Aseminar on culture and literaturefrom June15thto 20thisorganizedby the School of Foreign Languages, Henan University.Twodistinguishedprofessors fromtheUniversity of Californiaare invitedto joinin.Hopefully,this activity will strengthen international academic exchanges and broadenourresearch fields as well as enlightenstudents ontherelationship between culture and literature.
Inhisopening remarks, Dean Yang expressedwarmwelcome and gave a specific introduction to the academic achievements and research interestof the two guests.
For the firstday, thekeynotespeaker was Roddey Reid, Professor emeritus, working intheDepartment of Literature, University of California, San Diego.By using threeportraits of Chinese movie stars, Professor Reid started the journey with his opinions on “Locating Glamor in a Global World”. There were more than 200 participants includingthe facultyand postgraduatesof the SFL.
Hispresentationconsists ofthree parts: the definition of Glamor, the development of Glamor and the influence of social media on Glamor. First, he gave the definition of Glamour in different languages from the perspective of etymology, pointing out that glamouris composed ofpositiveelementssuch as appearance, fame, power and taste, and negativeoneslike violence, vulgarity and scandals. Then he talked about the social development, especially the rise of commercial media, for whicharistocrats’ Splendor has been gradually replaced by modern Glamor. This phenomenon reflects the importance of individual achievements and commercial development. At the same time, due to the rise ofMiddleClass, the Splendor of the aristocracydidnot completely disappeared, butbycombiningwith the modern Glamour became anewformofGlamouravailable to everyone in modern communities. In addition, Professor Reid selected a large number of vivid images from different social periodsand countriesto show the variability and instability of Glamour. Finally,hementioned that the development of social media has actually contributed to the uniqueness of Glamour in different regions.
Afterthe presentation, Professor Gao Jihai madehisinteresting and wonderful comments. Otherquestions from the audiencewerealsodiscussed.
Professor Bloomfromthe University of California, Berkeleywill deliver a speech around the topic of“Art of Antarctica in the Time of Climate Change”tomorrow morning as scheduled, which is really worth paying attention to.
(Authors:Ding LanZhangTingyu)
