From July 20 to 22, the 2020 Online Summer Seminar at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Narrative was successfully held by the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Keynote speakers were Prof. Fu Xiuyan from Jiangxi Normal University, Prof. Zeng Yanbing from Renmin University of China, Prof. Yang Jincai from Nanjing University, Prof. Feng Zongxin from Tsinghua University and Prof. Long Diyong from Southeast University.

In his speech entitled “‘Writing in the Burrow’ During Covid-19 Pandemic”, Professor Zeng Yanbing examined the experience of Kafka’s protagonist in The Burrow in relation to people's life stricken by the Covid-19 pandemic, and shed new light on the interaction between literature and life.

Professor Yang Jincai, in his lecture concerning the major research paradigms of American literary studies, gave an overall review of domestic studies of American literature, and elucidated several topics that merit further investigating, including 9/11 literature, communities in literature and rereading of canons.

Professor Long Diyong delivered a speech on spatial narratology. In his lecture, he insightfully examined the issue of narrative space in traditional narratives, visual narratives and architecture, opening new perspectives on trans-medial narratological studies.

Professor Fu Xiuyan lectured on the difference between Chinese narratives and their western counterparts. He pointed out that the distinction could be traced back to their different hearing-or-vision preference: while western culture relies on visual perception, Chinese culture highlights the importance of hearing.

In his lecture concerning the cognitive value of literature and the rereading of literary canons, Professor Feng Zongxin emphasized that literary reading is a cognitive and emotional activity. Taking O. Henry’s A Ramble in Aphasia as an example, he provided a wonderful model of close reading.