Summer Semester 2014
Prof. ZHANG, Longxi (張隆溪) (City University of Hong Kong, Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation)
MA (Peking University)
PhD (Harvard University)
ZHANG Longxi is a leading scholar in East-West cross-cultural studies. He holds an MA from Peking University and a Ph. D. from Harvard. He had taught at Harvard and the University of California, Riverside, and is currently Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation at City University of Hong Kong. He is an elected foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, a member of the Executive Council of the International Comparative Literature Association, and an Advisory Editor of New Literary History. His research interests are East-West cross-cultural studies, and his major book publications include The Tao and the Logos: Literary Hermeneutics, East and West (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992); Mighty Opposites: From Dichotomies to Differences in the Comparative Study of China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998); Out of the Cultural Ghetto (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2000; Beijing: Joint Publishing Co., 2004, in Chinese); Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005); Unexpected Affinities: Reading across Cultures (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007); An Introduction to Comparative Literature (Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2009, in Chinese); and most recently, A Spiritual Epic: Paradise Lost (Taipei: Net and Books, 2010, in Chinese).
During his stay in Mainz (May / June 2014) he will give a Lecture Series, a Seminar and give the Keynote Speech at the international conference "Barack Obama and Transnational AmericanStudies". Furthermore he will contribute knowledge in the ongoing or rather planned projects "Life Science and Life Writing" and “Chinamerica”.
Research Interests
Cross-cultural Studies
East-West Comparative Study of Literature and Culture
English Literature (esp. the Renaissance and the 17th Century)
Classical Chinese Literature
Philosophy/Religion and Literature
Literary Theory, Criticism, Hermeneutics
Lectures
"The Dialectics of Poison and Medicine: From Shen Kuo to Shakespeare"
May 2014
"Cultural Revolution: Maoism"
May 2014
"Life Writing and History: Reading Daniel Aaron's The Americanist"
May 2014
"Lessons from Mount Lu: On American Studies of Chinese History"
May 2014
"Literary Modernity in Perspective"
June 2014
"Identity, Perspective, and Cross-Cultural Communication"
June 2014
"Chinese Literature and World Literature"
June 2014
Host: Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung ( American Studies, Mainz University)