This paper examines L’abécédaire de la littérature: K comme Kafka as a case study to explore how the broader literary project of the L’abécédaire de la littérature字母會 series engenders a singular moment wherein “Taiwan Literature as Kafkaesque.” Through the interventions of eight contemporary Taiwanese authors – Yang Kailin楊凱麟, Yen Chung-Hsien顏忠賢, Hu Shu-wen胡淑雯, Chen Xue陳雪, Tong Wei-ger童偉格, Luo Yi-chin駱以軍, Huang Chong-Kai黃崇凱, and Pan Yi-Fan潘怡帆 – the L’abécédaire de la littérature does not merely pay homage to the literary experience marked by the name Kafka, but necessarily betrays it. Such a betrayal, this paper argues, opens up a distinctive writing/juridical space specific to the contemporary spatio-temporal coordinates of Taiwan. This space may further render thinkable a radical reconfiguration of the “afterlife” of Taiwan literature. This paper seeks to offer a philosophical intercession by first posing the speculative premise “What if Kafka had been to Taiwan?”. Thus, outlining the possible and impossible conditions of encounter between Kafka and Taiwan literature. Finally, it proceeds to analyze the intensities of six selected works within the volume and concludes by articulating how these plural literary practices refigure the actualité – the contemporaneity and realizability – of Taiwan literature.

The contemporary Irish playwright Conor McPherson believes that Irish people are naturally attracted by "the beyond". McPherson’s use of the supernatural, particularly his concept of “the beyond” as a means of engaging with the quest for Irish identity in the twenty-first century. In plays such as The Weir, The Seafarer, The Night Alive, and Girl from the North Country, McPherson explores the liminal space between the living and the dead, the known and the unknown, through ghosts, mysteries, and unexplained phenomena. “The beyond” represents a realm that transcends experience, inviting his characters to confront forces beyond their understanding, often linked to historical trauma, personal reckoning, and societal transformation. This paper argues that the supernatural in McPherson’s works is not only a narrative device but a profound reflection on contemporary Irish identity. McPherson’s plays offer a unique perspective on how contemporary Irish identity grapples with its past while searching for meaning in an increasingly uncertain world.

With the arrival of internet forums, fan groups of different literary and narrative universes reimagined their favorite characters in various situations without breaking them out of the world they were built in and originating what is now known as fanfiction. Soon, these plots became not only variations of the main story, but also re-tellings of classic literature, like Pride and Prejudice or The Beauty and the Beast. This allowed readers to expand the fantasy world of their choice and enabled an informal writing academy that offered already well-built fantasy worlds and well-known and loved characters to play with as well as immediate feedback from their readers.

These platforms soon evolved into offering both fanfictions and original works and now, twenty years later, they have become the editorial world and the reading habit fosterers’ savior. Still a writing academy, the audiences find books that meet their tastes through topic tags like “romance”, “agegap”, and “family”. Writers can know how many people read their chapters and how high their works are in the ranking of each category within the community. As happened with social media, if said works are popular enough, the writers might even be rewarded monetarily through the platform.

The success of this formula resides in how fast writers can write and adapt to the readers’ demands and trends and, while linguistic and literary skill is appreciated, an addictive plot with the right ingredients are the only requirements. This contribution will explore these requirements and if a human hand is even needed to produce what these platform readers look for with the aid of an AI content generator.

Just like we once swapped homecooked meals for fast-food chains, are our young readers imposing a taste for fast-books?

What can literature tell us about bureaucracy that philosophy or political science cannot? This presentation introduces the concept of bureaucratic fiction—a narrative mode that explores the aesthetics, ethics, and affective dimensions of administrative life. From Kafka to contemporary television series like Severance, fictional works have long portrayed bureaucracies not merely as backdrops but as dynamic, often grotesque systems of power and meaning-making.

Bridging literary analysis with political theory, I trace the historical evolution and global diffusion of bureaucratic fiction across genres and media. These narratives uncover how institutions are constituted and contested through language, paperwork, and ritualized procedure. Drawing on thinkers like Castoriadis, Foucault, and Weber, I argue that such fictions dramatize the shared suspension of disbelief at the heart of both literature and political authority. Whether comic or dystopian, analog or digital, bureaucratic fiction offers vital insights into how administrative systems shape—and are shaped by—human experience.

As high-tech modernism replaces paper trails with algorithmic decision-making, bureaucratic fiction remains a crucial site for political reflection, where the absurd and the everyday converge. By turning our attention to clerks, forms, and filing systems, these works help us grapple with the paradoxes of governance, legibility, and control in the 21st century.

In his science fiction works exploring biological experimentation, Soviet pioneer Alexander Belyaev reveals the profound dilemmas of posthuman subjectivity in the technological age. When gills replace human respiratory systems, cephalic grafting prolongs life, and mental interference creates new souls, techno-embodiment not only fails to fulfill its promise of "perpetual presence," but triggers dual crises in posthuman identity: internally, the ontological anxiety akin to the "Ship of Theseus" paradox; externally, the existential deprivation stemming from social exclusion. The essence of this predicament lies in the self-negating paradox inherent to subjective thinking itself: the extreme pursuit of life enhancement through "self-made humans" (Zhao Tingyang) evolves into an "anti-existential ontology" due to resource exclusivity. The resulting posthuman identity crisis subsequently deconstructs the myth of Enlightenment subjectivity from multiple dimensions. Confronting contemporary technological practices, posthumanism engages in profound dialogue with Belyaev's sci-fi narratives, dissolving essentialist views of identity through nomadic subjectivity and reconstructing existential dimensions via symbiotic ethics, thereby offering possibilities for reimagining posthuman subjective thinking.

Vasectomy, a form of male contraception, shows distinct usage patterns in the U.S. and China. In the U.S., over 500,000 procedures occur annually, with a notable increase following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. In China, once widespread under the One-Child Policy, vasectomy rates sharply declined to fewer than 4,000 annually by 2019 after the policy ended.

This study investigated how mainstream online news media in the United States and China frame vasectomy, particularly examining whether it is primarily portrayed as a medical, gender-related, or political issue. Across a comparative content analysis of English-language media from 2000 to 2025, key findings indicate that vasectomy is not merely a medical procedure, but a contested cultural symbol shaped by divergent national media environments.

This study addresses three core research questions: (1) What issues (medical procedure, contraceptive decision-making, or political and policy contexts) are emphasized by the media in each country when covering vasectomies? (2) How do media outlets connect vasectomy reporting with significant political or legislative events, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. or national population policy shifts in China? (3) What gendered narratives and emotional tones emerge in these media reports, and how might they reflect broader cultural differences concerning reproductive equality?

