Volume 8, No. 4

Wu Di is a renowned Chinese scholar of foreign literature and an esteem- ed literary translator. He has not only written extensively, but also actively leads academic organizations, serving as president of the Chinese Association for Comparative Studies of Languages and Cultures, vice president of the English Literature Committee of the Chinese Association for Foreign Literature Studies, and honorary president of Zhejiang Provincial Association for Comparative Literature and Foreign Literature. His body of work includes 16 academic monographs, such as Studies in English Metaphysical Poetry and History of Russian Fiction, over 30 literary translations, including Tess of the d’Urbervilles and The Complete Lyric Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as more than 80 edited volumes, such as Studies in the Formation and Dissemination of Foreign Literature Classics (8 volumes) and The Complete Works of Alexander Pushkin (10 volumes). His outstanding contributions to literary research have earned him numerous accolades from both the Zhejiang Provincial Administration and the Chinese Ministry of Education. This article presents an interview between Zhou Min and Wu Di, focusing on the social function of literary research. The discussion revolves around three key aspects: 1) the social function of literary research within the broader historical mission of literary scholars; 2) its role in interdisciplinary studies; and 3) its embodiment in the practice of literary translation. Professor Wu Di asserts that, despite the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to the humanities, literary research retains an irreplaceable social function, one that profoundly influences human experience by engaging with the depth of emotions and thought. He emphasizes that literary research not only focuses on textual analysis but also embraces interdisciplinary approaches, including ethical literary criticism, legal literary criticism, as well as the intersections between literature and economics, ecological criticism, and intermedia studies. Moreover, Wu Di underscores the critical role of literary translation within the broader scope of literary studies. Translation, he argues, serves as a vital conduit for cultural exchange and the communication of ideas and emotions, and it plays a key role in the creation and evolution of world literature. While acknowledging that AI technology may serve as a helpful tool in translation, Wu Di firmly maintains that human translators, with their creativity and nuanced understanding of emotional complexity, are irreplaceable.

As a humanities scholar who is well versed in both Chinese and Western literature, Wu Di is both a genius in translation and an expert in academia; he has reborn the classics of foreign literature on Chinese soil through his excellent translation and communication, and rooted the classics of foreign literature on the Chinese soil through his keen interest in “learning” and “questioning.” Wu Di transcended the “absurdity” of the big time in his unconscious, inspired by his mentors and driven by courage and insight, to become a unique scholar proficient in both English and Russian, specializing in poetry and novels, and quickly rising as an outstanding figure in the translation world. What is even more valuable is his ability to read, understand, and keep abreast of the times, applying knowledge to practical use and bravely standing at the forefront of trends. He has been familiar with the publication market of Chinese translated literature for the last 40 years and is one of the earliest scholars in mainland China to proficiently use computers and the Internet. He is also goodwill ambassadors skilled in cross-cultural communication who is both “capable” and “approachable.” Wu Di not only promptly introduces advanced foreign ideas to Chinese people to facilitate China’s modernization but also presents China’s progress and the thoughts of Chinese scholars to the international community through his academic image, serving as a model for effectively practicing mutual learning among civilizations.

Centered around two core questions “How is a classic generated?” and “How is it disseminated?” Wu Di leads the authors of the 8-volume monographs Studies in the Formation and Dissemination of Foreign Literary Classics to explore the mechanism of the generation of classics or classical literary styles, and to unravel the paths of their dissemination from primary to secondary sites in an archaeological excavation. By linking the two thematic areas of classic generation and classic dissemination, the study of classics in foreign literature can go beyond the static, flat and purely literal interpretation of texts and enter into the systematic cultivation of literary texts and their cross-media artistic “translations” as well as their cultural codes. This deep cultivation is of strategic importance for the increasingly marginalized discipline of foreign literature, which defends the survival space of the discipline and expands its boundaries. It enables our foreign literature to move toward the new realm of “no longer a foreign literature” and be integrated into the modernization process of the Chinese nation. The creation of this new realm is attributed to Wu Di’s “Great Translation View.” The axis of methodological innovation of the “Great Translation View” as a new vision runs through the whole process of “classic generation, classic growth, and disciplinary survival,” which is the “three lives of research,” and governs the overall design of the Eight Volumes of the monographs. The overall design of the 8-volume monographs leads Wu Di himself to make breakthroughs in a series of case studies that can be regarded as models.

