Programme de la conférence

Uchang Kim, Korea University, Republic of Korea

“Life Truth and Variation”

Carlos Castaneda’s prose work, Teachings of Don Juan: Yaqui Way of Knowledge, is a full-time prose work that stands by itself, a story describing a certain kind of experience. It originated, however, as a report on an experience of fieldwork, by the author, who was working on a doctoral dissertation in anthropology required by UCLA. Fieldwork was necessary as a kind of proof that the dissertation is based on real-world experience. But what was a testimony for the connection between the real world and the dissertation? It was published in 1985 and soon became popular among the general readership. It is often attributed to the fact that academic learning lost its prestige. But even among the general public, what has direct appeal is rather what is rendered in stories, that ism in literature, narratives, and poetry. The work allows the reader to feel the sense of personal in literature, conveying the real sense of the real world. Human agency is there, hiding or manipulating poems and stories. What is more real than our contact with the real world but seeing river or swimming in it?--no statistic of factual depiction of swimming in it--what could be more real than this physical contact? It is so natural that people would like to go on travel. It is natural that our age has become an age of tourism. Life truth is directly felt in our physical contact, but we would subsidize it with abstract description.

David Damrosch, Harvard University, USA

“Language Wars: Scriptworlds in Conflict”

Writing systems have always been prime markers of national and cultural identity, forming a “scriptworld” that is the centerpiece of a system of education and a bearer of cultural memory. Some countries treasure a national language written in a unique national script, while others have chosen a cosmopolitan writing system or have had one thrust upon them by imperial conquerors. This talk will consider the key role of writing systems in times of cultural conflict. I will begin with the consequences of the displacement of Norse runes by the Roman alphabet in medieval Iceland, and the contrasting case of the alphabet’s imposition in colonial New Spain by the conquistadors. I then turn to the shifting relations between scripts in Eastern Europe (in the rivalry of Cyrillic versus the Roman alphabet) and in Asia, as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam first adopt versions of the cosmopolitan Chinese script and then revise or reject it in the era of rising nationalism and colonial/anticolonial conflict in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In all of these cases, I will focus on the role of literature in negotiating these conflicts. Sometimes writers seek to heal these conflicts (Snorri Sturluson in Iceland), sometimes to exacerbate them (Milorad Pavić in Serbia), or employ multiple scripts (Ho Chi Minh) in the struggle for independence. Writers from Snorri Sturluson to Nguyen Du and Pak Tu-jin have meditated on what their culture has lost as well as gained in these language wars.

2025 ICLA CONGRESS SPECIAL SESSION1 - YouTube

As part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA), a special joint workshop and podium will be held under the theme “ICLA and the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme: Perspectives of Cooperation.” This event builds on the legacy of the Vienna 2016 workshop, reaffirming the shared commitment to safeguarding and promoting global documentary heritage through literary and scholarly collaboration. Key participants will include the ICLA President and Congress organizers, alongside representatives from the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, including the Chairs of the International Advisory Committee (IAC), the Sub-Committee on Education and Research (SCEaR), and the Register Sub-Committee (RSC).

The podium will explore evolving fields of cooperation such as the preservation of translation heritage, research on lost and dispersed libraries, diasporic literary memory, and the role of literature in the International Memory of the World Register. A highlight of the event may include the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICLA and UNESCO, marking a new chapter of institutional partnership. 

ICLA invite you to the Zoom.

Theme: ICLA Session 250
Time: 2025/ 07/ 30   09:00 Seoul Time
to join Zoom

https://pcu-ac-kr.zoom.us/j/87456198809?pwd=C5DmPVeMcKPaJkcEkwIFjhvgjjaEh0.1

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Password: 402103

Individual Experience and Affective Engagement in VR Films

Yuqing Liu

The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China); liuyuqing990831@connect.hku.hk

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

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

Male Gaze and Sexual Violence : A Comparative Study of I, Phoolan Devi and The Bandit Queen

