外国语言与文化

Public Disaster and Existential Consciousness: On the Depiction of Hunger in A Hora da Estrela

Xuefei Min    3-13

Column：Brazilian Literature Studies

Abstract：Clarice Lispector has long been regarded as a writer preoccupied with introspective themes, yet her final work, A Hora da Estrela, marks a notable shift in her writing, emerging as her sole text which engages directly with social critique. This paper argues that such a literary turn does not merely stem from a late-life inclination toward memoir writing, nor does it represent an abrupt transformation. Rather, it synthesizes her lifelong conviction—rooted in her youth—of using literature to pursue justice with the thematic representation of “hunger” as both contemporary anxiety and national issue. In truth, the social critique in A Hora da Estrela does not dissolve the existentialist philosophical core that permeates Clarice’s oeuvre. Instead, it elevates a societal problem into a profound philosophical inquiry into the essence of human existence.

Sketching the Non-Hero of the Brazilian Nation: Tension between Nationalism and Non-nationalism in Macunaíma

Xiaorui Chu    14-27

Column：Brazilian Literature Studies

Abstract：As a central figure in 20th-century Brazilian modernism, Mário de Andrade uses his literary works to explore the cultural tensions inherent in Brazil’s modernization. In Macunaíma, he draws on foreign mythological figures recorded by German anthropologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg to create an unconventional national hero marked by contradictions. By giving the hero a “non-national” character, Mário challenges the romanticization and symbolic appropriation of indigenous culture found in traditional nationalist allegories. At the same time, he subverts the dominant narrative frameworks through Macunaíma’s magical journey. ...

The Identity Dilemma of Japanese Brazilians: Cultural Dislocation and Integration in Nihonjin

Lin Ma    28-37

Column：Brazilian Literature Studies

Abstract：In 1908, the first group of Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil. Over the following decades, they were accepted by Brazilian society due to their outstanding achievements in agriculture and were hailed as a model of immigrant integration. Japanese culture also permeated Brazilian daily life to some extent. On the surface, Japanese descendants in Brazil enjoy a high degree of social acceptance and recognition. However, this appearance conceals identity struggles faced by Japanese immigrants and their descendants. The novel Nihonjin by the Japanese-Brazilian writer Oscar Nakasato tells the story of a Japanese family’s journey in Brazil from the perspective of a third-generation immigrant....

Cruentation and Imagination in the Context of Renaissance

Xiaodong Xu    38-58

Column：Literature, History, and Archaeology

Abstract：Cruentation received official approval as solid judicial proof against potential murders throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The practical value of this strange custom is to make decision-making process externalized and efficacious as well. After being dramatized and represented both in family tragedies an...

The Evolution of Historical Perspective in Julian Barnes’s Novels

Yifan Meng    59-68

Column：Literature, History, and Archaeology

Abstract：As one of the most significant contemporary novelists in British literature, Julian Barnes’s fictional works epitomize the historical turn in 1990s British fiction. His profound engagement with language, literature, and philosophy has fostered a heightened historical consciousness and acute sensitivity to litera...

"Eternal Dance of the Scarecrows": On the Conception of History in Günter Grass' Hundejahre

Yi Liu    69-77

Column：Literature, History, and Archaeology

Abstract：As the most complex work in Günter Grass’ “Danzig Trilogy,” Hundejahre centers on the human history. The spatialization of time is staged on both a structural and thematic level. On the one hand, through the “strategy of simultaneity,” the temporal narrative is endowed with a spatial structure, where linear, unidirectional time loses its continuity and orientation. History, as a collective representation of the passage of time and imagined future trends, is embodied in the Vistula River. On the other hand, the scarecrows, dogs, and mines, recalled through the Vistula River, portray the eternal recurrence and absurdity of history. Humanity cannot make history; human history makes no progress. Humanity’s “self-domestication” ultimately leads to hell. Hundejahre reflects Grass’ historical perspective during the 1960s, while also questioning and critically reflecting on the concept of progress.

