This article examines how Han Kang’s The Vegetarian illustrates what Dorothy Hale describes as the new ethics of literature—an ethics of otherness. It argues that in both content and form, the novel brings forth an encounter with the other characterized by an irresolvable tension between characterological alterity and social positionality. My analysis starts with an investigation into how the intractable Yeong-hye, a social other for her sudden, “unjustified” conversion to vegetarianism, is read by her husband, brother-in-law, and sister, and how these readings speak of the better or worse ways of approximating Yeong-hye’s alterity. Mr. Cheong, who is self-centered and shows absolutely no interest in understanding his wife’s change, is an unethical reader in his refusal of self-subordination, which is a prerequisite for the apprehension of alterity. In particular, his hasty diagnosis of Yeong-hye as suffering hysteria and delusion showcases how patriarchal values annex and rule out her autonomy. While the relationship between Yeong-hye and the brother-in-law is less abusive, it is still limited by misunderstanding, as the latter romanticizes and instrumentalizes the former for artistic and sexual desires. The artist’s insistence on her blankness and the belief that she can be marked physically and mentally demonstrate an exploitative, self-oriented reading stance. Among the three, In-hye is the only ethical one who tries to comprehend Yeong-hye as she is, acknowledging the epistemological limits in explaining her inscrutability and accepting the psychological upset it causes. By actively imagining what it feels like to live as Yeong-hye, In-hye finds a limited sharedness between the siblings; in this process, she also gains a better knowledge of herself.

I then discuss how the narrative form of The Vegetarian embodies an ethical representation of otherness. Mainly presenting Yeong-hye from external points of view, Han rejects a full realization of fictional personhood, pointing to the social positionality involved in any artistic renderings of the other. As the narrative indicates, one solution to this struggle between art and its ideological instrumentality is adopting a bodily approach, namely, an embodied act of imagination that puts one’s own knowable experience in the service of understanding an other. Yeong-hye’s sporadic first-person account of dream sequences, which are driven not by reason but by intuitive bodily sensations, invites readers to suspend judgment and establish bases of likeness by feeling the pain and struggle that Yeong-hye cannot put into intelligible words. In a word, The Vegetarian exemplifies how to honor otherness through and as narrative representation. The study positions the work in the literary tradition of new ethics that sees the value of literature in the felt encounter with alterity it brings to its readers.

Bora Chung’s collection of short stories named Cursed Bunny (2017) offers a broad depiction of real and social life starting from personal crises to patriarchal issues to capitalistic issues in Korean society. The collection offers multiple stories from which this paper focuses on “The Head”, “Embodiment”, “The Cursed Bunny”, etc. Dealing with these three stories, the paper attempts to render critical interpretations of those and the cultural aspects in of the society. For example, “The Head” represents a young woman’s fear of her old age or the desire to return to youth and offers a depiction of how females suffer from age-related issues that make them obscure when they don’t fit into the beauty standard. Also, the reality is presented in a normal scenario that emits horrific notions as the woman finds the head which transforms into herself or her desire for youth materializing through a toilet flush and categorizes her personal fear of displacement as something deadly for the readers as well. This concept is prominent in women across the world and thus, makes it a cosmopolitan issue.

Exploring the concepts of affect theory and deconstruction, the stories reshape human behavior and psychology into the horror that resides within the daily life, and culture of society. For example, the story of “Cursed Bunny” represents the fetish that represents Korean culture of black magic or voodoo and the use of bunnies to satiate the horror within the innocence, and in “Embodiment”, the patriarchal notion of finding a father prevails when it comes to raising a child. The paper also attempts to deconstruct the idea of innocence that society admires when it abides by the regular concepts and the unsuccessful cognition between the idea and reality evokes a fear of the known aspects.

Based on the theories mentioned and the idea of “The Spectacle of the Others”, this paper demonstrates two ideas: Firstly, if and how human lives always consist of horrible scenarios and how they’re normalized or habituated through regular observation, thus creating a cosmopolitan bubble for horror and normal. Secondly, how the stories deconstruct real-life phenomena into details to perceive the emotions of human lives and how when cognition fails, they transit from real to surreal and depict its universality or cosmopolitanism in every culture.

When the first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901, the leading Swedish daily newspaper wrote that it would be difficult to find laureates that lived up to the universal, transnational ideal of Nobel’s will, as literature, the op ed stated, was deeply embedded in nationalist expression and therefore, one supposes, did not travel well. The op ed was typical: From the start, universalism and particularism were regarded as irreconcilable opposites in the reception of the Nobel. One trait that distinguishes the Nobel prize from most other literary awards is its planetary claim: The prize is not awarded to works from a certain geographical territory or to works written in certain languages. Therefore, this paper addresses the recurrent clashes between the universalist ideal of the prize and the particularity of the prize’s reception, and the discourse concerning universality surrounding the prize over time.

The focus of interest will lie in the reception of Han Kang’s award in 2024, in Swedish as well as in international Western media. In Sweden there was a heated debate over the prize, with some critics calling Han’s writing “kitsch” and others regarding the prize as very well deserved. The question of (un)translatability was also addressed. Internationally, the reception was kinder.

For specific comparison, the study will look to the discussion surrounding the prize awarded to other prizes awarded to laureates that have been received as Eastern in Swedish and Western media, but it will also make a comparison with Toni Morrison’s award in 1993, as there are certain similarities in how Han’s and Morrison’s prizes were received in the media.

My main question will be: How are the question of universality and particularity raised in the reception of these awards? What arguments are used when discussing quality, how is the oeuvre read and understood and how is the laureate herself presented?

The questions are important as media reception plays a big part in the ecology of the Nobel Prize, and wittingly or unwittingly, journalists contribute to the aura of the prize and the possible canonization of the laureates’ work. It is the thesis of the paper that the suspicion of transnational literary travel and the possibility of universalism expressed in 1901 is still alive and well, although, after post-colonialism, it has found other forms of expression.

My expectations are that the prizes awarded to non-Western, non-European laureates will be discussed as particular, while European prizes will be received as universal. I also expect gender to be an issue in the media reception of the awards.

In this talk, I use Georges Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual (1978) and Dung Kai-Cheung’s Atlas: An Archaeology of an Imaginary City (1997) as examples to discuss how literature participates in debates about the nature of urban archives and archiving as a dynamic process of selection, preservation and retrieval while also highlighting their instability. While Life: A User’s Manual chronicles the lives of various residents at a fictional apartment block located on 11 rue Simon-Crubellier in Paris, Atlas explores how archaeologists from the future unearthing artefacts, maps and documents and use them to piece together their own version of the histories of Hong Kong. Although being produced across time and space, both novels engage with questions of erasures, absences, voids, and the urge to capture the traces and fragments amidst various forms of urban redevelopment and modernization projects from the past to the present. Through putting these two different novels into productive dialogue, I also aim to show how comparative literary practices can help us think across the rich diversity of social experiences and urban conditions across cultures and geographies.

The Zhongyong, also known as The Doctrine of the Mean, has gradually attained recognition as a philosophical classic over more than 300 years of translation endeavor, since its initial English translation in 1691. A comprehensive review of its translation history unveils significant shifts in the understanding and reception of The Zhongyong. The work has been rendered into 29 English versions, that encompasses full translations, selected translations, compilations, and even adaptations in comic form. In this paper a detailed overview of the English translation history of The Zhongyong is presented, that categorizes it into three distinct phases: (1) “An Interpretation of Confucianism through a Christian Lens (1691-1905)”, in which, translators primarily sought to draw parallels between Confucianism and Christianity. (2) “An Interpretation of Confucianism through Western Cultural Frameworks (1906-2000)”, where translators predominantly adopted a culturally oriented translation strategy, that aligned The Zhongyong with Western philosophical and cultural paradigms. (3) “A Reinterpretation of Confucianism through Its Chinese Cultural Context (2001-present)”, in which, the focus shifts to the restoration of the original philosophical and cultural essence of the text, and contributes to its canonization as a philosophical classic within global discourse. The translation of the title “Zhongyong,” is further examined through an analysis of four representative renditions to illustrate the diverse conceptual understandings they reflect. The findings indicate a notable trend towards interpretive translation, wherein various strategies are employed to enhance readers’ comprehension of complex philosophical concepts. As the demographic of translators has diversified, translation strategies have also evolved from domestication in the earlier phases to foreignization in the contemporary phase, which signifies a growing emphasis on preserving the authentic Chinese philosophical context.

