exchanges and mutual learning. Rewriting civilization history through Variation Theory fosters integration through diversity, avoiding cultural assimilationism that seeks uniformity. Furthermore, the holistic thinking and mutual learning embedded in Variation Theory emphasize the importance of civilizational interactions and historical evolution. This perspective advances a more inclusive and interconnected understanding of civilization history, positioning Variation Theory as a vital theoretical and methodological guide.

Japanese arts and literature have exhibited a distinct tendency toward formalization throughout their development, with part of their formal system derived from Chinese influences. This paper takes “Shin-Gyō-Sō,” a classification originating from Chinese calligraphy that was later widely applied across various Japanese artistic disciplines, as a case study. It traces the process by which this classification, initially rooted in Chinese calligraphic styles, was integrated into Japanese culture and examines its adaptability and creative expression across different artistic fields. Finally, by revisiting the concept as a whole from both causal and consequential perspectives, the paper offers a comprehensive analysis of “Shin-Gyō-Sō.”

In the first half of the twentieth century, both the Eastern and Western worlds were in the midst of great and unprecedented changes. In the West, the rise of the workers' movement, the success of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, and the outbreak of the two world wars provoked the left-wing intellectuals in Germany to strongly criticize capitalism, imperialism and fascism. In the East, ancient China was also experiencing the pains of quasi-colonialism and semi-feudalism. Society was in turmoil, with different political forces struggling against each other, and everyone was eager to find a new way to achieve genuine salvation and survival. Anna Seghers, as a world-renowned German anti-fascist writer of the 20th century and a famous proletarian revolutionary fighter, looked to the far east at this time, witnessing and recording the proletarian revolutionary movement and anti-fascist movement in China.

The attraction of China to Seghers in the 1920s and 1930s was undoubtedly enormous. This attraction was due to multiple reasons: firstly, she had formed a bond with China when she studied Sinology in Heidelberg and Cologne in her youth; secondly, out of her disappointment with the reality and culture of Europe at that time, she turned her attention to the East, in order to find her own spiritual way out of non-European cultural traditions and to get spiritual nourishment to inspire her empathy to solve her own dilemmas; and thirdly, it was from the same ideology of Mutual support. Because at this time the European countries were in a period of violent social upheaval, deeply mired in the quagmire of economic crisis and the horror of the fascist seizure of power. The intellectuals at this stage invariably intervened directly or indirectly in politics and in social life. Proletarian literature entered a new stage, literary works were given political meanings under the pen of left-wing writers, and solidarity with the international proletarian revolutionary movement was also one of the main activities of the left-wing writers in Germany at that time. As Seghers puts it, she “recognized the interconnectedness of the contradictions in her own country and the struggles being waged in faraway China”. The literary ideology behind this watchfulness is extremely interesting to study.

Seghers has portrayed diverse and vivid images of Chinese revolutionaries in her works, embodying the heroic and fearless revolutionary image of the Chinese people in their anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles, and expressing the writer's affectionate homage to the Chinese revolution. Her works not only formed a close connection with the social reality of China at that time, but also formed a profound dialog with the revolutionary writing in global left-wing literature. We can see China a hundred years ago and the proletarian revolutionary movement in China from Seghers' writing, looking at ourselves with the gaze of the Other and adding a different perspective to this great history.

Huiwen (回文) is a unique and important literary genre in the history of Chinese literary development. Starting from the translation variation of the word huiwen in English, Guo reviews the pictorial form, richness of types, and diversity of content and meaning of huiwen poetry, and combines the compilation history of huiwen collections to briefly describe its long history and far-reaching influence. Focusing on the iconic work in the Chinese huiwen sequence: Su Hui(苏蕙)’s “Xuan Ji Map”(璇玑图), Guo combs and analyzes the general neglect of it in Chinese literary history since the 1980s, as well as the shortcomings in the few introductions. Then, Guo summarizes and explores the introduction of “Xuan Ji Map” as world literature in the history of Chinese literature and world literature in the Anglo-American Academia, analyzing the presentation dimensions, and focusing on David Hinton’s works to re-examine the Confucian and Taoist connotations and feminist implications in “Xuan Ji Map”. On this basis, Guo reviews the history of Chinese literature compiled by Chinese scholars in the early twentieth century, revealing that there was more attention and recognition given to “Xuan Ji Map”, and thus rethink the relationship between huiwen poetry and tradition and modernity, calling for future literary history writing to pay more attention to Su Hui’s “Xuan Ji Map” and other huiwen poetry.

This research examines the polyphonic interplay of motifs across folklore, focusing on the figures of Odin from Norse mythology and Ali Kishi from the Kor-oğlu epic. While Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony traditionally applies to literary texts, we extend its principles to folkloric narratives, where distinct yet interconnected voices and motifs form a dialogical relationship. Central to this exploration is Bakhtin's idea of dialogue as a tension between the Self and the Other (Bakhtin, 1963), enabling the comparison of cross-cultural narratives.

Key to this study is the motif of the horse as a reflection of the hero’s alter ego, encapsulated in the Turkic saying: “The horse is to the man as the wing is to the bird,” as noted by Mahmud Kashgari in his 11th-century dictionary. Françoise Aubin further articulates this idea, stating that in Turkic and Mongolian epics, the horse represents the hero’s double.

This duality is also evident in the Northern saga, where Odin, disgusted as an old man, guides Sigurd to select his legendary horse, Grani. The selection process, involving driving horses to a river where one exceptional steed emerges, mirrors the episode in the Kor-oğlu epic, where Ali Kishi, a blind figure akin to Odin, facilitates the selection of a magical horse. These parallels highlight recurring motifs of blindness, guidance, and the union of terrestrial and celestial realms, as embodied in the horse’s symbolic significance.

By comparing these narratives, the research underscores how shared themes and motifs traverse cultural boundaries, enriching our understanding of polyphonic storytelling within folklore and its dialogical engagement across traditions.

Keywords: Polyphony, Odin and Ali Kishi, Magical Horse Motif, Cross-Cultural Folklore, Symbolism in Epics

This article explores Adam Mickiewicz’s poem “Aryman i Oromaz” through a polyphonic lens, focusing on his interpretation of the concepts of “good” and “evil.” The author seeks, through analysis, to uncover the diverse sources that informed Mickiewicz’s poetic vision, examining the artistic features of the poem and the concepts it conveys. This poem is part of Mickiewicz’s “Oriental Flowers” cycle, which includes poetic translations from Arabic poetry, and it specifically addresses a fragment from the French translation of the Avesta. This fragment describes the cosmogonic views of Zoroastrianism, particularly its understanding of the creation of the world and the cosmic order. Influenced by his understanding of the holy text, Mickiewicz attempts to reconstruct the religious tradition’s foundational imagery for the Polish audience.

For Mickiewicz, this topic is central not only to affirming his own worldview, where the triumph of good over evil is a core theme but also to aligning his personal experiences with the teachings of Zoroastrianism. In his engagement with an ancient and foreign religious narrative, Mickiewicz finds resonance with his values, beliefs, and life experiences. The analysis of the poem reveals how the poet adheres to the core plot of the French translation while shaping his own vision of the issue, deeply rooted in his moral and ethical values. Through this process, Mickiewicz creates a complex narrative that transcends a mere translation, transforming it into a creative reinterpretation that reflects his personal and cultural perspectives.

Some elements in the poem, which reflect key concepts from the translated text, suggest that Mickiewicz initially intended a straightforward translation of the original text. However, as the process progressed, his interpretation began to take precedence, leading to a deeper, more individualized reading. This points to the polyphonic nature of the work, where multiple voices, including those of the original religious tradition, Mickiewicz’s thoughts, and the cultural and historical contexts, interact to form a rich and multifaceted interpretation. Thus, Mickiewicz’s poem should be viewed not merely as a translation but as a reimagining of the original text, reinterpreted through a new artistic and philosophical context.

The present paper explores the mechanisms of linguistic hybridity by drawing on (self)translations in/from French across Romanian novels of the 19th century. Albeit the focus of such a study may seem extremely limiting, it actually reveals a rather abundant corpus, as shown by the data extracted from the Digital Museum of the Romanian Novel (a nearly comprehensive corpus comprising 1,227 Romanian novels published between 1845 and 1947: https://revistatransilvania.ro/mdrr/). This owes to the fact that, especially in the latter half of the 19th century, Romanian elites went through a very noticeable “self-colonization” process, which made French essentially become their second mother tongue. On the other hand, from a strictly theoretical standpoint, we show that the discursive co-occurrence of texts written in different languages, thus triggering the process of linguistic hybridization, can open up a fertile avenue for a more in-depth study and reflection on the phenomenon.

Building on these considerations, our paper is divided into three parts: the first part analyzes the phenomenon of (mono-)hybridity in the mentioned corpus, classifying it according to the direction of translation (FR to RO, in the case of Boileau or Alfred de Musset; RO to FR, in the case of Ion Heliade Rădulescu) and the functions of this approach (accounting for a wide range of factors, from the authenticity of the characters’ speech to the legitimization of the authors’ works); the second part focuses on a process we dub double hybridity, i.e., the instances where both the French and the Romanian texts are signed by the same author, which are then “translated” from one language into another (thereby revealing a mutual contamination of the two linguistic codes); the third and final part pursues the process of (auto)translation within novels from a historical perspective, drawing comparisons between the “hybrids” that were ultimately assimilated by the standardized speech practices by the end of the century and those that were not only rejected, but also ridiculed (for example, in Ion Luca Caragiale’s short stories and dramas), thus fueling literary creativity. The findings of our study highlight the functional pluralism of linguistic hybridization, which brings together numerous linguistic, psychological, social, literary, and cultural roles.

La dialectique entre le nationalisme et le cosmopolitisme littéraire trouva sa première expression en Europe au tournant de 1800. À cette époque, le français jouissait d’une universalité incontestée, un fétichisme encore renforcé par les politiques unilinguistiques instaurées après la Révolution. Cependant, face à l’expansion du Premier Empire, les nations voisines ressentirent l’urgence de redéfinir leur identité propre, plaçant la langue au cœur de cette communauté imaginée. L’exemple de l’espace germanique est ici particulièrement significatif.

Paradoxalement, c’est dans ce contexte de montée des nationalismes qu’émergea le premier élan vers une littérature véritablement européenne, dont Germaine de Staël fut l'une des pionniers. Exilée dans le monde germanophone à la suite de son bannissement par Napoléon, Staël trouva, grâce à ses échanges avec des intellectuels d’outre-Rhin tels que Wilhelm von Humboldt et August Wilhelm Schlegel, une source inédite d’imagination littéraire. Elle intégra cette richesse germanique dans son idéal multilingue, concrétisé dans son roman Corinne ou l’Italie.

L’engagement de Staël ne se limita pas au domaine littéraire : il s’étendit également au champ idéologique. Ainsi, l’auteure de De l'Allemagne fit de la traduction une arme conceptuelle contre la logique de domination culturelle, s’appuyant sur le groupe de Coppet. Ce dernier, rassemblé autour de Staël, représenta le premier véritable salon européen et constitua un creuset pour une vision renouvelée de la littérature européenne, tout en jetant les bases de la discipline émergente de la littérature comparée. Dans ce cadre, non seulement la langue allemande, mais aussi toutes les langues modernes européennes bénéficièrent pour la première fois d’une attention affranchie de toute hiérarchie.

Dans ce contexte, notre étude s’articulera autour d’une série de questions concrètes. Tout d’abord, comment Germaine de Staël, étrangère à la langue allemande, parvient-elle à surmonter les barrières linguistiques pour puiser son inspiration littéraire dans l’univers teutonique ? Ensuite, comment interpréter la figure multilingue de Corinne, qu’elle façonne dans une œuvre presque exclusivement écrite en français ? Par ailleurs, comment Staël, qui ne maîtrisait pas elle-même plusieurs langues de manière exceptionnelle et n’a fait qu’imaginer une muse multilingue, défend-elle cet idéal au sein du groupe de Coppet, un cercle imprégné de polyglottisme et animé par des traducteurs renommés ? Enfin, dans le contexte nationaliste du début du XIXᵉ siècle, comment Staël, ainsi que d’autres membres du groupe de Coppet, construisent-ils leur propre identité ? Subissent-ils une crise identitaire engendrée par un double exil ? Chassés de leur patrie d’un côté et non intégrés aux terres culturelles qu’ils ont choisies de l’autre, deviennent-ils les figures archétypales d’une littérature en exil, privée à la fois d’ancrage et d’accueil ?

The readers’ and critics’ reactions to a text can depend on their identity-making personal, historical and linguistic backgrounds and their personal perspectives on historical events. This can be demonstrated with the Latvian diaspora author Ilze Berzins’ autobiographical novel “Happy Girl”. The novel describes the author’s return to her birthplace after fifty years of living abroad. When she returns in 1995, Latvia has gone through Soviet occupation, massive social, political and demographic changes, which comes as a shock to the author when her image of the dreamland home-country clashes with reality.

This story of return and search for the land of origin can be seen from a variety of perspectives. One perspective provided by the Latvian critic Aija Priedīte in her article entitled “No Place for Dreams” (Sapņiem te nebija vietas) (2021) stresses the role of the author in creating the text and her lack of knowledge about the reality of Latvia. Another perspective on the same text is offered in the Lithuanian researcher Milda Danyte’s “Narratives of “Going Back”: a Comparative Analysis of Recent Literary Texts by Canadians of East European Origin” (2005), where the same text by Berzins is seen in a wider context of the need of human beings to revisit and return to the place of origin, starting with Homer’s Odyssey and mentioning a plethora of other similar examples. Another perspective is provided by the author herself. In a video interview the author imagines that the original readers in English had the perspective of putting themselves in the shoes of an expat returning home, while the Latvian readers of the translation see this is as an unwelcome foreigner stepping on their home ground.

The book was first published in 1997 in English, then translated into Latvian in 2019. This research will examine both the original and the translation, as well as the perspectives of the critics and readers of both publications and the underlying reasons for these perspectives.

The authenticity of life narratives is questioned from time and again. Life narratives of historical figures and revolutionaries are considered many at times as documents through which history can be traced, since they often contain first-hand information about these personalities’ life period. The documentation of history by these accounts are done mostly by these personalities’ experiences alone. The limiting factor of considering a life narrative as an historical document is that the narratives tend to be emotive, one-sided and biased due to this reason. This limits the possibility of considering life narratives as the only authentic source of history. On the other hand, these accounts can be crucial since the personal accounts might provide undocumented side of the mainstream history. Through this proposal, I am planning to look into the possibilities and limitations of considering a life narrative as a historical document.

