Chutong Wang | Shanghai Jiao Tong University (original) (raw)

Videos by Chutong Wang

My presentation for FILLM 2021.

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Papers by Chutong Wang

Culture as Text, 2024

This essay argues that film adaptations make the original poetic because the mode of expression c... more This essay argues that film adaptations make the original poetic because the mode of expression changes from "telling" to "immersion." The author refers to Walter Benjamin's translation theory to discuss the nature of adaptation and makes use of several widely celebrated novels and their film versions as examples.

Linguistic Literary and Cultural Diversity in a Global Perspective, 2024

Frank Donoghue shows his pessimism for the future of humanities in the book, The Last Professors:... more Frank Donoghue shows his pessimism for the future of humanities in the book, The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. He has talked about fierce competition in academia, the gradual erosion of tenure and that humanity both as a discipline and a practice is excessively vulnerable in an age when economics and benefits become the major concerns. He concludes his book with conditional optimism by describing how professors could still have a place in future social discourse. He says, "not only do we need to resist the tendency to romanticize our work, but we also need to locate that work in an assortment of unfamiliar contexts. " 1 He also proposes that professors "must first become not only sociologists but also institutional historians of their profession" 2 to prepare themselves for the future. However, how should professors deal with "unfamiliar contexts"? And if a systematic study of their institutional history could be a good preparation, then after this preparation, how could they walk into the future, and with whom, and for what purpose? These questions remain unanswered. In "The University Without Condition", Jacques Derrida observes the interiority and exteriority of a university paradoxically and argues that the limits from "within" can generate the force from "without, " which is what reality truly means for a university. He says, "one thinks in the Humanities the irreducibility of their outside and their future. One thinks in the Humanities that one cannot and must not let oneself be enclosed within the inside of the Humanities. But for this thinking to be strong and consistent requires the Humanities. " 3 Derrida also

International Comparative Literature, 2023

This essay will discuss Shakespeare' s use and non-use of plague with regard to several aspects. ... more This essay will discuss Shakespeare' s use and non-use of plague with regard to several aspects. Firstly, I will refer to Pericles and Oedipus the King to discuss differences between a romance and a tragedy, and how these differences may result in writers' different focuses and narratives. In the second part, I will discuss why Romeo and Juliet die only partly because of plague, but do not truly die because of it with regard to Shakespeare' s notions of causality and tragedy. In the third part, I will discuss how King Lear makes use of plague as a curse most furiously and vulnerably, which at once points to his living environment defined by "being" and "nothingness," and also generates something new and profound, through which modern readers may achieve a spiritual growth. I conclude the essay by restating Shakespeare' s great contributions to our modern ways of existence, and rethinking Shakespeare' s use and non-use of plague in his works: plague is never really away from Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and it belongs to the realm of nature. Shakespeare uses his language as an art to transcend or redefine nature by preserving a sense of hope, which each individual consciously and continuously strives for.

Caustic Frolic, 2020

a creative writing about fever dream

Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 2021

I n this essay, I will compare different translations of ancient Chinese poetry by Stephen Owen a... more I n this essay, I will compare different translations of ancient Chinese poetry by Stephen Owen and Xu Yuanchong. I will refer to Book of Poetry and poems from Tang and Song dynasties as examples. I argue, different translation versions represent different comprehensions of themes or aesthetics; and understanding artistic techniques of ancient Chinese poetry should be one of translation strategies.

Frontiers of Literary Theory, 2021

“Other” as a concept is frequently mentioned both in philosophy and literature. Current studies c... more “Other” as a concept is frequently mentioned both in philosophy and literature. Current studies concentrate on the relationship between “other” and “self,” the ethics of “other,” and identity problems of racial minorities. The author finds out that the definition of “other” remains ambiguous, and very few researchers pay enough attention to “other” in Chinese philosophy. This essay aims at making a brief analysis of “other” in western academia, then providing methods to further elaborate it both as a concept and a practice. The main part of the essay will focus on the following aspects: 1. What do we refer to when we make use of “other” as a concept? The author uses “gender” as an example. 2. Why do we sometimes find it difficult to fully comprehend others? The author uses “situational irony” as an example. 3. How do we comprehend the relationship between western religion and “other”? How could God be a special “other”? 4. Various forms of relationships concerning “other,” with Austen’s and Fitzgerald’s novels as examples. 5. How does ancient Chinese philosophy represented by Zhuangzi reflect upon “other” and “self”? 6. How could we revisit “other” from the relationship between humans and animals? The author uses Zhuangzi’s butterfly and Derrida’s cat as examples. 7. How does “other” as a concept make its own contributions to cultural studies and cross-cultural understanding?

Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 2022

In this essay, I will focus on translation as a cultural appropriation. I argue translation could... more In this essay, I will focus on translation as a cultural appropriation. I argue translation could be a philosophy which has a built-in anxiety for questions, and it could also be a transfiguration from and for literature, which tries to respond to questions but never intends to fully answer them. When so many people have already discussed either the absence or presence of translation and translators, I would rather focus more on how the metaphor of ‘mirror’ helps us see translation as both absent presences and present absences. In my eyes, the gap between original texts and translation versions, and the attempt to fill in the gap are both beneficial, which contribute immensely to the comprehension of different aesthetics and value judgements. I will put forward some further questions about untranslatability in the concluding part.

Talks by Chutong Wang

American Comparative Literature Association, 2022

Where is truth to be found? "When I was eighteen, I read a great deal; I would read only as one c... more Where is truth to be found? "When I was eighteen, I read a great deal; I would read only as one can read at that age, naïvely and passionately. To open a novel was truly to enter a world, a concrete, temporal world, peopled with singular characters and events. A philosophical treatise would carry me beyond the terrestrial appearances into the serenity of a timeless heaven. In either case I can still remember the vertiginous astonishment that would take hold of me the moment I closed the book. After having thought out the universe through the eyes of Spinoza or Kant, I would wonder: "How can anyone be so frivolous as to write novels?" But when I would leave Julien Sorel or Tess d'Urberville, I would think it useless [vain] to waste one's time fabricating systems. Where was truth to be found? On earth or in eternity? I felt torn apart." A Profound Demand of the Mind "For, after all, there is only one reality; it is in the midst of the world that we think the world through. If some writers have chosen to retain exclusively one of these two aspects of our condition, thereby raising barriers between literature and philosophy, others, on the contrary, have long sought to express this condition in its totality. The effort at reconciliation that we witness today follows in this long tradition and answers to a profound demand of the mind. "

World Shakespeare Congress Presentation

He talked about Measure for Measure and put forward a question for us to think about: How is the ... more He talked about Measure for Measure and put forward a question for us to think about: How is the play manipulating our perception of these characters, and which ones are we sympathetic to? I responded to his question by saying that I felt sympathetic to every one of them, and he smiled. Then I began to further reflect upon what exactly made me feel so, and the answer seemed a little bit clearer after I took part in a summer program entitled Britain Through Drama at Oxford University in 2019. Though even for now the question still cannot be fully answered, I feel very delighted because it has been well-materialized into a creative writing and a stage performance as my concluding presentation for the summer program, by which I aimed to show how Shakespeare's works were interrelated with and stood out of the whole literary tradition because of "compassion."

FILLM Congress

This essay begins by scholars' concerns and anxieties for the future of humanities. It goes on ex... more This essay begins by scholars' concerns and anxieties for the future of humanities. It goes on exploring why and how art and science previously criticized each other harshly, with regard to concepts like 'qualitative' and 'quantitative', 'distant reading' and 'close reading', 'truth' and 'reliability', 'generalization' and 'particularity'. The main part of the essay focuses on a close reading of Deleuze and Guattari's nomadic thoughts, and how a rhizomatic spirit not only eases anxieties of humanists, but also shows the possibility that art and science can finally commingle. I will mainly focus on characteristics of a rhizome by bringing 'musicality', 'dialogic' rather than 'dialectic', 'a map' rather than 'a tracing', the logic of 'and' rather than 'to be', and a sharp contrast between the West dominated by transcendence and the East influenced by immanence into a further discussion. The essay concludes that Deleuze and Guattari's nomadic thoughts could contribute immensely to a new humanity, and help us understand how an art-science pair could promptly be the new methodology.