The ‘bhanita’ or the signature line is a characteristic feature of Vaishnava poetry using which the poet participates in the cosmic drama (leela) of Radha–Krishna, or Chaitanya. In his book of verses, ‘Bhanusingha Thakurer Padabali’ (The Poems of Sun Lion), first published in 1875, Rabindranath Tagore reuses the aesthetics, form and theme of Vaishnava poetry. Thus, in Tagore's poems, the form of the bhanita undergoes a marked transformation. In the 2003-English translation of Tagore's text, ‘The Lover of God’, Tony K. Stewart and Chase Twichell further experiment with the form, as Twichell who is unfamiliar with the original language and tradition uses unconventional techniques to translate Tagore's text.

This paper explores how the politics of desire is represented and transformed through the two-fold translations that occur: Tagore's adaptation of the Vaishnava lyric form, and Twichell's English translation of Tagore's Padabali. The paper looks at the role and the difference of bhanita in Vaishnava lyrics, and in Bhanusingha's songs, focusing on how Tagore re-structures the bhanita to assume a female persona to initiate a discourse on love, desire and longing in his Padabali that is at once both personal and political. Besides the obvious gender change, the aesthetics of form and articulation of the self and desire assume a queer potential in these poems. The paper then analyses how the queer aesthetics and representation are reframed and reprocessed in the English translation of the text published several years later. Using William J. Spurlin's observations, the essay foregrounds how translation and the untranslatable constitute a queer space, praxis and phenomenon by close-reading this particular South Asian literary discourse, poetic form and texts. It attempts to initiate new discussions in the interdisciplinary fields of queer studies, and translation studies in the context of South Asian literary cultures, where often the manifestations of queerness and desire are different from the dominant LGBTQIA+ narrative.

This paper offers a comparative analysis of the moral and ethical dimensions embedded within The Analects of Confucius and the Bible, two of the most influential texts in Eastern and Western cultures respectively. The objective of this study is to explore the philosophical foundations of these texts and to identify both the contrasting and complementary ethical systems they propose. Through a detailed examination of their moral teachings, this paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the cultural underpinnings that shape these two worldviews.

The Analects of Confucius places significant emphasis on the cultivation of personal virtue through the emulation of moral exemplars, the internalization of ethical standards, and the guidance of one’s conscience. In contrast, the Bible focuses more on the concepts of self-discipline, the active performance of moral duties, and a legalistic approach to ethics that demands adherence to divine commandments. While the two texts differ in their conceptualization of morality—Confucian ethics being more relational and inner-directed, and Biblical ethics more action-oriented and duty-bound—both converge in their foundational principles of “benevolence” (仁) in Confucian thought and “love” in Christian teachings. These principles, despite their varying contexts, illustrate the shared human aspiration toward moral transcendence and the pursuit of a harmonious society.

Further, both The Analects and the Bible underscore the importance of social harmony and order, albeit through different ethical frameworks. Confucianism advocates for societal harmony through proper relationships and rituals, while Christianity emphasizes the necessity of love for one’s neighbor and the role of divine grace in fostering peace. This convergence in their focus on societal well-being hints at the potential for a global ethical consensus that can bridge Eastern and Western cultural divides. By prioritizing virtues that promote social stability, both texts offer a model for ethical conduct that extends beyond individual morality to encompass the collective good.

Building upon these insights, this paper proposes three key recommendations for the future of intercultural dialogue and global ethical development. First, it is crucial to preserve and promote the shared ethical principles of “benevolence” and “love,” which can serve as common ground for intercultural communication and mutual understanding. Second, fostering respect for cultural differences is essential, as it allows for reciprocal learning and collaborative progress in global moral discourse. Third, enhancing intercultural dialogue is vital to achieving the goal of "harmony in diversity," wherein diverse ethical traditions can coexist while respecting each other’s values and practices. This study not only deepens our understanding of Chinese and Western moral thought but also provides meaningful insights into the potential for building a more harmonious global community through cross-cultural understanding.

Cultural references in source texts can be the trickiest part of translation, as they involve choosing the right words and understanding the culture behind them. Translation studies all over the world are experiencing a cultural revolution in all its senses as never before. Translation of Culture-specific items has been and remains one of the topical issues. Anandamath was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and first published in 1882. It is an important work in Indian literature and nationalism. The book contains many cultural references that are difficult to translate. This study aims to explore how Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) have been translated by Sri Aurobindo and Naresh Chandra Sen-Gupta. Furthermore, it examines the ideologies and translation strategies of these two translators. Newmark’s (2010) categorization of culture-specific items was adopted to classify the culture-specific items and Newmark’s (1988) strategies for Culture-specific items translation.

The classic motif of ‘Demoness-monk seduction’ first seen in Buddhist scriptures, refers to the demon Mara sending his daughters, who are demonesses, to seduce Prince Siddhartha in order to stop his enlightenment. This motif later emerged in ancient Chinese vernacular novels, giving rise to many stories in which demonesses seduce monks. It has also appeared in subversive forms in contemporary Chinese writing, changing the concept of SeQing色情. While the idea of evil women enticing men is not new to literature, the asceticism requirement of monks has resulted in a distinct Chinese literary variation that differs from the Western femme fatale. With a focus on three popular works—Journey to the West (1500s), Green Snake (1986), and Faithful to Buddha, Faithful to You (2008)—this paper will compare the different representations in which the plot of Demoness-monk seduction and analyse the changes in the images of the demoness and the monk under the evolution of this motif, so as to examine the changes in the meaning of the plot of seduction. The demoness, who has only one sentence in the Buddhist scriptures, transforms into several beautiful demonesses with dangerous power in Journey to the West, but continues the traditional narrative of monks rejecting the sexual seduction of the demoness and eventually succeeding in their Buddhist cultivation. In Green Snake, the image of the demoness changes from a sexual seducer to an emotional subject, and the seduction of the monks becomes a way of experiencing humans’ emotions through sex. It challenged the rationality of abstinence. Faithful to Buddha, Faithful to You is a further subversion of this motif, in which the heroine is no longer a demonic sexual seducer but a human woman who establishes a modern love relationship with Hatamarishi. The image of the demoness and the monk changes from the opposition of good and evil to the reversal of identity to the building of a love relationship, showing the transformation from Se色 to Qing情, reflecting the imagination of eroticism, taboo, and moral relationships in different periods. In addition, the significant plot of Demoness-monk seduction has become a well-known episode that has impressed audiences due to the influential film and television adaptations of these three works. Therefore, this paper will focus more on the contemporary interpretation of this motif in Green Snake and Faithful to Buddha, Faithful to You, analysing how popular culture has reconfigured this motif in light of sociocultural backgrounds and exploring how contemporary narratives have given seduction a new dimension of emotion, power, and subjectivity, thereby transcending traditional erotic taboos and reshaping the relationship between eroticism and morality. The paper will also explore how the contemporary interpretation of the Demoness-monk seduction has broadened people's understanding of Qing情, beyond individual love to include a wider range of worldwide emotions, and provided more possibilities for emotional expression.

Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Guan Hanqing`s Rescued by a Coquette both demonstrate concern for women`s ethical choices and orthodox order by depicting their unique ways of maintaining ethical order and their struggle against ethical order disruptors. The high similarity in plots makes it possible to conduct comparative research between the two plays. Two plays depict the different ethical choices made by various female subjects under the manipulation of the Sphinx factor, highlighting the decisive role of humanistic and animalistic factors. Writers use the subtle ethical choices made by female characters to form a complete process of ethical choices and present the maintenance of ethical order. This article aims to clarify the various ethical choices made by ethical subjects under the influence of the Sphinx factor, as well as the progressive relationships between subtle choices, and the role of humanistic elements in shapig character`s ethical deicisions. The interplay of ethics, agency, and cultural representation all reveal the process of making choices, which has achieved the ultimate success of ethical choices for female characters.

