Volume 10, No. 1

This paper offers a conceptual-historical overview of reflections on
“voice” in Western literary theory. It traces the evolution of voice from a medium
encompassing both physicality and spirituality into the notion of “Word” or
“Voce.” By examining poetic and musical representations, the study explores the
shift from mimetic theories of voice to a transcendental pursuit of “Die Stille” or
“Poésie Pure.” Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s genealogical investigation of “dead
language” and his literary-critical insights, the paper reconsiders the foundational
development of voice theory within the contemporary context shaped by writing
theory. It aims to offer an alternative theoretical trajectory for current research on
voice.

This paper takes Henri Lefebvre’s theory—the production of space as its analytical framework and, from a feminist perspective, examines how the historical evolution from the Beijing School (of literature) through the New Beijing School to the Greater Beijing School has participated in shaping the cultural identity and symbolic geography of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The Early Beijing School of Literature constructed poetic spaces that transcended utilitarian concerns through aesthetic sensibility. The New Beijing School sought to integrate local memory through a cultivated spirit of erudition, while also implying forms of cultural exclusivity and symbolic power. In the phase of the Greater Beijing School, writers from Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei collectively engaged in a reinterpretation of the region, redrawing a polycentric and negotiated spatial imagination. Throughout this process, female writers have continually challenged gendered spatial orders and have remained a key force driving heterogeneity and spatial reconfiguration. Through theoretical dialogue and close textual analysis, this study reveals the complex mechanisms through which literature, space, and gendered power relations are mutually produced, offering a new interpretive pathway for understanding regional writing and the construction of cultural identity.

Rita Felski, John Stewart Bryan Professor of English at the University of Virginia, and former editor of New Literary History. She is one of the leading figures in contemporary literary theory. Her work has touched upon various fields, including theories of interpretation, literary sociology, modernity studies, and feminist criticism. She has played a pivotal role in ongoing debates about postcritique. This article features a scholarly interview with Felski by Shi Xue during her visit to the Royal Holloway University of London. This interview is presented according to the internal logic of Felski’s intellectual development and the theoretical positioning of postcritique, focusing on three interrelated themes: her transformation from feminist criticism to a postcritical stance and her underlying concerns; the foundational role of literary reading and audiences within her broader framework; and the theoretical limits and methodological tensions of postcritique. In the interview, Felski looks back on her academic path and emphasizes that her intellectual trajectory does not represent a paradigmatic rupture but rather a continuous process of engagement with the sociality of literature, reading experience, and affective structures through a critical reassessment of the tradition of critique. She also responds to questions and doubts raised by other scholars, clarifying that postcritique is neither an anti-theoretical gesture nor a closed methodological system. Instead, it’s better understood as an open critical stance. The conversation further discusses the crosscultural dissemination of postcritique and the institutional conditions of knowledge production, with a focus on its translation and reinterpretation in Chinese academia. For Felski, the significance of postcritique lies in its effort to reestablish a connection between everyday life and the public aspect of literary studies.

Since the dawn of the 21st century, bolstered by the growing cultural confidence of the Chinese nation, the field of foreign literature studies in China has undergone a significant paradigm shift, marking a departure from the uncritical veneration of Western theories and discourses toward an emphasis on sinicization— decentering Western-centrism to foreground Chinese characteristics and actively constructing a Chinese intellectual system. This transformation in the new era is a historical inevitability, rooted in solid theoretical frameworks, historical precedents, and contemporary realities. The achievements of this shift can be summarized in three dimensions: first, the innovation of literary theory to contribute to a Chinese theoretical framework; second, the emphasis on Chinese characteristics in building a diversified system of foreign literature scholarship and discourse; and third, a commitment to mutual civilizational learning to foster the theoretical and practical systems of a Chinese School of Comparative Literature. In the future, Chinese scholars of foreign literature studies must uphold a Chinese standpoint to further dismantle Western-centrism, strengthen the innovation of indigenous theoretical systems, and enhance China’s international discursive influence in foreign literature research.