Lee Kyung-son is recognized as "one of the early film directors in the Korean film industry" and was a significant figure who formed the Shanghai Film Group with Jung Gi-tak, Jeon Chang-geun, Han Chang-seop, and others in Shanghai during the 1930s. Having entered Shanghai in early 1929, Lee spent three years there, until he escaped to Thailand following the outbreak of the Shanghai Incident in 1932. While Lee Kyung-son's achievements in his domestic life, films, and playwriting have been extensively researched and acknowledged in academia, his career during the three years he spent in Shanghai has received relatively little attention. His activities in China are only briefly mentioned in collective studies on the Shanghai Film Group by some scholars, and there has been no comprehensive exploration or research on this period. In particular, there is a notable lack of investigation into the Chinese literary movement during that time, his interactions with notable figures in the Chinese theatre and cultural circles, and his Chinese play "Taiwan," for which bibliographic information has yet to be uncovered. This study aims to organize and analyze Lee Kyung-son's essays related to the Chinese literary movement published in the Korean press during his time in Shanghai, translations of his works, and his Chinese play "Taiwan," which has never been publicly acknowledged. Additionally, it will examine his activities in Shanghai along with his ideological and cultural exchanges with prominent figures in the Chinese theatre and cultural fields. Through this research, I intend to explore Lee Kyung-son's understanding of Chinese literature, how his perspectives differ from those of contemporary Korean writers, his insights into the literary theories of Lu Xun and Zhang Ziping, and how these influences are reflected in his translations. Furthermore, I will conduct a detailed analysis of the creation intent, plot, characters, language, and ideological content of his play "Taiwan."

During the Five-Mountain Period, the center of Sino-Japanese communication shifted from Chang 'an to Lin 'an. The Five-Mountain poets who entered China during the Song Dynasty imagined Lin 'an as the "capital of Buddhism" based on paintings, artifacts and systems; After the collapse of Song Dynasty, through the legacy literature transmission, the Five-Mountain poets read Lin 'an as the "Unorthodox Capital". Lin'an had a wide-ranging impact on Sino-Japanese communication, nevertheless, Lin 'an is absent from Japanese Five-Mountain Literature, replaced by the revival of Chang 'an, forming the "Misplaced" capital writing. This dislocation corresponded to the trend in Medieval Japan of replacing the Confucian view of China as the center of the world with a Buddhist "Three Kingdoms" worldview, reflecting Japan's political intention to reconstruct the "world" order with itself at the center.

In ancient China, the notes' primary purpose was to document facts. Its primary goal at first was to document and preserve experiences and occurrences. Argumentation, emotional expression, and other ways of expressing one's own goals are just a few of the more varied roles that this genre has progressively taken on over time. Since the Song Dynasty, literati have been constructing study rooms more frequently, which has resulted in the growth of study room records, which are now a significant window into literati thought and life. Study Notes served as a conduit for owners' emotional expression and ideological exchange at this time, in addition to being a chronicle of life.

With strong Chinese cultural impact, Japan has also seen a lot of Study Notes in Gozan Bungaku. The majority of these pieces were made at the request of others, indicating a certain social and cultural backdrop, even though they also portray the life of a study room. Gozan Bungaku's Study Notes are especially adept at fusing narrative and reasoning, since the Zen monks not only delve into the deep depths of Zen Buddhism but also share their own insights and grasp of Confucian and Taoist ideas. The complexity of the two nations' cultural integration and interchange is reflected in this form of creation, which differs from the Study Notes of the same era in China in terms of creative style and depth of thinking.

The myth of Tan Jun（壇君） is the founding myth of Korea, and since the 13th century, Tan Jun（檀君） has been the standard writing style. But in reality, this standard writing is incorrect and must be corrected as Tan Jun. There are two reasons for this: first, the earliest version recorded Tan Jun, and second, there is no sandalwood tree in the living world, so the Tan Jun myth should be a record of the Korean living world, so it cannot be Tan Jun. Tan Jun and Tan Jun present two different worlds of life, one is Buddhist mythology and the other is altar mythology.

The acceptance and dissemination of Wenxin Diaolong overseas is an important proof of the international influence of Chinese culture. As early as in the Tang Dynasty, Wenxin Diaolong had already spread eastward to Japan. The long history of the dissemination of Wenxin Diaolong was started with the History of Chinese Literature in Japan in 1897, when it was published in the Meiji period by Kojyou Sadakichi. Subsequently, there emerged some great scholars of the studies of Wenxin Diaolong like Suzuki Torao and Toda Hiroshiakatuki. Modern Japanese scholars have studied Wenxin Diaolong in many ways, both macroscopically and at micro level. In particular, the characterization of the work’s genre and its historical status is an important reference for Chinese scholars: Japanese scholars first identified Wenxin Diaolong as “Six Dynasties prose” and “critical literature”, and later praised it as “a masterpiece of the thinking of rhetoric”, and finally called it “the culmination of early Chinese literary criticism”.

Science fiction, with its focus on technological innovation, futurism, speculation, and virtual reality, is creating new forms and content that bridge the physical and fictional worlds. By offering experiences and insights into possible futures, it is also constructing a new system of knowledge. This paper argues that science fiction, as a new knowledge system, is chiefly expressed through its virtual simulation model, which is opening doors to new realities. The discussion will unfold in three key areas: 1. Science fiction narratives (including AI literature) as a new model for connecting the real and virtual worlds. 2. Science fiction games as a new medium for bridging entertainment and serious philosophical ideas. 3. The logical construction of human-machine cyborg subjects and the new development of subjectivity. The real world is increasingly becoming a science fiction world. Science fiction will establish new modes of subject cognition in the dimensions of reality and virtuality, the physical and the surreal.

As one of the major narrative modes of English Cli-fi fiction, post-apocalyptic writing began to flourish in the twenty-first century. It is notable that among them, some post-apocalyptic novels not only engage such crucial elements of the Anthropocene imagination as extinction, epidemics, energy depletion and survival, but also use intermedial forms within the language-based novel. Station Eleven, a post-apocalyptic fiction which won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award by Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel, is such an Ekphrasis text that uses language to represent music, drama and graphic story. What is the efficacy of different cultural forms in conveying the moral messages of the post-apocalyptic imagination? If human civilization collapses, what can be preserved to make people survive? This article uses Station Eleven and its TV series adaptation as a case study to ponder on the issue of intermedial performativity, i.e. the transformative power of the intertwined relationships among individuals, artifacts, and hybrid cultural forms to highlight the importance of literature and art in keeping people to live on.

"Black Myth: Wukong," as the first Chinese AAA game, is said to be "saturated with literary expression and narrative experience rooted in literature" . This "literariness oriented game narrative design" not only prompts reflections on the pathways and methods for Chinese culture to go global but also inspires deeper thoughts on the reinterpretation of traditional literature, the fusion of literature and gaming, the discussion of literary themes, and the exploration of new literary narrative forms.Firstly, the narrative design of Black Myth: Wukong draws on the allegorical framework of Xiyouji by blending and deeply integrating various media forms. It adopts the "earthworm-like structure" of the original Journey to the West (as described by Zheng Zhenduo), constructing an allegorical tale that transitions from surface-level narrative to mid-level narrative and ultimately to deep-level narrative.Secondly, Black Myth: Wukong constructs well-rounded character portrayals by blending divinity, animality, and humanity, breaking free from the traditional game's constraint of "purely good or evil" flat character archetypes. Unlike the original work, the narrative designers utilize media transitions to alter the human traits embedded in divine, Buddhist, and demonic characters, challenging players' expectations of the classic roles from the original story. Through the reversal of character archetypes, the game crafts a grand and tragic masterpiece, eliciting emotional release and catharsis from the players.Thirdly, unlike Western narrative traditions, rhetorical techniques such as the "virtual storytelling context, playful use of character names, and the incorporation of poetry and song" depict a classical Chinese society, offering readers a poetic reading experience (Pu Andy, 2018: 124-144). The narrative designers of Black Myth: Wukong draw inspiration from the rhetorical forms employed in Chinese literary masterpieces, striving to deliver a similarly poetic experience to players.

This paper explores the religious interpretation of Anton Chekhov's short story “The Student.” By analyzing the parallels between Ivan's spiritual transformation and the Gospel Passion narrative, the article reveals how Chekhov constructs a “story within a story” to combine the personal journey of the protagonist and Jesus' suffering and redemption in Russian Orthodox theology. The paper examines the intentional use of religious elements and the dual roles that Ivan plays as both a Christ-like figure and a Peter-like figure, raising questions about the reliability of Ivan’s epiphany and the broader implications for Russian history and its cyclical suffering. Through a close reading of the text, the paper argues that Chekhov's narrative strategy blurs the boundaries between storyteller and protagonist, inviting readers to question the nature of historical repetition, the inevitability of suffering, and the possibility of redemption.

In contemporary contexts, cats continue to inspire digital culture, fashion, and design, reinforcing their timeless appeal. From ancient Egyptian deities to modern artistic movements, cats have symbolized mysticism, resilience, and an intrinsic connection to the unseen. Writers, poets, and artists often draw from the cat’s elusive presence, using it to represent curiosity, self-sufficiency, and the balance between domesticity and wildness. This Article explores the enduring influence of cats as an inspiration, examining their symbolic significance and metaphoric impact on human creativity, aesthetics, and storytelling. The idiom ‘cats and dogs’ has been widely used in the English language, most commonly in the phrase ‘raining cats and dogs’. Though the origins of some cat expressions remain uncertain, the author touches upon various interesting aspects with theories linking it to Norse mythology, medieval drainage systems, and 17th-century literary usage. Beyond weather-related meanings, ‘cats and dogs’ has also symbolized oppositional relationships, as seen in the phrase ‘fight like cats and dogs’ ,which describes constant conflict or rivalry. Cat words like copy cat, cool cat, cat walk or idioms like cats and dogs, bail the cat, all cats are grey in the dark reflect broader cultural perceptions of the contrasting natures of cats and dogs—independent versus loyal, aloof versus affectionate. Over time, the expression has evolved in literature, media, and colloquial speech, demonstrating how animal imagery shapes language and metaphor.

Key Words: Cats, cats and dogs, cool cat, copy cat, cat walk, cat and language, cat and culture

In Rabi Singh’s Odia poem “Charamapatra”, the speaker issues an ultimatum to God, warning Him to either vacate his divine throne within twenty-four hours or face dire consequences of the speaker’s wrath. This apparently heretical act is prompted by the speaking self’s disenchantment with the institution of religion in ‘modern’ times as a response to suffering of others. Similarly, in Hindi poet Nagarjun’s “Anna-pachchisi ke dohe”, the speaker proclaims food-grains as the ultimate godly truth and other gods as vampires. These two poets writing in two modern Indian languages from 1930s onwards were part of a progressive literary movement called pragativaad that manifested simultaneously in both Odia and Hindi literatures. Their works responded to the dominant structures of feeling of their times characterized by the problems of modernity in a colonized and later newly independent country. In this context, the ethics of the literary was forged in the lyrical self’s resistance in response to and in solidarity with the suffering of others which the pragativaadis— ranging from Marxist-socialist to liberal-humanist in their political orientation—believed was a result of unequal (and hence, unethical) socio-political structures.

Using Jacques Rancière’s formulation of “regimes of the arts” and Sisir Kumar Das’s “prophane and metaphane”, in this paper I attempt to synchronically trace the shared repertoire of signification in the progressive literary movements across two languages and understand how they offer a phenomenology of suffering and resistance through poetry. I argue that poetry in this context becomes ‘heretic’ by offering, in Edward Said’s words, a “secular critique” of religiously held dogmas and dominant hierarchies. Through a comparative reading of the select poems of Rabi Singh, Sachi Routray, Nagarjun, and Kedarnath Agrawal, I will be looking at how this movement made a space of articulation of difference by offering us (in slight modification of Simone de Beauvoir’s) a “taste of another’s life’s” suffering by mediating their “lived experience” through poetry.

This study conducts a multidimensional comparative analysis of Plato’s Symposium and Zhuangzi’s Zhuangzi, focusing on their aesthetic philosophies and cultural implications. Through textual exegesis, historical contextualization, and theoretical frameworks rooted in Platonic idealism and Daoist naturalism, the research systematically examines three core questions: (1) Divergence and Convergence in Aesthetic Ideals: While Plato’s theory of eternal "Forms" prioritizes rational transcendence and hierarchical beauty, Zhuangzi’s "Dao" emphasizes intuitive harmony with nature and inner tranquility. Despite differing epistemologies, both philosophies converge on the pursuit of spiritual liberation through aesthetic contemplation. (2) Philosophical Influence on Artistic Expression: The dialogic structure of Symposium shaped classical Greek art’s emphasis on proportional harmony and rational ideals, as seen in sculpture and drama. Conversely, Zhuangzi’s parables and concepts like Xiaoyao You (Free Wandering) inspired Chinese literati arts—landscape painting, calligraphy, and poetry—to prioritize symbolic resonance and natural spontaneity. (3) Civilizational Mutual Learning in Practice: Applying the theory of cultural mutual learning, this study proposes pathways for integrating Western rational aesthetics with Eastern intuitive traditions, such as cross-cultural symposia, translational projects, and interdisciplinary dialogues. By identifying shared ethical aspirations (e.g., harmony and self-cultivation) while respecting cultural particularities, the findings advocate for a pluralistic global aesthetic discourse that bridges civilizational divides. This research not only enriches comparative literary studies but also offers actionable insights for fostering intercultural empathy and sustaining cultural diversity in a globalized world.

