SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

ACADEMIC LECTURE

Date: April 23, 2024 (Tuesday)

Time: 15:30 - 17:00

Venue: Room 210, Chogyuan Building, School of Foreign Languages

Topic: The Function and Future of Literary Criticism: From Matthew Arnold to Edward Said

Speaker: Professor Cao Li, Tsinghua University

Abstract:

Modern literary criticism, emerging from British public spaces such as clubs, cafes, newspapers and magazines, has undergone ideological and cultural baptism through rationalism in the 18th century, romanticism and realism in the 19th century, as well as modernism and postmodernism in the 20th century and beyond. Literary criticism, alongside literary theory and the history of literature, constitutes the foundational triad of literary studies. Modern liberal humanists such as Matthew Arnold in the 19th century, T·S·Eliot, F. R. Leavis, and Northrop Frye in the 20th century have all engaged with the title “Function of Criticism” in addressing their attempts to establish standards  of literature, culture, and life through literary criticism. In comparison, contemporary multiculturalist and postcolonial critics such as Edward Said have dialogued and even contended with these predecessors, advocating for a criticism more attuned to ideological and social problems and concerns. This lecture revisits and reflects upon the debates over stances, methods and objectives among these critical voices, hoping to cast new light on the function and vision of literary criticism for the present time .

Speaker Bio:

CAO Li is Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Director of the Centre for the Studies of European and American Literatures at Tsinghua University. She received her PhD from Newnham College, University of Cambridge. She has served as the Vice Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Deputy Dean of Xinya College and Chair of the Committee for Teaching Affairs. She has also served as Co-president of the International Association of University Professors of English (IAUPE), Vice President of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures under the auspices of UNESCO (FILLM), and Vice Chair of the Chinese Association for English Literature, and the Chinese Association for Literature in English. Her research area includes 20th century critical theory, postcolonial criticism, English Romanticism, and Liberal Education. She has taught Literary Criticism and Research Methods, The English Canon, Canon and Contemporary Fiction, The Idea of the University, Literature and the University, Writing and Critical Thinking, Advance English, etc. She is the author and editor of several books including Gayatri Spivak, The Eternal Utopia, The Idea of the University and the Humanistic Spirit, The Conflicts and Dreams of Civilizations, Art Humanities, Literature and Art: the Moment and the Eternity, New Pilgrimages, Cambridge Criticism: China and the World, etc.

We warmly welcome all faculty members and students to actively participate in this lecture!

School of Foreign Languages