Author：Tongxin Cheng

Abstract: Afrofuturist conceptions of heroism depart from traditional heroic paradigms centered on world-saving missions and self-sacrifice, instead foregrounding how Black subjects persist and survive under conditions of structural racial oppression. In The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead articulates this survival-oriented model of heroism by juxtaposing the life trajectories of two Black adolescents, Elwood and Turner. Elwood remains committed to moral idealism and nonviolent resistance, yet ultimately meets his death at the hands of institutionalized violence. Turner, by contrast, survives through silence, endurance, and strategic withdrawal. The stark contrast between their fates calls into question the...

Column：Literature Studies   115-124   Details

Author：Tingting Chen

Abstract: The figure of "Andréide" in the late-19th century French science fiction novel L'Ève future represents a pivotal moment in the conceptual genealogy of the "Mechanical Beauty," profoundly shaping subsequent narratives of Human-Android romance in science-fiction literature and media. Tracing the conceptual evolution of the "Mechanical Beauty" from its early origins to contemporary interpretations reveals that the philosophical connotations embedded in the "Andréide" have been partially misinterpreted during its reception. This has led to the reconstitution of the "Mechanical Beauty" in recent works into three dominant types: the "perfect lover," the "emotional laborer," and the "reified object," each deviating from its original conceptual design....

Column：Cultural Studies   125-135   Details

Author：Xue Yu

Abstract: Oscar Wilde’s Oxford Notebooks, including Commonplace Book and Historical Criticism Notebook, serve as crucial paratextual materials that provide essential evidence for tracing the formation of his thought. These notebooks reveal Wilde’s particular engagement with Plato’s theory of Methexis of Beauty in the Symposium, as well as Aristotle’s discussion in Nicomachean Ethics concerning the “Megalopsychia,” which asserts that aesthetic judgment should remain autonomous from utilitarian considerations. These notes demonstrate a significant genealogical connection with his doctrine of Aestheticism. This investigation, by adopting the theoretical framework of Classical Reception Studies ...

Column：Cultural Studies   136-146   Details

Author：Xiaodong Guo

Abstract: Alenka Zupančič is a distinguished contemporary Lacanian philosopher and Nietzsche scholar. According to Zupančič, under the influence of two “nihilisms,” Nietzsche’s assertion of “the Death of God” connotates twofold meanings: the eclipse of value integrated into “one” and then, the existence of two Gods: the Symbolic God as law and the Real God as exception. Two Gods function in the same way as Lacan’s “Master Discourse,” that is, the symbolic order is reintegrated through the change of the master signifier, and some unknowable law of the Real emerges simultaneously and secretly in the form of a symptom. Through the psychoanalytic deconstruction and reconstruction of the cognitive connotation, logical motivation and framework operation of Nietzsche’s “Death of God,” Zupančič completes the articulation between Lacan and Nietzsche at the cultural level.

Column：Cultural Studies   147-156   Details

Author：Lingli HUANG, Qiang HU

Abstract: Airplanes serve as a unique thread to understand Auden’s writings about the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. During the First World War, the strategic significance demonstrated by airplanes led the British government to resolve to build a “new world order.” The “air-mindedness” vigorously promoted by the government coincided with Auden’s passion for airplanes. The bird’s-eye view from flying not only directly inspired Auden’s poetic imagination but also gave rise to his poetic idea of “maintaining a distance from the times and society.” Together, these two aspects shaped the unique perspective from which...

Column：Literature and Art of the Global Anti-Fascist War   3-14   Details

Author：Jinmiao GUO, Yuquan WU

Abstract: The novel Mother-Earth by the famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov takes the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union as the background. Through the female perspective of first-person narrator, it takes the female groups engaged in productive labor behind the war as main images, showing the tough, hard-working and heroic aspects of women and the earth in light of eco-feminism. They endure hardship and rise up together, and finally achieve harmonious coexistence. Aitmatov’s female writing is a rebellion against traditional war literature. He pays attention to the real plight of women under war, ...

Column：Literature and Art of the Global Anti-Fascist War   15-24   Details

Author：Qi ZHANG

Abstract: This paper takes Christopher Nolan’s war-themed films Dunkirk and Oppenheimer as its subjects of study, deconstructing their visual strategies that subvert traditional representations of warfare. By creatively adopting a “non-battlefield” approach, the films deliberately avoid the graphic combat scenes typical of war cinema. Instead, they anchor their depiction in highly aestheticized, indirect elements—such as sonic symbols, confined spaces, and individual micro-experiences—to construct a universal psychological landscape of war and nuclear threat. Viewed through the lens of postmodern theories, ...

Column：Literature and Art of the Global Anti-Fascist War   25-35   Details

Author：Guangzhao LYU

Abstract: In Permutation City, Greg Egan’s “Dust Theory” presents a process where matter and information interweave and continually emerge. N. Katherine Hayles takes this into serious consideration, critiquing Hans Moravec’s “teleology of disembodiment” in his vision of digital resurrection. She argues that Moravec simplifies digital resurrection to a mere physical reproduction by transferring consciousness to a digital medium, neglecting the more complex mechanisms of information flow and generation behind it. Through concepts like “pattern/randomness” and the “computational universe,” Hayles emphasizes that ...

Column：Digital Reincarnation, Immortality, and Resurrection   38-51   Details

Author：Yinghe NIU

Abstract: With the advent of the data age, mind uploading has become a prominent theme in science fiction narratives. While offering the tantalizing prospect of digital immortality, it also raises a host of thorny ethical issues. Australian science fiction writer Greg Egan explores the ethical dilemmas brought about by mind uploading in many of his works. In Egan’s literary imagination, this technology disrupts the personal identity by challenging the continuity and identity of the self, and undermines traditional intersubjective relationships. Moreover, mind uploading may give rise to new forms of inequality and social stratification,...

Column：Digital Reincarnation, Immortality, and Resurrection   52-61   Details

Author：Yan YU

Abstract: Videogame literature inherits the tradition of defining life through narratives of mourning in print literature. While classic literary works advocate for natural humanity, creators and readers (i.e. gamers) of videogames tend to embrace life-forms of unnatural birth. This gives rise to a new concept of life which features voluntary heterization and mechanical rebirth. Metroidvania and Soulsborne/Souls-like games treat virtual life respectively as digital projection of real life and as teaching aids for spiritual growth. Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight combines both genres on the imagistic and narrative basis of T. S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men.” ...

Column：Digital Reincarnation, Immortality, and Resurrection   62-71   Details