A "Substitute" for "Civilization": Indian Archaeology and Colonization in Porter's "María Concepción"

Zhaofang Cao    78-87

Column：Literature, History, and Archaeology

Abstract：The short story “María Concepción” by Katherine Anne Porter is centered around an indigenous Indian woman in the Mexican Revolution who denies her own tradition but believes in Catholicism. It refracts the purpose of national identity construction of American archaeological project in the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, as well as the complex colonial relationships in Mexico. The female protagonist, María Concepción, though of Native American descent, tries to become an “inheritor” of white civilization. However, she can never be fully accepted into the white system and thus becomes merely a “substitute” for “civilization.” While Porter critiques the cultural colonial project of American imperialism, she cannot escape the influence of the hierarchy of civilizations. Her writings of Indian civilization ultimately succumb to the trope of “primitivism.”

The Future of Comparative Literature

Ottmar Ette    88-94

Column：Comparative Literature Studies

Abstract：Goethe’s term “Weltliteratur” (World Litrature) has served, for a long time, as a central guideline for Comparative Literature. His much-discussed statement of January 31, 1827, however, is based upon a specific temporality conceived as epochal, i.e. including a clear beginning as well as a clear end. This article discusses the ongoing rad...

The Zen, Tao, and China-related Aesthetics of J. D. Salinger

Yixin Lu    95-106

Column：Comparative Literature Studies

Abstract：Since World WarⅡ, J. D. Salinger has incorporated elements of ancient Chinese thought into his work as a means of responding to and reflecting on the war and its postwar realities. He draws extensively on ideas conducive to spiritual exploration, with Chinese Zen Buddhism and Taoist philosophy exerting a particularly ...

On the Narrative of Healing in George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo

Xi Xi    107-118

Column：British Literature Studies

Abstract：Through the soul of the dead Willie Lincoln, George Saunders’ novel Lincoln in the Bardo takes readers to the Bardo—an intermediate state between life and death when the soul is not connected to a body. The novel reflects the tough state of the American Civil War in contrast to the warmth of father-son relat...

The Spatial Image of "Madhouse" in The Steward of Christendom and The Secret Scripture

Mengdie Xu    119-129

Column：British Literature Studies

Abstract：Contemporary Irish writer Sebastian Barry addresses the overlooked trauma of non-nationalists during the Irish War of Independence through his writings The Steward of Christendom and The Secret Scripture, focusing on the core space of “madhouse.” According to Michel Foucault’s theory, the...

War Memory Writing in Oshiro Tatsuhiro’s Novels

Yufan Xin    130-141

Column：Literatures of East and Southeast Asia

Abstract：The writing of the war memory in the collection Futenmayo and the novel Cocktail Party by Oshiro Tatsuhiro can be regarded as a true portrayal of a side of the post-war Okinawa spiritual history. The excessive quantification of the dead in Japan triggered a rethink of war memory, and Oshiro was devoted to writing the “plural of m...

A General Review of the Realist Literary Tendencies in Vietnam from the Perspective of Literary Theory

Ngô Viết Hoàn    142-156

Column：Literatures of East and Southeast Asia

Abstract：In the process of modern Vietnamese literary history, realist literature and the tendency toward realistic writing have played an important historical role. As a vital component of Vietnamese revolutionary literature, it not only shows the lively reality in Vietnam during the anti-colonial war, but also contributes many outstanding authors and literary theorists to its national literary scene. Using a historical and theoretical approach combined with the perspective of modern literary history, this paper systematically reviews the Vietnamese realist literary tendency through three aspects, namely, the emergence of realist literary tendencies in Vietnam, Lê Đình Kỵ’s literary ideas and the rise of the schools of realist literary creation in Vietnam, and Đỗ Đức Dục and the standardized development of Vietnamese realism. ...

