The discipline of Comparative Literature and World Literature at the School of Chinese Language and Literature of BNU was established in the early 1950s by Mu Mutian and Peng Hui, both of whom were famous writers, translators and scholars in the studies of foreign literature. In 1952, they set up China’s first Teaching and Research Office of Foreign Literature. The teaching and research group of “Comparative Literature”, another branch of the discipline, was established in 1982, and later evolved into the Teaching and Research Office of Comparative Literature led by Professor Chen Dun and Professor Liu Xiangyu. In 1998, the two teaching and research offices merged into the Teaching and Research Office of Comparative Literature and World Literature. In 2003, the Department of Comparative Literature and World Literature was established on the foundation of the original Teaching and Research Office, and is where the teaching and research office of Chinese Comparative Literature Association and the secretariat of Chinese Eastern Literature Research Center are located. Professor Wang Xiangyuan is the current director of both the association and the center. The department currently offers three master’s degree programs (Theory of Comparative Literature Discipline, Western Literature and Chinese-Western Comparative Literature, and Eastern Literature and East Asian Comparative Literature) and five doctoral degree programs (Comparative Literature, Western Literature and Chinese-Western Comparative Literature, Eastern literature and Chinese-Japanese Comparative Literature, East Asian Comparative Literature (such as Chinese-Japanese Comparative Literature, Chinese-South Korean Comparative Literature), and History of Literature and Thought). The Department currently has nine in-service teachers, including six professors (Cao Shunqing, Wang Xiangyuan, Zhang Zhejun, Liu Hongtao, Yao Jianbin, Zhang Yuan), two associate professors (Zhang Xin and Yang Junjie), and 1 lecturer (Liu Qian). Professor Cao Shunqing and Professor Wang Xiangyuan are discipline leaders. Professor Liu Hongtao is director and Professor Yang Junjie is deputy director of the Department. Among the in-service teachers, there are three distinguished professors of Changjiang Scholars Program (Cao Shunqing, Wang Xiangyuan and Zhang Zhejun), one young top-notch talent of the national Ten Thousand Talent Program (Zhang Yuan), and one Master Teacher of Beijing (Liu Hongtao). In the past five years, the Department has led two major projects of the National Social Science Fund of China (Wang Xiangyuan and Zhang Zhejun), one national-level Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) (Liu Hongtao), one major project of state key research base of humanities and social sciences under the Ministry of Education (Liu Hongtao and Zhang Zhejun), one project of the National Social Science Fund of China (Zhang Xin), one project of Beijing Social Science Fund (Liu Qian). The Department has founded the magazine Comparative Literature & World Literature (print publication and online publication). The discipline consists of four academic sub-disciplines: I. Research on Theory of Comparative Literature Discipline The Department aims to build the theory of comparative literature and world literature discipline with Chinese characteristics, and focuses on studying the basic theories of comparative literature and world literature and their branches, such as comparative poetics, disciplinary history, variation studies, genealogy, translation literature and world literature. II. Research on Eastern Literature and East Asian Comparative Literature The Department focuses on studying the relations of literature among different countries in East Asian cultural circle, such as between Japan and South Korea, and among China, Japan and South Korea, as well as other regions, in order to promote regional cultural exchange and academic development. III. Research on Western Literature and Chinese-Western Comparative Literature 1. Holistic research on the western literature history and Chinese-Western literary relations; 2. Research on British and American literature, Ancient Greek literature, German literature and their relation with Chinese literature; 3. Special research on the history of literature and thought, Christianity and literature, modernist literature, utopian literature, Western feminist literature, etc. IV. Research on Overseas Communication of Chinese Literature This is an interdisciplinary academic branch, which focuses on studying the existential state of Chinese literature in a cross-cultural environment and aims to promote cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries and improve the international influence of Chinese literature. The current research focus is the overseas communication of Chinese contemporary literature. The Department is actively planning to carry out new collective research and publishing programs, integrating, mining and expanding its existing scientific research faculty, and further expanding international and domestic exchange and cooperation. Its work will continue to center around four academic goals: promoting research on the theory of comparative literature discipline based on the development trend of comparative literature theory; promoting research on eastern literature, western literature and overseas communication of Chinese literature from the perspective of comparative literature; further strengthening research on the correlation between comparative literature research and comparative literature theory research; further strengthening research on the correlation between foreign literature research and Chinese literature research. The Department will strive to build a team with keen awareness of theoretical innovation and distinctive discipline in China.