URWASHI KUMARI

E-Mail: urwashisharma0009@gmail.com

The display of sexual violence can be represented differently in text and film. When medium changes the responses to the same act also change – trivialised and consumable representation entails pornographic and seductive viewership while autobiographical narrative conforms to and creates counter – public of the former viewership. The representation of sexual violence in different narratives not only moulds the readers or audiences; roles in an act of sexual savagery but it also controls the readers' gaze and reactions to a demonstration of violence against women. Representation as tool often becomes significant in playing with the minds of the readers to generate different outcomes and emotions out of them. The present paper attempts to analyse how the episode of sexual violence concerning Phoolan Devi is represented differently in two different mediums i.e.narrative and the cinematic representation and how these distinct portrayals of the same incident generate different impressions on the readers and viewers with the shifting of the two mediums. Phoolan Devi was born in a low caste female called Mallahs, who survived a child marriage, kidnapping and repeated violations of her body, eventually becoming a prominent dacoit. In an attempt to translate her journey on screen, Shekhar Kapoor made a full fledged feature film called The Bandit Queen, trying to depict the repeated sexual violation that Phoolan Devi had to endure along with undergoing struggles due to her low caste. The paper will also examine how there exist different representations of sexual violence that can

influence a reader's mind in various ways by emitting different sentiments. The representations by the author or director bring forth for the a situation through which a reader may generate feelings depending upon their own psyches, however, the process of representation makes use of various techniques to get the viewer and reader involved in the respective narratives. On the one hand the Director of the movie The Bandit Queen represents sexual violence as something outrageous and explicit promoting voyeurism, while on the other the author of the novel I, Phoolan Devi presents the same scenes in different evoking altogether different reactions of empathy from the reader.

Life Finds a Way: A New Materialist-Intermedial Approach to the Jurassic Park Franchise

Mattia Petricola

Università dell'Aquila, Italy; mattia.petricola@univaq.it

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

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

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

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

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

Comparative Literature, AI, and the Ethics of Digital Imagination

The dream—or nightmare—of artificial intelligence has long haunted speculative literature, but today it is no longer confined to fiction. As AI technologies increasingly shape our social, cultural, and epistemological landscapes, they raise urgent questions about what it means to be human and how we might live with the machines we have created. This session explores how comparative literature, digital humanities, and AI ethics intersect to address these questions. Drawing inspiration from UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the session frames literary and digital inquiry as vital tools for imagining and negotiating the ethical, existential, and political dimensions of AI. Through case studies ranging from poetic language models to decolonial translation pedagogy, the session foregrounds literature’s role in shaping cultural responses to technological futures.

The speakers in this special session span a wide range of geographies, languages, and methodologies. From poetic experimentation with LLMs to decolonial translation practices, the speakers explore the cultural and ontological implications of AI in multilingual contexts, while reflecting on subjectivity and comparative literature in digital networks as well as addressing the transformation of scholarly publishing. Together, they offer a critical, multilingual, and transregional dialogue on how literature and digital tools can collaboratively respond to the ethical imperatives of our AI-infused world.

Reinventing Contemporary Exhibition Space: Novels, Domestic Space and Cinematic Cartography

Keni LI

University of Glasgow, United Kingdom; 2827091L@student.gla.ac.uk

Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence (2008), the physical museum “The Museum of Innocence” in Istanbul, and Grant Gee’s documentary Innocence of Memories (2015) can be viewed as innovative attempts to reimagine contemporary memory spaces. These three mediums present a shared theme—a fictional romance set between 1975 and 1984—across distinct yet interconnected dimensions: the textual space of the novel, the intimate domestic exhibition space of the museum, and the urban cinematic cartography of the film.

The novel provides extensive contextual information and a deeply personal emotional record, creating an intangible, virtual space for memory preservation. The physical museum anchors these immaterial memories through a collection of objects and materials, transforming ephemeral recollections into tangible artifacts that trigger remembrance and make memories visible. Meanwhile, the cinematic cartography of the film transcends the static boundaries of memory recording by rendering textual memories into an immersive, dynamic memory space. This cinematic medium strengthens the connection between contemporary urban landscapes and personal recollections, preserving the emotional and non-commercial aspects of the city in the face of modern urban transformation.

This essay examines these three forms of memory spaces through the following guiding questions. First, how do the three exhibition spaces—the novel, the museum, and the cinematic urban space—shape meaning, influence audience experience, and construct memory narratives through diverse media, objects, and the local urban topography? Second, how do the creators intertwine complex cultural discourses—politics, history, culture, and emotion—with the varied materials presented in these spaces? Third, how do the three spaces intertextualize and complement one another, collectively forming a multi-dimensional and immersive memory exhibition?

In addition, this essay explores the divergences and tensions between the three spaces in their treatment of the shared theme. It investigates how these differences generate alternative perspectives and interpretations of the exhibition, ultimately contributing to a deeper understanding of the role of cross-media memory spaces in contemporary memory preservation. Furthermore, the essay considers how these cross-media approaches may inspire future methods for constructing immersive memory experiences.

