City Seminar discusses evolution of world literature

Prof Longxi Zhang, Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation,  Department of Chinese and History, CityU; Foreign Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities; and Foreign Member of Academia Europaea, gave a lecture titled “Aspects of World Literature” in the City Seminar on 22nd September.

In the seminar, Prof Zhang introduced concepts of “world literature” – in a broad sense – a literature that has a readership and an impact beyond its original language and cultural area.  He also highlighted the contemporary scopes and purposes of literature, and elaborated on how changes on the mode of circulation and reading, in this globalised, rapidly changing world, would affect our perspectives in redefining what a world literature should be. Prof Zhang ended his sharing focusing on Chinese literature. He hoped that the industry could work better in employing the strengths of Chinese literary works, and to promote a better position of it in the world literary arena.   

About City Seminar 

The City Seminar 香港席明納 was initiated by Prof Houmin Yan, Dean of the College, with an aim to discuss topics together (席Xí), to understand such topics in depth (明Míng), and to gain something of value from the discussions (納Nà). The College will be inviting a number of professors and/or scholars to explore various topics during the series.

To watch Prof Zhang's speech in the seminar, please click here.
For more information about past and upcoming seminars, please visit the City Seminar website.