Abstract

W. B. Yeats’s and Sri Aurobindo’s visionary experiments transcended their creativity, inspired unquenchable mystic knowledge of spiritual world, with distinctive Celtic religious and personal consciousness that appeared immensely mystic consciousness. Yeats undoubtedly developed personal consciousness as indeterminate mythic consciousness. Yeats’s mythic muse is driven by primordial instincts, primitive aspirations for universal truths of myths that undoubtedly mythopoeia in modern mythology. Yeats mythic consciousness is characteristically transcended his self and soul on his own terms of the system. Yeats’s mythic muse is inspired from deep conscious, passionate, earthly, and surrealistic. Yeats’s creative consciousness appeared deeply apologetic and immense grief. Yeats has seen the world as disintegrating and crumbling, where he strived to rebuild world by his inner self and unity of being. Sri Aurobindo’s creative journey and yogic Sadhana are complimentary to spiritual thirst

and spiritual recurrent archetypes in Indian Vedic tradition. Sri Aurobindo raised the spiritual base for ascetic psyche and ascent and descent philosophy. Yeats’s search for unity of being in mythical poetry forms the world view while Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual paradigms behind Hindu myths provide wider canvas for mythic poetry. Yeats’s strenuous efforts appeared revival of racial imagination and conscience shaping. Yeats’s mythic and abstract consciousness can be situated on mythic truth, wisdom and wisdom of God. Yeats earnestly wished to embed the Homeric truth in Irish conscience. Sri Aurobindo’s mythical paradigms have semiotic and empirical significance and substance of archetypes. The spirit of the myth addresses the metaphorical and metaphysical significations. The mythical truth appeared spiritualized through glorious hue to the myths and legends. The spirit of the myth that addresses the human mind based on the similarity of the spirit empirically that conveys the mythic truth. The sage poet’s mythic truth defines the glorious national character of the visionary, religious and spiritual truth until linked with Divine. Yeats has scaled in his superhuman efforts throughout his life to create myths and mythopoeia from abstract to concrete. The spiritual illumination rendered archetypes yielded to him through methodological visions and yogic achievements. The visions and imageries revealed consciousness awakening as progress appeared concrete in yogic achievements and mental planes that undoubtedly provided him patterns for mystical poetry and visionary worlds. The overhead consciousness is manifested to lift the spirit to Truth Consciousness in the form of Savitri. The spiritual development is empirical, holistic and awakening of distant knowledge that is All-pervading. As a sage poet his poetic aesthetic deals with inspired Mantra poetry that bears the visionary planes and images that are charged with significance. His vision behind the awakening is unitary, esoteric, that recognizes the Divine webs and Divine consciousness in illuminating and transforming selves.

Key Words : Discursive and Harmonious myths and renaissance

This paper delves into the distinct yet interconnected themes of adventure and spirituality in travel narratives. It examines and explores how cultural, historical, and religious contexts influence the portrayal of travel experiences from the west and the east by examining Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard and Karna Shakya's Dolpo. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the narrative styles, thematic elements, and cultural reflections in the west and the east. The methodology involves a qualitative analysis of the selected texts, focusing on recurring themes, narrative techniques, and cultural references. The study employs a comparative approach to draw meaningful conclusions about the similarities and differences between these two travel narratives. For this, I utilize Joseph Campbell's concept of the hero's journey to examine the protagonists' quests for self-discovery and transformation; Mircea Eliade's theory of the sacred and the profane to explore the spiritual dimensions of the journeys; and Edward Said's concept of Orientalism to analyze the portrayal and perception of Western and Eastern perspectives on travel and spirituality for the textual analysis and interpretation. Both narratives, however, share a common thread of self-discovery and personal growth through travel. This comparative analysis offers unique insights into their respective cultures and worldviews. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how travel writing can serve as a bridge between different cultures, fostering greater appreciation and empathy among readers.

This study compares the themes of death and rebirth in Jibanananda Das’s Rupasi Bangla (1957) and Louise Glück’s The Wild Iris (1992), focusing on their use of nature as both a metaphor and medium for existential reflection. Das, deeply influenced by Bengali spiritual traditions, presents death as a peaceful return to the cosmic cycles of nature and rebirth as a continuation of cultural and collective identity. His portrayal of Bengal’s rural landscapes encapsulates a harmonious relationship between humanity and the eternal rhythms of nature. In contrast, Glück, drawing on Western existentialism, explores mortality and renewal through the transient cycles of a garden, emphasizing individual resilience and transformation.

While Das’s work reflects communal and cosmic perspectives rooted in Hindu-Buddhist philosophies, Glück’s poetry centers on personal introspection and the solitary confrontation with mortality. Despite their cultural and philosophical differences, both poets use nature to reveal universal truths about life’s cyclicality. This research highlights the shared human experience of death and renewal, demonstrating how literature transcends cultural boundaries to engage with existential themes of continuity, resilience, and hope.

Cha Cha on the Bridge, written by Yoon Pil and illustrated by Jaeso, is a 60-episode webtoon that was first published in weekly installments in 2018 and later published as a two-volume graphic novel. It was the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 Science Fiction Awards in Korea. The soft-toned black and white pencil sketch illustrations provide a sharp contrast to the futuristic setting where human labor have been replaced by AI robots and massive data centers accessible to only a tiny handful of the elite can store and manipulate information to achieve desired outcomes.

In this webtoon, the two main protagonists are AI robots. “Cha Cha” is a humanoid robot that was introduced in the year 2030 to prevent humans from killing themselves on Mapo Bridge, a site notorious for its alarming suicide rate. “Ai,” who owns and operates a nursing home for the elderly, eventually learns about Cha Cha from the numerous residents who reminisce about “the Bridge” where they had almost ended their lives. Cha and Ai heroically save lives in a postmodern, posthuman society where robots have been programmed to be kind and perform tedious tasks, while humans have become cold and calculating machines that act upon their selfish impulses, heartlessly abusing and discriminate against children, women, and migrant workers.

“Cha Cha on the Bridge” explores what it means to be human, and how behaving like a warm, friendly human is so rare in contemporary society that the simple act of sharing a meal together, or making time to chat about personal matters with a colleague, seems to be a heroic feat. It also uncovers the arbitrariness of human values, such as when a War Robot’s killing of a human can make you a murderer or war hero, depending on circumstances. A few exceptional robots begin to think on their own, act and think as if they have free will, and desire to become human.

This comic can also be analyzed through the framework of Groensteen’s “postmodern turn.” The work is characterized by narrative disruption. Flashbacks from past and present are made confusing because the robots do not age and retain the identical appearance even after decades have passed, whereas the human characters show signs of wear.

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The increasing advancement of humanoid robots and humanized technology has extended the boundaries of gender performance, femininity, and its exploitation beyond that of human women. A case in point: the launch of numerous sexbots over the years, some equipped with AI, mostly gendered female, all aimed to serve people as the “perfect partner.” Consequently, it has become necessary to expand the boundaries of gender politics to include nonhuman bodies in literature, in literary criticism, and in reality.

Recent works of science fiction such as Her (2013), Ex Machina (2014), and Machines Like Me (2019) may be seen as such responses in literature. The purpose of this paper is to analyze their distinctive characterizations of female and male AI, and critique the feminist-posthumanist discourse generated thereof. I propose that their common strategy of utilizing fembots as feminist representatives of the emergent posthuman race to elicit greater acceptance of nonhuman persons—while effective in its goal—is not without its problems.

Although critical accounts have provided much insight into AI femininity itself in terms of its social construction, visual expression, and patriarchal exploitation, almost no observation has been made on its narrative privilege over AI masculinity, nor to the purposes and outcomes of such a privilege. At the intersection of feminism and posthumanism, there seems to be a lack of awareness of how the rhetoric of one is employed in the service of the other, or of the potential consequences of such a device. On one hand, each individual narrative is admirable in its rejection of the misogyny involved in the development of AI, artificial femininity, and mechanical servitude. On the other hand, the accumulation, entrenchment, and eventual simplification of these narratives into a trend may perpetuate sexist narrative practices within fiction and sexist business practices outside of it. In fiction, posthuman women are progressively flattened into “perfect victims” to the point of powerlessness, while posthuman men continue to be treated with the same apathy, fear, and violence that have been associated with them since 1960s Hollywood. In real life, this narrative trend may also potentially—however unintentionally—perpetuate the existing idea that gynoids are preferable to androids when it comes to robotic service, thereby encouraging the technological exploitation of the feminine form, and reinforcing patriarchal and stereotypical associations between femininity and ubiquitous servitude.

In concluding the paper with questions regarding alternative narratives, I hope to generate broader discussions over the ethical implications of engineering posthuman gender and posthuman entities in general. Regardless of the realistic possibility of creating artificial sentience or higher intelligence, how ethically compatible is it really, the two goals of creating an entity with human intelligence, and then unconditionally subjugating its intelligence to our services? Must not our very desire for a slave—woman or man, posthuman or human—be critically examined, rather than pursued in the hopes of a technological utopia?

This paper will provide a comparative analysis of American and Korean science fiction texts regarding language barriers between humans and non-humans. I will analyze Roger Zelazny’s “For a Breath I Tarry” and Kim Hye-Yoon’s “Interview with a Black Box.” With social and industrial coupling with generative AI increasingly becoming widespread in the present day, I view it as timely to revisit Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” and examine the usage and interpretation of language between humans and non-humans. I propose that analyzing the language of the non-humans in these science fiction texts would call attention to different types of language barriers between humans and non-humans and contribute to improving the human and non-human relationship. Zelazny’s text is set in a future apocalypse caused by a nuclear war. His text depicts a robot named Frost who studies anthropology and his efforts to understand humanity as he modifies his body over time, as well as finding loopholes in restrictions set by his superior, Solcom. Kim’s text depicts a future space colony where cyborgs are marginalized communities, and the story depicts a human main character Lana reminiscing about her relationship with her cyborg mother as she interviews other cyborgs as part of her survey regarding resident satisfaction with the colony’s gravity. Throughout the interviews, Lana learns how to adjust her questions, and learns how cyborgs’ recognition senses are uniquely different from human perception. I argue that these texts mirror each other, since in Zelazny’s story a robot learns about humans, and in Kim’s story the human tries to understand cyborgs. These texts reveal grey areas of the “machine language,” and the misunderstanding that comes from the limitations of programmed languages. For this paper, I view the “machines” in the texts as more than the conventional automatons, and they hold potentials to blur the boundaries between the human and non-human. I argue that these texts would contribute to understanding the language barriers and improve communication between humans and non-humans beyond technological relationships.

The relentless pursuit of technological advancement has brought humanity into new scientific surroundings, where robots, AI, and even cloning — once confined in science fiction —have now become reality. These innovations have undoubtedly improved many aspects of human life, enhancing convenience and efficiency. However, alongside the benefits of this advancement, it also gives rise to new forms of alienation and conflict in modern society. In an era where technology evolves faster than society’s ability to adapt, narrative can serve as “one of many discourses through which to grapple with the intersections of science, technology, human values, and our coming future”.

Never Let Me Go (2010), directed by Mark Romanek and based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, is one such narrative envisioning a dystopian world where clones are created solely to provide vital organs for “natural” humans. By centering on cloning, the film explores ethical issues such as the essence of humanity, social alienation, and exclusion through the relationship between humans and clones. This paper analyzes the film Never Let Me Go (2010) through the lens of posthumanism, particularly Rosi Braidotti’s concept of the “posthuman subject,” focusing on themes of alienation and exclusion. By critiquing anthropocentric perspective, this paper highlights the necessity of posthumanist thinking in redefining subjectivity. The alienation of clones depicted in Never Let Me Go reflects the deeply established anthropocentric mindset in modern society, rooted in Cartesian dualism. Through spatial, linguistic, and social exclusion, the film highlights how clones are denied subjectivity, reinforcing their status as mere biological resources. However, through Kathy’s first-person narration, the film invites viewers to empathize with the clones, prompting a reevaluation of rigid human/nonhuman distinctions. This study also draws a parallel between the film’s themes and the real-world marginalization of migrant workers in South Korea, emphasizing the necessity of posthumanist thinking in dismantling exclusionary hierarchies and fostering a more inclusive definition of subjectivity.

Recent theoretical frameworks such as Actor-Network Theory (ANT), New Materialism, and ecological theories from Anna Tsing and Donna Haraway challenge traditional anthropocentric perspectives by emphasizing the significance and agency of non-human entities within interconnected ecological assemblages. This raises critical questions about the positioning of humans within these networks of mutual influence. In the first chapter, through the keyword mushroom in Kim Cho-yeop’s novel "The Dispatchers," Anna Tsing’s ethnographic study "Mushrooms at the End of the World," and Nie Longqing’s non-fiction work "Mushroom Addiction", we imagine the possibility of various positions of existence where humans and non-humans are separated or coexist in order to adapt to modern society. In the second chapter, this study addresses the need to rethink the notion of the subject as it emerges from the contingent relationships between humans and non-human actors. We explore the speculative fiction of Kim Bo-Young, specifically the stories "An Evolutionary Myth," "On the Origin of Species," and "On the Origin of Species – and What Might Have Happened Thereafter".

This research aims to carry out a comparative study between Brazilian Literature, the novel The Passion According to G.H. (A Paixão segundo G.H.) by Clarice Lispector, and Korean Literature, the novel Mother's Stake I (엄마의 말뚝 I/ Eommaui Malttuk I) by Park Wan Seo. The study investigates the relation of space/body in the narratives by contemporary women writers to propose a new conception of world literature by having as a starting point "Other" Literatures, as designated national literature works originated from the Global South. Thus, to conduct the research it was considered the following elements in the comparative reading: space/body, symbolic-imagetic bodies, cultural convergences, and cultural differences between the literary works by Clarice Lispector and Park Wan Seo. The main concept in discussion in this study is the concept of world literature presented on two axes: the concept of world literature, an overview of the notion, and re-readings of world literature—decentering. Therefore, this study proposes a re-reading of the concept of world literature based on the concept of planetarity by Gayatri Spivak (2003), departing from the practice of reading works from Global South Literature, in other words, Latin American Literature and Korean Literature, respectively, Brazilian Literature and Korean Literature.

Magical Realism is perhaps the prominent literary movement that embodied the timeless conflict between cultural particularity (postcolonialism) and universality (world literature). Although initially conceptualized within Europe, it was subsequently inextricably linked to Latin America and eventually constituted a universal genre of post-colonial literature. Today, its dominant articulation concerns a symmetrical juxtaposition and coevalness (Fabian) of two different temporal and cultural experiences and perspectives (Western and non-Western).

In this presentation, I will turn to two emblematic texts by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier: On the Marvelous Real in America (1949) and The Baroque and the Marvelous Real (1975). These texts had a catalytic effect on the conceptualization of magical realism and encompass all the aforementioned contradictions. In the first text, where he synthesizes the concept of the Marvelous Real, Carpentier initially admits the impossibility of achieving a universal literary-cultural perspective. On the other hand, however, through a dialectic of similarities and differences between Europe and Latin America, he will argue that Magical Realism, for historical-cultural reasons, is more suitable to develop in Latin America. In his later text, he returns to the concept of the Marvelous Real. This time, however, he tries to give it a universal connotation by partially disconnecting it from the reality of Latin America. To achieve this, he will resort to the European concept of Baroque, which claims that it is not an aesthetic movement but a transhistorical ontological relationship with the world, which, however, manifests itself within history with different intensities each time. Although Latin America is still the privileged place of the Baroque (and Marvelous Real), Carpentier also identifies moments and manifestations of the Baroque worldview within and outside European (and Latin American) aesthetic production.

