The Fourth High-end Forum on Frontier Issues in Contemporary English Literature 2022, hosted by the School of Foreign Languages of Renmin University of China (RUC), was held online on Nov. 12.
The forum aims to explore the frontier issues in contemporary English literature from an interdisciplinary perspective and promote academic exchanges in the field of literary criticism, with hundreds of scholars from universities across China gathering together to conduct a comprehensive, multi-dimensional and in-depth academic exchange.
Prof. Chen Fang, dean of the School of Foreign Languages, remarked in her opening speech that the theme of this forum, of both academic value and practical significance, has a wide scope for discussion and exploration. She pointed out that in the context of globalization, the world’s unprecedented changes have accelerated, bringing problems and contradictions in various fields, thus we should abandon anthropocentric values, advocate change and innovation, respect differences, emphasize openness and pluralism, and pursue harmonious coexistence. And the forum, concerning the future development of human beings and the world as a whole, could help us contribute to constructing a human community with a shared future.
After the opening ceremony, six academic experts from different universities gave keynote speeches at the conference, which was chaired by Prof. Guo Qiqing, a doctoral supervisor from Beijing Foreign Studies University.
The themes of keynote speeches included postcolonial fiction, African-American poetry, postmodern literary ethics, cultural communities, etc. Prof. Guo then summarized and commented on each of the keynote speeches.
In the interactive session, the scholars had a lively discussion on the relationship between cultural globalization and localized culture, postmodern ethics, the connotation of “inhumanity”, and the critical paradigm of English postcolonial fiction.
Sub-forum discussions were held in the afternoon of Nov. 12. The conference was divided into 12 sub-forums according to 12 topics including studies on post-humanist thought, the community between human beings and nature, and eco-feminist thought. The participating scholars discussed different topics with diverse theoretical perspectives and literary texts. The commentators shared their opinions after the presentation of the papers.