The research employs a quantitative-dominant mixed-method content analysis —including sentiment analysis, keyword search, topic modeling and network analysis—to systematically examine English-language coverage from major news outlets such as The New York Times(nytimes.com), CNN(cnn.com), Fox News(foxnews.com), NBC(NBCNEWS.com), China Daily, People’s Daily, Global Times and South China morning post.

By offering cross-cultural insights, this study contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions regarding reproductive responsibility, media influence on public discourse, and gendered power dynamics. The findings offer practical implications for media practitioners and policymakers aiming to improve media literacy around reproductive issues and inform public communication strategies to promote gender equity in reproductive health contexts.

This paper explores how artificial intelligence technologies, particularly large language models, systematically misinterpret Bengali literary texts due to their training on predominantly Western linguistic and aesthetic corpora. Situating the discussion within the field of comparative literature, the paper argues that this misrecognition is not a neutral technical flaw but symptomatic of a broader technological hegemony that echoes colonial structures of knowledge production. Through close reading comparisons between AI-generated interpretations and traditional literary readings, this paper analyzes three comparative case studies: Charyapada and Geoffrey Chaucer (ancient period), Chandidas and William Shakespeare (medieval period), and Rabindranath Tagore and T. S. Eliot (modern period). The analysis demonstrates that AI often flattens the cultural nuance and poetic ambiguity in Bengali texts while rendering English texts with greater fidelity and aesthetic coherence. The paper draws upon decolonial theory, digital humanities, and world literature frameworks to argue for epistemic justice in AI design and literary interpretation.

Cette proposition explore le statut de la littérature viatique comme dispositif technologique prémoderne de simulation de la conscience et de production de l’altérité. À travers une approche comparatiste allant du IXᵉ au XIXᵉ siècle, nous interrogeons la manière dont les textes de voyage de la littérature mondiale relatant le Japon ont constitué une forme primitive de réalité virtuelle, anticipant les technologies immersives contemporaines par le seul biais du langage.

Les textes des voyageurs chinois, arabes, perses et européens au fil de l’histoire serviront d’étude centrale. En croisant imagologie et linguistique de l’énonciation, nous montrerons que le texte viatique agit comme une interface sensorielle et cognitive : non seulement il capte des impressions, mais il simule une présence, fabrique une spatialité mentale et affecte le lecteur en tant que sujet percevant. Le récit de voyage, dans toutes ses formes (fiction, relation, mémoire, etc.), à la frontière du privé et du public, restructure le moi au contact de l’Autre et produit un discours à illusion dialogique, dans lequel la conscience s’élargit au sein d’une interaction textuelle feinte, certes, mais puissante.

Nous poserons l’hypothèse que la langue — avant l’image, avant l’écran — est la première technologie de la conscience simulée : une technologie de ce que nous appelons l’imago-genèse. Elle encode l’expérience, module la temporalité et fabrique des objets perceptifs (le « Japon » en est un paradigme), qui restent encore, dans l’imaginaire technologique contemporain, marqués par ces premières médiations textuelles.

Par cette approche, nous relisons l’histoire de la littérature comme histoire des technologies cognitives et nous proposons une lecture du texte littéraire comme machine à voir, à sentir, à penser, en amont des médias numériques. Il s’agit ici d’une archéologie poétique du virtuel, où le voyage devient expérience augmentée et le texte, un espace de navigation mentale.

In this essay, I interpret Eileen Chang’s autobiographical novel The Book of Change through the lenses of narrativity and Yijing cosmology. I aim to explore the deeper meaning behind the book’s title, which Chang borrows from the Chinese esoteric classic Yijing, and to consider how literature can serve as an accessible and powerful medium for expressing profound metaphysical ideas. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s Time and Narrative, I argue that we make sense of human time by shaping it into plots. In this sense, embodiment becomes emplotment: Chang’s memories are not simply recalled but structured into a coherent and meaningful story. Thus, The Book of Change signifies a narrative of the radical changes in Chang’s life. The notion of “changes” resonates with the Yijing’s vision of yin-yang duality and perpetual transformation. Faced with familial trauma and wartime upheaval, Chang writes as a drifting individual navigating uncertainty. Her narrative becomes not only a literary memoir but also a philosophical engagement with the ideas of transition and impermanence. By bringing Chinese cosmology, narrative theory, and the practice of literary emplotment, I argue that The Book of Change presents a compelling model of personal meaning-making, a way of understanding life through literary narrative.

Following a literature review on Eileen Chang scholarship, this paper will clarify the rationale for interpreting The Book of Change through the lens of Yijing philosophy, and how Paul Ricoeur’s narrative theory helps bridge philosophical and literary horizons. The study will then explore: (1) the philosophy of yin-yang and constant changes in Yijing; and (2) a close reading of The Book of Change and its embodiment of Yijing thought. By examining this interdisciplinary and transhistorical intertextuality, I wish to reframe the boundaries between literary and philosophical genres. This paper contributes to the broader discussion of human existence and the search for meaning by placing it within an expanded interpretive framework, where literature functions as a vehicle for philosophical insight, and philosophy offers the worldview that underpins literary creation.

As Homi Bhabha wrote in the late 1990s, the nation is a problem of narration. Considering the narration of national identities partly tied to their flags, this essay aims to analyze the character of permanent updating of the Brazilian national flag, in order to understand to what extent the appropriation of its forms contributes to the release of signs and operators that, supposedly, are able to narrate the imagined communities beyond their official iconography.

Beatriz Sarlo (1942-2024) and Leyla Perrone-Moisés (1934), in Argentina and Brazil, occupied the most prominent roles in the literary criticism of their countries for more than 50 years. Both intellectuals had similar trajectories, initially standing out in cultural journalism before later taking up positions as professors at the University of Buenos Aires and the University of São Paulo.

They also shared the same intellectual mentor: Roland Barthes. Not only did both write books dedicated to Barthes (Writings on Roland Barthes by Beatriz Sarlo and With Roland Barthes by Leyla Perrone-Moisés), but they also helped edit his works and contributed to his critical reception in both countries.

Through this relationship with their mentor, I aim to show how their trajectories intersect and diverge, highlighting the particularities of the "Argentine Barthes" and the "Brazilian Barthes," as well as the literary criticism produced in both countries.

In the introduction to the volume Crossings and Contaminations: Studies in Comparative Litterature (2009), Eduardo Coutinho talks about the significant changes and shifts in the perspective that had guided traditional comparativism until then. According to the critic, the aura that surrounded the literary object was questioned and other types of literary and aesthetic expressions that had previously been excluded from comparative studies began to be taken into account. The result is a re-evaluation of the prevailing binary scheme in order to consider the inclusion of "alternative forms of expression and recognise their differences".