At this point, I will try to connect the baroque universality proposed by Carpentier with the German philosopher Ernst Bloch, whose European philosophy of history seems incompatible with preserving non-Western cultural particularities. Bloch, in The Philosophy of the Future, however, argues that a «postulated multiplicity of voices is possible: a methodic profusion, an interweaving of time and epochs, and therefore a spaciousness in the flow of history, which would in no way necessitate any recourse to geographism.» I will argue that this spatial expansion that mediates spatial distance and temporal homogenization is supported by the concept of Baroque proposed by Carpentier and which constitutes a necessary complement to the corresponding idea of the Marvelous Real and consequently to the relationship of Magical Realism with World Literature.

In a conference themed “Comparative Literature: Perspectives, Practices, Positions” organized in March 2024, in which the author was one of the organizers, Harish Trivedi in his lecture cited the example of the volume titled Literatures of the World and the Future of Comparative Literature which had papers compiled out of the proceedings of the 22nd Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association edited by Péter Hajdu and Xiaohong Zhang. Trivedi drew attention to how the volume was divided into four parts: 1. Comparative Literature, 2. National Literatures and Diaspora Literature, 3. Translation Studies, and 4. World Literature. His point was that the space of comparative literature(CL) was being taken up by other ‘disciplines’ and it reflected even in the publications of the official international body of CL. Taking this as the point of departure, this paper examines select edited volumes on CL published in the 21st century from India in terms of the composition of their papers. The idea here is to understand the politics of disciplinarity, questions of ‘objects’ of study, and problems of methodology in research and pedagogy vis-à-vis publishing. India is taken as the location of this study because of two reasons: (i) its plurilingual and pluricultural situation which necessitates a comparative practice and (ii) it being a non-Euro-American and ‘postcolonial’ nation.

How does CL conceive its practice as different in relation to other disciplines like the ones listed above? Is there a gradual erosion of its space in published works? How do these volumes contribute to theorization, canon formation, pedagogy and research? What is their role in the institutional visibility and viability of CL? What do the current trends in publishing imply for CL and its practitioners, especially in India? These are some of the questions that this paper seeks to engage with.

Some of the volumes that will be examined for this paper, arranged chronologically, include:

1. 2007: James, Jancy, Chandra Mohan, Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta, and Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, eds. Studies in Comparative Literature: Theory, Culture and Space. Delhi: Creative Books

2. 2012: Raj, Rizio Yohannan, ed. Quest of a Discipline: New Academic Directions for Comparative Literature. New Delhi: Cambridge UP India

3. 2013: Ramakrishnan, E. V., Harish Trivedi and Chandra Mohan, eds. Interdisciplinary Alter-natives in Comparative Literature. New Delhi: Sage

4. 2013: Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven, and Tutun Mukherjee, eds. Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literatures, and Comparative Cultural Studies. New Delhi: Cambridge UP India

5. 2017: Figueira, Dorothy and Chandra Mohan, eds. Literary Culture and Translation: New Aspects of Comparative Literature. Delhi: Primus Books

Indigenous life and culture are comparatively less depicted in Bengali literature, mainly due to the indigenous communities' residence in border regions and their limited interaction with Bengali society. Indigenous people are generally classified into two categories: plains and hill tribes, but there is much debate in Bangladesh’s institutional framework regarding the term 'indigenous.' However, analyzing the lives and culture of indigenous communities from a literary perspective is highly significant. This paper reviews the depiction of indigenous life and culture in Shaukat Ali's কপিল দাস মুর্মুর শেষ কাজ (Kapil Das Murmur's Last Task; 1968) and Alaudddin Al Azad's কর্ণফুলী (Karnaphuli; 1962). In Shaukat Ali's story, the Santal indigenous elder Kapil Das rebels against the moneylender, reflecting the age-old conflict between rulers and the oppressed. On the other hand, Alaudddin Al Azad’s novel Karnaphuli focuses on the struggle for survival of the Chakma community, illustrating the profound impact of the damming of the Karnaphuli River on their life and culture. Akhtaruzzaman Elias, in his essay চাকমা উপন্যাস চাই (Chakma Novel Needed), highlights the importance of writing novels in the Chakma language. He mentions that if the rich folklore, myths, and songs of the Chakma community are incorporated into novels, it would add a new dimension. According to him, even though a novel may not directly solve a problem, it provides direction towards human possibilities. Elias believed that Chakma novels, by reflecting the crises and struggles of the marginalized, oppressed, and downtrodden indigenous people, could help organize their worldview. However, his views later sparked mixed reactions among other indigenous groups in the hill regions. This paper analyzes the reflection of indigenous life and culture from a post-colonial perspective, highlighting the tension between their struggles for survival and cultural identity, which is largely overlooked in Bengali literature.

Martin Heidegger is known for his fourfold concept of the world: the holy whole of earth, sky, mortals, and gods. Cryptically, this unity has transformed into the subsequent diminishing epochs: from the original mythological to the threefold religious, twofold scientific, and the collapsed technological. The last two manifestations—modern and postmodern—are considered a threat, particularly the final one. Could the decline turn into a salvation? What would be the next worldview that overcomes the technical danger? Are there any poetic premonitions of it in art and literature?

We may present this phenomenological plot graphically as follows (see Merilai 2023: 35).

[Enclosed Figure 1. The Heideggerian worldview epochs.]

References

Heidegger, Martin. 1954. Vorträge und Aufsätze. Pfulligen: Günther Neske Verlag.

Heidegger, Martin. 1962. Die Technik und die Kehre. Pfulligen: Günther Neske Verlag.

Heidegger, Martin. 1976. „Nur noch ein Gott kann uns retten.“ – Der Spiegel, No. 30 (May): 193–219.

Heidegger, Martin. 1992. Basic Writings: from Being and Time (1927) to The Task of Thinking (1964). Ed. David Farrell Krell. San Francisco: Harper Collins Editions.

Merilai, Arne. 2023. A Technical Turn and Poetic Declination: God Help Us. – Merilai, Arne. Estonian Pragmapoetics, from Poetry and Fiction to Philosophy and Genetics. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 30–48.

This study focuses on Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian fiction Klara and the Sun (2021), specifically analysing how technology amplifies loneliness and prompts society to create more advanced technological solutions to alleviate the feeling of isolation. For example, sentient robots have already been developed to take care of human loneliness. The technology has proven successful in eliciting appropriate emotional responses, but “there is psychological risk in the robotic moment” (Turkle 55). By examining the relationship between mankind and Artificial Intelligence (AI), this study evaluates to what extent technology can genuinely lighten this uniquely human experience of loneliness from the Heideggerian perspective. In the novel, advanced androids, known as Artificial Friends (AFs), are designed to accompany children and even serve as continuities for those who have passed away. In such an intricate relationship, humans view AFs as manageable resources providing companionship, while AFs disconnect humans from the true Being. This interaction visualises Heidegger’s “Enframing” (Gestell). I thereby argue that we are risking relinquishing essential aspects of humanity when we allow AI to increasingly involve in our narrative. As a result, I advocate that we need a more nuanced approach to how we engage with technology, especially concerning sentient machines, to effectively and ethically address loneliness.

Being and Time is Martin Heidegger's magnum opus and a cornerstone of his reputation as one of the greatest modern philosophers. However, this masterpiece is notoriously difficult and obscure. Is there a way to present its core ideas in simpler, more accessible language so that scholars and readers unfamiliar with Western philosophy can understand and appreciate it? A more important question is: how can we bring Heidegger’s philosophical thoughts into a dialogue with Chinese philosophy, thus bridging the gap between Eastern and Western philosophy and facilitating the integration of both perspectives? Inspired by the famous philosopher Alfred North Whitehead's advice to scholars—"If you want to understand Confucius, read John Dewey. If you want to understand John Dewey, read Confucius," the author attempts to create a dialogue between Laozi and Heidegger across time, culture, and civilization. This dialogue aims to understand Being and Time through a reading of Tao Te Ching, and to deepen our understanding of Tao Te Ching through a close reading of Being and Time. This paper focuses on a detailed reading and comparison of Tao Te Ching and Being and Time, with the goal of deepening our understanding of the core concepts of "Tao" (the Way) and "Sein" (Being), and making a modest contribution to the fusion of Eastern and Western thought.

Tao Te Ching, in the minds of the Chinese, is considered a profound work—just over five thousand characters, yet it conveys deep meanings and encompasses the universe. Being and Time, as a modern philosophical text, may not have the same far-reaching and lasting influence as Tao Te Ching, but it holds immense importance in the Western world. In this book, Heidegger questions the metaphysical tradition of Western philosophy, which has been built over centuries, and provides a deeper and ontological interpretation of human existence. Although both of these philosophical masterpieces are groundbreaking in their own right, they seem to have no obvious connection from their introductions, making a comparison between them seems unnecessary. Tao Te Ching explores the general nature of existence between humans and the cosmos, with humans being the central focus, though not seen as the center of the universe. On the other hand, Being and Time centers on human existence (Dasein), asserting that the world gains its meaning from human existence. In this sense, Being and Time appears to have a narrower scope in its interpretation of existence. This difference is undoubtedly related to the contrasts between Eastern and Western thought. Chinese philosophy, especially Taoism, emphasizes nature and views humans as part of the cosmos and nature, with human existence needing to align with the universal way. In contrast, Western philosophy, especially mainstream metaphysics, is human-centered and explores existence through the lens of human beings. Heidegger’s existentialism further emphasizes human existence as distinct from other beings. In terms of structure, Tao Te Ching is divided according to its content, while Being and Time is divided through logical reasoning. This structural difference reflects the different approaches to interpretation between Eastern and Western philosophies—namely, the distinct pursuits of the logic of interpretation. Chinese thinkers tend to prioritize the accessibility of ideas, aiming to transmit knowledge and truth to the student, whose task is to absorb the logic and source of knowledge through repeated reading and contemplation. In contrast, Western philosophers, especially Heidegger, resemble scientists (Of course, Heidegger would certainly sneer at such a metaphor, but the process of his interpretation in Being and Time indeed presents a strong sense of scientific rigor. ) in that they emphasize revealing the origins and development of knowledge and truth, focusing on the formation process and the problems that arise within those ideas. Given these differences, one might wonder: with such contrasting approaches to thought and expression, is there any meaningful comparison or dialogue between Laozi and Heidegger’s core ideas? How can the central concepts of "Dao" and "Being" be understood in relation to each other, despite these fundamental differences in thinking and presentation?

In order to comprehend the dialogue between two great thinkers and philosophers, we need to learn to play the role of “the child” (chi zi, 赤子) that Laozi refers to, or “the child” in the three metamorphises of human existence mentioned by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, jumping out of the constraints of tradition. When comparing Tao Te Ching and Being and Time, we need to learn to forget: forget that Laozi was from ancient China, the founder of Taoism, and Heidegger was from twentieth-century Germany, a major figure in Western existential philosophy, the so-called "Nazist"; forget that Tao Te Ching was written in Chinese, the "king of all Chinese classics," and Being and Time was written in German, a monumental work of postmodernism; forget that in Tao Te Ching, the human being is just a part of the cosmos and nature, while in Being and Time, the human being is the meaning of the entire world; forget that Tao Te Ching teaches people to act without action, to align with nature, while Being and Time emphasizes human initiative and the unique fact of being born for death. In fact, regardless of how to evaluate Tao Te Ching and Being and Time, both works explore existence, and existence—especially human existence—is the core that Laozi and Heidegger want us to focus on. Tao Te Ching mainly explores what the Tao is and its relationship with the world. So, what is the Tao? According to Wang Defeng, a famous philosopher and a philosophical professor in Fu Dan University in China, Laozi doesn't explain what the Tao is in Tao Te Ching, but rather, he tells us what the Tao is not. To follow the Tao, one must first perform subtraction, that is, Laozi's concepts of "loss" (sun, 损) and " non-action" (wu wei, 无为). Through Tao Te Ching, Laozi tells people how to exist in the world, how to follow the universal law of existence—the Tao—by practicing "sun" and "wu wei," and thereby "doing nothing and yet nothing remains undone" (无为而无不为). Being and Time primarily explores what Sein (Being) is, particularly what Dasein (human existence) is. Of course, Heidegger would likely object to the concepts of "is" and "what" in this context, because throughout Being and Time, he strives to free philosophy from the concepts of "is" and "what," which have constrained and misled Western thoughts for centuries, and he seemingly does not intend to answer such questions. However, it is undeniable that while attempting to reveal the phenomenon of existence from the perspective of human existence, Heidegger does answer what human existence is.

Laozi’s Tao and Heidegger’s Sein have commonalities. The first is the ineffability of the philosophical concepts "Tao" and "Sein." The second is the ambiguity of the concepts of "Tao" and "Sein." The third is the duality within the structure of "Tao" and "Sein." Furthermore, both philosophers highlight the concept of dualistic unity of opposites in their works. Firstly, the concept of "being and non-being" (you/wu, 有无) is a core idea in Laozi's philosophy, and a similar concept of "being and non-being" (thingness and nothingness) is proposed in Heidegger's philosophy. It is undeniable that Heidegger's thought may have been influenced by Western classical philosophy and art, such as the Greek god Dionysus in ancient Greek mythology. Here, it is necessary to compare the concept of the Greek god Dionysus with Laozi's philosophy of Yin and Yang, as both are the origins of binary thinking in Eastern and Western philosophies. In this context, we can observe the similarity between Heidegger's concept of being and Laozi's Taoist philosophy of Yin and Yang: the opposing sides of a contradiction cannot be completely separated; they complement each other. Secondly, Laozi says, "Therefore, you and wu give birth to each other," and "All things in the world arise from you, and you arises from wu." Heidegger states that what is lacking in the everyday experience of "being-in-the-world" is a foundation that Dasein can rely on or stand upon. This inherent deficiency, according to Heidegger's analysis, is "nothingness." Therefore, from an ontological perspective, the core of being-in-the-world is this "nothingness." He also believes that "nothingness" is a higher state of existence than "thingness" and is the essential nature of being-in-the-world. Heidegger deliberately avoids using the word "thingness" in Being and Time, as it has been overused in Western metaphysics and scientism, and it fails to reveal the most essential phenomenon of human existence. Heidegger argues that "nothingness" has the capacity to reveal this essence.