The presentation will come along with an interactive showcase, which features a multimedia immersive exhibition, incorporating photography, texts, video, and an interactive experience designed to highlight my research on the value of various media and spaces for contemporary memory preservation.

The Uncanniness of Film: On the Aesthetics of Cinematic Objectification in Double Suicide (1969) and Demons (1971)

Xuechun Lyu

University of Rochester, United States of America; xlyu6@ur.rochester.edu

This paper analyzes the experimental expressions that intentionally reveal the objectifying capability of film in Masahiro Shinoda’s Double Suicide (1969) and Toshio Matsumoto’s Demons (1971) to argue that the formal practices of defamiliarization in both films elicit a sense of uncanniness and disorientation as well as present an aesthetic of non-humanness. These formal practices involve manipulations of elements such as time, visibility, and human bodies, thereby showcasing mechanical performativity and multiple layers of visual objectification. The aesthetics of objectification or alienation transform filmic images into a potential platform for dialogues between Marxist materialism and New materialism.

The two films will be discussed in the contexts of post-war avant-garde art, Japanese New Wave cinema, and sociocultural movements during the 1960s and 1970s in Japan. Both Double Suicide and Demons were funded by Art Theatre Guild and adapted from theatrical plays; they exhibit an intended incomplete fusion of theatrical and filmic conventions, presenting themselves as attempts at anti-naturalism cinema and the exploration of artistic expressions. The repetitions of similar or entirely distinct shots within a single scene in Demons disrupt the linear narrative, illustrating the distortion of time and the inversion of life and death achieved through film editing. The exposure of the artificiality and plasticity of the images also serves as a critique of historicism in relation to the grand narrative. Double Suicide uncovers the hidden labor of puppeteers, who are deliberately ignored in Bunraku puppet performances and can be interpreted as representatives of the working class. These puppeteers are invisible to the diegetic world as they guide the human characters toward the conclusion of suicide, thereby implying the spectral nature of the unseen agents. On the one hand, the objectifying depictions of human beings in these two films are reminiscent of the Marxist critique of alienation, which aligns with the sociopolitical resistance movements of that time. On the other hand, by reducing human images to graphical elements, such as lines and color blocks, these cinematic portrayals render humans as manipulable and inorganic as non-human entities and inanimate objects. This simultaneously uncanny and visually pleasing aesthetic reflects the central idea of Object-Oriented Ontology, which considers all beings as objects.

In addition, the uncanny performativity exhibited by both films is closely tied to film as a medium. The perceivable cinematic apparatus functions as an interventional supernatural force, introducing a surreal dimension to the images. This paper further explores the connections between critical thoughts on the film medium’s potential and the aforementioned aesthetic expressions.

Polyphonic Resistance and Secret Utopias: Technology and Language in the works of Cathy Park Hong and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Neethi Alexander

Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India; neethi@iitmandi.ac.in

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

“To Be Technologically Up-to-Date”: Media Anxiety and the Cinematic Quality in Paul Auster’s The Book of Illusions

Kaili Wang

Nanjing University, China, People's Republic of; wangkaili@smail.nju.edu.cn

In “The Shallow Grave”, James Wood criticizes Auster's writing for falling into the two worst scenarios of "pseudo-realism" and "shallow skepticism." However, he does not situate Auster's creative characteristics within the history of film media development. After the 1950s, the evolution of cinema itself exerted a "rebound effect" on literature. The absurd sense of realism and the characters' unironic use of clichés in Auster's works, as noted by Wood, might indeed stem from the influence of cinema. Perhaps inspired by John Barth's notion of "the literature of exhaustion," Auster is committed to formal innovation, with emerging film media providing significant inspiration. Therefore, this paper takes Auster's novel The Book of Illusions as a case study to explore the extent, aspects, and forms in which cinema has influenced Auster's novelistic creation. This can be seen as a fruitful exploration of the possibilities of form by Auster.

Han Kang’s Nobel Triumph: Korean Literature’s Global Leap and the Rise of Glocal Publishing

Han Kang’s historic Nobel Prize in Literature marks a transformative moment for Korean literature, signaling its shift from a passive recipient of global literary trends to an active contributor. Her recognition as the first Korean and Asian woman laureate reflects not only her literary excellence but also the maturation of Korean literature as a global force. The panelists in the special roundtable emphasized that Han’s works—particularly The Vegetarian, Human Acts, and I Do Not Bid Farewell—embody a unique fusion of poetic prose and historical trauma, resonating deeply with international audiences. This success is rooted in Korea’s literary traditions, such as the aesthetics of “waiting” and “purification,” and reflects a broader cultural evolution where Korean literature now engages with global themes through a distinctly Korean lens.

