外国语言与文化

The “Planetary Turn” in Literary Studies: Conceptual Framework and Critical Practices

Ying Liu, Yangyang Wang    3-14

Column：Research on Literary Geography and Ecology from the Perspective of the "Planetary Turn"

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;...

Hyperspace, Hypertext, Political Unconsciousness: The Cognitive Mapping Strategy in 19th-century American Travelogues on Cuba

Jie Hou    15-27

Column：Research on Literary Geography and Ecology from the Perspective of the "Planetary Turn"

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.

The Protection of “Ecological Roots”: Sandra Steingraber’s View of River Ecology

Li Li, Yuxi Zhang    28-38

Column：Research on Literary Geography and Ecology from the Perspective of the "Planetary Turn"

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, ...

Spanish National Hero Cid and the Heroic Writing in Herder’s Der Cid

Wenwei Pang    39-50

Column：German Literature Studies

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...

The Just War in the German Baroque Drama Pietas victrix

Shuting Lv    51-61

Column：German Literature Studies

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.

A Pause on the Eastward Poetic Journey: Goethe's Poetic Response to Indian Civilization

Yiling Duan    62-73

Column：German Literature Studies

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...

The Documentary Turn in Contemporary British Drama

Yongjian Zhao, Mei Yu    74-84

Column：Literature Studies

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...

Anxiety Writing and Existential Redemption in John Berryman's Confessional Poetry

Xiaoyan Liu    85-95

Column：Literature Studies

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...

On the Othering of Self-Writing in Coetzee's Summertime

Jinmei Zhang    96-104

Column：Literature Studies

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....

Identity Dilemma and Ethical Choices in the South African Play Blood Knot

Jian Huang, Jingyi Zhang    105-114

Column：Literature Studies

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...

Afrofuturist Hero-Writing in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys

Tongxin Cheng    115-124

Column：Literature Studies

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...

From "Andréide" to the "Mechanical Beauty": The Journey of a Concept with Its Contemporary Technological Implications

Tingting Chen    125-135

Column：Cultural Studies

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....

From Methexis to Megalopsychia: Reexamining the Classical Foundations of Wilde’s Aestheticism through His Oxford Notebooks

Xue Yu    136-146

Column：Cultural Studies

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 ...

A Study of Zupančič’s Cultural Dualism: "The Death of God" from Lacan's Perspective

Xiaodong Guo    147-156

Column：Cultural Studies

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.

Airplane in Auden's Poetry and the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression

Lingli HUANG, Qiang HU    3-14

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

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...

Kyrgyz Women in the Home Front of World War II in Mother-Earth from the Perspective of Eco-Feminism

Jinmiao GUO, Yuquan WU    15-24

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

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, ...

War "Beyond the Battlefield": A Study of War Spectacle in Christopher Nolan's Films

Qi ZHANG    25-35

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

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, ...

Emerging from the Dust: Materiality of the Digital Changelings in Greg Egan's Permutation City

Guangzhao LYU    38-51

Column：Digital Reincarnation, Immortality, and Resurrection

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 ...

The Reality and Illusion of Digital Immortality: The Ethical Dilemma of Mind Uploading in Greg Egan's Science Fiction

Yinghe NIU    52-61

Column：Digital Reincarnation, Immortality, and Resurrection

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,...

Voluntary Heterization and Mechanical Rebirth in Videogame Literature: A Case Study of Hollow Knight

Yan YU    62-71

Column：Digital Reincarnation, Immortality, and Resurrection

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.” ...