Through a close reading and mutual interpretation of the core concepts in Laozi and Heidegger's philosophies, this study does not aim to prove that the thoughts of Laozi or Heidegger are superior to each other, nor does it seek to compare the superiority or inferiority of Eastern and Western existential philosophy. Furthermore, the study does not intend to suggest that Heidegger’s existential philosophy benefits from or originates from Laozi’s Taoism (although Heidegger’s philosophy does exhibit elements of Taoist thought, this influence is not the focus of this study). Rather, the aim is to highlight the "fusion of horizons" between Eastern and Western existential philosophy, an aspect that was once overshadowed by the opposition between Eastern and Western thought and Western-centered epistemology. As Mr. Qian Zhongshu said: "In Eastern and Western scholarships, the ways and methods have not yet entirely different from each other; in the South Sea and North Sea, people’s psychology is the same." Although Tao Te Ching and Being and Time seem to be entirely different philosophical works, the principles and philosophical reflections they present share commonalities. The purpose of comparative literature and comparative poetics is not to determine whether the West influenced the East or the East influenced the West, but to explore the commonalities between Eastern and Western thoughts, or the universal laws they share. The ultimate goal is to find out the fusion of the horizons from different cultural traditions.

The technical advance of artificial intelligence in recent years rekindles the anxiety over a scenario where a created being would turn on its creator. Science fiction since the early 20th century has featured such plots as AI rebellion, AI takeover, AI-controlled society and human dominance, in which human beings and AI are understood as hostile to each other. Such anxiety has prevailed in literary imaginations and popular culture since the 19th century, as early as Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein. My point in this paper is that the anxiety over AI is not new but already existent in human history. For example, the postbellum Southern United States also witnessed the anxiety over black dominance during the Reconstruction Period. This paper will focus more on the mechanics of othering than the representation of AI in literature and popular culture. It proposes to recognize the anxiety over revengeful AI as an extension of the language of othering and dominance, which can be found in texts of or about, colonialism, slavery, gender or any other form of divisions. This paper will specifically focus on Flanery O’Connor’s short story “The Artificial Nigger” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.

“The Artificial Nigger” presents how the racism towards an imagined concept of “Negro” absurdly serves to reunite a white boy Nelson and his grandfather Mr. Head after they have had a quarrel. It is when they see a statue of a “Negro,” an “artificial nigger,” that they suddenly burst into laughter and become reconciled with each other. In this scene, racism symbolized by the “artificial Negro” is represented as a quasi-religion because they both feel their differences dissolve like an action of mercy. Racism in the story is essentially used to unite the white community by othering African Americans. The story unveils that the notion of “Negro” is the mere imagination of the white community and has nothing to do with the African Americans. Never Let Me Go articulates another aspect in othering: the ownership of people’s body. The novel revolves around human clones created to “donate” their organs to human beings. The notion of organ transplantation is reminiscent of the bodily exploitation in slavery, while it also broadens the vision of othering and questions the practices that undermine communities of people or AI for the integrity of the privileged communities.

Through the examination of the two works, this paper eventually aims to call into doubt what Isaac Asimov calls the “Frankenstein complex,” which is essentially based on a master-slave narrative deeply rooted in atrocious historical events like imperialism and slavery. In the face of AI, we should look at history and find solutions to the existent inequality and social divisions, so that when someday AI become more than just tools that benefit human life, we could negotiate a way of coexistence rather than repression and othering.

This paper explores the implicit role of companionship in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021) by examining the bond between two technologically marginalized characters: Klara, an outdated B2 model Artificial Friend, and Rick, an “unlifted” boy who has not undergone genetic enhancement. While existing scholarship has focused on the bond between Klara and her owner Josie, this study shifts attention to Klara’s companionship with Rick, arguing that their common experience of social exclusion fosters a unique form of solidarity. Drawing on Barbara Rosenwein’s theories of companionship as a means of transcending exclusive social stratification, I demonstrate how the companionship between Klara and Rick, rooted in physical and emotional support, mitigates their sense of loneliness while critiquing the social atomization and interpersonal indifference of the privileged elites. A further comparison with Ishiguro’s earlier novel Never Let Me Go (2005) reveals how Ishiguro depicts humanity as challenged by a hierarchical society shaped by technologies including AI and cloning, and needs to be reaffirmed on the basis of empathy and mutual care. By underscoring humanity as a dialogically constructed instead of inherent trait, this essay aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on literary reconceptualization of (non-)humanity, a theme that serves as the central theme of both Ishiguro’s oeuvre and literary studies on posthuman literature.

The academic community has already widely recognized the intermedia writing in the work The Unconsoled. This paper explores the relationship between the artistic philosophy and political justice conveyed by Kazuo Ishiguro in his intermedia writing. The small Central European city in the novel is plunged into an inexplicable crisis, and the citizens place high hopes on art, especially expecting the arrival of the protagonist, Ryder, to resolve this crisis. However, Ryder’s absurd experiences seem to confirm Plato’s view that art should be banished from the “Republic”. However, the exploration of various musical genres and art forms in the novel, along with its polyphonic writing and Kafkaesque experimental style, illustrates the close relationship between art and politics. The paradox of the use of art is shown in a humorous way, implying a contest between dependent art and autonomous art. The novel suggests that dependent art, represented by mass art, weakens the perceptual consciousness of the people. Commercial temptation and political manipulation lead people into a state of being unconsolable. Meanwhile, the people in crisis have already begun to develop a consciousness of change under the enlightenment of modern/postmodern music, experiencing painful metamorphosis, seeking the path to future freedom and happiness, and striving to build a just and good life.

Never Let Me Go employs the nonhuman clone Kathy as a first-person narrator to explore the character development and life choices of herself and her two clone companions. Existing studies, both domestic and international, have primarily focused on the ethical implications of cloning, critiques of dystopian biopolitics, and explorations of identity and agency in Ishiguro’s works. However, a gap remains in addressing the ethical dynamics between individual and community coexistence among clones. This paper applies the framework of ethical literary criticism to examine the clones’ “othered” identities, conflicting moral dilemmas, and compromised ethical choices as they navigate interactions within both human and clone communities. The analysis reveals two key findings: First, the transition from opposition to coexistence reflects the clones’ intrinsic identity consciousness, emotional capacities, and struggles with their destinies, presenting them as ethically complex beings rather than mechanical entities. Second, their pursuit of ethical understanding symbolizes the growing significance of ethical considerations in contemporary and future human societies. This study critically reflects on the ethical dilemmas posed by biotechnological and AI advancements in high-tech contexts. It also highlights the deliberate efforts of ethnic writers to integrate teaching values in cloning narratives, showcasing literature’s role in fostering ethical awareness and navigating the moral challenges of technological progress.

Modern ‘authorship’ theories are always implicitly nostalgic to ancient concepts of authorship, and often viewing Mallarmé as a key intellectual resource. Mallarmé believes that literature is a mere game akin to pyrotechnics, yet a slight au-delà beyond tautological existence could be found through literature. In his ideal, the impersonal “Book” that summarizes the entire world eliminates chance through technology, thus rendering the author unnecessary. This essay will briefly review the technical existence behind the ancient cases of problematic authorship and attempt to clarify Mallarmé’s complex author-technology theory.

In the past two decades, Austrian writer Clemens J. Setz (1982-) and German writer Daniel Kehlmann (1975-) have both been among the most brghtest stars of the German literature. In recent years, they have experimented with and reflected on the concept of the machine author/machine writing in "Bot: Conversations Without the Author" (2018) and "My Algorithm and Me" (2021) respectively. Setz is particularly interested in the mirror relationship between the author's ontology, the author's persona, and the AI-author surrogate. In "Bot: Conversations Without an Author", he conducts an experiment where on one hand, he himself, and on the other hand, an AI surrogate based on his journal entries, both respond to interview questions, effectively conducting a Turing test. Through the ambiguity brought by the AI author surrogate, he questions the authenticity of the author's self-construction and other issues. The AI author, however, clearly fails the Turing test in Kehlmann's view. Based on his collaborative writing with an AI author from a Silicon Valley startup, which resembles a ping-pong game, he sometimes finds signs of inspiration from the AI author, but ultimately feels disappointed by the AI-generated content. For Kehlmann, the AI author is not artificial intelligence but rather artificial rationality, as algorithms cannot truly become a creative writing agent that provides continuous inspiration. The AI literary experiments of both authors not only allow them to experiment with AI-generated content and examine the uniqueness of authorship and literary creation but also respond to the core inquiry of "What is an author, what is literary creation?" from different perspectives.

隨著數位時代的發展，人工智能和區塊鏈技術與創意寫作日漸發展了不少的交匯可能。這個現象，為創作寫作帶來了前所未有的機遇和挑戰。本文將探討這些技術對創意寫作生態的變革性影響，研究它們如何重塑作者、智慧財產權、文學生產和發行。

人工智能，特別是透過 GPT-4 等複雜模型，已成為強大的創意媒介。人工智能的生成能力能夠產生一般的傳意文字，以及含有更豐富文藝價值的文學作品，包括詩歌、散文、小說和戲劇劇本等等。這個現象，引發了關於創造力、原創性和人類創作本質的問題。本文將深入探討人工智慧作為協作工具的作用，可以幫助作家集思廣益、編輯和增強他們的創作過程。與此同時，本文也將會探討，人工智慧生成內容的興起，所引申的倫理討論，包括作者身份、所有權以及機器創作作品與人工敘事相比的真實性。

除了人工智能之外，還有一個新的科技技術，也同時在逐漸改變創意寫作生態環境，那就是區塊鏈技術。區塊鏈技術為知識產權和權利管理提供了革命性的解決方案。透過提供去中心化和不可變的記錄，區塊鏈確保了作者身份的安全，並以前所未有的方式，來保護智慧財產權。此外，區塊鏈促進了新的發行和貨幣化途徑，使作家能夠繞過傳統的看門人並直接與觀眾互動。本論文的第二部分，將探討了智能合約在自動化版稅支付，以及保障作家公平報酬的潛力，繼而再進一步探討這種技術，將怎樣改變傳統的出版模式。

本文將從歷史背景，回顧當今的技術變革，與過去文學生產發展（例如印刷機、打字機和數位出版的出現） 怎樣改變了文藝創作的生態。文章將會追溯作者身份在歷史上的演變，探討每一次技術革新，怎樣重塑了文學創作和傳播的格局。

總括而言，本文將會以後人類主義和技術文化等理論架構，來探討人類創造力和人工知能的交匯情況，同時也會討論人工知能和區塊鏈技術對文學創作，乃至對物質文化的影響，探討這些技術所帶來的機遇和在道德倫理和社會層面的挑戰。通過這個研究，本文冀能讓我們在這些新技術之下，可以怎樣優化創意寫作的生態，培育更具活力、包容性和創新性的文學景觀。

How did James Joyce’s Ulysses, originally banned in both the United Kingdom and the United States, become the world literary classic it is today? This article investigates how Ulysses navigated censorship across multiple nations, overcoming ideological constraints to achieve canonization and even inspiring writers in other linguistic traditions to safeguard literary autonomy. It begins by tracing the reasons for its banning in the UK and US during the 1920s and examines how Joyce, with the support of Sylvia Beach, published the first complete English edition through her Paris-based bookstore and publishing house, Shakespeare and Company.

The analysis then explores the pivotal role of Shakespeare and Company as a bookstore, publishing house, and library in enhancing the visibility of Ulysses within both the Anglophone and Francophone worlds. In the wake of World War I, disillusioned Anglo-American modernist writers—including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein—gathered at Shakespeare and Company. Their active engagement with and promotion of Ulysses secured its status as a cornerstone of modernist literature. Simultaneously, in the Francophone world, Beach’s partnership with Adrienne Monnier, the proprietor of La Maison des Amis des Livres, was equally crucial. Together with translator Auguste Morel, and under Joyce’s meticulous guidance, they produced a French edition of Ulysses in 1929, solidifying its reputation in French literary circles. Ulysses thus emerged not only as a seminal modernist work across Anglophone and Francophone cultures but also as a text that, through its acclaim in the Francophone world, regained prominence in the Anglophone sphere.

The final section of this article expands the discussion to Sinophone Taiwan, tracing how Joyce’s resistance to censorship during the interwar period in defense of literary autonomy inspired Taiwanese writers in their pursuit of literary modernism during the Cold War. Under martial law, Taiwan’s cultural production was deeply politicized, with literature frequently serving as a tool for anti-communist ideological narratives. Yet, in response to this restrictive environment, Joyce’s negotiation with censorship became a crucial reference point for Taiwanese writers, prompting them to embrace a seemingly depoliticized and highly aestheticized form of literary modernism as a means of preserving their vision of literariness. So profound was Joyce’s influence that, as this article demonstrates, many Taiwanese writers even sought to emulate him by relocating abroad—particularly to the United States—to pursue a path toward literary freedom.

Raising the questions of migration and translation together gives us an opportunity to respond to Talal Asad’s critique of cultural translation as involving “the privileged position of someone who does not, and can afford not to, engage in a genuine dialogue with those he or she once lived with and now writes about.” The massive migrations caused by the collapse of the Japanese Empire in 1945 urged numerous East Asian writers to engage in intense dialogues with their past experiences across geographic, historical, and political distances. This paper examines from a comparative perspective works in this genre produced within a few years after the end of the war by some of the foremost figures of postwar Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese literatures: Yŏm Sangsŏp, Abe Kōbō, and Zhong Lihe. Critiquing the conventional nation-based approach, this study considers a dialogical narrative form shared across their works. This form enabled these writers to fathom the realities of a postwar world being made in such unpredictable ways that they defied an authorial, monological point of view based on an available historical consciousness. Through analyzing these narratives, this paper will consider the function of polyphony in cultural translation.