“Die Wiederholung” is a long novel by Austrian writer Peter Handke, published in the 1980s. Within the novel's multilayered memories and narratives, the recurring portrayal and imitation of “patterns” permeate the entire storyline and plot progression. Through its distinctive forms of “repetition” and “juxtaposition,” the novel not only delineates the internal texture of sensory patterns but also constructs their external contexts. These narrative techniques reflect the author’s perception and contemplation of the “new subject” and its relationship to external reality. This involves a series of questions about how “narrative” captures and reproduces the original “feeling” of human experience and how it recognizes, responds to, and engages with such feelings.This paper analyzes the unique manifestation of the concept of “perception” in “Die Wiederholung” within the socio-cultural context of the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the novel's linguistic and formal characteristics. By examining the textual details and structural features of its language, this study seeks to trace the trajectory of sensory modes and their generative logic. Through the dual dimensions of “sequence” and “externality” of sensation, this paper aims to uncover the role and intention of “patterns” in Handke’s creative work. Additionally, it examines the connection between the “new subject” and “affect,” shedding light on how these elements contribute to the broader thematic framework of the novel.

The theatrical form known as the ‘theatre of the absurd’ has made its mark in ‘modern’ and ‘postmodern’ scholarship and generated much recent critical currency. This theatrical form has established itself in opposition to European bourgeois realist theatre, and has come to be seen as avant-garde, fragmented, and often more ‘universal’ than realist theatre. In this paper, the ideas associated with absurdity in theatre will be understood as forming a repertoire of signification, which will primarily be explored in relation to two European dramatic texts of the mid-twentieth century, Samuel Beckett’s 'Waiting for Godot' (1952) and Harold Pinter’s 'The Birthday Party' (1959). By locating various aspects of absurdity in these plays within their contexts and also identifying the similar and different manners in which the ‘absurd’ is manifested, it will be shown that the ‘absurd’ is not a fixed category that can be applied universally to any play that is said to belong to the ‘theatre of the absurd’, and that this concept is seen and expressed differently by the two playwrights. Further, elements of absurdity will be located in Sriranga’s 'Listen, Janmejaya' (1966), to demonstrate that the repertoire of signification surrounding the ‘absurd’ is also visible in, and expanded by, theatrical practices outside of what critics call European avant-garde theatre, and that ‘traditional’ Indian theatre as well as ‘modern’ Indian theatre have continued to make use of these elements to achieve various dramatic effects. The concepts of performance and appearance will be crucial throughout this exploration, as they are sites of the ‘absurd’ as much as language is.

This research provides an inter-artistic comparative discussion with methodological approach focusing on the counter-narrative method applied in Milton’s text 'Paradise Lost' and Cabanel’s painting 'The Fallen Angel'. Living in Foucault’s discursive regime, we know that narratives are not just stories, narratives are power relations holding epistemological views of the world. Narratives create the overlapping spider web of knowledge and discourses that rules the social, political, religious, cultural and ideological positioning of the individual. Human beings usually live in a world that is predetermined and pre described. We are living in a story already ‘told’ by the master or the teller. What if we are the teller, ourselves this time? Does the story change? English poet John Milton (1608- 1674) and French Painter Alexandre Cabanel (1883-1889) addressed this question in their literary and artistic creations. The epic poem 'Paradise Lost' by John Milton and the painting by Cabanel titled 'Fallen Angel' both attempted re-telling the strong theological knowledge written in the Bible. The author and artist represented the story of Lucifer moving away from the grand spot light of religion and the divine torch of God. Milton’s Paradise Lost was first published in 1667 and Cabanel’s painting Fallen Angel is from 1847. Similarities between the text and the art piece are- the theme of Divine error, character of Lucifer/Satan, and the representation of grand narrative with counter story. Differences include- the nationality of English and French, temporality of 17th and 19th century, medium of creation which are word and Image. Counter narrative is a method or a way to present alternative perspectives that challenge dominant narratives from the perspective of a marginalized group, generating stories that generally change the master narrative with the same storyline by refuting it and representing it from several other perspectives. This method tends to detail the experiences and voice of those who are historically oppressed, excluded or silenced in an epistemological setting. Theoretical framework for this study activates two principles of counter-narrative method. First one is Bakhtin’s idea of ‘chronotope’ which refers to how images of the human subject in literature gradually acquire a sense of historicity, of being embedded in specific times and places. The human subject comes to be represented through time as a free agent creating counter-narrative. The second idea is ‘Foucauldian tool box’ of understanding how counter narrative is generated from politics of subject. This study focuses on two comparative points; the critical analysis of the text’s idea and painting’s symbols and further investigating how their ideas and symbols are creating counter-narratives. With all of these portions of understanding tied together, this comparative study unveils how Milton’s 'Paradise Lost' and Cabanel’s 'Fallen Angel' refused grand narrative with counter narrative.

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.

This study compares two Nizami Ganjavi's Sikandarnama translations—a 1673 Bengali version by Sayeed Alaol and an 1882 English version by Captain Wilberforce Clarke. It looks at how the two translators approached the text differently, shaped by their time, audience, and cultural context. Alaol used a mix of direct translation and creative changes, adding details that fit 17th-century Bengali culture and politics. On the other hand, Clarke followed a more literal, word-for-word approach, adding detailed notes to explain the text to an English-speaking scholarly audience. The study also explores how each version reflects and reshapes the original’s cultural meaning. For example, Alaol added local references to Bengali society, while Clarke tried to stay faithful to the original text while explaining its cultural background to Western readers. By analyzing specific parts of the text, this research shows how translations can preserve and adapt a literary work to new languages and cultures, highlighting how cultural memory and tradition evolve.

Moving through the ACLA Reports, beginning with the Levin Report in 1965, the practice of translation was very much an argued over space. Levin and Greene reports were adamant on the elitism of programs and courses on Comparative Literature. The reports were skeptical of reading literary works in translation without knowing the source language. However, considering humane limitations, the Levin report states that in a comparative literature program if a reasonable amount of literary work is read in original language, then it would be “unduly puristic” to read certain remote languages in translation. This ideology poses a threat to the “marginal” languages and literature systems in the global context. It will obviously result in a Eurocentric bias, which is already seen happening to remote language literary systems. “The Translator’s Invisibility” by Lawrence Venuti clearly states that translations in the English language is significantly higher than any other European languages let alone remote and non-European languages. Bernheimer report provides a positive and accepting view on translations, where it is exclaimed that translation gives us a scope to understand larger contexts and interpret various cultures and traditions. This skepticism for translation is totally wiped out in “Exquisite Cadavers Stitched from Fresh Nightmares”. At this point, translation is given a special role to understand possibilities and limitations of any language. Translations may be a site of cultural clash, language is not merely a delivery system anymore but have its own rules, structure, and resistance.

The history of translation in Comparative Literature is provided to better understand the effect of culture, traditions, language literary system, politics, ethics of a translation practices. It is a complex phenomenon where the translator must evaluate and understand cultural specificities if he/she wants to truly portray the source text in the original manner in the target language, that is by foreignization. In today’s time, with the development of AI, machine translations are widely popular. These technological developments claim that it uses deep learning algorithms, neural networks to interpret and understand the context and structure of both the source language and target language. Despite the bold assertions, how much has AI succeeded in proper and correct translations? Even if I ignore the cultural and traditional contexts of any language literary systems, the machine translations are not even up to the mark is translating a coherent grammatical structure. Examples are all around our devices and social networking sites, where the audience is quite satisfied if they understand the shell of the foreign language as generated by AI.

AI is basing its results on data, algorithms, and patterns but often this information is not helpful in translating a tongue genuinely into another. Any translation should have a personal touch which can only be given by a human and never a machine or technology no matter how advanced. Translation requires not only the correct use of language and grammar but also the understanding of tones, sarcasms, emotional and physical condition of the speaker, which cannot yet be detected by AI.

The politics of translation is intertwined with both the source text and target text and are very complicated. Let me elaborate with some examples, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, when translating Mahashweta Devi’s “Draupadi”, left out an entire passage without translating as that passage contained a tribal song which Devi’s Bengali readers were not supposed to understand without delving deep into the tribal community and language. Spivak respected Devi’s method by not giving the opportunity to the English reading audience to know and understand the story fully without any hassle. Maintaining cultural specificity of the source language the translation turns rough, and readability is lessened. This readability is a result of the made-up hierarchies in language. For instance, colonial language holds a power in contrast to a colonized tongue. Machine translations might work well for industrial translations but in the case of literary translations, AI will not be able to grasp the politics which goes behind any language medium. A machine translation which does not even interpret the correct grammar will surely not understand the asymmetrical power relations and the apparent balance between languages. As Levy considers translations as a series of decision-making process.

