Development history of foreign literature

1. The study of the history of foreign literature has gradually developed in depth. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the history of foreign literature was still a hot topic for China scholars. In addition to meeting the needs of teaching, the number of teachers returning from studying abroad is gradually increasing, and they bring back the latest research results from abroad, which is also the main reason why the history of literature continues to be a research hotspot. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, in addition to a number of more traditional literary histories, such as The New Edition of European Literary History edited by Li Funing and The New Edition of American Literary History edited by Liu Haiping and Wang Shouren, a large number of research results on the dynastic history of foreign literature, ethnic dynastic history, ethnic history and the development of major literary forms were also published. For example, the history of American literature in the 20th century edited by Yang, the history of English Renaissance literature edited by He Qishen, the history of European and American literature in the 20th century, the history of Australian literature edited by Shen, the history of Italian contemporary literature edited by He Qishen, the history of British drama edited by Qu Shijing and the history of Canadian English drama edited by Guo Jide. Wu Yuanmai's Series of Literary History of 20th Century Foreign Literature Countries is a series of literary history classified by countries and languages and written by linguists from various countries. Beijing Foreign Studies University has given full play to its multilingual advantages and launched a set of "Foreign Literature Research Series of Beijing Foreign Studies University", which is a set of words in the history of literature for ordinary readers and divided by country. The length of each volume is not very large, and the language is fluent and interesting, which is helpful to expand the influence of foreign literature on readers.

2. Research monographs are gradually increasing. In addition to the study of the history of foreign literature, the main research directions of China University researchers are foreign literary trends, literary schools and foreign key writers. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, at the turn of the century, foreign literary schools and important western writers in the 20th century became the first choice for research. Representative theoretical monographs include Narratology and Stylistics of Fiction, Postmodernism: Realism and Experiment by Lu Jiande, Stream of Consciousness in Britain and America by Xiao, Faulkner Studies by Zhang Jian, Eliot and the Romantic Tradition in England by Jiang. These research results are highly targeted, and some of them are developed on the basis of doctoral dissertations. Therefore, the author of the results can make breakthroughs and discoveries on the basis of summarizing the existing research results at home and abroad, and truly realize exchanges and dialogues with scholars of the same research level in the West.

3. The development trend of foreign literature is more and more sensitive, and the introduction is more and more timely. With more and more opportunities for college teachers in China to study abroad, more and more teachers are exposed to the first-hand materials of foreign literary criticism. Influenced by the active academic atmosphere in foreign literary circles, our teacher thinks it necessary to introduce the latest developments of foreign literary criticism to domestic readers in time. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, a large number of articles published in professional literary journals such as Foreign Literature, Foreign Literature and Foreign Literature Review were the result of the efforts of these teachers. The representative works of foreign literary criticism in volumes include Theoretical Research on Western Literature in the 20th Century and Humanistic Puzzlement and Reflection: Western Postmodernism Criticism edited by Wang Fengzhen.

Foreign literature research began to get rid of the shackles of pure literature. A prominent feature of China's foreign literature research during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period is that a group of researchers consciously followed the concept of culture, trying to get rid of the shackles of the old scholastic pure literature research ideas and began to study interdisciplinary topics such as literature and philosophy, literature and religion, literature and culture. This practice of combining literary works with the humanistic culture of the era that gave birth to it broadens our researchers' thinking and provides a new perspective for the analysis of works. Wang Shouren's Gender, Race and Culture, Toni Morrison's 20th Century African American Literature and He Yunbo's Dostoevsky and Russian Culture are the representative achievements of this attempt.

5. The study of foreign literature translation has begun to attract people's attention. The translation of foreign literature is essentially a comparative study, that is, after trying to understand and study the language of one culture, it is expressed and elaborated in the language of another culture and re-created. The translation of foreign literature in China has a history of 100 years. Since 1990s, a large number of foreign literary works have been translated into Chinese: contemporary works have been introduced to China readers in time, and many classic works have been retranslated by many or even dozens of translators. Although the translation of foreign literature has developed rapidly in recent ten years, the quality of translation is worrying. There are both practical and theoretical problems in translation. Translation criticism is a new discipline developed to solve the theoretical and practical problems of literary translation, and Xu Jun of Nanjing University is a leading figure in this field. His monographs and papers "Reflections on Translation" and "China's Translation Theory and Practice" (in cooperation with Wang Kefei) are the first time that China scholars systematically expounded translation criticism.

6. Foreign literature textbooks in colleges and universities have begun to take shape. Because of the close relationship between foreign literature research and teaching in China universities, the construction of teaching materials has always been concerned by foreign literature researchers in universities. In the early 1990s, the construction of foreign literature textbooks focused on the compilation of foreign literature history and literary anthology. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the construction of teaching materials showed a diversified trend: the teaching materials of foreign literature history, which have been used for many years, were faced with the task of revision to adapt to the development trend of foreign literature; A number of monographs on the history of foreign literature published in recent ten years have become the first choice of foreign literature history courses in colleges and universities with their new materials and new viewpoints. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing House, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Publishing House, Yilin Publishing House, Commercial Press and other publishing houses purchase domestic reprinting rights, and then publish the original works of foreign literature masterpieces to provide original textbooks for foreign literature courses of foreign languages departments. It is particularly worth mentioning that Beijing Foreign Studies University has compiled a set of literary anthology of the original text (*** 1 1), which has been published in Spain, Latin America, Russia and South Korea, and will be published in Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Arabia and other countries. Because of its large space (nearly 1000 pages per volume) and wide coverage (selected articles to the 1990s), it is very suitable for literature or reading classes of foreign language departments in colleges and universities. The publication of this literary anthology series has filled the biggest gap in the teaching materials of foreign literature in China.

(B) the advantages of foreign literature research in China universities

In addition to being scattered in China Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Foreign Literature and Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and other provinces and cities, foreign literature researchers in China are mainly concentrated in foreign language departments, Chinese departments and foreign literature research institutions in universities. The foreign literature research team in China universities has the following advantages:

1. The number of foreign literature researchers in colleges and universities in China is unmatched by other research institutions and has become the main force of foreign literature research in China.

2. Because teaching in colleges and universities inevitably involves all fields of foreign literature, the coverage of foreign literature research in colleges and universities is very wide, and the coverage of achievements is also very wide.

3. Scientific research in colleges and universities basically serves teaching, so the topics chosen by foreign literature researchers in colleges and universities are more inclined to solve practical problems.

4. Due to the relatively stable research team in universities, some key universities, especially Peking University, Beijing Foreign Studies University and Nanjing University, have formed foreign literature research groups with reasonable age and academic structure, among which a group of senior professors have become academic leaders in the field of foreign literature in China, and young and middle-aged scholars have formed their own unique research direction.

With the help of foreign literature academic groups at all levels, academic exchanges between foreign literature researchers in colleges and universities have become more direct and frequent, and a good momentum of resource sharing and project cooperation has begun to appear.