A9-7. Scriptural Reasoning and Comparative studies

In the context of the theme “Comparative Literature and Technology” of the twenty-fourth annual conference of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) from July 28 to August 1, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea, we propose a special panel entitled “Scriptural Reasoning and Comparative Literature”.

Scriptural reasoning (SR), an academic tool for people to engage in inter-faith dialogues by reading and reflecting on scriptures from all around the world, is gaining increasing significance in the contemporary era of digitalization and globalization. The importance of international communication cannot be overstated. Thus, more attention should be attached to SR since it plays a key role in cultural exchanges between different nations and regions. It also accords with the leading academic concept, “Global Humanities” which highlights interactions of humanities and arts and integration of knowledges among various disciplines through interdisciplinary methods and diverse cultural perspectives. The questions our session aims to explore include but are not limited to:

1.By analyzing the language, grammar, syntax, and meaning of scriptures from different religions, what interpretations can we arrive at that help shed new light on the classical texts?

2.How can we find the methodologies that are applicable to the inter-faith dialogues involved in scriptural reasoning? How should such methodologies be carried out in practice?

3.Inherent in the Abrahamic tradition, scriptural reasoning is usually thought to involve the studies of Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures. With the growing need to introduce diverse voices, how can we establish scriptural reasoning between China and the West?

In summary, centering around the above questions and beyond, this session will delve deeply into scriptures across faith boundaries and foster cultural dialogues across different religions and cultures.

In my research, I investigate how an emerging textual structure of configuring space and spatial movements in early modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean vernacular fiction grapples with established ethical frameworks from the perspective of relational literary history. I delve into the historical relationship between the textual practices of “mapping” space, especially how the “foreign” and the unknown are linguistically represented, and the material/technological practices of crafting cartography (proto-world maps) in which cultural selfhoods are both reinforced and challenged. By revealing the interconnectedness of textuality, visuality, and materiality, I examine how spatial movements conform to or contest normative ethicality and how specific imaginaries in fictional writings mobilize a new affective contour of spatiality.

How does East Asian early modern fiction as a genre destabilize the interiority of dominant cultural systems by “externalizing” and transferring “illegitimate” feelings into a geographical replica deemed as the other? In response, I reconsider how transgressive fantasy and desire are transcribed into space at the linguistic level. I illuminate how new territories of feminine subjectivity and what I call “spatialized queerness” are implied in early modern East Asian fiction, a genre that carves out a heterotopic domain of discourses in ambivalence with official morality and historiography. In addition, I address the shifting relationship between the “Sinitic Cosmopolis,” specifically the literary Sinitic as a shared written script, and vernacular languages in relation to literary cartography. How does re-examining the historicized conditions of early modern East Asian material and literary culture challenge the ways in which we habitually evaluate the center-periphery binaries?

I tackle texts such as the Qing Chinese fantasy fiction Flowers in the Mirror, the serialized Edo Japanese epic novel The Eight Dogs Chronicles, the Korean fiction Taewonji and its aftermath, as well as Water Margin and its multiple editions, sequels, and adaptations. By bringing these different yet interrelated narrative threads together, I hope to shed light on larger issues of how early modern East Asian subjects make sense of, come to terms with, and re-imagine the world beyond their familiar knowledge structure. Amidst the actual boundary-makings and invented images of space, I am inquisitive about how variegated acts of mapping topography and border-crossings complicate the gender dynamics and express both bodily and emotional “queerness” at work.

What kinds of agencies surface or become revised in the fictional narratives concerning border crossings, and what are their sociopolitical conditions or consequences? How is individual subjects’ cultural situatedness an ongoing negotiation in mobility? By bringing a “global” perspective into the analysis, I also reconsider the framework's inherent parameters while seeking new potentialities to interpret critical concepts in humanities.

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.

This study offers a comparative analysis of enlightenment and nationalism in the poems of Shin, Chae-ho （申采浩), a Korean nationalist thinker, and Lu Xun （魯迅）, a foundational figure in modern Chinese literature. It aims to explore and compare the enlightenment and nationalist ideas of these intellectuals through the unique art form of poetry, a genre that—though not dominant in their work—holds significant ideological and literary value. This research examines how themes of enlightenment and nationalism emerge in their poetry, identifying both differences and commonalities in their perspectives. Additionally, it analyzes formal elements, such as rhyme, structure, imagery, and symbolism, to provide a holistic view of their poetic expressions. Through this comparative study, the research seeks to deepen understanding of the intellectual landscapes of Korea and China and offer new insights into modern Korea-China relations.