AI translation always uses the method of domestication instead of foreignization. This is threat to marginal, non-European, remote cultures, and languages. AI, with domestication, will not take into account any cultural specificity of source text and will break it down to fit into the norm of the target language which will lead to a hierarchy of languages and cultures. Certain Bengali words such as “bhaar”, “anchol”, “payesh” cannot be translated into English without losing the essence of the language, yes, we can domesticate it and easily come up with “cup”, “hanging part of saree”, “rice pudding” but any Bengali speaker will immediately understand that its not the same. AI and machine translations thus will roughly translate a source language ignoring its cultural specificity making it easier to understand by the target readers, but is it worth it? A translation should be done to delve into a foreign language, understand the minds of the foreign tongues, not merely just get a content and structure of a foreign work, and be satisfied with just that.

However, before the contemplation of politics of translation process, machine translations take us back to Roman Jakobson’s idea of translation where he bases his idea on Sassure’s idea of sign, signifier, signified. Jakobson gives a simpler view of translation where circumlocution will give us a signified from a foreign sign. In one language we will never always find a single sign replacing a sign in the source text, so we require the help of various other signs to explain the foreign word in the target language. Machine translations does just that, detecting and interpreting a foreign word and replacing it with the closest possible signifier. Like, thesaurus and synonyms can replace a word but the essence of a sign cannot be captured.

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.

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.

Heidegger used the image of "tree" many times in his series of works to discuss "being". In Buddhism, there is also "Aranya" (i.e., forest), and the image of "illusory flower in the sky" (i.e., illusory flower in the sky) is used to discuss the basic tenets such as "dependent origination and emptiness of nature". Through the comparison of the images of "tree" and "illusory flower in the sky", we try to explore the possibility of a deep dialogue between Heidegger and Buddhist thought and enrich the common expressions in Eastern and Western philosophical thoughts.Heidegger's "nothingness" is the negation of being. In Buddhism, after negating "existence" (i.e., "nothingness"), there is further negation of negation. In short, the essence of Heidegger's "nothingness" is a kind of being. In Buddhism, such an existence of "nothingness" is negated and based on the negation of "existence" and the negation of "existence" (i.e., "nothingness") - "dependent origination and emptiness of nature" and "sentient beings have come from beginningless time". Heidegger believes that "nothing (Nichts) is never nothing at all. It is also not something in the sense of an object. Nothing is being itself." And the "beginningless" beginning in "sentient beings have come from beginningless time" in Buddhism is exactly an intertextual manifestation. "Being is the foundation of beings," and "beginningless" is the way sentient beings come. "Nothingness" and "dependent origination and emptiness of nature" are a kind of "stopping," stopping the infinite questioning of the origin and the dilemma of continuous negation and negation of negation of oneself, finding a definite meaning base and "stopping," avoiding falling into nihilism and agnosticism.Although "tree" is not directly discussed in the content of "Holzwege", the title of "Holzwege" and the philosophical reflection on the forest path at the beginning of the book. In Sanskrit, "Aranya" originally means "forest, woods," and is freely translated as "quiet place," "place without disputes." Heidegger defined "the being of Dasein" or "the existential structure of Dasein" as "care" (Sorge). There is great similarity between the existential structure "care" (Sorge) of Dasein and "klesa" (affliction, delusion) in Buddhism. And Heidegger's "nothingness is the complete negation of all beings." After negating "care," nothingness can remove "obscuration" and become clear. Isn't it also a kind of clarity to practice in "Aranya" and get rid of "care" to reach the state of "no disputes"? From this perspective, Heidegger's "Holzwege" has something in common in spiritual core with "Aranya" and "bodhi tree" in Buddhism.

This study employs spatial poetics as its analytical framework to compare Chinese writer Han Song’s “Metro Trilogy” and British author J.G. Ballard’s disaster novels (High-Rise, Crash, etc.), exploring the cultural coding mechanisms of apocalyptic narratives in Chinese and Western speculative fiction and their responses to modernity’s crises. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of spatial production, Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, and critical frameworks of catastrophic modernity, the research reveals how enclosed spaces (metro systems/skyscrapers) function as pathological laboratories for ideologies.

The analysis demonstrates that Han Song’s subterranean spatial narratives reconfigure metro systems into topological models of authoritarian self-replication: tunnel loops symbolize the eternal implosion of techno-bureaucratic systems, passengers’ “insectification” metaphorizes collectivism’s annihilation of individuality, while revolutionary broadcasts and zombie imagery encode the lingering specters of historical trauma. In contrast, Ballard’s vertical spatial experiments mold skyscrapers into micro-theaters of late capitalism: glass façades reflect consumerism’s reified landscapes, middle-class self-destruction rituals expose the symbiosis of order and violence, and crystallized apocalypses distort Christian apocalypticism. Through a “subterranean-skyscraper” axis of spatial dialogue, the two authors respectively critique the technological alienation of Third World authoritarian modernity and the entropic desire-logic of First World consumer capitalism, culminating in divergent ethical paradigms: “inescapable cyclicality” versus “destructive rebirth.”

Moving beyond traditional techno-determinist paradigms in science fiction studies, this research proposes a novel “spatial ideology comparison” approach. It highlights the unique structural critique in Chinese apocalyptic writing: unlike Western hero-centric redemption narratives, Han Song’s “spectral realism” emphasizes systemic inescapability, transforming metro spaces into archaeological sites of post-revolutionary collective unconsciousness. These findings provide transcultural insights for diagnosing global civilizational crises while repositioning Chinese speculative fiction within world literary discourse.

This paper is a brief exploration of a thematic concern that can be considered to form a relation between Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, ‘The Oval Portrait’ (1850), and Kevin Carter’s photograph, commonly known as ‘The Vulture and the Little Girl’ (1994). While art is often attached to the qualities of compassion, life, and humanity, the thematic concern that forms the subject of this paper is about the potential that art has to bring harm upon its subject(s), artistic distance and the complex position of the artist, and the problematic yet frequently noticeable connection between art and death. In order to explore this theme, the paper will proceed through the concepts of artistic stillness, the obsessive pursuit of perfection through the artist’s distanced gaze and the costs of this pursuit, the art/life binary and its implications, death’s relation to art and the aestheticization of death, and finally the questions both works raise for the reader/viewer to think about. In totality, this paper attempts to highlight how a juxtaposition of the chosen short story and poem leads to a more nuanced reading of each of them.

In late medieval China, lyrics (ci, 词) about the boudoir were a popular subject matter for both male and female literati. While existing studies have overlooked the contrasting writings of male and female literati when describing the same boudoir space, this study is centered on the tradition founded by Among the Flowers 花間集 and focuses on the significant gender differences in imagery choices, particularly regarding the depiction of screens (pingfeng, 屏风)—a key piece of boudoir furniture that appears frequently in male-authored lyrics but rarely in female-authored works, which is crucial for understanding how literati perceived and represented the boudoir space. By examining the portrayals of screens in lyrics by male and female literati, this study explores the gendered viewing structures within the boudoir, the cross-media interaction between screen and mirror, and the differences of screens, as well as blinds and curtains (lianmu 簾幕) as spatial separation, seeking to highlight the way gender influenced their perspectives in these boudoir-themed lyrics.

This paper examines "The Station," a contemporary Chinese dance-theatre production, through the lens of Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia, exploring how the performance reflects the complexities of contemporary Chinese identity. The work's portrayal of seven characters—each representing different facets of modern existence—serves as an allegory for the tensions between tradition and modernity, individual desires and collective memory, as well as neoliberalism and neoconservatism in China. Drawing on the performance's use of space, time, and movement, the paper argues that "The Station" creates a heterotopic space that challenges conventional narratives, allowing for the coexistence of contradictory elements within contemporary society. In doing so, it redefines what it means to be "contemporary" in a rapidly changing cultural landscape. By incorporating diverse cultural influences and addressing themes of alienation, identity, and temporal fragmentation, "The Station" embodies the fluidity and complexity of Chinese modernity. The paper also examines the role of artistic collaboration and the tension between traditional and contemporary dance forms, offering new insights into the potential of performance art as a site for cultural negotiation and reimagination.

