Volume 9, No. 4

In the information age, global geopolitical, economic, and cultural cleavages are intricate and multifaceted, with division and differentiation becoming increasingly prominent. Literary development faces numerous salient challenges, among which the fragmentation of cross-cultural understanding and entrenched Western-centric biases are particularly notable. Against this international backdrop, the cross-cultural nature of comparative literature provides an effective pathway to resolving these dilemmas. As an important methodological cornerstone in world literature studies, this disciplinary approach not only facilitates mutual understanding among diverse cultural subjects but also constructs a foundational interpretive framework for literary analysis. Based on this framework, this paper argues that literary thought research can function as a pivotal methodological tool for theoretical inquiry and a novel analytical lens for textual interpretation, thereby helping to address these challenges. Literary thought focuses on the ideological connotations, core principles, and contextual implications of literary works, with its core lying in a profound exploration of literature’s ethos and cultural logic. This paper further elaborates on the specific application pathways of literary thought research in comparative literature studies, aiming to break through the limitations of existing research paradigms and foster equitable, in-depth cross-cultural dialogue centered on pluralistic coexistence in the global literary field.

Bernard Williams, one of the most important philosophical ethicists in the 20th century, tried to use history and culture, especially Greek culture, to read just the research direction of moral philosophy and expand ethical theory. His philosophy of literature includes three aspects. First, literature serves as a source of example to Williams’ moral philosophy. It is the rich, moral particularity conveyed in the literary works that makes it a counterblast to abstraction in philosophy. Secondly, literature serves as a connection between self and other, providing internalized moral principles. In this case, literature is not only a part of human selfawareness, but also a form of public discourse with social value and significance. Thirdly, literature serves as a narrative strategy to search for truth, which includes both accuracy and sincerity. Such literary truth is dynamic and historical, allowing people to pursue and discover truth in their own understanding.

Emerging in nineteenth-century France, sociology was intimately tied to French literature and even philosophy from its very inception. This paper examines how moral and ethical concerns shape the distinctive trajectory of the French sociology of literature ever since. Focusing on the moral ontology and ethical object of literature, it traces the evolution of the sociology of literature in the French context, analyzing its turn toward literary criticism, art, and politics before its subsequent return to the tradition of the social sciences exemplified by Bourdieu’s sociology. This shift has reoriented literary studies by integrating the dissemination and reception of literary works and authors into a comparative framework, thereby opening new avenues of inquiry. Furthermore, a sociological consciousness is evident both in studies of the histoire des mentalités and in the literary works of Annie Ernaux, reflecting a broader transition in the focal points of moral and ethical reflection.

Postmodern and deconstructionist approaches to translation have marked a shift to a more philosophical stance from which to explore the status of the translated text and the relationship between translation and original text. Following these developments, this paper draws on Lacan’s theory and notion of the Mirror Stage and explores the concept of translation as a “mirror image” of the original work. In light of this notion, it understands the complex relationship between the translator and the original author, as well as the interplay between the translated text and the original, as both reflection and active interpretation and recreation. The paper also delves into the psychological and philosophical underpinnings of the mirror stage and how it applies to the act of translation. By viewing translation through this lens, one can gain a deeper understanding of the creative and interpretive processes that underlie the act of translation, as well as of the complex relationships between author, translator, and reader.

The relationship between literature and politics has always been an inescapable core issue in literary studies. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, political criticism of Shakespeare in China has undergone three major stages of development, giving rise to a tripartite interpretive structure composed of the “politics of the text,” the “politics of the author,” and the “politics of criticism.” This structure has gradually evolved from an initial state of mutual alignment to more subtle transformations in later stages, forming a clear trajectory of development. Such an evolution has opened up a multilayered and multidimensional interpretive space for probing the rich political implications of Shakespeare’s drama. An examination of this tripartite interpretive structure reveals that Chinese political criticism of Shakespeare is essentially a form of cross-political inquiry grounded in literary aesthetics. Its fundamental aim is not to reduce interdisciplinary literary research to political interpretation, but rather, while preserving the autonomy of literature, to consciously strengthen China’s scholarly subjectivity and to actively construct an independent discourse system of knowledge that reflects Chinese characteristics and is rooted in the Chinese context.

In his neo-Victorian novel English Passengers, contemporary British author Matthew Kneale traces the history of Tasmania over nearly half a century through a carefully constructed dual narrative. In this novel, Kneale parodies the Imperial Gothic literary tradition prevalent in late nineteenth-century England, which combines colonial adventure and gothic elements. Through this parody, Kneale reviews the mechanism by which imperialist discourse constructs racial otherness, disclosing the colonial violence and trauma wrought by the brutal system of governance in Tasmania. He also provides an alternative model of survival in the form of a pluralistic community, thereby redefining the concept of “going native” and criticizing the latent racism underlying the pervasive regression anxieties in Imperial Gothic novels.

Vladimir Biti, a renowned scholar of comparative literature, published Perpetrators’ Legacies: Post-Imperial Condition in Sebald and McEwan in 2025. With acute insight, the author identifies a crucial shared experience between W. G. Sebald and Ian McEwan: both are descendants of imperial perpetrators and thus bear the inherited weight of empires. Drawing on interdisciplinary methodologies— including philosophy, psychology, and literary criticism—he conducts an in-depth examination of the colonial histories and violent logics of the German and British empires and offers a profound analysis of the ethico-political entanglements shaping post-imperial society in Germany and Britain as reflected in their literary writings. The book reveals the distinct nature of each writer’s imperial legacies and how they explore different paths toward disentangling themselves from their historical implications through literature. This is a groundbreaking work of comparative study that, through a unique interdisciplinary approach and from a post-imperial perspective, integrates ethical-political inquiry, historical investigation, and textual analysis to offer a revisionist study of the two authors and their literary works.

The dissemination of The Book of Songs on the Korean Peninsula is, in essence, one of the most quintessential instances of the transcultural acceptance of a canonical text during the formation of the East Asian Sinosphere. It was not merely transmitted by a one-dimensional text; but also through various forms and methods such as official institutionalization, educational academization and localized translation. And it has ultimately been internalized as an integral part of Korean national culture. The Book of Songs has profoundly permeated various literary genres in Korea, including Sinitic poetry, sijo (Korean lyric poetry), gasa (narrative verse) and novels. By quoting its phrases, lines and titles and imagery, Korean poets have not only enriched the linguistic and semantic connotation of their works but also inherited the tradition of “poetry expresses aspirations” (shi yan zhi) and the
artistic modes of “narrative, analogy, and association” (fu bi xing). This practice has promoted the flourishing of Sinitic poetry and facilitated the transmission and localization of Confucian culture in Korea. Consequently, The Book of Songs served as a vital bridge connecting Chinese and Korean cultures.