On November 5 and 6, the 11th Annual Conference of the International Association for Literary Ethical Criticism was successfully held by the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of World Literature at Zhejiang University, the International Association for Literary Ethical Criticism, the Faculty of English Language and Culture at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, and the editorial office of Foreign Literature Studies of Central China Normal University. Themed on “Literary Ethical Criticism and Interdisciplinary Research”, the Conference intended to explore new concepts and approaches to build theories for literary ethical criticism in the new era. Those present at this online-cum-offline Conference were about 900 scholars from over 260 universities of more than 20 countries and regions, including China, Russia, the US, the UK, German, Japan, Vietnam, Slovenia, Hungary, Israel, Austria, Jordan, Korea, the Philippines, and Malaysia. The Conference appealed to an online audience of over 4,000. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Prof. NIE Zhenzhao as President of the Association, Foreign Academician of the European Academy of Sciences, and Professor Emeritus of Zhejiang University, Prof. WU Di as Deputy Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of World Literature at Zhejiang University, and Prof. YANG Gexin as General Secretary of the Association and Professor of Zhejiang University.
At the inaugural ceremony, Prof. SHI Youqi, Secretary of the CPC Committee and President of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, expressed his warm congratulations on the Conference. He stated that it remains the common academic vision of global scholars to conduct international academic exchanges and build academic communities no matter how the international scenairo changes. He wished that literary ethics criticism can make new contributions to the philosophical and social science system with Chinese characteristics and style in the new era. Prof. WANG Songlin of Ningbo University, Deputy General Secretary of the Association, read out a message from Prof. Claude Rawson of Yale University, Honorary President of the Association. In his speech, Prof. Rawson expressed a warm welcome to all the experts and scholars on behalf of the Association, and said that the annual Conference would be broader and more international than any previous one in scope. Ethical criticism is both a requirement of the era and a challenging undertaking, and to return to literary texts constitutes the responsibility and ethical concern of literary critics. Prof. Galin Tihanov from Queen Mary University of London, as Vice President of the Association, interpreted the important viewpoints and global impact of literary ethics criticism. He underscored the uniqueness of the literary concept proposed by Prof. NIE Zhenzhao in the strict distinction between moral criticism and ethical criticism, in that the former requires judgment from the critic-readers’ perspective, while the latter is intended to understand the specific evolution of literature as a way to resolve dilemmas such as good and evil, duty and pleasure, loyalty and freedom.
In his speech, Prof. NIE Zhenzhao elaborated on the interdisciplinary research practice of literary ethics criticism, and affirmed the contribution made by Chinese and overseas scholars to promoting the in-depth development of literary ethics criticism. He stressed that rapid sci-tech progress has driven scientific transformation and shifted humanities research. In the foreseeable future, traditional humanities research will inevitably be transformed into scientific research, and the integration of humanities and science will need theoretical support and direction, so it is necessary to find and construct new theories. Only when a literary theory is integrated with science, can it lead us out of traditional ethical constraints, guide us to know and understand literature from a scientific perspective, and find us a way out of the dilemma of literary research. As a scientific theory and an interdisciplinary research system, literary ethics criticism is always committed to bridging the gap between humanities and science at the ethical level and providing academic resources for international academic research.
The two-day conference covered 5 keynote speeches and 16 presentations made by experts and scholars, who are Prof. CHEN Zhongyi of Hunan Normal University, Member of the Academy of Social Sciences of China, Prof. Seán Hand, Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick (UK), and Academic Head of the European EUTOPIA University Consortium, Prof. Vladimir Biti of University of Vienna, Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Prof. FU Xiuyan of Jiangxi Normal University, Prof. Robert Eaglestone of Royal Holloway, University of London, Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Prof. Leona Toker of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. WU Di of Zhejiang University, Prof. Péter Hajdu of Shenzhen University, Member of Hungarian Academy of Social Sciences, Prof. YANG Jincai of Nanjing University, Prof. SU Hui of Central China Normal University, Prof. Maria Lusia Torres Reyes of University of St. Thomas, Prof. ZHANG Xin of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Prof. SHANG Biwu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Foreign Academician of the European Academy of Sciences, Prof. Lucia Boldrini of Goldsmiths College, University of London, Prof. Tomo Virk of University of Ljubljana, and Prof. LIU Maosheng of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Besides, the conference was jointly hosted by Prof. JIN Li of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Prof. LUO Liangong of Central China Normal University, Prof. WANG Songlin of Ningbo University, Prof. CHEN Hongwei from University of Science and Technology Beijing, Prof. CHEN Xi of Hunan University, and Prof. ZOU Tao of University of Electronic Science and Technology.
Nearly 900 experts and scholars discussed and exchanged their views on related topics in 53 panels, whose topics covered academic discourse construction and critical practice of literary ethics criticism, literary ethics criticism and literary classics rereading, literary ethics criticism and poetry studies, fiction studies, ethnic literature studies, science fiction literature studies, children’s literature studies, and literary community studies. The Foreign Literature Research Team of Zhejiang University was invited to organize two sub-forums: the 8th panel of “Literary Ethics Criticism and Modernist Literature in Europe and America” was convened by Prof. GAO Fen of the School of International Studies of Zhejiang University, and the 23rd panel of “The Core Terms of Literary Ethics Criticism and Interpretation of Literary Texts” was convened by Ms. REN Jie of the School of International Studies of Zhejiang University. Prof. ZHOU Qichao of the School of Literature of Zhejiang University, Prof. HE Huibin and Associate Prof. LIU Yongqiang from the School of International Studies, along with more than 40 graduate and undergraduate students from Zhejiang University, were also invited.
At the closing ceremony, speeches were delivered by Prof. YANG Gexin of the School of International Studies of Zhejiang University, General Secretary of the Association, Prof. Youngmin Kim of Dongguk University (Korea), Vice President of the Association, and Prof. SU Hui of Central China Normal University which is nominated to be the organizer of the 12th Annual Conference of the Association. In his speech, Prof. YANG pointed out that since the 7th Annual Conference in 2017, the Association has been making literary ethics criticism and interdisciplinary research the constant theme of all annual conferences, and has been committed to constructing an original Chinese theoretical interdisciplinary research discourse system by drawing on all valuable and meaningful theoretical achievements and practices from all the nationalities in the world. In the future, the Association is expected to further respond to the times with fruitful theoretical innovations and critical practices, so as to open up new approaches for academic research in the new era.
Centering on interdisciplinary studies and orientated towards ethical criticism, this Conference has brought together scholars worldwide, and gathered the wisdom of all parties to explore the frontier topics and future prospects of literary ethics criticism and interdisciplinary research. Focusing on the theme of interdisciplinary studies, the participating scholars and experts discussed ethical issues, broke down disciplinary barriers, explored interdisciplinary studies paradigms on the basis of literary ethics criticism, promoted the integration of sciences and humanities, and outlined the direction for further enriching and expanding theoretical and practical research on literary ethics criticism.
Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of World Literature at Zhejiang University
November 7, 2022
Translated by CAI Zhengwu
Proofread by XU Xueying