Equally pivotal is the role of glocal publishing in Han Kang’s ascent. The shift from supply-driven to demand-driven translation and publishing, especially through third-generation translators like Deborah Smith and Anton Hur, has enabled Korean literature to thrive abroad. The roundtable highlighted how strategic translation, cultural compatibility, and institutional support—such as from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea and Daesan Foundation—have created a sustainable ecosystem for Korean literature’s global dissemination. Yet, challenges remain: the need for deeper literary infrastructure, improved domestic readership, and balanced translation practices that preserve Korean literary identity while appealing to global audiences. Han Kang’s Nobel win is not just a personal achievement but a milestone in Korea’s literary globalization, urging continued investment in both local depth and international reach.

Nie Zhenzhao, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies/Zhejiang University, People’s Republic of China

“Oral Literature and the Cognitive Principles of Brain Text”

Both oral literature and written literature exist by virtue of an underlying text. When classified according to the medium in which a text is embodied, texts can be divided into three categories: brain text, written text, and electronic text. Brain text refers to the memories preserved within the human brain; written text denotes characters or symbols recorded on material substrates; and electronic text comprises binary codes stored via digital devices. Among these three forms, brain text is the primordial source, with written symbols representing its symbolic manifestation and electronic text its digital form. For a long time, scholarship has maintained that before the advent of written symbols, oral literature was not text-mediated but transmitted solely by word of mouth, thereby rendering oral literature a literature devoid of text. However, this traditional dichotomy between oral and written literature obscures the underlying cognitive basis common to all literary forms, for it fails to distinguish between the method of oral transmission and the literary substance itself. In reality, it is not oral literature that is passed on by word of mouth but the brain text preserved in the human mind. Prior to the emergence of written symbols, the earliest literary forms, such as poetry and narrative, were stored in the brain in the form of neural-cognitive structures, thereby constituting brain text. Brain text is a biological text and it embodies the perceptions and cognitions of phenomena as preserved in memory, comprising image-based concepts derived from sensory experiences alongside abstract concepts expressed through linguistic symbols. Thus, oral literature exists through the mediation of brain text. Once written symbols appeared, the recorded versions of oral literature essentially captured the underlying brain text. Without brain text, there would be no literary content to transmit orally, and consequently, oral literature would not exist.

Wen-chin Ouyang, SOAS, University of London, UK

“Shadow Theatre, Ways of Seeing and Comparative Literature: Towards Multilingualism as Method”

Light, darkness and shadow are integral to seeing, imagination and works of art. Science, such as optics, and technology, such as spectacles, camera, and film projector, are today indispensable in how we visualise the world in our representation of it and, more importantly, how we receive and comprehend a work of art. Shadow Theatre, as story, performance and entanglement of literature and technology, offers multiple avenues for theorizing and practicing comparative literature without being bugged down by the modern temporary frame and the West influencing the East paradigm or abandoning the role cultural encounters play in intercultural exchanges. The evolution of Shadow Theatre has been informed by its travels around the world across regions, languages, storytelling traditions, and cultures as well as developments in science and technology. It is multilingual in three ways. It speaks the languages of the parts of the world it has sojourned, it combines word, image, sound and performance in its expression, and it entangles science and technology in works of art. It points to multilingualism as method for networking languages, storytelling traditions, literature, science and technology, and the world.

The Shift Towards Materialism in Korean Horror Films: Representing Trans-corporeality in "Feng Shui" Narratives and Its Underlying Historical Trauma

FEI DENG

The University of Hong Kong, China; u3009517@connect.hku.hk

This study examines the nexus of supernaturalism, nationalism, and the concept of "space of memory" in cross-national East Asian horror films, offering a critical analysis of the narrative in the 2024 film "Exhuma" (Excavate The Grave). Set against the backdrop of post-WWII Korea, the movie follows the actions of an elderly Korean Feng Shui master and a young shaman as they unite their forces to combat a curse left by the Japanese onmyōji along the 38th Parallel. Their objective is twofold: to thwart the historical curse and to safeguard Korea's future from the shadows of its past. Using varied filmmaking techniques of the horror genre and transhistorical perspectives, "Exhuma" intricately weaves together forgotten generational and cross-border memories, official narratives, and surreal visions of the Korean Peninsula's historical myth, creating a narrative tapestry that facilitates the healing of historical traumas. By leveraging the "Feng Shui" elements, the film not only critiques the established boundaries and societal norms but also blurs the line between suppressed communal memory and official documents using the unique technique of horror movie storytelling, thereby opening up new avenues for introspection and societal critique within the realm of East Asian cinema.