The discussion of literature and other forms of aesthetic expression is one of those fields where "crossings and contaminations" can be observed from the angle of comparativism. The institutional manifestation of this discussion on the interrelationships between the arts, initially dealt with in the so-called Interart Studies, has led to the formation of transdisciplinary discourses whose developments can be identified in reflections on intermediality, its definition and foundations, its theoretical scope and its practices, which are as varied as the creative power of artists is infinite. These approaches open up perspectives for investigating heterogeneous products marked by the confluence of media, materials, languages and signs, by the interaction between them and, above all, investigate how they produce meaning.

These objects are often beyond what is conventionally called Literature, or rather, they emphasise the proteiform nature of Literature itself. It's no surprise, then, that contemporary criticism, especially from the Global South, has increasingly turned its attention to these aesthetic and literary practices, henceforth referred to as "writings of the present" or "post-autonomous", in the terms of Josefina Ludmer (2007); productions that belong to the "expanded field" of Literature, an expression that takes up the one used by Rosalind Krauss to deal with sculpture (1979); or that are characterised by non-specificity and non-belonging, in the terms of Florencia Garramuño (2014). Therefore, the aim of this communication is to assess the contribution of theories from the so-called Global South, such as those mentioned above, to the critical discussion of literature in its relationship with the arts and the media.

Le travail a pour but d’analyser, dans une perspective comparatiste, quatre œuvres littéraires dont le leitmotiv est les manifestations multitudinaires qui ont récemment émergé comme une forme de résistance aux processus d’exclusion sociale en cours dans le monde globalisé.

Nous considérons que toutes les insurrections abordées dans les récits sélectionnés – le Printemps arabe (Tunisie), les Journées de juin 2013 (Brésil), le Mouvement des Gilets Jaunes (France) et l’Estallido Social (Chili) – s’inscrivent dans les luttes anti-hégémoniques menées par le Sud global, une catégorie comprise ici non pas comme une opposition au Nord global, puisque, comme le souligne le sociologue Boaventura de Souza Santos, elle relève davantage d’un territoire épistémique que d’un territoire géographique.

Le corpus est composé des titres suivants : Par le feu, de Tahar Ben Jelloun ; Meia-noite e vinte, de Daniel Galera ; Leurs Enfants après eux, de Nicolas Mathieu ; et Despachos del fin del mundo, d'Alberto Fuguet.

Cette proposition vise à mettre en évidence le potentiel de la littérature pour favoriser, grâce à sa dimension affectivo-cognitive, un élargissement de nos connaissances sur les problèmes contemporains, contribuant ainsi à ouvrir des voies pour les affronter.

The work of Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie is marked by the permeability of the boundary between humanity and animality, a technique clearly adapted from the Hindu pantheon, which consists of gods who share physical characteristics between humans and animals. The pages of the controversial The Satanic Verses, a novel published in 1988 that led to the author's condemnation by the Iranian administration of Ayatollah Khomeini, are populated by characters derived from this ancient narrative practice. In this novel, two ordinary men are suddenly transformed—one into an angel, the other into a demonic goat who finds himself in a hospital where all the patients have undergone some transformation positioning them at the crossroads between the animal and the human. Meanwhile, the most recent novel by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid, The Last White Man, published in 2022, revolves around a different kind of transformation: the sudden change in the skin color of white citizens in the United States, leaving only one remaining individual with their original white skin. In both novels, we witness the nightmare of European colonial discourse materializing into a reality that even escapes the discursive-psychic negotiation of colonial stereotypes, which Homi Bhabha associates with the Freudian fetishistic scene. By presenting how Western metropolises find themselves invaded by animalized and racialized bodies, we seek to briefly reflect on the unsettling presence of the Global South in the streets of the All-Powerful North and how the transposition of this presence into contemporary global literature contributes to the consolidation of a World Republic of Global-South Letters. Furthermore, we will explore how this "Literature Without Borders" can be understood from a comparativist perspective.

The ghazal is a genre of poetry with roots in the classical Arabic tradition. As the contributors to Thomas Bauer and Angelika Neuwirth’s two-volume anthology Ghazal as World Literature (2005-06) testify, what originated as a mode has become a popular form with adaptations throughout centuries and different languages. Well-known authors of anglophone ghazals include Adrienne Rich and Agha Shahid Ali, and pioneers experimenting with the form in German include Johan Wolfgang von Goethe and August Graf von Platen. While the former are twentieth-century poets, the latter were active nearly two centuries earlier. Yet, the ghazal has become far more wide-spread in English, as recent examples by Zeina Hashem Beck show, while adaptations of the form to the German language remain rare exceptions. This presentation analyses selected ghazals by Hashem Beck to argue that the form not only adjusts well to the English language, it also leads to applications, which are extremely diverse in content. Jan Wagner’s “ephesusghasele,” in contrast, demonstrates how tributes to an ancient legacy function in a time of electronic distribution. Both poets take advantage of new technologies to accompany the written with spoken texts. They thus also hearken back to the roots of the ghazal in oral traditions.

“Cheongsanbyeolgok” was a widely popular folk song in the late Goryeo-Korean period. Its composer was anonymous and orally passed down until the Hangeul was invented in Joseon-Korea. Its musical notation was recorded in Shiyonghyangakbo (Compilation of Current Popular Korean Songs) during King Seongjong’s reign in the early Joseon period. Interestingly, it was also played in the court and influenced the creation of several court music scores. Considering that Joseon-Korea made such a strict Confucian cultural policy as to burn literary works on love and that Joseon-Korean Confucian scholars criticized Goryro-Korean folk songs as “Namnyeosangyeojisa” (songs of explicit content) in a derogatory manner, it is surprising that “Cheongsanbyeolgok” enjoyed such a privilege: its Buddhist theme of ‘Muae’ (non-attachment) and its exotic refrain, “Yalli Yalli Yallasheong Yallari Yalla” might have attracted even Joseon-Korean Confucian scholars. Even though the performance aspect of the song remains dead, its rhythmical refrain has continued attracting Korean folks.

Nevertheless, it is unbelievable that little research has been conducted on “Cheongsanbyeolgok.” Recently, Hokyung Seong interpreted the lexical meaning of its refrain as “give us a lot of harvest,” proposing that the five words originated from the Mongolian language. However, this interpretation does not align well with the overall meaning of the song. In this context, I interpret “Cheongsanbyeolgok” as a cultural product of the globalized history of the Pax Mongolica. Goryeo-Korea, though incorporated into its Ulus political system, participated in the unified global economy of the Mongol Empire and maintained the long Korean culture of hospitality of welcoming various ethnic groups, including Arabs, Persians, Indians as well as Han-Chinese, Mongols, and Japanese, starting from the 8th century. I believe folk songs like “Dong Dong,” “Seokyeongbyeolgok,” “Ssanghwajeom,” and “Cheongsanbyeolgok” showcase the cultural exchanges from “the West” in the ancient sense when Koreans had no knowledge of the Western European world. Thus, in this presentation, I will approach “Cheongsanbyeolgok” as a Korean Ghazal, influenced by the Persian Ghazal, while examining the historical context of Goryeo-Korean society’s cosmopolitan culture during Pax Mongolica.