Comics and graphic novels, in mainstream western discourse, have often been studied in terms of aesthetic sequencing or paneling. Comic strips have been associated with humorous content, and forms such as the visual caricature with political satire. Comic books and graphic novels, especially ones which are serialized, have a history of depicting superhero narratives and larger-than-life themes. The world of graphic narratives has grown exponentially in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Consequently, established modes of enquiry have emerged as insufficient. The comparatist’s perspective of plurality and relationality is required in order to ethically engage with this intermedial form and address the hierarchies within the academic research surrounding it. In this paper, two graphic novels based on life stories from different cultural contexts will be explored. The biographical graphic novel 'Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability' (2011) by Durgabai Vyam, Subhash Vyam, Srividya Natarajan, and S. Anand, which tells the story of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s life along with the contemporary reality of caste-based violence in India, will be read alongside Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel 'Persepolis' (published in two parts in 2000 and 2001), the story of the author and artist’s childhood in Tehran and her complex relationship with her homeland. This comparative reading will focus on narrative flow, questions of identity and belonging within the axis of caste, gender, nationality and religion, the politics of aesthetics, the visual schemata, and varying perspectives towards the making of art. While 'Bhimayana' is the result of a collaborative effort of Gond artists and a publishing house dedicated to caste-based narratives, 'Persepolis' is the individual artistic and narrative endeavour of Satrapi. Each choice is inextricably tied to the intentionality, narrative content and cultural ecology of each graphic novel. When the two are read together through the idea of juxtaposition, the cornerstone of the graphic narrative form, what emerges is a plurality of approaches towards storytelling, visual language, history, identity, belonging, culture, socio-political commentary, and much more. This understanding of plurality is crucial in challenging hegemonic perspectives which perceive difference as an obstacle instead of the crux of human experience.

This research aims to make an inter-artistic comparison between Alan Moore’s 1986 graphic novel “Watchmen” and Brandon Vietti’s 2024 animated film “Watchmen” to understand the adaptation's in/fidelity. These two works depict the post-World War II era, known as the Cold War, and illustrate how the tensions between two major powers of that time, America and the Soviet Union (later Russia), constantly expanded toward the probability of another devastating conflict. Besides sharing this common theme, these two works differ from each other in some aspects, such as character development or frame/shot division. By using film adaptation theories, this study employs a close reading of the comics and the film—where the film is treated as a text—as a methodology. The critical analysis shows a thematic alignment between these two works—both enlist the turbulence of the Cold War. Though Vietti is concerned about this historical context, his venture is to metaphorize the contemporary geopolitical instability. Besides, Vietti's engagement with symbolism is analogous to Moore's, notably the depiction of the Comedian's bloodstained smiley badge, which is a sign of pain behind the containment. Furthermore, Vietti slightly changes Moore's narrative structure. For example, Moore reveals the Comedian's backstory through the reminiscence of the remaining former members of Watchmen during his funeral, whereas Vietti reconstructs the same issue through Rorschach's interactions with other members as he notifies them of the Comedian's death. Finally, Veitti takes his freedom in terms of framing and color grading in his animation, though he has a reference of Moore's artistic approach. Though they don't have a shared temporal and spatial context, all these findings admit a continuation of Moore's version through Vietti's recreation. This research argues that Vietti's animated film is parallel to Moore's comics, denoting an inter-artistic exchange rather than a reinterpretation.

Comic took its root from Rodolphe Topffer, who was the artist of “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck”, first printed comic. He also invented comic strip, publishing seven, which is now usually known as comic books or more recently graphic novels. Comic studies are considered as pure leisurely activity. It does not have any accurate space in grammar or literature as such. Although, comics are not widely accepted as a genre in academic field but, comic studies can be seen as something useful in literary studies as it provides details with images that will have a greater impact in the minds of the readers. Graphic narrative is a very diverse discourse, it does not only provide a written details but also a visual representation of what the author wants to convey through his/her works. Which makes it a very hybridized mode of communication.

We can also make a connection of graphic narrative with ancient times. Like, In the early times, people who used to live in cage, drew in the walls that used to deliver a story of their living condition, culture and also the societal aspect. Same can be seen in graphic narratives, where there is a visual representation that helps to deliver a story or any important aspect. In recent times, we can see a section in newspaper where comic used as a mode in journalism where graphic narrative is being used to deliver an important news or messages through visuals. Even graphic narrative has become so popular in nowadays that it has been used to make movies and series, which are known as Anime, for instance, “Naruto”, “Death note”, this type of anime has so much popularity among its audience, and they connect with the characters so intensely is something beyond imagination.

Comic studies is not only for fun or leisure, but it also delivers very important moral messages. For example, Indian comic books like “Nonte Phonte” by Narayan Debnath, where it teaches student teacher relationship and also the values of friendship, “Gopal Bhar”. Stories like this make education fun for children because it has comics which will keep the readers engage along with morals that will be helpful for them in future.

Graphic narratives also make the plot interesting like for instance, any character in the story fell down or got hurt, the emotions are also presented as “Aaaaa..!!” inside a cloud shape thing along with visuals, that keep the readers on the edge. We have seen this in comic books like “The Adventures of Tintin” by Herge, and many more. Even the Tintin’s pet dog, Snowy’s emotions and actions are portrayed so wonderfully. Graphic narrative should be included in the academic field too as it will help students to build more knowledge as graphic narrative provide a layered narrative language. For example, in Art Spieleman’s Maus series that focus on the second world war and the Holocaust.

Through the changes in comic studies and graphic narratives, overtime we can also see how the mode of communication has changed. In recent time we have seen the way of communication has become so less troublesome. Now days we all are connected through social media like, Whatsapp, Instagram, facebook etc. Earlier, people used to send letters to each other, which was time consuming but now a large space is connected through social media. Even access to any recent news has also become easy. We don’t have to wait for newspapers to receive news, everything is available online. It also has a very profound impact in literature also, in early times, reading books or getting a copy of a book used to be costly. It more or less used to be for certain section of people. Now, most of the books are accessible online, also the reading audience has increased. People are also getting educated with passing time. It has kind of become a norm to know how to handle social media or the use of short forms like IDK, CFA, X, IYKYK etc, or else someone is not considered as a part of a so called “society”.

As we know everything comes with its consequences. In this fast-paced world, where social media is the backbone of communication, also has its drawbacks. For example, the cybercrime, or the online frauds that are in the front page of the newspapers. However, to conclude, the way of communication may have developed over time, we might have come to wireless services of everything, but these advantages are also making us robotic or a slave to machines.

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 and draws attention to social discourse, and advocates for change in the epic.

"The Pure Land of Suffering: My Minamata Disease" is the representative work of Japanese writer Michiko Ishimure. Once it was published, it received great acclaim and was continuously reprinted. It was praised by Natsuki Ikezawa as "the greatest masterpiece of Japanese literature after the war". The "Michiko-style" invented by the author breaks the boundary between documentary and fiction, endowing "The Pure Land of Suffering" with the significance of stylistic innovation and possessing strong artistic quality that cannot be ignored. Moreover, it attempts to reconstruct the female language beyond the male language. Taking the "Michiko-style" as the key word, this paper links the narrative methods of dialect and poetic language with the development process of Japanese society after the war. Conversely, it also interprets the influence of the modern "Michiko-style" from the perspective of literature and language. The refinement and sublimation of Michiko Ishimure's "Michiko-style" not only finds an outlet for resolving the modernity crisis characterized by environmental problems but also provides useful inspiration for us to study the value of literary styles.

With the development of society,women's self-consciousness has become stronger and stronger,and they believe that they can rely on themselves to improve their social status instead of realising their own value by relying on men.Female writers boldly display their desires and feelings in their works,thus opening up a new period of development for women's literature.Women's literature reveals the complexity and diversity of women's problems with a multi-dimensional perspective and deep social insight.This way of writing not only pays attention to the specific dilemmas of women in various fields such as family,workplace and society,but also explores in depth the social structure,cultural concepts and psychological factors behind these dilemmas.The women in the works struggle with multiple conflicts,such as spirit and flesh,love and affection,career and family,showing the spiritual confusion from "self" to "superego".These confusions not only stem from the specific problems of personal life,but also go deeper into the thinking of the essence and existence of "human".