Lizard King Meets the Beats: A Comparative Study on the Poetry of Jim Morrison in the shadow of the Beats

Dwaipayan Roy

NIT Mizoram, India; brucewayne130@gmail.com

The 1950s & 60s saw the emergence of the Beat Generation literary movement, which questioned social conventions and encouraged a new generation to pursue unusual avenues for self-expression. Jim Morrison, the iconic front man of the Doors, was profoundly influenced by the writings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Michael McClure. Morrison's early exposure to Beat literature influenced the formation of his distinct aesthetic perspective. Beat themes of existentialism, rebellion against conformity, and a quest for spiritual enlightenment struck a chord with Morrison and became essential elements of his lyrical and poetic expressions. The research employs a comparative analysis of key Beat texts and Morrison's lyrical poetry to identify thematic parallels and stylistic influences. It also sheds light on the impact of the Beat Generation's rejection of societal constraints on Morrison’s experimentation with tabooed or forbidden subjects. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the essay provides a comprehensive understanding of the symbiotic relationship between Beat Generation literature and Jim Morrison's artistic evolution. In short, this article critically traces the influences of the Beat Generation in the writings of Morrison.

Re-imagining Japan in India: Studying Nationalism, Memory and Transnational Alliances through Indian Literary Narratives

Arpita Sen

University of Dehi, India; sen.arpita@gmail.com

192 – 1945 were very important years in the history of India and Japan. For India, these years were the height of their anti-colonial struggle and what it meant to be Indian. Japan, too, strove to create a new image of themselves. They wished to recast themselves as the ‘spiritual’ and cultural ‘liberators’ of Asia where western imperialism would be banished and all of Asia would ‘Co-Prosper’. Evidence may be found in the Meiji Pledge of 1868, which sought to promote “Knowledge [that would] be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule”. There was a rapidly growing discourse that positioned Japan as the “guardian and protector of Asia” against the West.

The paper traces the historical circumstances of World War II and Japan’s Asia campaigns during the war and argues that the Japanese Imperial Army’s invasion of India - transformed how Japan was perceived in India. The paper tries to uncover this using the personal and collective memories of and about wartime Japan in India as portrayed in Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya’s novel Love in The Time of Insurgency (originally published as Yuruingam in 1960) and Eastern Kire’s Mari (2010). These narrations specifically focus on the Japanese invasion of North East India during the Second World War. Using theories of memory studies, the paper will study how identity and belonging is continuously constructed, deconstructed and re-constructed by nations, governments, soldiers, citizens in and from Japan and India.

I argue that these narratives also outline the nature of the political discourse in 1940s India, drawing attention to shifting loyalties in support of or opposition to participation in the Second World War. Using literary and historical testimonies from multi-generational sources, this paper also unearths the ideas of nationhood and nationalism that existed in the era. It questions how the ideas of nation’, ‘nationalism’, ‘freedom’ and ‘patriotism’ prevailed in the era. I study these ideas using Rabindranath Tagore’s conceptualisation of Japan, Pan-Asianism and Nationalism, specially focussing on his essays Nationalism in India and Nationalism in Japan. The paper demonstrates how Tagore’s ideas of nationalism may be in contrast with the transforming social, political and cultural policies in the same era, especially propounded by Okakura in his text The Ideals of The East. The paper also briefly tracks the history of Japan and India encounters – through Indian historical and literary archives.

Living Comparative Literature: One stage at a time

Akshar Tekchandani

University of Delhi, India; akshartekchandani99@gmail.com

Comparative Literature has much evolved since it was first broached, so much so that there are sub disciplines studied within it globally. One such classification is Comparative Indian Literature or CIL. Given the vast geography and unparalleled diversity of India, the availability of several languages and their respective literatures opens new doors to comparison and comparative analysis. An Indian classical dancer such as a Kathak artiste who performs all over India gets to breathe and live this literature on stage. While performing in Kolkata, one can't avoid taking up a piece by Tagore and while performing in Vrindavan, most dancers take up a Shloka on Krishna.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA), we are honored to host a special celebratory event under the theme “Bridging Seventy Years of Comparative Literary Dialogue: Past, Present, and Future.” This event will feature key members of the Executive Council, including the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries, and Research Committee Chairs. Approximately fifteen distinguished representatives from around the world will gather to reflect on their scholarly contributions and leadership within ICLA, celebrating the Association’s enduring legacy and global impact.