Diverse Musical Influences: Ghazal Performance in Pakistan:

Pakistani ghazal performances embody rich cultural heritage, intricate instrumentation, and

emotional expression. This traditional genre navigates secular love, mystical devotion, and

spiritual yearning within intimate settings.

Traditional instruments, including sitar, tabla, harmonium, tanpura, flute and rabab, create a

unique soundscape. The sitar's intricate plucking patterns and tabla's rhythmic accompaniment

establish a melodic foundation. Harmonium and tanpura add depth.

Ghazal performances unfold within ornate halls, luxurious homes or outdoor venues, fostering

artist-audience connections. Solo singers deliver emotive, poetic verses, accompanied by

cross-legged musicians engaging in spontaneous exchanges. Audience engagement manifests

through enthusiastic applause and poetic recitations.

Secular themes explore longing, passion and heartbreak, while mystical themes delve into

spiritual devotion and Sufi poetry. Candlelight and incense create meditative ambiance.

This cultural phenomenon weaves music, poetry and atmosphere. Ghazal performances

transcend entertainment, embodying Pakistan's rich heritage and

emotional depth.

Research Significance:

This study illuminates ghazal's cultural significance, exploring instrumentation, performance

settings and emotional expression. By examining secular and mystical themes, this research

contributes to understanding Pakistan's rich musical heritage.

Key Findings:

1. Traditional instrumentation shapes ghazal's soundscape.

2. Intimate settings foster connections.

3. Secular and mystical themes navigate complex emotions.

Conclusion:

Pakistani ghazal performances embody cultural richness, instrumental intricacy and emotional

depth. This traditional genre captivates audiences, solidifying its significance within Pakistan's

cultural landscape. Future research will explore ghazal's evolution, global impact, cultural

preservation and educational applications. Furthermore, investigating ghazal's therapeutic

benefits, cultural significance and historical context provides valuable insights. Ghazal's

enduring popularity testifies to its power.

The migration of the Ghazal form across linguistic and cultural boundaries mirrors a profound interplay of textual and nonverbal dynamics. This paper examines the translation of nonverbal communication within diasporic Ghazals, employing the framework of the cultural turn in translation studies. By focusing on how Ghazals retain or reshape their kinetic-visual imagery, the study explores the translation challenges posed by deeply embedded cultural kinesics and oculesics—facial expressions, gestures, and gaze. Drawing on Imru’ al-Qays’s Mu’allaqa as a case study, the research analyzes 18 English and French translations of a verse renowned for its nonverbal eloquence, assessing how translators negotiate cultural semiotics and maintain the delicate balance between preserving the source text's nonverbal essence and adapting to the target culture.

This investigation situates the Ghazal within a broader discussion of diaspora as a site of cultural translation and transformation. By recontextualizing the nonverbal elements, the paper interrogates how diasporic texts mediate between cultures, offering new perspectives on the symbolic associations and narrative gestures intrinsic to the Ghazal tradition. It argues that translators, as cultural mediators, play a pivotal role in re-inscribing the poetic form with relevance for diverse audiences, ensuring that the cultural duality and emotional resonance of the Ghazal remain intact in its global iterations. This approach underscores the dynamic interplay of power, ideology, and cultural identity in the translation and reception of diasporic Ghazals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

includes considerations and the advantages of publishing online only and their

financial perspectives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The paper will provide an overview on the study of the phenomenon of Digital Social Reading (DSR, cf. Pianzola 2025) from the perspective of comparative literary studies. DSR, involving the reviewing and commenting activity of millions of users on platforms like Goodreads and Wattpad, has been described as “reading carried out on virtual environments where the book and the reading favour the formation of a ‘community’ and a means of exchange” (Cordón-García et al., 2013).

In a recent categorization by Rebora et al. (2021), ten different types of studies dealing with DSR were discussed, involving disciplines such as sociology, marketing, new media studies, and literacy studies, together with literary studies. In general, DSR research invites an unprecedented integration between literary studies and digital/computational methods. The talk will provide an overview of three projects I am currently contributing to that show particular relevance to comparative literary studies.

First, the study of the phenomenon of story world absorption across different literary genres in the reviews published on the Goodreads platform (cf. Rebora et al. 2018; Kuijpers et al. 2024). Second, the construction of a multilingual corpus of book reviews to study the reception of the same narratives across cultures and languages (cf. Herrmann et al. 2024). Third, the comparison of literary evaluation practices between professional and non-professional book reviewers (cf. Salgaro and Rebora 2019; Rebora and Vezzani 2024).

All projects will be presented by highlighting the theoretical and methodological issues they raise for comparative literary studies.

This paper examines how Bram Stoker’s Dracula constructs textual authority through documentation and how contemporary readers engage in a similar process through Dracula Daily (DD), a viral digital serialization. Dracula is a novel deeply concerned with documentation, textual authority, and the collaborative construction of knowledge Through its epistolary form, Dracula foregrounds the selective nature of documentation and raises questions about knowledge production. Notably, Dracula is never given an independent voice—his presence is mediated through others, and his words are transcribed or paraphrased. This erasure highlights the novel’s broader epistemological concerns: how does textual mediation shape knowledge? Who constructs history, and whose narratives are omitted? As I argue, Dracula is not merely an epistolary novel but a metatextual exploration of textual authority, where meaning is co-constructed by both characters and readers.

Building on this, my paper further explores how contemporary readers engage in a similar act of collaborative textual construction through DD, which reconfigures Dracula into a chronological, episodic reading experience. By delivering passages from Dracula as emails corresponding to their in-text dates, DD’s fragmented format compels readers to engage with the text in real time, mirroring the novel’s documentary structure. This fosters Digital Social Reading (DSR) by creating an interactive space where readers analyze, reinterpret, and expand upon the text. Through social media sites like Tumblr and Twitter, readers collectively reframe Dracula, generating discourse through memes, artwork, and analyses that challenge conventional interpretations. Such engagement reconstructs Dracula as an evolving cultural artifact subject to ongoing reinterpretation and communal knowledge-building.