This paper analyses and compares women's literary works from three countries, namely Under the Tree,Vegetarian and Brick Lane,which come from different cultural backgrounds and have different perspectives,but together reveal the challenges and dilemmas faced by women in contemporary society.From the perspectives of women's consciousness and destiny,we use comparative research methods to explore the various dilemmas faced by women in modern society,and analyse their writing styles and profound meanings,with the aim of revealing the unique perspectives and values of women's dilemmas in contemporary literary works.

Under the Tree is a work by Chinese writer Chi Zijian.Through depicting the growth story of the main character Qidou,it exposes the struggle and confusion of women in family,society and self-knowledge in the rural background where the traditional patriarchal system is deeply rooted.The work deeply describes the state of women's existence based on the perspective of vernacular ethics.

Focusing on Korean urban women,Han Gang,author of Vegetarian,uses her protagonist,Young-hye,to shed light on the multiple pressures women face in their families,marriages, and society.Young-hye refuses to eat meat because of a nightmare, an act that touches a sensitive nerve in social norms and causes her to suffer tremendous pressure from her family and society.Through Young-hye's tragic life,the work criticises the oppression of women by gender discrimination and social norms.

Monica Ali,author of Brick Lane,looks at the survival of Bengali immigrant women in post-colonial British society.The protagonist,Nazneen,struggles with the multiple dilemmas of race,class,and gender as she endeavours to construct her own cultural identity.Through Nazneen's story,the work explores the plight and the way out for ethnic minority women in a multicultural mixed society in the context of globalisation.

Although these three works have different geographical backgrounds and character settings,they all deeply reveal the dilemmas and challenges faced by women in modern society.These works are not only a profound writing of women's experiences,but also a powerful critique of social reality and a philosophical reflection on what "human beings" are.

Contemporary studies in sexuality have increasingly focused on social construction of identities and categories, emphasising the influence of gender, power and political-economic dimensions (Parker & Aggleton). While studies in Indian erotic literature do shed light on gender roles, literary motifs and artistic appreciation of erotic literature, they under examine the role of material culture, mainly cosmetics, in the process. Instead, cosmetics have been studied as a subject of everyday life, detached from the innate connection it shares with sexuality. In ancient Arab societies, for instance, the use of perfumes is intricately tied to the aspect of eroticism (Hirsch), also to be noticed in Rabbinic texts that deal with women’s use of cosmetics in ancient Judaism (Labovitz).

Such academic scholarship is yet to develop on India, possessing a rich erotic literary tradition where application of pastes with designs on bodies of both men and women served as acts of sexuality and tools of seduction. This paper addresses these gaps by examining the neglected relation between sexuality and material culture of cosmetics, specifically focusing on body pastes such as sandalwood, musk, henna, and camphor and their designs in the early Indian literary traditions of Sanskrit and Tamil.

By employing an interdisciplinary conceptual framework grounded in material culture studies and comparative analysis, this paper questions: What functions did cosmetics serve in erotic contexts in Early Indian Literature? What role did they play in construction of gender roles and sexuality? Through a vast corpus of early erotic and love poetry in Sanskrit and Tamil, this paper finds gendered and regional variations in application of the same pastes and designs between these literary traditions situated in acts of sexuality, where the very act of application became a tool of seduction. For instance, sandalwood paste on female bodies was eroticised in Sanskrit poetry while application of the same paste on male bodies by females became an act of seduction in Tamil poetry.

This paper contributes to the field of comparative literature by bridging the gap in scholarship between sexuality and material culture of cosmetics. It demonstrates that cosmetics’ usage showed considerable change across ancient India that was reflected directly in erotic literature, for it played an important role in sexuality. Secondly, the material culture of cosmetics corresponds directly with the culture of clothing that in turn, corresponds to the socio-religious norms of the changing society, signalling a complex relationship between material culture of clothing, sexuality, gender and social acceptability.

By situating cosmetics within the broader context of Indian erotic literature, these findings serve implications to fields of literature, gender and cultural studies, offering a deeper understanding of how material culture shapes and reflects cultural attitudes towards gender and sexuality.

Queer theory in literature is a critical approach that examines how literary texts represent, subvert, or reinforce dominant norms of sexuality, gender, and identity. It rejects the conventional binaries (male/female, homosexual/heterosexual etc.) to resist the rigid structures of society including societal identity and class system.

This study uses queer theory’s principles of Fluidity and Intersectionality to analyze the subsequent identities in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through close reading and textual analysis. The principle of Fluidity questions the notion of fixed identities, exploring the evolving nature of Huck’s and Jim’s identities throughout their journey. It also highlights multiple roles played by both characters influencing their relationship which blur the lines between kinship, love and desire. Other principle explores Intersectionality of Huck’s and Jim’s experiences, demonstrating how their identities are shaped by multiple factors including race, class, gender and sexuality. It challenges the traditional concept of identity, belonging and citizenship.

By analyzing a pure and sincere love and friendship between Huck and Jim, this queer reading of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn opens a new horizon for scholars to use Queer theory to analyze texts beyond sexual love or LGBT+ categories.

Ultimately, it argues that Huckleberry Finn remains a deeply queer and subversive text, one that compels readers to rethink their assumptions about identity, belonging, and the American experience.

Twain’s masterpiece still continues to resonate with contemporary debates around identity, politics, social justice, and human rights.

Psychological Realism finds its expression in Eileen Chang’s works of fiction in the 1940s (“The Golden Cangue”, “Love in a Fallen City” and “The Jasmine Tea”), adding a touch of unique Modernist aesthetics to the literary texts. By analyzing and summarizing the rhetorical techniques as well as the stylistic characteristics of these texts, we could see that Eileen Chang consciously adopted stream of consciousness, free indirect speech and internal monologues to enrich the connotations of her works of fiction, which perfectly combine classical Chinese aesthetics with Western Modernism. The “discovery of the Interiority,” a defining feature of modern Japanese literature according to Kojin Karatani, was achieved by mild or stark contrast in Eileen Chang’s fiction in the 1940s.

Keywords: Eileen Chang; Interiority; stylistic characteristics; Western Modernity; Psychological Realism

A cigarette advertisement in 1933 featured the film star Hu Die in two different forms—sketch and photographic portrait—on the same page, creating a self-reflexive perspective of women’s situation when they were situated in business and arts by connecting the two portraits with a glance. This research starts with Hu Die’s cigarette advertisement, and analyzes how the visual spectacle created by the “double shooting technique” in the film “Kong Gu Lan” （《空谷兰》）replaces the reflection on women’s independence with the narration of family ethics. In Ding Ling’s novel “Meng Ke”（《梦珂》）, the protagonist projects a “second self” image in the mirror with the stimulation of cigarettes, which enables herself to accomplish the transformation from a student to a film star, and legitimizes the gaze relationship and desire structure with self-empathy, thus participating in the reproduction of the gaze mechanism. Ai Xia also created a fictional “second self” when she adapted the novel “A Modern Woman” （《现代一女性》） to a film script by rewriting the end of the story, which demonstrates the inner division and real dilemma of the modern girl and expresses the intrinsic sorrow which could have been articulated with the stimulation of cigarettes. By tracking the dual visual intoxication which crosses different genres, flowing among cigarette advertisements, early films, novels, and screenplays, the research probes the complex relationships among cigarettes, female, and subjectivity.

“Shengjiang Shengjing Tu” was published in 1884, in which the “Chinese Theater”featuring Yang Yuelou as the main character on stage. Its modern element, along with the previous report on the “Yang Yuelou Case” in Shen Bao Newspaper reflects the creator's sense of modernity. Through the “Yang Yuelou Case” in Shen Bao Newspaper and the “Chinese Theater” in “Shenjiang Shengjing Tu”, we can see the interconnection of modern identity among the famous characters, the media and the city, which reveals the emerging city culture in the late Qing Dynasty. The modern identity constructed by the famous characters, the media and the city leads to the fact that the masterminds and creators behind the scene, while constructing the image of Yang Yuelou and the symbol of Shanghai's modernity, also constructed their own identities; and through the famous characters and the media, they constructed the modernity of the city of Shanghai. In this way, the famous character Yang Yuelou, the “Yang Yuelou Case”, and the “Shenjiang Shengjing Tu” essentially refer to Shanghai's urban modernity and the modern significance of the newspaper publication industry of Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty, and signify modern journalists’ understanding of Shanghainess based on the cultural dimension since the opening of the port of Shanghai.