Born in Guilin, Guangxi Province in China in the year of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war and having grown up in the flames of civil war before evacuating to Taiwan with the Nationalist army and government, Pai Hsien-yung’s translative habitus as a diasporic Chinese writer living in the West and the humanist values in his works have gained him entry to the international book market and acclaim in the English-language literary sphere. Owing to this, his works have been rendered into English by many academics teaching in North American universities, such as Terence Russell, Steven Riep, Christopher Lupke, Bert Scruggs, Linshan Jiang and Howard Goldblatt. While in producing the English version of his most well-known collection of short stories, Taipei People, Pai himself also stepped into this crucial role as a translator with the second translator Patia Yasin and the editor George Kao contributing finishing touches. Unlike other Southern literary works, bound for the Northern book market, that have undergone the interpretations of foreign translators, the author himself was intimately involved in the process of trading Taipei People to the market for world literature in English-speaking countries.

By exploring differences between the original version and the English version of Pai Hsien-yung’s self-translated short story “Love’s Lone Flower,” this paper explains the cultural and political ideology latent in the second version of the work, exploring how the multicultural and multilingual identities of the Southern other in the original version have been “standardised” in the translated version in order to serve the English audience. In working towards the goal of empowering the minorities and Others of the Global South, this paper also investigates the issues that involved in the literary industry in order to call for a more de-colonised translation for the future’s generations.

In the process where Western literature came to be equated with modern

literature—and modernity itself was expressed largely as a wholesale

transplantation of Western thought and culture—what tends to be overlooked is

how Buddhism contributed to the emergence of traditionalism and cultural

nationalism in the early history of Korean literature. As the most traditional of

religions, Buddhism gradually evolved into a form of modern knowledge and

discourse, exerting considerable influence on the interiority of modern Korean

literature.

This paper examines the ways in which Buddhism influenced Korean modern

literature, focusing specifically on the figures of Seokjeon (Bak Han-yong), Han

Yong-un (Manhae), and Seo Jeong-ju (Midang). It situates their literary work within

the broader historical process of Buddhism’s modernization, which served as a key

medium linking their thought and writing.

In the context of the profound crisis and upheaval that marked the era,

Seokjeon held a central position in mediating the relationship between Buddhism

and modern literature. He served as a crucial figure connecting disparate systems

—“tradition” and “modernity”—under the shared framework of “Joseon” as a

cultural and political entity. Just as the tension between “mind-only” (yusim) and

“the Beloved” (nim), or “consciousness” and “silence,” reveals that any symbolic

representation is not a synthesis of homogeneous elements but a stitching together

of conflicting impulses, Han Yong-un’s “Beloved” can be interpreted as a literary

object that embodies “Joseon,” “Buddhism,” “tradition,” and “truth.”

What is often ignored in interpretations of Korean modern literature as a mere

product of Western transplantation is the influence of preexisting cultural

traditions in the process by which modernity was translated into concrete literary

symbols. From around 1915, modern Buddhist intellectuals began to actively shape

this cultural tradition.

With the lifting of the 1895 ban on monks entering cities (Seungni Ipseong

Geumji-ryeong), Buddhist religious and cultural activities finally became possible in

urban centers like Hanyang (Seoul) and Gyeongseong (colonial-era Seoul). As

Buddhism sought to reform itself into a modern religion, its greatest tasks included

acquiring new knowledge, establishing modern educational institutions, forming

unified organizations, and developing modern print and publishing infrastructures.

During the 1910s in colonial Gyeongseong, Buddhist activities naturally converged

with the literary world—then at the center of cultural production. The fact that

writers like Yang Geon-sik, Choe Nam-seon, Jeong In-bo, and Yi Kwang-su

interacted with or were introduced to Buddhism reflects this convergence. The

Buddhist reform movement increasingly shifted from being a secluded monastic

pursuit to a form of urban cultural activism and mass religion, necessitating

modern institutional restructuring of the sangha (monastic order) and emphasizing

the need for education and modernization.

For Han Yong-un, this Buddhist reform (yusin) was rooted in Seon (Zen) and the

philosophy of mind-only (yusim), and extended into culture, politics, education,

and thought. Buddhism, for him, was a force for modern transformation.

In August 1968, Seo Jeong-ju (Midang) published his fifth collection, Dongcheon

(Eastern Heaven), and in its preface (“A Word from the Poet”), he revealed that

the poetic experimentation begun in his fourth collection, Silla Grass, had reached

a degree of accomplishment. Of particular note is his admission that he was

“greatly influenced by the unique metaphoric techniques learned from Buddhism.”

As he himself called it “true scenery” (jingyeong), the collections Silla Grass and

Dongcheon—both published in the 1960s—represent the peak of Seo’s poetic

achievement.

At the core of Seo Jeong-ju’s poetic mastery lies what he called “Buddhist

metaphor.”

Its beginnings can be found in his meditations on the “inner Silla” and the

Buddhist notion of “inyeon” (karmic connection). While it is possible to speculate

on the nature of this “Buddhist metaphor,” it is difficult to define it precisely—

because Seo Jeong-ju’s understanding of Buddhism was fundamentally rhetorical,

and expressed almost entirely in poetic form.

서양 문학이 곧 근대문학으로 인식되는 과정 속에서 ‘근대성’이 곧 서구 정신과 문화의 전

적인 이식으로 표현될 때 상대적으로 간과되는 것은 초창기 문학사에서 불교가 개입한 전통주

의와 문화적 민족주의의 탄생과정이다. 불교는 가장 전통적인 종교로서 자체적으로 ‘근대적

지식’과 ‘담론’으로 성장해 가면서 한국 현대문학의 내부에 중요한 영향을 끼친 것으로 확인된

다. 본고는 이러한 ‘불교’ 한국의 현대문학에 끼친 영향과 그 세부적 내용을 석전 박한영과 한

용운, 그리고 미당 서정주의 관계 그리고 그들의 관계를 맺어주는 불교의 ‘근대화’ 과정이라는

역사 속에서 확인하고 밝히고자 한다.

당시 석전 박한영의 위치는 ‘불교와 현대문학’의 상관성 속에서 본다면 ‘위기와 격변’의 상

황 속에서 한용운과 최남선, 더 나아가서는 ‘전통’과 ‘근대’라는 서로 다른 시스템을 ‘조선’이

라는 ‘실체’로 통합하는 과정에서 가장 중요한 매개자 역할을 했다. 유심과 님, 유신과 침묵

사이의 긴장처럼, 하나의 표상은 균질적인 것들의 종합이 아니라 알고 보면 서로 상이한 충동

들의 봉합으로 구성되어 있는 것이다. ‘조선’이라는 실체를 ‘신성한 것’으로 만들어 가는 과정

에서 ‘국토’와 ‘자연’이라는 구체적 표상이 발견되고 그것이 문학적 대상이 되는 것처럼, 한용

운의 ‘님’ 또한 ‘조선’, ‘불교’, ‘전통’, ‘진리’가 구체적 표상으로 나타난 ‘문학적 대상’이라고

할 수 있다. 한국의 현대문학이 서구 정신 혹은 근대 정신의 이식과 그 산물이라고 말하는 견

해에서 간과되는 것은 그러한 근대성이 구체화된 표상으로 정착되는 과정에서 투여된 기존의

‘문화 전통’인데, 1915년을 전후로 한 시점 이후부터 근대적 불교 지식인의 활동은 이런 문화

전통의 한 축을 적극적으로 담당하고 있었다. 1895년 ‘승니입성금지령’이 해제되면서 불교계

종교활동과 문화운동이 조선의 도성 ‘한양’과 식민지 도시 ‘경성’이라는 공간에서 비로소 가능

하게 되었다. 불교’가 근대적 종교로 스스로를 혁신하려고 할 때, 가장 커다란 과제는 신학문

습득, 근대적 교육기관 설립, 통일된 단체 구성, 인쇄, 출판 등의 근대적 미디어 제도를 갖추

는 것이었다. 1910년대 식민지 도시 경성의 중심지인 종로(수송동)일대에서 불교계 활동은 당

시 문화 활동의 중심 역할을 담당하던 ‘문학계’와 연결될 수밖에 없었는데, 양건식, 최남선,

정인보, 이광수 등의 불교계 입문이나 교류는 그런 사실을 반증하는 사실 중 일부이다. 경성

에서의 문화 활동이 ‘불교 유신’의 큰 핵심축을 이루게 되는 과정은, 승려의 도성 출입이 허가

되고 식민지화가 진행되면서 ‘불교’의 ‘산중 불교’ 체제가 새로운 도시 문화 활동으로서의 불

교, 불교 대중화로 전환될 뿐만 아니라 승려 교육의 중요성 증가로 인한 ‘교육기관’의 필요성

등 종단 자체의 근대적 제도 정비가 절실해짐으로써 나타난 현상이었다. 이런 전후의 상황을

고려해 보면, 한용운에게 불교의 유신은 불교의 선과 유심 사상을 바탕으로 ‘문화, 정치, 교

육, 사상’의 전반에 걸쳐 불교가 영향을 미치고 그 근대적 혁신을 주도하는 것을 의미한다.

1968년 8월 서정주는 그의 다섯 번째 시집 동천을 출간하면서 ｢시인의 말｣이라는 서두의

글을 통해 제4시집 신라초에서 이미 시작된 그의 모종의 시적 모색이 동천을 통해 어느

정도 성취를 이루었다는 속내를 밝힌다. 여기에서 유난히 관심을 끄는 부분은 “불교에서 배운

특수한 은유법의 매력에 크게 힘입었음을 고백”한다는 표현이다. 서정주 스스로 ‘진경’이라고

말한 내용에서 알 수 있듯이, 신라초와 동천 두 시집이 발간된 1960년대는 서정주가 한

국의 대표적인 시인으로서 그 시적 매력과 완성도가 거의 정점에 이르던 시기라고 할 수 있

다. 한 마디로 서정주의 뛰어난 시적 성취의 핵심에는 그가 말한 ‘불교적 은유법’이 존재하며,

그 시작은 ‘신라의 내부’, 그리고 ‘인연’이라는 화두에 있었다고 할 수 있다. 서정주가 말하는

‘불교적 은유법’이 무엇인지는 추측은 가능하지만, 그 실체를 말하기는 실제로는 쉽지 않은데,

그 이유는 그의 ‘불교’에 대한 이해가 기본적으로 ‘수사학(은유법)’의 형태로 터득되었고 그것

이 고스란히 시의 형태로 표출되기 때문이다

이 글은 조선시대 승려 행장 109건을 대상으로 하여, 승려 행장에서 반복적으로 등장하는 '꿈' 의 서술 양상을 분석함으로써, 승려를 이야기하는 문법의 하나로 꿈 화소의 기능을 고찰하고자 한다. 조선시대 승려 행장을 전수 조사한 결과, 꿈은 출생, 수행, 입적 등 승려의 인생에서 주요 전환점에 해당하는 대목에 반복적으로 등장하는데, 이를 종합해보면 승려의 일생을 서술할 때 꿈이 승려의 정체성과 초월성을 구체화하는 핵심적 서사 장치로 작용함을 확인할 수 있다. 이 글에서는 특히 꿈의 등장 시점, 꿈을 꾸는 주체, 내용 및 유형, 기능을 기준으로 삼아 분류하고, 이를 유가 사대부의 행장 구조와 비교하는 방식을 통해 승려 행장에서 꿈이 갖는 특수성과 장르적 기능을 살펴볼 것이다. 승려 행장에서 꿈은 출생의 비범성 및 출가를 예고하는 태몽, 승려의 성향 및 법맥 등을 고지하는 계시몽, 입적을 예고하고 육신의 초탈을 증명하는 입적몽 및 사리몽 등 다양한 양상으로 나타나는데, 결과적으로 '승려' 라는 존재를 초월적으로 형상화하는 데 기여하고 있음을 알 수 있다. 이는 조선시대의 승려 행장에 드러나는 특징이나 그 서사적 연원을 더듬어보면 중국의 고승전이나 더 나아가서는 인도의 불교 설화 등의 서사 전통과도 맞닿아 있다. 이에 이 글에서는 승려 행장에서 꿈 화소의 양상과 기능을 살펴 승려의 생애가 조형되는 서사적

문법을 분석함으로써 승려 서사의 구성적 특성과 형성 논리를 밝히고자 한다. 나아가 불교적 서사 전통과의 연속성을 고찰하고, 유가 행장과의 비교를 통해 승려 행장의 독자적 서사 문법을 규명하고 그 문학사적 정위를 시도하고자 한다.

Academic studies of Science Fiction as a genre go back at least 45 years, to Suvin (1979). Yet Suvin, Jameson (2005) or Bould and Mieville (2009) all focus mostly on English language SF from primarily the Anglo-American world. Even when horizons have extended, it has happened through English language, predictably following the Damrosch model of world Literature whereby the English translation is privileged. African SF has seen the English texts foregrounded, and in Indian SF, it is the Indian English SF, whether Samit Basu’s Gameworld Trilogy or Rimi Barnali Chatterjee’s Antisense Universe Climate Fiction which are easily found. This paper argues that extending the literary historiography of science fiction, reading science fiction as literature of the world rather than an expansion of an Anglo-American original, calls for a study of multiple literary systems, and offers a case study of Bangla SF. Going back to 19th century tales, it is possible to trace a trajectory via Hemendra Kumar Roy, Premendra Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Adrish Bardhan, Anish Deb and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal. The reception of Science Fiction in Bangla would show that tropes common to Western SF and other Western genres might often be subverted by the Bengali authors, whose earlier generations had themselves lived under colonial rule and who had deep distrust of the facile equation between technological advancement and social progress, so common to much “Golden Age” SF in the US. Using novels and short stories, it will also be the contention that unlike the Suvin definition, which puts SF at odds with realist fiction, Bangla SF could develop within the main currents of Bangla literature, especially in its earlier stages. Indeed it might be argued that Ray’s Professor Shonku presents a break in that trajectory, creating a variant that consciously looked for young readers, that delinked SF from broader streams, and that also handled science in an impoverished manner.

A literary text has to be read for the event of literature to take place, but while reading is a singular event, reception is not and cannot be. How a literary text is received by the literary system as a part of which it occurs provides a means to determine its aesthetic value in only that particular literary system, its further reception in different literary systems is independent of its original reception in its own literary system. If one chooses to formulate literary history based on reception, the “horizon of expectations” of a literary system could be seen as an appropriate tool. This paper aims to illustrate a history of literary systems using the "horizon of expectations” as a tool through Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Six Acres and a Third (1896) and O. Chandumenon’s Indulekha (1889), and thereby trace the origin of the novel in colonial India to interrogate if a geographical marker could be used to categorise literature which is supposed to be supra-national, if the literary category of the novel could possibly become Indian in its scope, or could encompass the “plurality” that characterises India. Since the two texts occur in two different literary systems, in two different geographical contexts within India, the extra-literary process of colonisation comes to impact the reception of both these novels distinctly. So, it is “imperative to locate them in the context of the histories of two differing yet related repertoires of colonial practice.” (Chanda 128).