Traditional literary criticism has positioned reading as a solitary, hierarchical act, where textual authority is centralized within the author’s intent or academic discourse. However, the popularity of DD has fostered a networked reading environment where readers actively shape the text’s reception and meaning. In this way, the project mirrors Dracula itself—just as Stoker’s characters compile disparate documents into a unified narrative, modern readers collaboratively construct meaning from fragmented textual updates.

This paper situates DD within DSR, arguing that such practices challenge the authority of printed texts while expanding how literature is consumed and reimagined. By examining how Dracula’s fragmented structure lends itself to digital serialization, I demonstrate how contemporary reading practices echo the novel’s preoccupation with documentation and knowledge production. Ultimately, I argue that Dracula is an inherently incomplete text—one that becomes fully realized only through the participatory engagement of its readers, both in the nineteenth century and in the digital age.

Genette’s concept of paratexts originally emphasized elements mediating between a primary text and its reception. With the advent of digital technology, online literature—particularly fanfiction—has evolved this concept, transforming passive consumption into active audience participation. Fanfiction, unlike Genette’s framework where paratexts align with authorial intent, allows audiences to reinterpret and expand narratives, creating dynamic interactions between original texts and their derivatives that enrich the story world.

This research explores the potential of fanfiction as a unique paratextual phenomenon, analyzing how real audience involvement transforms narratives from "closed texts" to "open works". Fanfiction, as a derivative of various classic stories, operates differently from the original text, as readers create new works based on familiar characters, events, and themes. In this process, real audiences are integrated into the narrative, diverging from traditional "text-centered" or "author-centered" approaches. My corpus is based on prominent examples of fanfiction on the Chinese Internet for classic Chinese and foreign IPs, including works such as Harry Potter, the superheroes of Marvel, and the works of writer Qiong Yao. Examining how these reinterpretations reveal broader shifts in social and historical consciousness. Key questions addressed include: How does fanfiction fill narrative gaps left for strategic purposes? How does it redefine the roles of readers, critics, and authors in shaping collective identities?

To align with Digital Social Reading (DSR) panel, this study examines how readers on DSR platforms participate in narrative processes through fanfiction, creating new textual dimensions. The creation, reading, and commenting on fanfiction have transformed traditional individual reading behaviors into a social experience, offering unique perspectives for reevaluating texts. This study particularly addresses how "fanfiction as paratext" uncovers the digital "afterlives" of literary works and challenges the arbiter status of traditional literary criticism. Additionally, it analyzes how these social platforms foster new approaches to studying reading habits in a big data context, showcasing the emotional and cognitive dimensions of narrative interaction in digital settings.

This research aims to enrich the field of comparative literary studies, particularly in the area of digital social reading, demonstrating how audience-driven creations enhance literary engagement and foster dynamic dialogues between critique and creation.

To uncover how ordinary readers engage with Asian American literature, this research conducts ChatGPT-assisted sentiment analysis on online reviews of Celeste Ng’s novels, which represents two narrative motifs in Asian American literature— one focused on Asian American experiences and the other situated in a multicultural context. Through keyword analysis, the study identifies prevalent themes in reader reviews, including overall evaluation, opinions on literary elements such as characterization, plot, theme, setting, and authorial style, as well as comparative discourse on Ng’s work. Sentiment calculation on these themes provides a fine-grained reception analysis, revealing the affective and critical undercurrents within the reviews. A comparative analysis of the two narrative motifs demonstrates their distinct affective impacts on readers. The narrative centered on Asian American experiences tends to evoke a pronounced empathic response, particularly among readers who share similar backgrounds or experiences with the fictional figures. When the narrative transcends to a multicultural context, readers underscore the importance of skillful plotting in arousing and satisfying their curiosity. However, both modes of Asian American writings elicit dissatisfaction with abrupt endings, reflecting readers’ expectations for resolutions to real-life conflicts and clarity in characters’ epiphanies. These findings suggest that to captivate readers, authors must create relatable characters, craft compelling plots with unexpected developments, provide sensible resolutions to conflicts, and clarify moments of character revelation. Methodologically, this study showcases the potential of ChatGPT for literary criticism, especially enabling the identification of affective trends based on large-scale reader responses. While this study focuses on Asian American literature, its approach and findings may inform broader discussions about reader engagement in multicultural and diasporic narratives.

From the “mother-child river”, where women are imagined to become pregnant by bathing in the water as recorded in ancient Chinese fantastical texts Classic of Mountains and Seas and Journey to the West, to the modern reproductive technologies of the artificial womb that increases the survival rate of premature infants in real life, the technological singularity of human creation lies in the simulation and reconstruction of the “soil” for nurturing new life—the endometrium. The technical challenge lies in the early implantation of the fertilized egg into the endometrium. Several Chinese and Western sci-fi works have reimagined human reproduction in the context of numerous ethical constraints, combining speculative thoughts with cutting-edge biological and medical experiments. Representative works include Dung Kai-cheung’s Android Jenny, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, Li Li’s Kangaroo Man, and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. This paper studies how these sci-fi works represent non-binary reproductive methods such as self-replication and gender transformation to decipher the human genetic code and explore the possibilities of new human reproduction. It examines how the matriarchal utopia is constructed in these works for reconfiguring the fertility issues in realities.

Cities are the background and setting for science fiction works set both on and off future Earth. The city setting assumes an active role within the narrative, as its attributes are crucial to the contests and conflicts that transpire within it. Sometimes, cities undertake the role of actors, intervening, shaping, and framing the action. The techno cities depicted in contemporary Chinese science fiction not only exhibit distinct ways of conceiving a vibrant and resilient urban future and understanding the problems of China’s large-scale and rapid urbanization, but also reimagine urban environments by manipulating spatial and temporal elements, using technological methods to regulate the allocation of time and space, and generate new visions of urban landscapes that reshape the human beings who live in the city. This article discusses two representative works, “The Fish of Lijiang” (2006）by Chen Qiufan and “Folding Beijing” (2014) by Hao Jingfang, which creates a unique chronotope that allows for a close examination of a variety of social issues and problems. Within such imaginative contexts, cities assume the nature of an incomprehensible entity that is unresistible. Through textual analysis, this paper focus on whether post-2000s Chinese SF explore the subversion of humanity by evolving technological cities?