As the inaugural tyrant of H.G. Wells' technocratic utopia, the figure of the Invisible Man, who possesses technological mastery but lacks moral compass, serves not only as an embodiment of technological threats but also as the presentation of the institutional and ethical vacuum that technological advancement inevitably brings. Since its initial cinematic adaptation in 1933, with Wells' personal involvement, the original work has become an enduring commercial film intellectual property. The Western world has subsequently produced nine representative films based on this story. The series entered China in the same year of its premiere, propelled by the intellectual community's admiration for Wells, and merged with the traditional Chinese imagination of the invisible man in Taoism, leading to the creation of a series of new works themed around the figure. The "invisible" as a modern imaginary of technological threats has initiated a diachronic contemplation across multiple contexts and national borders over a century of cinematic wandering, in the form of a thought experiment.

This essay examines the creation of Yingxi fiction and the role of elegant gatherings at the Great World Entertainment Center during early Republican China. Yingxi fiction, crafted by the traditional scholar Lu Dan’an, emerged after he viewed imported silent films. Lu Dan’an meticulously recorded the films' content and adapted them into fictional texts, aiming to introduce these stories to those who could not afford to watch the films. The process of creating Yingxi fiction not only unveils the hierarchical dynamics within these sophisticated gatherings but also illustrates how traditional Chinese novelists assimilated Western culture and cinema. By employing theoretical frameworks such as Cultural Field, Vernacular Modernism, Aura, and Mechanical Reproduction, this essay interprets the Chinese literati's struggle against the forces of modernism.

In the first half of the 20th century, the Sino-French Institute of Lyon (Institut franco-chinois de Lyon, IFCL, 1920–1946) fostered the growth and rise of a group of intellectuals from Republican China. Their experiences in Lyon and France not only provided a source of exotic inspiration for their literary creation, but also compelled this generation, born and raised up in radical social revolutions, to delve more deeply into questions of individual and national choices. Focusing on Su Xuelin苏雪林’s Thorny Heart棘心(1929) and Xu Zhongnian徐仲年’s My Beauty Faraway彼美人兮(1946), this study analyzes how sentimental writing in these two autobiographical novels serves as a medium to explore how Republican-era “overseas students literature” and its authors sought to challenge traditional sentimental norms through distinct paths, i.e., by embodying sacred religious love and by exploring sensual, transnational romance. Much like the divergent paths Su Xuelin and Xu Zhongnian took in the 1950s and beyond—in Taipei and Shanghai, respectively—their differing interpretations of the progressivist thought during the May Fourth Movement has been already foreshadowed in their novels. For instance, Su Xuelin’s Thorny Heart (1929) tells the story of Xingqiu’s encounter with Catholicism during her time at the Sino-French Institute. Xingqiu perceives religion and universal love as a striking contrast to the selfish character traits she associates with the Chinese people, viewing it as a potential remedy for the “mal du siècle” afflicting modern individuals. Su Xuelin’s depictions of natural landscapes and her highly reserved comments on urban life reveal her ambivalence toward the May Fourth rationalism and its underlying “modernity”, suggesting thus a certain rebellion against these ideals. In contrast, Xu Zhongnian’s My Beauty Faraway (1946) recounts his romance with a French woman, Louise, their marriage, and his eventual return with her to China. Xu Zhongnian dedicates extensive passages to the flourishing scenes of Shanghai during the treaty-port era, even illustrating the narrator’s contributions to the “localized cosmopolitanism”. In sum, on the basis of emotion, body and faith, these two novels illustrate the representative ways in which late Republican-era students studying abroad imagined the “France” and the “world”. Su Xuelin and Xu Zhongnian’s reflections on national fate also highlight this generation’s efforts to act as “mediators”, particularly in terms of how to “internalize” foreign influences and “recreate” a new subject of self.

This study examines how gender boundaries are constructed through the travel writings of women exploring China’s Northwest frontier，1903 -1936. Women's participation occupies a special position in the modern movement of China’s Northwest. Their writings and practices not only reflect new ways of thinking and planning about nationalism and femininity but are also filled with tension due to the delineation and crossing of national boundaries.

On the one hand, beginning with the first wave of female liberation in the late Qing, diverse voices have emerged, leading to ongoing reflections about the ideal image of new women. On the other hand, the different development processes between countries and regions reflect various clues of modernization—one of the most significant topics in the twentieth century. The Northwest frontier, characterized by the intertwining of different authorities, thus came into public view. Consequently, the call for women to venture into the Northwest frontier represents not only an experiment in women's liberation and national transformation but also serves as material to the interactions that cross national boundaries.

Focusing on three cases—the exploration of a female aviator (Lin Pengxia’s Northwest Journey 西北行), an emissary (Liu Manqing’s A Mission to Tibet 康藏軺征, and a spy (Ichinomiya Misako’s Mōko Miyage 蒙古土産)—this study shows the blended picture of travel writing. Although these women came from varied educational and personal backgrounds, their journeys were influenced by Confucian gender frameworks and nationalist discourse, which guided their entry into pivotal historical moments.

The Northwest, as an unevenly governed frontier, provided these female travelers with opportunities to challenge gender norms, transgress identity boundaries, and rewrite female destinies. However, they repeatedly drew back into prevailing gender structures, co-opted by national narratives.

What narrative patterns emerge that continually reintegrate these women into traditional gender frameworks? How do female travelers construct the heterogeneous “otherness” of the frontier? In what ways do their observations about frontier women reflect the intersection of historical and contemporary challenges faced by women? How were their images constructed—by themselves and the media—and subsequently absorbed into the discourse of nation-building?

Through addressing these questions, this study seeks to illuminate the complex interactions among gender, travel, and nationhood. By using the doubly “marginal” perspective of women in the Northwest, it further aims to reconsider the “centered” discussion of modernity.

During the transformative period from late Qing to Republican China, children—regarded as symbols of the nation’s future and core strength—began to attract significant public attention. As a result, discussions about children’s school education and daily lives persisted throughout the Republican era. The “discovery of the child” took on entirely new meanings in the 1920s and 1930s. While extensive research has examined textbooks across various disciplines, less attention has been paid to pedagogical resources, such as supplementary learning materials. This study addresses that gap by focusing on several extracurricular geography learning materials published during the Republican period: Grand Domestic Travel (1926) and The Travels of Zhen’er (1934) and Little Travel Notes (1939). It explores how first-person, child-centered narratives functioned within the framework of educational commercialization, specifically investigating how these narratives mobilized children’s emotions, fostered national consciousness, and disciplined bodily behaviors. This study argues that geography learning materials offered school-age readers diverse perspectives for understanding China by traversing various boundaries: urban and rural, national and local, Han and other ethnic groups, self and other, and child and adult. At the same time, these materials pioneered innovative methods for cultivating modern children.

Liang Qichao, who was the first modern scholar to use the term “science fiction”, to begin translating and writing science fiction, and to advocate a revolution in the world of fiction, wrote his science fiction novel The Future of New China in 1902. In The Future of New China, Liang envisioned China in 1962 as a country that had already established a constitutional monarchy through reforms and become a world power, from the perspective of the future perfect tense. Unlike Western utopian novels that mimic travelogues, Liang Qichao does not stretch and fictionalize space, but stretches time to the future, and the place where his story takes place is still the land of China, similar to the transplantation of the imagery of the Western world of the recent past to the China of the future, and the use of utopian imaginings as the political ideals of the future perfect tense, thus forming a transcendence of the Western utopian tradition. Between 1918 and 1920, Liang Qichao personally visited and toured Europe, the blueprint of his utopia, where he accomplished the transformation of his scientific outlook and cultural outlook on the East and the West, realizing a non-dualistic transcendence of secondary school and Western learning, improvement and revolution, and proposing a new conception of the construction of national identity in modern China. Therefore, this paper intends to start from Liang Qichao's science fiction novel the Future of New China during his travels to Japan to his travelogue My Travel Impressions in Europe during his travels to Europe, and explore the time-space transformation of his science fiction and travelogue to the Western utopian tradition, which is implied by the creative transplantation of his creative methods, contents and themes, and the intertextualization of the literary imagination and the social reality, i.e. the entanglement and paradox of scientism and humanism inside and outside of the text, and between the text and the reality. The intertextualization of literary imagination and social reality, that is, the entanglement and paradox of scientism and humanism inside and outside the text, between text and reality. Liang Qichao, from his firm support of Western learning and his advocacy of destruction and revolution to his rethinking of the value of secondary school, tended to a kind of fusion of East and West, and this kind of thinking, which abandons the dichotomy and strives for a certain kind of balance between the ideas of “the world's commonwealth” and “qiqiqi” can be regarded as the “shadow” of science fiction of the later generations. This idea of giving up the binary opposition and striving for a certain balance between the ideas of “commonwealth of the world” and “unity of things” can be regarded as a reflection of the “dark consciousness” and modern consciousness of science fiction in the later generations, as well as a small reflection of the post-human poetics in the birth of science fiction in 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.