Call for Papers (Open) by the

Standing Research Committee for the Study of Literatures and Cultures of South Asia, ICLA

‘Decolonising ‘World Literature’: Perspectives of Oratures and Literatures from South Asia’

If we look back on the evolution of the idea of ‘World Literature’ we will discover that the idealistic pronouncements by Goethe in 1823 and Rabindranath Tagore in 1908 on ‘WL’ have not been realized. The idea of ‘WL’ originated in Europe, when large parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America were being colonised by the imperial forces of European powers. The twentieth century has witnessed the emergence of these colonies into independent nations with greater awareness of their political and cultural identities. The works of those authors from Latin American, African and Asian countries who have won the Nobel prize or such prestigious awards in literature, figure in the list of canonical authors of the West. This only confirms that the idea of ‘World literature’ continues to be dominated by the ideology of Euro-centrism and its exclusivist approach to literary studies.

We find the world being increasingly standardised through the spread of technology, trade and migrations of people. Transnational net-works which ensure the dissemination of Western works of literatures have inbuilt filters that prevent the reception of texts and cultural goods from the global south. A noted comparatist from America, Gerald Gillespie wrote in 2017: “Now, after the year 2000, we are witnessing … the attempt to erect a new style WL movement in the present century via the hegemony of English as a world lingua franca.”

This seminar would like to address this complex situation. We need to shift our attention from ‘World Literature’ to ‘the Literatures of the World’. Papers which analyse the oral traditions of South Asia, colonial encounter and its aftermath, the contradictions and conflicts that accompany the process of decolonisation are particularly welcome. We need to study the Indian diaspora’s perceptions of the globalised world through their authors. Our larger objective is to examine how a new idea of ‘WL’ can emerge from the specific contexts of South Asian literatures and cultures.

Sub-themes: ‘World Literature’ and the South Asian Traditions of Translations,

Orality and Literacy in South Asia,Globalisation and South Asian Cultures,

Literatures of the Diaspora, Gender and Literatures in South Asia, Representation of Caste and Race in Literature

Please note that abstracts for the seminar are to be received by the date: January 10, 2025.

Abstracts should be sent to both:

E.V. Ramakrishnan: evrama51@gmail.com

Sayantan Dasgupta: sayantan.dasgupta@jadavpuruniversity.in

Muhyidhin Mala and the Imagination of ummah (community) in early 17th century Kerala.

Abstract: This paper attempts to read the 17th century text, Muhyidhin Mala and explores how identities were imagined through a hagiography. The collective imagination of ‘people’ brought forth through this text, at the centre of which faith organises the Islamic moral order, sheds light on Islam in South India in the context of a multicultural society. The language of faith, as narrated through the miracles (Karamat) of Abdul Qadir Jilani (1077-1166) may be situated within the historical context of Bhakthi in 17th century Kerala. But it also gives valuable hints about the ummah-the Islamic followers from the region, the kind of self-fashioning and disciplining aspired to be a follower of the religion. The reimagining and retelling of the saint’s life, distanced from the locus of its origin in Persia, also freeze temporalities, making the text important both as a site of memory and also as a contemporary experience in the socio-religious landscape. Qazi Muhammad, the author, inserts himself in the text urging the followers to listen and follow. However, the reception of the text also reveals the interconnected nature of the material in the text, since the Abdul Qadir Jilani had many textual representations in multiple performative practices of Muslim communities in South India. Muslims all over Kerala and other regions in the South continuously practised performances that praised the life of this sufi saint and the founder of the Qadiriyya order through Maulids and Ratheebs. Reading this text through aspirations that shaped the community, I argue that linguistic identity is pushed to the background as a negotiable medium, whereas the politics of faith/ piety functions as the intermediary to bring people together.

The genre of fictionalised autobiography, what Laura J. Beard terms as the creation of “political discourse and artistic practice", paves way for addressing the diverse experiences of women in the post-colonial era who are trying to discover their positioning in the hierarchical structure and reclaim their voice in the established Anglophonic literary tradition. Writers like Anita Desai and Arundhati Roy have used their fictional writing as a tool to challenge and resist the dominant cultural order which is primarily misogynistic and patriarchal. At the same time, the semi- autobiographical nature of their fictional works suggest the attempt of these writers to take control of the narratives that seek to topple this patriarchal world order. By undertaking the critical study of Anita Desai’s Clear Light of the Day and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, this paper presentation aims to recount the destabilising effects of these writings in exposing the societal hypocrisies and reclaiming the agency of female voice. Both these works are set in the neighbourhoods in which these writers spent their childhood, revolve around the complexities of families that define the journey of the characters and are narrated in a non- linear narrative. This provides an ample scope to trace the intersection of feminist, postcolonial, and postmodern critical perspectives in the formation of narrative resistance and comprehend how these fictionalised autobiographies assume power to speak an essential feminist experience.

The Partition of India has been extensively documented, yet the varied experiences of Dalit refugees remain largely excluded from dominant narratives. This research aims to address this knowledge gap by examining the fractured histories of Dalit refugees during and after Partition, focusing on their (under)representation and significant absences in literary texts and oral narratives.

Recent scholarship emphasizes the importance of oral testimonies and histories in recovering Dalit experiences. This study draws on oral histories, archival materials, and literary texts to contextualize the experiences of Dalit refugees within the broader historical, socio-political, and cultural context of Partition. This raises critical questions: Can historical resources—oral testimonies, archives, memoirs, visual materials, books, and documentaries—adequately capture Dalit histories? Can there be an objective rendering of Partition? How do Dalit oral histories challenge dominant narratives? What role does caste and class play in shaping Dalit experiences? How did displacement impact Dalits spatially and temporally? And what is the role of memory in their post-Partition lives?

By situating the arguments within relevant historiographical and theoretical debates, this research seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of the intersections of class, caste, and identity in shaping Dalit experiences. The study humanizes the historical narrative, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and preserving the forgotten histories of marginalized communities which is crucial for constructing a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of the past and its enduring impact for the future.

Bonobibi, a guardian deity of the Sundarbans, is revered by both Hindu and Muslim communities as a protector against tiger attacks and a symbol of ecological balance. Her legend, primarily oral and deeply embedded in regional folklore, exemplifies themes of human-wildlife coexistence, interfaith syncretism, and environmental ethics. This study positions Bonobibi within the framework of comparative literature, examining how her myth intersects with broader traditions of guardian deities across cultures. By employing Digital Humanities methodologies, including AI-driven textual analysis, folklore mining, and network visualization, this research tracks thematic shifts and linguistic patterns within various iterations of Bonobibi Johuranama, while also identifying cross-cultural resonances through comparative myth analysis. Drawing on ecocritical and postcolonial perspectives, this study explores how Bonobibi’s narrative engages with global discourses on ecofeminism and environmental justice. GIS mapping and spatial storytelling further contextualize the geographical dissemination of Bonobibi’s worship, demonstrating how mythological traditions adapt across time, space, and socio-political landscapes. Folklore network analysis, facilitated by tools such as Gephi and Palladio, uncovers intertextual and interreligious dimensions of Bonobibi’s myth, positioning her as a transnational figure within global mythological studies. By integrating AI-assisted textual and spatial analysis, this research highlights the intersections of folklore, ecology, and gender within comparative literary traditions. Ultimately, this study underscores the relevance of digital tools in preserving and analysing oral traditions, while situating Bonobibi as a crucial site of inquiry in comparative mythology and world literature.

The study of theatre has been broadly the study of texts and themes, devoid of its intermediality and theatrical public sphere. There is a need to decenter the text and bring in the sonosphere of performative traditions into the center of comparative studies. This paper attempts to highlight the sonosphere of Parsi theatre in South and South East Asia during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Indar Sabha, is a Hindustani play written in 1851 by Agha Hasan Amanat, attached to the court of Wajid Ali Shah at Lucknow. The play was first performed in 1853 in Lucknow and was subsequently published in 1854. Curiously, the first Parsi theatre, Parsi Natak Mandali, too came into existence in 1853 in Bombay, the same year in which the first performance of Indar Sabha took place in Lucknow. The most remarkable aspect of Parsi theatre was the introduction of enchanting music and dance, spectacular stage craft and the skill in taking it to the cities in South and South East Asia to create a new sensibility among the public. The Victoria Parsi Theatrical Company, founded by Khurshedji Balliwala, not only travelled all over India but also visited Colombo (1889), Rangoon (1878), Penang, Jakarta and Singapore (1878), Mandaley (1881), London (1885), Nepal (1901) and Guyana, making Indar Sabha and other plays of its repertory and their music highly popular.

Parisi theatre’s itinerary, absorptions, diffusions and circulations lead not only to the emergence of a Indian national theatre but also a pan-Asian theatre. Several local multilingual Indian communities, Parsis, Arabs, Sinhalese, Burmese, Malays and communities with absolutely unconnected to India constituted its audience, many of them not even conversant neither with the language of the play nor its music, enjoyed the productions of Parsi theatre. Parsi theatre’s musical vocabulary included Ghazal, Qawwali, Thumri, Dadra and Hori and the common musical instruments were Harmonium, Clarinet, Sarangi, Tabla and Nakkara drums. In South East Asian visits, a wooden Xylophone (Gambang) was added. In addition, Parsi theatre also borrowed singing and performing styles not only from the European opera but also from the native Courtesan-Tawaif repertoire. Within this background, this paper attempts a history of the sonosphere of the Parsi theatre problematizing issues like print culture and textuality, spatiality of itinerary performative traditions provided by nineteenth century developments, colonial modernity and reaction to it, circulations within the theatrical public sphere, and the issue of (non)translation. In brief, it is an attempt to understand the social epistemology of music in Parsi theatre in time and space.

Samuel Beckett’s bilingual oeuvre provides a fertile ground for examining the role of translingualism in literary creation, particularly through the practice of self-translation. Translingualism refers to the phenomenon of authors who write in more than one language or in a language other than their primary one, as first defined by Steven G. Kellman in his seminal and controversial work The Translingual Imagination (2000), and later expanded upon by other scholars to encompass broader dimensions of cultural and linguistic hybridity in literary practices. Beckett's deliberate choice to write across languages, particularly in English and French, transcends mere linguistic dexterity; it embodies a conscious artistic pursuit of a ‘third way’ that challenges traditional monolingual frameworks and modernist linguistic innovations.

Beckett’s transition to writing in French in the 1940s was initially perceived as an attempt to escape the stylistic constraints of English. Beckett famously chose French in order to “write without style,” believing that the constraints and unfamiliarity of French allowed him to strip language to its essentials. Paradoxically, this shift to French enabled him to return to English with a renewed sense of simplicity and detachment. Beckett even confessed that English had become foreign to him due to his immersion in French (Charles Juliet, 1986). His linguistic oscillation exemplifies the notions of ‘decentredness’ and ‘decentred recentredness’ (Kim, 2024). Beckett's translingual approach reflects David Bellos’s provocative question, “Is your native language really yours?” Beckett’s answer, embedded in his works, suggests, beyond George Steiner’s concept of ‘unhousedness’ (1971), a deliberate linguistic homelessness that paradoxically facilitates the construction of new literary homes across languages.

This paper explores Beckett's translingualism as both a framework for creating bilingual works, focusing on how it interweaves questions of ethics, space, and style in his creative process. By writing and self-translating, Beckett transcended linguistic limits and explored the aesthetic potential of dialogic interaction and constant shifting between languages. By situating Beckett’s translingual creative process as a precursor to contemporary writing practices, including the works of multilingual writers like Jhumpa Lahiri or Kazuo Ishiguro, this paper highlights how his approach challenges traditional linguistic boundaries and offers foundational insight into the complexities of language and creativity.

The proposed paper will examine the poetry of Cathy Park Hong and the works of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha to uncover how their works rely on technological motifs to address the difficulty inherent in the communicability of their respective experiences as Korean-American immigrants. The works of both poets employ stutters, fragmentation, silences, and erasures to reflect upon the untranslatable and unbridgeable gaps in experience and the inadequacy of available communicative modes to inscribe and convey their individual and collective experience of exile, diasporic travel and assimilation. While Cha’s works employ technological apparatus in various forms (photographs, videos, and art installations) to contemplate upon the themes of immigrant assimilation, untranslatability, and the history of the Korean-Japanese conflict, Hong’s works employ futuristic and fictive scientific images to ponder upon similar questions of exile, linguistic colonialism, and the violent histories that circumscribe Korean-American immigrant experience. The proposed paper is specifically invested in examining how the works of both poets in their unique ways emphasize on the performative and embodied aspects of their subject matter, and in doing so present a poetic performance that resists easy subsumption into algorithmic pattern-seeking or text mining.

Levy Hideo’s short story “Mihosō no Mama” (Left Unpaved, 2016) opens with a vivid description of the author-narrator’s room in his Tokyo home, in which the pattern of bamboo shadows falling upon a shoji sliding frame is described as being “different and yet the same, the same and yet different” to that he saw half a century prior, in the Japanese-style house in Taiwan which he lived in as a young boy. This comparison, or transposition, of a typically Japanese aesthetic, perceived in two distinct places and times, insofar as it functions as a definition of translation itself, implies that a metaphor of translation might be useful in making sense of the legacy of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan, and by extension colonialism in general.

In this paper, I will consider the scope of this translational metaphor as it functions within this specific short story, while also referring to other writings by Levy which support such a reading. Such consideration is complicated by the fact that Levy is an American-born exophonic writer of Japanese, who acquired the language midway through life, and whose writing itself thus, arguably, inherently contains an element of translation. Whether or not this is the case, Levy’s writing is characterized by an awareness of (un)translatability from Japanese into his mother tongue of English, something that can even be observed in the above quote, pivoting on the conjunction “no ni”, which only roughly translates into English as “even though”, or “and yet”. Therefore, this paper will also consider the question of Levy’s writing style in relation to the dynamics of translation between Japanese and English, to provide further context on the viability of conceiving colonialism through a metaphor of translation.

This study analyses different translations of the science fiction short story “Shōjo” by Mariko Ōhara, aiming to highlight the varied approaches taken in addressing the "other" and the "self" in the translation process. During the cultural turn of the 1970s, it was established that translation requires a displacement of the self to make room for the other, even if that displacement is temporary. In this context, feminist translation studies argue that no translation is isolated or devoid of ideology, thus translators can use feminist theories to choose what to translate and how to translate.