Narrative Tension and Woman Liberation in July, July

Fangmu Li    002-011

Column：Studies and Chronicles in 21st-Century English Literature

Abstract：The contemporary American novelist Tim O’Brien’s novel July, July features a powerful narrative tension and insightful thematic meaning, well beyond the one-dimensional convention of Vietnam War novels. Combined with the title, the narrative structure builds itself upon an interaction between the present and past, with a cla...

From Fragmented Self to Self-Making: Colonial Memory and Identity Awareness in Anglophone-Caribbean Women’s Fictionalized Autobiographies

Xuefeng Zhang    012-022

Column：Studies and Chronicles in 21st-Century English Literature

Abstract：The narrative form of fictionalized autobiography empowers Anglophone-Caribbean women writers to assert themselves as speaking subjects, telling their lived experiences and colonial memories while articulating their discursive voices. This study examines representative fictional autobiographies by Anglophone-Caribbean women during colonial and postcolonial periods to uncover their colonial memories, explore their living conditions and psychological states, and illuminate the evolution of their identity.

A Cosmopolitan Writing of Irishness: On the Tactics in Colm Tóibín's Cultural Adaptation of the Classical Myths

Yukun Liu    023-036

Column：Studies and Chronicles in 21st-Century English Literature

Abstract：Colm Tóibín’s literary works mainly focus on fictional narratives set in specific spatio-temporal contexts. However, the publication of The Testament of Mary and House of Names demonstrates a major shift in both his writing paradigm and cultural tactics. Both works reflect the cosmopolitan Irish writer’s in-depth contemplation of the past, present, and future of Ireland and human society, while engaging with classical traditions in Western civilization. From the theoretical perspective of adaptation, this article aims to analyze how Tóibín engages in a personal dialogue with the classical world and how these myths represent contemporary concerns ...

Alternative Flavors: Culinary Writing and Citizenship Transformation in Mãn

Lu Yu    037-047

Column：Studies and Chronicles in 21st-Century English Literature

Abstract：Vietnamese-Canadian writer Kim Thúy’s Mãn uses cooking and cuisine as a lens to subvert the traditional trauma-focused narrative of refugee literature. The novel reveals how culinary practices serve as a driving force and intrinsic mechanism for refugee transformation. Rather than merely reproducing diasporic culinary culture, Kim Thúy delves into the intricate interplay of Vietnamese identity, cultural fusion, and colonial history underlying these practices. By moving from the material memory to cultural synthesis, the author constructs a “culinary citizenship” within a historical framework,...

A Study on the New Trends in 21st-Century British Narrative Nonfiction

Anran Zhang    059-068

Column：Studies and Chronicles in 21st-Century English Literature

Abstract：In the 21st century, Narrative Nonfiction has gradually emerged as a significant literary phenomenon in British. As an independent literary genre, Narrative Nonfiction inherits from the realist tradition of British literature and makes innovations. It is characterized by two core features: “authenticity” an...

Hermann Hesse on World Literature and National Literature

Jian Ma    069-078

Column：German Literature Studies

Abstract：From the standpoint that world literature is a combination of diversity and commonality, Hermann Hesse has launched a deep thinking about world literature. On the one hand, he agrees that Germany should absorb the excellent achievements of foreign literature; on the other hand, he also firmly opposes the blindness of tran...

The Writing and Interpretation of the Chinese Revolution in German Political Theater: Tai Yang erwacht as an Example

Jiayuan Lu, Bo Wang    079-088

Column：German Literature Studies

Abstract：At the beginning of the 1930s, the struggle between the left and right forces in Germany entered a heated stage. Against this background, Piscator, the originator of the German “political theater”, brought the play Tai Yang erwacht, which depicted the revolutionary movement of the workers in Shanghai during the Northern Expedition War in China, onto the German stage, and the tenacious and unyielding spirit of the Chinese working class became a weapon for the German Communist Party’s political propaganda. From the conception of the play to the performance, the issue of cross-cultural representation of ...