Author：Ying Liu, Yangyang Wang

Abstract: Planetarity, planetary scale, and planetary thinking have emerged in recent years as new paradigms in literary studies. The “planetary turn” in literary studies challenges both Western-centrism and anthropocentrism. It entails an expanded spatial awareness, an engagement with deep time, and a renewed attention to the earth’s material and ecological entanglements. The value and significance of the planetary turn in literary studies are reflected in three major aspects: (1) rethinking the framework of modernization studies from a planetary perspective, thereby recovering diverse modernities and literary modernism historically marginalized by Euro-American narratives and contributing to the richness of world literature;...

Column：Research on Literary Geography and Ecology from the Perspective of the "Planetary Turn"   3-14   Details

Author：Jie Hou

Abstract: Nineteenth-century American travelogues on Cuba possess the hypertextual characteristics of transversality and multilinearity, and the Cuban architecture represented in them exhibit distinct hyperspace features. As an epistemological strategy to address hyperspace, Jameson’s theory of cognitive mapping pursues a totality perspective, adheres to Marxist cultural and political strategies, and advocates continuously approaching the totality of history through textual interpretation. By drawing on Jameson’s theory of cognitive mapping to conduct cognitive mapping of the hyperspace in nineteenth-century American writers’ travelogues on Cuba, this paper reveals the political unconscious embedded within them—the international proletarian consciousness repressed by the capitalist ideology (reification)—and constructs a path that transcends the limitations of capitalism.

Column：Research on Literary Geography and Ecology from the Perspective of the "Planetary Turn"   15-27   Details

Author：Li Li, Yuxi Zhang

Abstract: Starting from the ecological crises along the downstream reaches of Illinois River in the United States and grounded in both scientific knowledge and personal experience, the American ecologist and writer Sandra Steingraber employs a precautionary narrative style in her work Living Downstream to raise public awareness and inspire actions against toxic environments. In this way, she interprets the river crisis as an ecological issue concerning the fate of all humankind. She places children at the center of environmental justice, emphasizing the global tenet that “to protect children is to protect the future.” She calls on humankind to shoulder ecological responsibility, uphold environmental justice, ...

Column：Research on Literary Geography and Ecology from the Perspective of the "Planetary Turn"   28-38   Details

Author：Wenwei Pang

Abstract: Spain’s national hero, Cid, is one of the most renowned figures in Spanish history, and the heroic epic El Cantar de Mío Cid, based on his historical deeds, is regarded as one of the three great heroic epics of medieval Europe. Johann Gottfried Herder, a key figure of the German Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, adapted the story of Cid and reworked it into the romance Der Cid. Drawing on his long-standing engagement with folk-song traditions, Herder rewrote the medieval Spanish hero through the genre of romance, highlighting Cid’s shifting attitudes toward different monarchs while emphasizing his unwavering commitment to defending national interests, thus reflecting the eighteenth...

Column：German Literature Studies   39-50   Details

Author：Shuting Lv

Abstract: Nicolaus Avancini’s play Pietas victrix dramatizes the Christian emperor Constantine’s victory over the pagan usurper Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. It formulaically employs early modern just war discourse to stage the justice of Constantine’s cause, his legitimate authority, and his conduct in battle, thereby foregrounding his virtues as a just and merciful ruler. The play, however, selectively adapts this framework by elevating religious piety as the ultimate justification for war. This reframing thus functions not only to glorify the attending Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and his house, but also to provide both legal justification and political propaganda for the ongoing Habsburg campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.

Column：German Literature Studies   51-61   Details

Author：Yiling Duan

Abstract: The expansion of European colonial activities in the eighteenth century brought India into the sphere of European attention. Within this historical context, Goethe’s perspective extended eastward, and India became part of his spiritual journey to the East. The two poems Goethe composed based on Indian materials, “Der Gott und die Bajadere” and “Paria-Trilogie,” embody a fusion of Eastern and Western civilizations. Rather than simply accepting or rejecting these materials, Goethe approached Indian elements dialectically. He preserved the exotic qualities of these elements while integrating European religious elements, thus elaborating on his perspectives on human nature and society. Through...

Column：German Literature Studies   62-73   Details

Author：Yongjian Zhao, Mei Yu

Abstract: Documentary writing has emerged as a significant cultural phenomenon in contemporary British drama. Over the past three decades since the mid-1990s, documentary plays have been widely staged in theatres of varying scales across Britain, while documentary techniques have been increasingly adopted and adapted within the British theatrical landscape. These developments suggest that contemporary British drama has undergone a discernible documentary turn. This article first investigates why such a turn has taken place by situating it within its political, social, and cultural contexts. It then examines how the documentary turn has been realized, focusing on two key dimensions: thematic...

Column：Literature Studies   74-84   Details

Author：Xiaoyan Liu

Abstract: Anxiety writing serves as a central framework for understanding John Berryman’s confessional poetry, where it manifests in three interrelated forms—realistic, neurotic, and moral. Realistic anxiety arises from traumatic memory and threats posed by the external world. Neurotic anxiety exposes deep-seated distortions of inner desire and the death drive. Moral anxiety foregrounds the subject’s spiritual struggle within guilt and ethical self-reproach. As these forms of anxiety overlap and coexist, Berryman develops a complex poetic practice that moves beyond a simple opposition between “anxiety” and “redemption.” Through polyphonic subjectivity, black humor, fragmented structures, and...

Column：Literature Studies   85-95   Details

Author：Jinmei Zhang

Abstract: As the concluding volume of J. M. Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy, Summertime further demonstrates the author’s sustained reflection on autobiographical writing. Through the deployment of multiple narrative voices and modes, Coetzee deliberately positions the authorial self as an Other, thereby blurring the boundaries between fictional narrative and biographical fact. In contrast to the previous two volumes of his trilogy, Summertime employs a fragmented narrative structure to dismantle the presumed coherence and sameness of personal identity, while its strategy of narrative othering poses a fundamental challenge to conventional autobiographical discourse....

Column：Literature Studies   96-104   Details

Author：Jian Huang, Jingyi Zhang

Abstract: Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot takes the protagonist’s return home as its central narrative trajectory, tracing the search for identity experienced by colored individuals under South Africa’s apartheid system. After transgressing imposed racial and social boundaries, the protagonist becomes entangled in a profound crisis of identity and an acute ethical dilemma. This predicament arises from the apartheid regime’s disruption of familial relations and foregrounds the intense conflict between kinship-based ethics and racially constructed moral codes. The protagonist’s final decision to return home thus constitutes a critical ethical choice through which he reconsiders his dual ethical identities, revealing the...

Column：Literature Studies   105-114   Details