Contemporary Chinese science fiction works extrapolate different kinds of crises, such as drastic climate change in the “Post-Ice Age Record“ (后冰川时代纪事 2007) by Wangxiang Fengnian and rampant plague outbreak in “The Plague” (瘟疫 2002) by Yan Leisheng, in which crisis has become a mode of negotiating with the existing (post)humanist discourses. This is to say, the virus’s emergence and spread or the escalating climate change is merely a scene-setting device, and the authors show much more concern about its social impacts – the existing social stratification is rather amplified than alleviated by such a “great equalizer” of climate change or a

pandemic that is thought to affect impartially and indiscriminately everyone regardless whomever you are. This research considers the posthuman subjects they portray to illustrate how SF writers unveil the interplay among power, hierarchy, domination, and exclusion in defining humanity. Those not sheltered from the crisis are garbage, rats, enemies, and the Ultimate Other, but no longer humans. These two stories somewhat suggest a posthumanist turn that what is to be a human is a social construct and ever-increasingly internally fractured.

In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese sci-fi narratives have defied conventional gender norms and showcased innovative expressions of female empowerment amidst technological evolution. These works feature robust and self-reliant female characters—ranging from scientists and technicians to ‘post-human’ women and ‘female’ cyborgs—set in technology-driven (near) future settings. They delve into complex examinations of future world- making, gender roles, and technological impact. This study will focus on three recent representative female-authored sci-fi works: ‘Who Can Own the Moon?’ (2023) by Mu Ming, ‘Jolly Days’ (2023) by Tang Fei, and ‘Preface to the Reprint of “Overture 2181”’ (2024) by Gu

Shi. It investigates how technology is gendered in these narratives and how the female characters navigate and challenge the implications of technological progress. It will first conduct a contextual analysis of the broader socio-cultural shifts including gender roles and technological advancements in China, followed by a close reading of new motifs, character archetypes, and narrative techniques for expressing feminist themes. This study aims to reveal the current gendered textual politics within these female authors’ works and to elucidate the feminist perspectives on the technological future as depicted in contemporary Chinese science fiction.

As Chinese sci-fi enters the post-Liu Cixin generation（后刘慈欣时代） , Chinese sci-fi writers working in the 2010s and 2020s have engaged in more diverse sci-fi writing practices. Beginning with Chen Qiufan（陈楸帆）’s The Waste Tide（荒潮）, Mu Ming（慕明）’s The Serpentine Band（宛转环）, and then Shuangchimu（双翅目）’s The Cock Prince（公鸡王子）, this study will examine how Chinese sci-fi in the post-Liu Cixin generation imagines posthuman labour in the context of technological change, and what interactions labour has produced with the body and gender. It will also explore how the new labour, labourers, and labour relations created by Chinese sci-fi have changed the imagining of affective patterns and social structures in China.

Abstract:

In the context of contemporary China, humanism is mainly understood as an idea that emphasizes universal freedom and equality based on the individuality of humans. It held a very important position in Chinese social thought and ideology in the 1980s. However, the social movements and political reforms at the end of the 20th century led to a decline of humanism in mainstream Chinese politics, culture, and thought. The New Wave of Chinese science fiction since the 1990s, wrote largely outside the mainstream vision, takes on the remaining of humanist ideas in Chinese literature and culture from the 1980s. This paper analyzes how Zhang Ran’s science fiction novella When the Sun Falls responds to the challenges faced by humanism in the context of globalization in the 21st century on a level of cultural politics. It also discusses Chinese science fiction’s attempt draw on the solarpunk narrative to reconstruct humanistic ideals in a post-socialist context. When the Sun Falls can be considered the first solarpunk work in China. It explicitly evokes the real life political issues on a global scope. Particularly, it calls for environmental sustainability and social justice while proposing solarpunk solutions to related issues. It also highlights the universality of humanism through its presentation of the revolutionaries’ proactive and diverse struggles, reflecting the humanist ideals of freedom and equality. The many heroic figures with distinct humanistic characteristics that Zhang Ran creates in this work indicate an appetite for for activism. Faced with the gradual decline of humanistic ideals in the 21st century in the contemporary Chinese context of capitalist hegemony and technological despotism, conscious of the crises as well of the necessity of resistance, Zhang endeavours to reconstruct a possible future with humanistic values at its core with his radical imagination. Through a cultural-political interpretation of Zhang Ran’s work, this paper explores the profound uncertainty that characterizes the “future” in China within the complex realities of globalization. Furthermore, it indicates that a solarpunk reconstruction of humanism can offer indispensable insight to contemporary Chinese reality.

Donna Haraway defines cyborg in her A Cyborg Manifesto as an ideal figure that attempts to cross the boundaries between human and machines, human and animals, as well as human and other organic beings, possessing the potential to subvert established binary structures of gender, race, class, etc. This research focuses on the representation of cyborg and gender issues in multiple contemporary Chinese science fictions, by exploring three dimensions within cyborg narrative: cyborg body narration, the construction of emotion and feelings, and rethinking of posthumanism, which consistently revolves around the theme of “crossing boundaries”. This research examines whether these images of cyborg fit Donna Haraway's ideal cyborg imagination or not, and whether these cyborg representations offer new perspectives in the exploration of gender issues within Chinese science fiction. Through this analysis, this research further discusses how contemporary Chinese science fiction can create works that are able to escape from binary essentialism and embrace more possibilities regarding gender issues, by comparing the image of cyborg in both Chinese and Korean science fictions.

This paper examines the posthuman subject's technological considerations and their localized practices in Chinese science fiction literature, using Chen Qiufan（陈楸帆）'s science fiction collection "The Algorithms for Life" （人生算法）as the research text and integrating N. Katherine Hayles's theory of "cognitive assemblages." By analyzing the conflict between the discrete algorithmic logic and continuous embodied experience in "The Algorithms for Life," the study explores the dilemmas of posthuman subject in the digital age and reveals how they reconstruct the boundaries of subjectivity through human-machine cognitive collaboration.

The translation process from the source text to the target text inevitably encounters the problem of untranslatability. This occurs because the semantic fields of one language differ from those of another due to cultural factors. The problem of untranslatability can be addressed through transformation and subjective correspondences, which, according to Lotman's theory, are described as myths. A myth refers to something that signifies illogicality, in contrast to logic. To explain mythicity, the concept of 'proper nouns' is employed. The name of an object is not based on a logical reasoning or justification, but represents a direct identification, becoming a unique entity in the world. This paper examines the poems of Yun Dong-ju and Lee Sang as case studies to demonstrate how untranslatability is resolved when these poems are translated into other languages. Poetry is a type of text in which untranslatability is maximized, thus highlighting its mythic qualities. Parts of the text that cannot be translated logically due to cultural or contextual factors are reinterpreted by the translator, creating the expression plane. Some parts are translated literally, others are left as they are, like proper nouns, and in cases of extreme cultural differences, translator's notes are added to complete the expression plane. Understanding the situations in which untranslatability arises and how the translator’s interpretation transforms these situations reflects how the culture of the recipient is expressed.