Professor Wu Di, based on the practice of translation and the studies of foreign literature, examines the cross-media dissemination of classical texts from the perspective of cross-media research, and believes that the cross-media conver- sion from written text to video text is similar to that from source language text to target language text in the discourse system of translation studies. Translation is a kind of “re-creation” of the classics in the sense of conversion from one textual form to another; cross-media dissemination makes use of images, audio and video media to convert written texts to other texts such as visual texts, or to convert from one form of artistic expression to another, which is equivalent to translation in the cross-media sense. The source language text is regenerated in a continuous process of translation, allowing it to be transmitted from generation to generation. The vari- ation from written texts to other texts, such as visual texts, triggered by cross-media communication is a reflection of the “regeneration” of the life of the source lan- guage text. From the practice of translation of English and American literature to the study of cross-media communication of literature, Professor Wu Di has always been practicing the mission of regeneration and cultural inheritance of literary clas- sics with a cross-border multi-dimensional vision. He always pays attention to the dissemination and regeneration of literary classics, and his translation career and academic research, especially the cross-media literary communication research that he has pioneered in China, are the first of its kind, and will surely have far-reaching academic impact.

The study of the correlation between law and literature is typically interdisciplinary. Based on the interdisciplinary studies of literature and the connotation of the academic movement of “Law and Literature,” Wu Di puts forward the concept of “Legal Literary Criticism,” and makes his voice for literary scholars in the field of the comparative study of law and literature. His related researches are based on his understanding of literature. The purpose of legal literary research is not purely to solve legal problems, but to deepen his control over the spiritual connotation of literary works and his comprehensive understanding of the writer’s worldview. However, Wu Di is not satisfied with the role of legal events in the development of the plot of the literary works but wants to explore the writer’s legal thoughts and legal ethics in addition to aesthetics. The legal literary criticism advocated by Wu Di not only enables a new critical vision of literature, but at the same time, it also provides a reference for the study of related issues in the field of law.

Wu Di’s comparative studies of Chinese and Western poetry focus on two interrelated considerations: the distinctive artistic appeal of poetic texts and the cultural exchanges between the East and the West. These exchanges are evident in the mutual appreciation of civilizations, which is reflected in the significant artistic discipline of poetry. In his monographs, such as Comparative Studies in European and American Poetry and Studies on English Metaphysical Poetry, Wu Di explores important issues in British poetry and examines the subtle relationship between Chi- nese and Western poetry, along with its complex influences, all showcased through his keen philosophical thinking and exquisite writing style. Furthermore, he offers an insightful account of the structural and artistic differences between Chinese and Western poetry, as well as their spiritual integration, particularly through the prac- tice of poetry translation. Wu Di has made a commendable effort to build a solid bridge between Chinese and Western cultural exchanges by studying poetic texts from both traditions, which deserves recognition and praise.

This paper focuses on two academic monographs, History of the Develop- ment of Old Rus’ and Modern Russian Poetry and History of the Development of the Russian Fiction, written by Prof. Wu Di, one of the most outstanding scholars in foreign literature study in China, which reveals how Wu Di handles the relationship between literary historical facts and the researcher’s academic personality in the process of writing literary history. Additionally, it examines Wu Di’s scholarly ideas and his accomplishments in writing the history of Russian literature from the perspectives of acceptance of criticism, impartial assessment, and convergence with the future. The discussion of this paper aims to provide a worthy path for writing the history of foreign literature in China.

Across cultures, the divine has often been used as the ultimate yardstick for measuring the achievement of an artist and hence become the aesthetic ideal in artistic creation. The relationship between the divine and the artist, however, is a controversial topic. While some scholars consider the divine model of creation still has some value for aesthetic studies, some others dismiss it as meaningless to creation in our time. To better understand the complexity of the controversy, this paper conducts an inquiry into some cross-cultural ideas of the divine in aesthetic thought and attempts to reveal the similarities and differences as well as the subtleties, ironies, and paradoxes that often escape the attention of scholars and theorists in the realm of literature and art.

John Donne depersonalized the male and female protagonists in his poem “The Flea” and used dramatic monologue techniques to complete a logical reasoning about love, providing readers with a new form of perception. The poem contains the poet’s ethics of marriage and love, but the poet’s straightforward language and rough imagery are often misunderstood. Through the perspective of ethical literary criticism on marriage and love ethics, combined with historical objectivity and moral subjectivity evaluation, additionally, the experience of poet and the public’s understanding of marriage and love. It is found that the poem conforms to the theme “Carpe Diem” of the times, calls for the natural emotions between men and women to be combined with bodily instincts, and proposes the concept of spiritual and physical unity. The perspective of ethical literary criticism shifts the singular moral judgment of “The Flea” back to ethical exploration in the historical context, leading to new ethical insights.