Innovating Knowledge System in Foreign Literature Studies and Constructing Foreign Literature Textbooks from the Chinese Perspective

Foreign literature is an important humanities discipline in universities. There are significant differences between “foreign literature” and “world literature,” and the teaching of foreign literature plays a foundational role in tertiary foreign language education in China. From the perspectives of constructing an independent knowledge system for foreign literature and innovating the cultivation system for high-caliber foreign language talents, this paper explores the development of original teaching materials for foreign literature. Addressing the tendency of Eurocentrism in foreign literature studies, it emphasizes that the construction of an independent knowledge system for foreign literature with Chinese characteristics should adhere to Marxism as its guiding principle and strengthen the subjectivity of Chinese culture. The term “perspective” refers to the framework for comprehension or understanding, representing the point of view and stance that determine “how we view the world” and “how we interpret the world.” Based on the concept of “viewing,” this paper discusses the content of foreign literature teaching materials from the Chinese perspective, which consist of reconstructing the historical development framework of foreign literature from a global vision, critically examining and rediscovering writers and their works, observing Sino-foreign literary and cultural exchanges, and scrutinizing Chinese scholars’ original contribution to foreign literature studies.