Each invited speaker will deliver a five-minute lightning talk, offering a concise yet meaningful overview of their specialized area of research in comparative literature. These presentations will also highlight their long-standing engagement with ICLA and how their academic journey has aligned with the Association’s collective mission to foster cross-cultural literary dialogue and international scholarly collaboration. This event not only honors ICLA’s rich history but also looks ahead to its evolving role in shaping the future of comparative literary studies.

Sandra Bermann, Princeton University, USA

“Translation, Language, and Literary ‘Reciprocity’: Toward a Pluralist Comparative Literature”

This talk considers new developments in translation theory, particularly those dealing with multilingualism, translanguaging, and machine translation (with a focus on AI). It does so while bearing in mind the importance of decolonial frameworks. Looking to a number of literary examples, I ask how these theoretical perspectives might come together to offer a Comparative Literature with a greater emphasis on the living complexity and potential reciprocity of languages, translation, and literary study.

Group Session 192: The Potential of Unexpected Comparisons in Japan Studies

1st Speaker: Julia Meghan Walton (Columbia)

' "I-I": Transpacific Feminism and the Politics of Genre in Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being'

Julia’s presentation examines A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki, as symptomatic of a transpacific dialogue in autofiction. Approaching this genre from the perspective of shishōsetsu, or the “I-novel”, a Japanese genre to which Ozeki calls attention in her text, the work is read as an intervention into the deeply gendered generic histories on both sides of the Pacific. Through the doubled voices of Ruth and Nao, two Japanese women who write to each other across an ocean, Ozeki underlines the effacement of women’s writing across time and space, broadening the contours of genre whilst presenting reading as a form of care.

2nd Speaker: Oliver Eccles (University College London)

'Who detects the detective? A comparative study of the earliest detective fiction authors in Japan and Argentina'

Oliver’s work in crime fiction juxtaposes the earliest detective fiction in Japan and Argentina, a hitherto unexplored axis that sheds light on the impact of genre on an emerging global market. As the successful model of the literary detective spread from Europe and America, its impact had remarkable parallels in both Tokyo and Buenos Aires. Lawyers and policemen found new routes into a literary marketplace, where imported structures of law enforcement and justice were challenged on a narrative level. Read in comparison, the assumptions of imitation embedded in detective fiction must be reevaluated in light of narratives of resistance and rebellion from the Global South.

3rd Speaker: Harry Izue Izumoto (Berkeley)

'Eddie-baby and Ko-chan: Homosexuality, Narcissism and Fascist Aesthetics in Eduard Limonov's Eto ya-Edichka and Yukio Mishima's Kamen no Kokuhaku'

Harry's paper offers a comparative reading of the Russian exilic poet Eduard Limonov’s It’s Me—Eddie with Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask. Drawing upon the socio-political context of each author, the presentation identifies unexpected traces of far-right extremism in their earliest literary work. Through their glorification of tight muscles, killing machines, purity, and the absolute binary of Self/Other, both writers hint at a fascist aesthetic driven by a fetish for the perfect and able-bodied male physique. In dialogue, these texts suggest that while the personal is political, the political is also transnational.

4th Speaker: Victor Felipe Sabino Bautista (University of the Philippines-Diliman)

'What is the meaning of Shunryu Suzuki’s coming to the West? An inquiry on Jane Hirshfield'

The title of this inquiry comes from the question found in a number of Zen koans: “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West?” Its starting point is the fact that the American poet Jane Hirshfield (born 1953) began her practice of Zen in the San Francisco Zen Center, which was founded by the Japanese roshi Shunryu Suzuki in 1959. True to the spirit of the panel, what follows is a number of complications. What distinguishes this inquiry, though, is its attempt to break the very intellectual approach of literary scholarship: an aspiration for transcendence true to Zen. How does Hirshfield channel the currents of Japanese religion and poetry? How can critics not assume perfect identity between Japanese and American poetry and thereby pay attention to their differences while not assuming a dualistic separation when comparing literatures?