First published in SF Magazine in 1984 and later included in the collection Mental Female, “Shōjo” explores the complex relationships between Jill, a male dancer with feminine characteristics, the alien prostitute Kisa, and his roommate Remora. Comparing excerpts from two translations, one intended for official publication in English, which exhibits no explicit interference from the translator, and another produced in an academic context in Brazilian Portuguese, employing feminist translation theories and a clear ideological stance — this study examines how each approach conveys the “other” and the “self” in the translation process. Despite the differences in target languages, each translations employs a variety of strategies for each one to bring out similar meanings.

The comparison reveals the differing positions adopted by the translators and how they either highlight or obscure the "other" — whether it is the author of the story, the context in which it originated, or the alien environment depicted in the narrative.

The official translation, despite showing clear traces of the translator’s influence, tends to silence the other. In contrast, the academic translation seeks to balance the translator's voice with that of the other through conscious interventions, thereby fostering a transcultural dialogue.

In the Anthropocene, life seems to have lost its sacred value. Connections with other forms of life as well as with other human beings seem broken. Jacques Derrida in “Politics of Friendship” (1993) observes that political history is based on the figure of the enemy and thereby frontiers were established. To counteract this tendency, Derrida proposes the notion of friendship, drawing on Aristotle’s definition of this relationship, that is founded on virtue. A friend is someone capable of loving, rather than being loved. To develop virtues is a difficult task, so Derrida considers that humanity is not yet prepared (p.388).

Similarly, but with a strong conviction in human potential, peacebuilder Daisaku Ikeda encourages young people—who possess “a fresh sensitivity and a passionate seeking for ideals”—to create a “tide of friendship” (Ikeda, 2017) as a mean of transforming society. The emphasis is placed on becoming a good friend and fostering a “deep appreciation” (2017) of the Other. Ikeda’s confidence in this approach is rooted in the Buddhist concept of happiness which aligns with a Thai saying: “Real happiness makes people joyful and fills them with wisdom and compassion”. Becoming a good friend may help achieve this deep form of happiness.

The Japanese literary writer, Dazai Osamu, appears to have been interested in fostering these ideals when he wrote the short story "Run, Melos", an adaptation of the Greek myth of Damon and Pythias. The plot is developed around Melos, a young man condemned to death by the king, who is granted a brief reprieve to attend to matters outside the city. A close friend accepted to take his place and would be executed in case Melos failed to return. Despite severe obstacles, Melos could fulfill his promise, and the king, moved by the loyalty of the two friends, released them both.

Another example can be found in Naruto by Nasashi Kishimoto, a globally popular Japanese manga whose protagonist is deeply committed to creating bonds with others and strives to be virtuous. The successful dissemination of this manga allows us to verify the interest of young audiences in narratives that convey moral values.

Literature texts, according to another philosopher, Jacques Ranciére (2004), have a political effect. Literary signs -which are the core of a literary work- hold the potential to awaken a new conscience. The mentioned stories by Dazai Osamu and Masashi Kishimoto, which have been translated into many languages, contribute to the promotion of a “politics of friendship” in the world. Through such literature, children may develop into citizens who advocate for peace while also, according to Buddhist Humanism, cultivate wisdom and the capacity for developing a happier life.

This study analyzes the process and effects of translating the tanka of Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912) into Portuguese, highlighting the dynamics and implications of a collaboratively/cooperatively conducted translation. The translation in question, Tankas (1985), was carried out by two authors with markedly distinct trajectories: Masuo Yamaki (?-?), a Japanese-Brazilian who undertook a more literal rendering of Takuboku’s works, and Paulo Colina (1950-1999), an Afro-Brazilian poet and activist of the Brazilian Black Movement (Movimento Negro), who adapted Yamaki’s more “faithful” translations to his own aesthetic and poetic sensibilities. The translated tanka were selected and compiled mainly from two of Takuboku’s works: Ichiaku no suna (1910) and Kanashiki gangu (1912). Takuboku is widely recognized for crafting poetry that, with remarkable sensitivity, bridges the everyday reality of Japanese people with poetic expression. His poems explore daily life through an uncommon perspective for his time. Additionally, his works often reflect political engagement with the issues of his era, adding layers of complexity to the genre.

Regarding the translators, limited biographical information is available about Masuo Yamaki beyond what can be inferred from his published translations. Yamaki appears to have been a Japanese-Brazilian literary enthusiast who pursued translation alongside a professional career, dedicating himself to rendering Japanese works into Portuguese and vice versa. Paulo Colina, on the other hand, was a prominent figure in Brazilian literature, particularly within its Afro-diasporic segment. Co-founder of Quilombhoje (1980), a pioneering initiative dedicated to the consolidation and publication of literature by Black Brazilian authors, Colina also contributed to the early editions of Black notebooks (Cadernos negros, 1978-), a foundational journal of Brazilian peripheral literature. His involvement in Takuboku’s translation project reveals a unique cultural dialogue, where the works of the Japanese poet are reinterpreted within a context marked by the struggle for visibility and identity affirmation in Brazil.

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the translation process of Takuboku’s poems, which unfolds through the mediation of two distinct cultural agents, exploring the potential of dialogic translation in such contexts. This approach to translation not only reflects cultural tensions but also opens pathways for new forms of cultural interaction, emphasizing the potential to build bridges in situations of exclusion and invisibility. Thus, this study seeks to contribute to discussions on translation as a space of resistance, exchange, and cultural transformation.

Kierkegaard's critiques of Romanticism in both his early and later periods involve the image of plant. In his doctoral dissertation, The Concept of Irony, Kierkegaard criticizes " plant life" as the highest pursuit in Lucinde, arguing that it leads to a static and negative state of "aesthetic numbness." However, the botanical image cited in Lucinde actually points to the organic unity of spiritual life behind the fragmented pieces. Referring to Schlegel’s texts, this study further analyzes the relationship between individuality—which Schlegel considers impossible to classify using Linnaean taxonomy—and aggregation. This desire for unity among individuals constitutes what Schlegel describes as the religion of love.

In his later work, What We Learn from the Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air, Kierkegaard continues to differentiate between the two ideals and their reconciliation with reality, criticizing poets for their sentimental alleviation of the pain caused by the division between the eternal and the finite world, which he sees as false and insincere. He urges poets to learn from the lily, which represents nature, embracing seriousness, silence, obedience, and joy.

Examining Friedrich Schlegel's use of images related to the plant life cycle in On the Study of Greek Poetry and the fragments of the proposed continuation of Lucinde, it becomes clear that Schlegel, while valuing nature represented by plants as a critique of the division and utilitarianism brought about by intellect, actually acknowledges the potential for infinite human freedom and establishes a subtle connection between human freedom and nature.

Marshalling critical animal studies as its primary theoretical framework, this paper examines and compares the representation of animals and human-nonhuman relationships in Julio Cortázar’s and Guadalupe Nettel’s short stories. Placing “Axolotl” and “Letter to a Young Lady in Paris” in Cortázar’s Blow-up and Other Stories (1967) and Nettel’s “The Marriage of the Red Fish” and “War in the Trash Cans” from Natural Histories (2014) in dialogue with Jacques Derrida’s, Donna Haraway’s, and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s relevant theories, I look into each story by first examining the animal figures in relation to their encounters with the human, highlighting the sites of eyes and mouth. Then, I explore how the complexity of interspecies interactions is presented via parallel narratives and portrayal of traumatic experiences. I suggest that, through identification and dis-identification between humans and animals, both authors go beyond conventional bestiary writing and challenge the inherent boundaries between species.

Comparative literature is innately cross-cultural and globally inclusive. With the advent of a new vision of international comparative literature, comparative literature in East Asia “connects the East and the West” by foregrounding communications between the Eastern and Western worlds that turn away from unilateralism and narrow-mindedness and actively advocating “cross-cultural scholarly practices and endeavors.” In this light, the emergence and evaluation of myriad canonical texts in the East Asian cultural circle, traditional East Asian culture, and modern and contemporary literature are no longer stagnantly defined, but instead dynamically generated. “Cross-cultural practice that bridges the East and the West” provides sound conditions for these texts to respond to issues in literature and culture, and even the clash of civilizations in the current world.

This panel seeks to address the following topics:

Theories and methods of international comparative literature and comparative literature in East Asia

Comparative literature studies and cross-cultural practice in East Asian countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, among others

The dynamic generation of traditional East Asian literature, modern and contemporary literature, and cross-cultural practice that connects the East and the West

Comparative literature in East Asia, issues in literature and culture, and the clash of civilizations in the current world

Interrelations between East Asian cultural circle, Chinese culture and the development of 20th-century European thought

Proverbs, as universal linguistic symbols, not only encapsulate rich folk traditions but also serve as concentrated expressions of national identity, playing a crucial role in fostering cultural commonality across different societies. During the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Westerners came to China, and their engagement with Chinese culture extended beyond mere observation. The translation of Chinese proverbs into Western languages became a significant conduit for introducing Chinese thought to Europe. At the same time, these Westerners actively studied, interpreted, and applied Chinese proverbs in their own intellectual practices. This paper examines Chinese books on Western knowledge from that period, particularly those related to proverbs, conducting an in-depth analysis of their distinctive features. From the perspective of linguistic practice, it reassesses the role of proverbs in facilitating dialogue and cultural adaptation between disparate civilizations. Ultimately, this study offers fresh insights into the pathways and depth of Sino-Western cultural exchanges during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The expansion of railways in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries captivated public imagination and inspired a variety of playthings across the globe. Realistic train models and advanced science toys produced by manufacturers from Germany and the United States constituted a expansion of the railway modernity in imagination of childhood. However, contrary to the notion of a sweeping replacement of local traditional toys by industrial, Westernized playthings, East Asian toys underwent a complex process of transnational cultural exchange within and beyond the region.

This study examines the intellectual discourse and cultural practices surrounding train-themed games in early twentieth-century China. Through a detailed analysis of train-themed Sugoroku—a Japanese board game with Chinese origins—and various Chinese train-themed games that didn’t incorporate physical train models, this research investigates the complex process of toy modernization. The study demonstrates the crucial role of traditional and local forms in mediating the popularization of modern technology. This research not only sheds light on the relationship between modern technology and the concept of childhood in East Asia, but also offers a transnational perspective on the region's modernization process.

Lu Xun was very fond of Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques. According to Lu Xun's diary, from November 1924 to November 1931, Lu Xun spent seven years collecting Fabre's whole set of works and various translations one after another, and this interest continued until Lu Xun's death. In Lu Xun's brother Zhou Jianren's recollection, “In the last few years of his life, when the fighting was so tense and his health was not good, he still couldn't forget that he wanted to work with me on translating French scientist Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques.

In “Late Spring Ramblings” published in 1925, Lu Xun introduced Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques , which opens with the spectacle of a fine-waisted bee catching a lacewing to be its stepchild, and uses this material to criticize the Chinese national character: content with the joy of rural life and the traditional view of nature, stubborn, and alienated from science.

What is more interesting is that, just like many works at that time, Lu Xun read Souvenirs Entomologiques not in the original French, but mainly in the Japanese version, and the complete translation in Lu Xun's collection was also the Sobunkaku（叢文閣）edition, the translations of 大杉榮and 椎名其二, which were purchased from Uchiyama Bookstore, a bridge of communication between Chinese and Japanese intellectuals at that time.

Thus, taking Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques as a slice, we observe an interesting phenomenon: how Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques was translated by the anarchists Ei Osugi and Kijiji Shiina, conveying a call for the promotion of science education, and how it arrived at Lu Xun, becoming the discursive material of his nationalism, which “profoundly altered the sensibilities of several generations of Chinese in the 20th century! ” (Liu He, “Interlingual Practice: Literature, National Culture and Translated Modernity”). What exactly happened in the process of translating and reading Faber? How do the historical conditions of translation contribute to the production of new meanings of the text in question? And how do we construct a modern Chinese scientific culture through cross-cultural knowledge and assimilation? Beyond this, how did Japan, as the medium through which Western thought entered China at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, play an important role in the intellectual activity of Chinese intellectuals? Through the textual travel of Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques, we will have a concrete and practical discussion on the above questions.

As exemplary texts of modernity writing in 20th-century Chinese and Western literature, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged employ divergent yet convergent narrative strategies to reveal the structural crisis of the human spiritual ecosystem during modernity's progression. This study, grounded in comparative literature perspectives, examines both works' metaphorical critique of modernity paradoxes through dimensions including temporal dilemmas, alienation of marital ethics, war trauma memory, and intellectual symptom clusters, while elucidating the latent nature-civilization dialectical tension through eco-critical theory.

Firstly, the colonization of organic life-time by mechanical temporality constitutes the origin of spiritual alienation. Mrs. Dalloway dissects Clarissa's stream of consciousness through Big Ben's mechanical rhythm, exposing linear temporality's violent discipline over natural life rhythms. Meanwhile, Fortress Besieged employs Fang Hongjian's temporal nihilism during displacement to metaphorize the disintegration of traditional agrarian cyclical temporality in war contexts. Both works jointly critique modernity's transgression against organic temporal order, engendering rootlessness anxiety.

Secondly, marital power structures reflect pathological interpersonal ecology. The Dalloways' marriage degenerates into symbolic performance sustaining social capital, its emotional void exposing bourgeois existential alienation, whereas Fang's marital entrapment manifests semi-colonial intellectuals' fragmentation between traditional patriarchal ethics and modern individual desires, with the besieged effect mirroring materialized society.

Thirdly, war violence as modernity's ultimate manifestation breeds spiritual trauma in civilizational wilderness. Septimus' post-war PTSD deconstructs Enlightenment rationality's repression of human nature, while the collective collapse of San Lü University intellectuals reveals cultural ecosystem disorder under war's shadow.

Finally, intellectuals' pathological subjectivity unveils modernity crisis's deep logic. Clarissa's self-fragmentation and Fang's existential ennui jointly constitute post-disenchanted subjectivity ruins, their spiritual symptoms indicating modernity's dual destruction of natural humanity and cultural ecology.

This study argues that Mrs. Dalloway and Fortress Besieged reveal modernity's fundamental dilemma as instrumental rationality's systematic stripping of life's natural attributes through cross-cultural dialogue. Both works construct spiritual ecopathology specimens through literary imagination, providing critical perspectives for reflecting on technological hegemony and ecological ethics reconstruction in modern civilization.