With the rapid development of AI, computational and quantitative studies in literature have garnered increasing attention from scholars. Quantitative research on aspects such as themes, character emotions, and plotlines in literary texts contributes to providing solutions to related issues. This article undertakes a quantitative study of the natural theme in Sergei Yesenin’s poetry. Through the statistical analysis of the frequency distribution of plant words, syntactic structures, rhetorical functions, and lexical semantic clustering of related texts, it reveals the linguistic expression and profound connotations of the natural theme in the poet’s works. The results indicate that quantitative research centered on the semantic categories of core vocabulary can more accurately and comprehensively present the specific composition of natural themes, and it aids in uncovering the thematic meanings conveyed at various linguistic levels.

In her novel Steer Toward Rock, Fae Myenne Ng explores the ethical predicaments and identity anxieties faced by Chinese immigrants during the Cold War-era “Confession Program,” revealing their choices between survival, emotion, and morality. The Confession Program, with its core features of moral panic and the prisoner’s dilemma, placed Chinese immigrants in the midst of a morally charged arena. In such a context, the protagonist Jack’s notion of survival ethics undergoes a process of construction, adjustment, and deconstruction. This journey reflects the efforts of Chinese immigrants to overcome historical difficulties and pursue moral and emotional ideals, revealing the ongoing conflict and negotiation between their survival ethics and contract ethics. Through the generational perspective shifts of Jack and Veda, the novel not only reconstructs the obscured history of Chinese exclusion and criticizes the so-called contractual justice, but also transcends binary conceptions of identity and historicist modes of thought, offering a powerful literary defense of the legitimacy of immigrant existence.

Studies of Oceanian Literature from a Multicultural Perspective, comprising 8 volumes and over 2.7 million words, is one of the most significant and influential academic works in the field of Oceanian studies in China in recent years.This series not only features a unique research perspective and a well-structured layout,but also achieves,to a considerable extent,an integration of literature and historiography,reflecting profound theoretical insight. The publication of this series holds obvious reference and guiding value for the study of Oceanian literary circle and Oceanian studies more broadly, and it also offers significant inspiration for the ongoing development of area and country studies as an academic discipline, as well as for research on related regional and national issues.

Approaching the Features of Urbanization in 21st-Century American Fiction (2026), coauthored by Yang Jincai and other scholars, is a pioneering Chinese study to systematically explore the interplay between contemporary American literature and its urban culture in the 21st century. Focusing on more than 40 representative 21st-century U.S. novels, the book maps a dual process in which literature and the city mutually construct one another. The work is distinguished by its clear trajectory: it moves from literary-textual interpretation to the production of an indigenous Chinese intellectual system, and finally to the intervention of literary criticism in urban development and governance. Methodologically, it sets an exemplary model that not only foregrounds a Chinese perspective on American literature but also inaugurates a new research paradigm. Interdisciplinarily, it integrates urban studies into literary inquiry, examining how literary narratives bear the problems of urban governance through sociological and geographical lenses. Ethically, it fuses the aesthetic gaze of literary study with public-ethical interpretation, insisting that literature does not merely depict the city but actively participates in the representation of urbanization. In so doing, the book expands the frontiers of literary scholarship and reveals the ethical values embedded in the representations of urbanization.

Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Literature focuses on interdisciplinary research methods, offering a systematic exploration of the interactions between literary studies and other disciplines, including linguistics, geography, history, film studies, and journalism. Drawing on recent interdisciplinary scholarship, the book emphasizes its application to pedagogical practice, responding to contemporary challenges in literary and humanities education within the context of the “New Liberal Arts” construction in China. By integrating a wide range of literary theories with representative case studies, the volume develops a highly operational methodological framework for interdisciplinary literary research. It aims to inspire students to engage in further interdisciplinary thinking. As such, the book holds important reference value for both textbook compilation and scholarly exploration