The academic salon was held by graduate students from Comparative Literature and Literature and Art Studies of

School of Humanities on the night of Oct 30, 2015. Associate professor Wang Zhangcai presided over the salon which

was joined by deputy director Wu Deli and 9 graduate students. The topic of this seminar was “Forced Interpretation” ,

which is firstly proposed by professor Zhang Jiang of CASS. This conception has triggered a heated discussion among the

field of Literature and Art Studies in China.

To start with the salon, the presenter Liu Yiyi introduced professor Zhang’s academic paper “The Theory of Forced Interpretation”

and relevant opinions from Professor Zhu Liyuan, Wang Ning, and Zhou Xian. And then, the professors and students freely

expressed their views on the topic. Some students interpreted the notion of “Forced Interpretation” with relevant ideas like “pre-understanding” and “over interpretation”. Some said that it is not a proper way to criticize the relationship between literature and

other subjects under the background of interdisciplinary research. Others thought that some examples from the author were

too extreme to summarize the views, and questioned the final meaning of the article. Professor Wu Deli also presented ideas

with his professional knowledge.

Professor Wang Changcai gave a brief summary to this academic salon. He said that every theory has shortcomings and leaks.

We should think about whether a theory can be used to interpret a literature work when we carry out a literature criticism.

“Forced Interpretation” will be generated when we ignore the predetermined standpoint of certain theory. It is meaningful and

necessary to come up with “Forced Interpretation”. Meanwhile, the fact that “Forced Interpretation” should be defined to the basic

features and disadvantaged of western literature is worth discussing.

The students have expressed that they learned more from this form of academic through this salon. And they are looking forward to

next salon to share opinions about leading problems of academic field.

It is reported that in order to building a platform between teachers and students and develop their independent research abilities, the

graduate students’ academic salon will become a routine activity in Department of Chinese Language and Literature.