With the advancement of media technology, people increasingly rely on images, videos, and even simulacra in the mass media to construct the "collective consciousness" of foreign countries. The result of this deep mediatization is that the imagination of a foreign country becomes a textual representation, blurring the boundaries between "reality" and "virtual," as well as between "author" and "collective." Consequently, the study of foreign country images transcends the scope of comparative literature research and become part of cultural studies. This broad-sense image research has brought a broader research domain for the study of foreign country images, enabling the study to radiate into various aspects of social life.

Macroscopically, the prevalence and over-spread of image research reflect the consequences of the "pictorial turn" in culture. It brings about a series of media landscapes, and even spectacles, generated by stimulating the senses, producing meaning, and guiding consumption under the "logic of visual existence". Microscopically, the construction of exotic images involves cross-regional, cross-national, and cross-cultural communication, which is worthy of further investigation. Therefore, the research on foreign country images needs to transform from the previous scattered research that emphasizes “description” into an integrated research that can interpret and construct the texts of foreign countries in mass media.Semiotics can provide an operational theoretical solution for understanding the production, formation, and evolution of foreign country images.

This study will select Northern Europe as a specific case for the construction of a foreign country image. Firstly, Northern Europe seems relatively unfamiliar and distant, to some extent, marginalizing our perception of it. Secondly, it is precisely the "sense of alienation" in culture, geography, or society that makes our imagination of Northern Europe purer. Brands, geographical landscapes and socio-cultural characteristics have formed a large number of vague and fragmented semiotic impressions, making us more reliant on imagination to build the image of Northern Europe. Finally, we have to pay attention to the rapidly changing world, such as the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, and Finland and Sweden joining NATO. This will have a subtle impact on China's future exchanges with Northern Europe in various fields. In-depth understanding of the Chinese society's image perception of Northern Europe can provide some background references for future peaceful exchanges between the two sides. Ultimately, as an imagination of the "other," the ultimate goal of the image of a foreign country has never been to become a corresponding "fact," but to become a mirror to reflect the "self." This study attempts to find a way to understand the self through the research on the construction of the image of a foreign country.

This paper explores the intersection of transcultural memory and the global recognition of Chinese literature through the lens of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Instead of describing the relationship between Chinese literary circles and the Prize as an irrational “Nobel complex,” this paper contends that the Nobel Prize provides a platform for the circulation of conflict-related memories across cultural boundaries, particularly those tied to the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Focusing on the works of Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese-language Nobel laureate, and Mo Yan, the first Nobel laureate from mainland China, this paper examines the novels Soul Mountain and One Man’s Bible by Gao, alongside the novels Frog and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan. These texts not only give voice to silenced histories but also confront questions of individual guilt and responsibility. By analyzing the narratives and the post-Nobel reception of Gao’s and Mo Yan’s works, this paper highlights the fluidity of conflict-related memories and their potential to unsettle entrenched ideological positions within and beyond mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Abstract: Professor Yue Daiyun and the comparative literature she established have always been closely intertwined with the process of China’s modernization, sharing its breath and destiny. The vicissitudes and trials of the times have shaped the foundational qualities of her character—profound love for her country and an unwavering sense of amor fati. Comparative literature, at its inception, was first and foremost a philosophy of critique and action, deeply rooted in Professor Yue’s concern and inquiry into the question, “What is the future of China?” To this end, Professor Yue focused her attention on the reception and development of modernism, realism, and conservatism in modern China. In practice, she pioneered three paradigms of comparative literature in China: influence studies, parallel studies, and a via media of humanities studies that bridges the two. These three paths encapsulate a microscopic view of the “three waves of modernity” in China. They represent not only Professor Yue’s practice of comparative literature but also her vision for the present and future of modern China. Comparative literature, for her, was both a lifelong pursuit of the humanistic way and a “Ship of Theseus” transmitted to contemporary times—a spirit of thought and action characterized by self-reflection, understanding others, and pluralistic dialogue, bridging the past and future through the unity of theoria and praxis.

Between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the Chinese literary field underwent a period of significant expansion in terms of translations of foreign literary works. This expansion was characterised by a diverse range of translated authors and genres, as well as various modes of translation (direct, indirect, and collaborative) and publication channels (novels, collections, and magazine articles). Italian literary works, although constituting a minority of the overall picture of translations circulating in China at the time, found their own space of circulation through intermediate translations from languages such as English and Japanese.

A notable figure in this regard was the writer Zhou Shoujuan (1895-1968), who translated Italian literary texts from English. Zhou was one of the most prolific and versatile writers of the first half of the twentieth century and a leading figure in the publishing world of the popular and entertaining literature of the so-called "Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies" strand. (Link 1981)

The focus of this talk will be two of Zhou's early translations of Italian authors, namely the 1917/18 translation of the humorous short story "Una separazione di letto e di mensa" by Salvatore Farina (1846- 1918) and the 1921 translation of the short story "Un intervento", an early work by the writer and journalist Matilde Serao (1856-1927), originally published as if an original work from Zhou. The two texts explore the dynamics of marriage in the face of the threat of separation, a subject that aroused great interest in a social context that was trying to rewrite the structure of emotional relationships and had significant echoes in Zhou’s love fiction (Lee 2007; Liu 2017; Liu 2024).

This paper will firstly reconstruct the international circulation of the two Italian stories across England, Germany, France, America, until their transmission to China, to identify the translations that served as the most likely intermediate sources for the Chinese versions. Secondly, it will examine the translation choices and strategies adopted by Zhou in his versions, focusing on the linguistic/stylistic strategies and the emotional dimensions of the texts.

Cited references

Lee Haiyan (2007). Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Link E. Perry (1981). Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Fiction in Early Twentieth-century Chinese Cities. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Liu Qian Jane (2017). Transcultural Lyricism. Translation, Intertextuality, and the Rise of Emotion in Modern Chinese Love Fiction. Leiden-Boston: Brill.

Liu Qian Jane (2024). “Bovaristic Renderings. Zhou Shoujuan’s Pseudotranslation and the Creation of an Alternative Romantic Space”. In Bruno C.; Klein L.; Song C. (eds). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Modern Chinese Literature in Translation. London: Bloomsbury, 91-102.

“Verlaine’s influence on the Chinese Symbolist movement was most extensive and profound. [...] Perhaps it is indeed as Bian Zhilin said in the preface to Dai Wangshu’s Anthology of Poems [1981]: ‘The intimacy and suggestiveness of this foreigner’s poetry fit nicely into the main traditions of ancient Chinese poetry.’” While there are voices (Qian Linsen, French Writers and China, 2005) that would disagree with these remarks by critic Wang Jianzhao (Modernist Poetry in 20th-century China, 2006), the fact remains that several poems by Paul Verlaine have been constantly translated, discussed, and analyzed in Chinese contexts throughout the last hundred years. My contribution explores the fate of one such piece by the French Symbolist poet in Chinese translation.

More specifically, I concentrate on Verlaine’s well-known “Il pleure dans mon coeur.” After a brief overview and classification of the numerous renditions I have tracked down, I focus on exemplars illustrating different translatorial drives (vernacularization, professionalization, and poeticization, among others) governing the production of these versions since the early decades of the twentieth century until today. Next, I identify some of the reasons behind such translatorial excess and variety within Verlaine’s poetics of variegated ambiguity. Lastly, with a nod to Dai Wangshu and others, I highlight the constitutive embeddedness of translation in the very makeup of Chinese literary modernism.