On the afternoon of October 24th, at the invitation of School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Peter Hajdu and Zhou Min gave academic lectures in room 301, Mingdao Building, which were respectively held by Professor Jiang Hongxia，director of our school’s Institute of Literature, and Professor Ding Shuqin, deputy dean of our school. Peter Hajdu is an academic adviser from Institute of Literature in Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a professor from University of Pécs while Zhou Min is professor of Shanghai International Studies University, adjunct professor of Lanzhou Jiaotong University, distinguished professor of School of International Studies, Hangzhou Normal University.

Professor Peter Hajdu gave a lecture entitled Literature and the State of Literary Education. Firstly, He explained the concept of world literature and then stressed the crucial role of translation in world literature. He pointed out the imbalanced development of world literature, which drew forth the concept of Neo-Cosmopolitanism. Lastly, he addressed the issues such as how to interpret literary works from the perspective of cosmopolitanism. In the lecture, he used clips from film and television works to sort out the development of literature with the help of audio and video materials, which exposed the audience to large amounts of information and vivid content.

Professor Zhou Min took as the topic Garbage Regeneration Centered on Undergworld by Delillo. She first emphasized the importance of literature research under the contemporary context and then systematically introduced the research status of Delillo’s works. Furthermore, she wielded simple terms to analyze the important role of garbage in human history and literature history. Finally, starting from Delillo’s novel Undergworld, she revealed the relationship between man and nature by expounding the author’s thoughts on “garbage”.

As for the questions actively raised by the attendees, the two professors answered one by one and launched a relaxing and intelligent ideological dialogue and spiritual exchange with the attendees. At last, Ding Shuqin summed up the lectures and thanked Professors Peter Hajdu and Zhou Min for their wonderful lectures. This academic activity created a rare opportunity for the teachers and students of our school to learn about forefront academic trends at home and abroad and to have close academic exchanges and dialogues with Chinese and foreign experts.