In this study, I analyze the English translation of The Genial Seed, which is an anthology of Japanese medieval planting songs. The English translation was published in 1971 by Frank Hoff(1932-2013) who was a scholar of comparative literature. The characteristic of The Genial Seed is that they are passed down orally. So, it is difficult to understand the meaning of the songs and it is not easy to match the rhythm. Nevertheless, this translation faithfully translates the original text in terms of form and content. Also, reading The Genial Seed through the translation brings diverse possibilities of the interpretation. In this presentation, I will compare and analyze the lyrics of The Genial Seed between the original Japanese and English translation and discuss expansion of interpretability.

Κοσμοπολίτης (cosmopolites) is a compound of the Greek words Κοσμος (Kosmos) and Πολίτης (politēs). Κοσμος is order, property, good behavior, ornament, world-order, world. Πολίτης means citizen, townsman. Thus, Κοσμοπολίτης is explained as “the citizen of the world”, which is widely accepted and applied.The vein of cosmopolitanism from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment has been carried away by reason, global justice, and university, and thus is in a tendency to be rootless from the locality and the individuals. Such an explanation, however, falls into the trap of neglecting its hidden layer of meaning: locality. Man is firstly the citizen of the πολίς and then of the Κοσμος. Namely, the men of the cosmos are always rooted in the city, community, and locality before they are the citizen of the cosmos.

The research of cosmopolitanism rarely lay their emphasis on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as this period is known as the century of nationalism. The late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century seem to be the age of nationalism, which bewildered the cosmopolitans to ignore this period. While the identity crisis in nihilism forced people to cling to the past and even turn to extreme nationalism, globalization demanded individuals to interact with the external and even international world with cosmopolitanism. The ontological forgetting trend of cosmopolitanism is readjusted by the prevailing nationalism, from floating to rooting. It is a momentous time-space when and where cosmopolitanism is revived and grounded.

The Small-town stories back then embodied this special glocalized or rooted cosmopolotanism.The small-town Bidwell in Sherwood Anderson’s depiction reveals the spirit of rooted cosmopolitanism, which is an open space with people crossing borders through empathy and achieving mutual understandings through conversations. An inclusive, mild, and empathetic air hung in the small-town Bidwell, an open space created in the interaction between the local and the global, the imagination and reality. The all-encompassing spirit in the small-town denotes the three layers of rooted cosmopolitanism: an open space (a small-town in the interaction between local and global, reality and imagination), empathetic (to cross the borders between different people, people and things through empathy), and conversational (to take root at a spiritual home after concrete conversations bond by shared vulnerability). Within the open space of the small-town, Anderson portrays the empathy through which people achieve an outward exploration and the conversation through which individuals practice inward exploration. Intermingling between the local and the global, the reality and the imagination, Bidwell is an open space with a cosmopolitan spirit.

Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972) is one of the few Japanese writers to focus on modern dance, yet his dance-related novels remain relatively underappreciated. In the 1930s, he published several works that featured dancers as central characters. Novels such as ‘Kinju’ (Of Birds and Beasts, 1933), ‘Maihime no Koyomi’ (Days of Dancers, 1935), and ‘Hana no Waltz’ (Waltz of Flowers, 1936), intertwine the lives of real and fictional dancers in Japan and abroad. These works reflect a range of social contexts prevalent during that period. This raises an important question: How did Kawabata conceptualize an “Oriental” modern dance while portraying Japanese modern dancers grappling with multiple identities? His works not only depict the tensions that emerge when individuals strive to express their ethnic identity within the globalized framework of Western dance techniques, but they also underscore the dancer’s “Oriental” perception of the fluidity between the mind and body.

The term Nanyō refers to the Southeast Asian region, including the island nations of the South Pacific. It began to be commonly used in Japanese society from the late 1880s. From this period onward, Japanese writers depicted the Nanyō region through various representations, most of which involved internalizing a uniquely Japanese perspective on the Nanyō based on Western knowledge of the region. Furthermore, the Nanyō images produced in Japan influenced neighboring countries such as Korea and China, where they were utilized in the creation of their own distinctive perceptions of the region. Therefore, a comparative literary approach is essential in examining the literary representations of Nanyō by Asian writers.

Based on this discussion, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the representation of Puputan by Takami Jun, Korean writer Ham Se-deok, and Indonesian writer Haril D. Widjaja. How do Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian writers reproduce and reinterpret Puputan, a historical event in Indonesia, in their literary works? By examining their translation methods of Puputan, this study explores how each writer conceptualized Nanyō and responded literarily to "Asian history." (446 characters)

Khu Eng-Han (1924–2012) is a Japanese-language writer from Taiwan and the first foreign writer to win the Naoki Sanjugo Prize, an important award in the field of Japanese popular literature. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, while still a high school student, he published prose poems depicting Taiwan’s local landscapes and customs in literary magazines in Taiwan. In 1942, he went to Japan for university, returned to Taiwan in 1946, and fled to Hong Kong in 1948 as a political refugee. In 1954, he moved back to Japan and began writing stories about Taiwan. In this presentation, I focus on one of his key works, Koen (1955), examining how this short story relates to the works of Nishikawa Mitsuru published in the 1930s, as well as to Shōji Sōichi's novel Chin-fujin, published in the early 1940s. Additionally, I explore how he integrated his own experiences, including his political activities in Taiwan and observations in Hong Kong-to ultimately craft a unique narrative about Taiwan.

Cette communication explore les représentations culturelles dans la littérature judéo-marocaine contemporaine à travers une double approche méthodologique articulant la lecture rapprochée (close reading) et la lecture distante (distant reading). En croisant une analyse stylistique fine de certains extraits d’œuvres de Nicole Elgrissy et Jacob Cohen avec des visualisations issues d’un corpus élargi (forums numériques, blogs diasporiques, archives littéraires numérisées), il s’agit de démontrer comment les outils technologiques permettent de renouveler l’étude des identités diasporiques, des stéréotypes et des mémoires collectives. Cette approche hybride s’inscrit dans les perspectives actuelles de la littérature comparée numérique, interrogeant à la fois les conditions matérielles de production des textes et les technologies d’exploration littéraire. Elle propose un dialogue entre humanités numériques, imagologie et études postcoloniales, en mettant en lumière les effets de médiation opérés par la technologie sur l’expérience littéraire et les récits culturels.

A Tale for the Time Being not only depicts the unfortunate life of Nao, a Japanese girl, but also portrays the identity crisis of her father, Haruki, who is dismissed by a technology company. Haruki's experiences point to the relationship between technology and ethics. This paper uses Haruki's encounters as a thread, employing literary ethical criticism as the core methodology, and combining it with historical and cultural context to analyze the profound impacts of technology on individual identity, ethical choices, and interpersonal connections in the novel. Technology firstly brings Haruki respect and honor, enabling him to achieve a decent life in America. However, when faced with the divergence between technology and morality, Haruki makes the right ethical choice, allowing his conscience to prevail: he opposes the application of the interface he designed for military weapons and attempts to persuade his team to incorporate an ethical awareness program to remind users to use it ethically. The company rejects his proposal and dismisses him. Yet, his complete detachment from technology later leads him to suffer a severe identity crisis: his hatred for technology robs him of his livelihood, and he returns to Japan consumed by self-doubt, repeatedly attempting suicide. Upon learning that his uncle, a Kamikaze pilot, had made the same choice during WWII, Haruki faces up to technology and uses it to rescue his daughter from online violence. Through the lens of literary ethical criticism, we see that the novel on one hand showcases the conflict between technology and ethics, criticizing the alienation of human emotions by technological rationality. On the other hand, it suggests that technology can also serve as a medium to heal trauma, reclaim ethical identity, and reconstruct ethical relationships.

Michel Clouscard and Christopher Caudwell are neglected Marxist theorists both globally and in their own respective countries of France and Britain. This presentation seeks to engage in a comparative analysis of their work on a highly understudied topic within Marxist theory, namely love. Clouscard’s Traité de l'amour-fou and Caudwell’s numerous writings on love and literature are also little discussed in the scholarship on these two figures. Both writers begin from critiques of the mythic return of psychoanalysis to the literature of ancient Greece (Oedipus). From here, they trace, each in their own complementary way, the development of bourgeois conceptions of freedom and individuality and their instantiations in historically variable relations of family, property, and selfhood. When read together, Clouscard and Caudwell provide a materialist history of love. For both writers, love is a crucial form of praxis at the center of human social being. In turn, they provide a radical social ontology of love rather than musings on “philo” and “sophia.” Crucially, Clouscard’s conception of bourgeois love, developed through his reading of the myth of Tristan et Iseut and influenced by the work of Pierre Gallais, updates and develops Marxist theories of love within a universal historical totality, breaking with Eurocentric conceptions of love on both the right and the left of the political spectrum.

In The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett delves into the complexities of racial identity through the phenomenon of “racial passing,” centering on the lives of twin sisters, Desiree and Stella, who, though born to Black parents, have the ability to pass as White. Their contrasting life choices—Desiree’s return to her Black roots and Stella’s embrace of a White identity—highlight the psychological, familial, and societal struggles faced by biracial individuals in a racially divided society. Bennett uses their experiences to interrogate the internal conflict of navigating an identity that resists fixed racial categories, revealing the emotional toll of reconciling personal self-understanding with societal expectations. On a familial level, the novel examines how the sisters’ choices lead to estrangement and alienation, illustrating the emotional costs of distancing oneself from one’s racial heritage in pursuit of social acceptance. At the societal level, Bennett critiques the entrenched structures of white supremacy, as Stella’s ability to pass allows her to access privileges systematically denied to Black individuals. This critique of racial privilege reflects broader themes within comparative literary studies, where race is often explored as a social construct that assigns value based on proximity to Whiteness, particularly in contexts marked by colonial legacies and racial hierarchies. Through the lens of racial passing, The Vanishing Half challenges traditional notions of race, drawing attention to the complexities of identity formation in a world that demands conformity to rigid racial categories. In comparative literary terms, Bennett’s work contributes to global discussions on race, identity, and belonging, inviting readers to reflect on how similar mechanisms of racial categorization operate across different cultural and historical contexts. The novel encourages a deeper understanding of the psychological and emotional toll of racial identity formation, urging readers to reconsider the costs of conforming to societal expectations in a racially polarized world. By focusing on the lived experiences of those navigating the margins of racial identity, Bennett’s narrative enriches the comparative study of race and ethnicity, offering a nuanced perspective on the intersections of identity, power, and belonging.

No matter the time or culture, humanity has shown a fascination with the sky and what lies beyond it. Texas is no exception, as seen with the small town of Merkel being famous for aerial sightings. In 1897, the newspaper Houston Post reported a story of an aerial sighting by church goers in this area. It was claimed that after church, they came across an anchor tied to a rope which led up into the sky. The anchor was snagged on a railway, and a mysterious man climbed down the rope, released the anchor, and was never seen again.

What is striking about this story is that it has many similarities between various folktales recorded in Medieval Northern European manuscripts. The most famous of these tales is the ship of Clonmacnoise which is featured in the Irish Annals with the story taking place in 740. This variant of the story claims a fishing spear fell from the sky and got trapped in the local church. Witnesses could see a flying boat in the sky and a man swimming through the air to free the anchor. The sailor was caught by the townspeople but was released when he screamed that they were drowning him. He then cut the rope of the anchor and swam back into the sky. Other versions of this story also exist in the Book of Leinster, the Book of Ballymote, the French manuscript Otia Imperialia and the Norse manuscript Konungs Skuggsja.

The purpose of this presentation is to compare the connections and prove the origins of aerial sightings in Texas newspapers being inspired by similar stories featured in various European manuscripts.

"Marvelous real" is one of the core theories of Latin American Magic Realism, which has guided the cosmopolitan turn of Latin American realistic narrative, established the world connection of Latin American narrative, and provided a path for the integration of Latin American narrative and the world narrative aesthetic system. Since its inception, Latin American novels, especially the novels of Magic Realism, have crossed the local territory of Latin America and exerted a worldwide influence.

The term "Marvelous real" of Magic Realism was proposed by Carpentier, and this concept was mainly rooted from his theories about the narrative art of the 18th-century British Gothic novels.When he contacted with Surrealism in France, Carpentier developed some new views on literature and then broke away from Surrealism. This also promoted the further formation of the concept of "Marvelous real" from another aspect. When referring to the "literary magic" in Europe, Carpentier listed examples from Gregory Lewis's "The Monk," affirmed "magic," and replaced the word "literary" in the "literary magic" of Europe with "reality" of Latin America, indicating the shift of narrative of Latin Ameirca.

This paper explores the cultural representations of two pivotal moments in American history: the arrival of enslaved Africans in 1619 and the Pilgrims' landing in 1620. By examining how these events are depicted in literature, art, and public memory, the study highlights the contrasting narratives of coercion and voluntary migration that shape the U.S.’s national identity. It further investigates how these representations inform contemporary discussions on immigration, race, and social justice. The legacies of slavery and colonialism are analyzed alongside modern immigrant experiences, while emphasizing the evolving cultural and political debates around belonging and equity in the United States. This work also considers activist movements and reimagined public histories as key to fostering more inclusive understandings of American identity today.