Foreign Languages and Literatures ( Ph.D. )

1. Training/Research Orientation

• English Language and Literature
• Russian Language and Literature
• French Language and Literature
• Japanese Language and Literature
• Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Foreign Languages

2. Program Duration and Credit

Three years generally, the maximum school years are not longer than 7 years (including the extension time).
20 credits of courses in total, at least 12 credits of academic courses.

3. Core Courses and Introduction

Western Aesthetic Classics and Methodology
The objective of this course is to improve PhD candidates’ (majoring in foreign languages and literatures) research capacity, especially the ability to write academic papers. It is a “platform course” for Category I discipline of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and a fundamental course for this doctoral degree program. This course is a combination of lectures, guided learning and seminars, featuring research-oriented pedagogy by integrating theoretical and methodological discussions. PhD candidates are required to complete reading assignments and report their questions and proposals when meeting teachers, who will then explain to the students how to conduct in-depth research from the perspective of methodology by taking the history of western aesthetics into consideration.

Contemporary Western Aesthetic Canons
This course is designed to assist first-year Ph.D. students in learning classics of Western literature and aesthetics by presenting to them a comprehensive and in-depth survey of history of Western literary criticism and showing them the content and application of critical theories and research methods, so as to improve their abilities in reading and analyzing classical texts, and to help them find the reasonable methodology for future planning of doctoral dissertation. The course covers major contemporary Western classical critical theories, including Russian Formalism, New Criticism, Cultural Studies, New Historicism, and Methodology in Doctoral Dissertation Writing and Research.

Selected Readings in Western Linguistic Classics
This course aims to enable students to understand the basic theories of Western linguistics, major schools, and historical evolution. The main content is as follows:

• the origin of modern linguistics: excerpts from Saussure's General Linguistics
• American structural linguistics: Bloomfield, Wolf
• Transformational generative linguistics: Chomsky
• Linguistics in the UK: Firth, Halliday
• Sociolinguistics: Himes
• Pragmatics: Austin, Cell, Grice

Language Philosophy
This course is designed to help students understand the philosophical problems in language and philosophical approaches to language issues. By following the frontier development in the discipline, the course can improve students’ ability in scientific thinking, research and innovation, solution to practical problems. The course covers Linguistic and Ontological Philosophy; Philosophy of Syntax; Semantic Philosophy; Pragmatic Philosophy; Semiotic Philosophy; Philosophical Approaches to Linguistic Studies.

A History of Foreign Literature Studies in China 
The objective of this course is to improve PhD students’ research ability in foreign language literary studies, and to prepare them for dissertation writing. The course covers major issues in the history of research of Chinese and foreign literatures from the methodological perspective, such as the ideological aspects of literary history, evolution of literary genres. The course aims at improving students research ability by showing them how to interpret foreign literary writing in a more innovative way.

Schools of Modern Western Linguistics
This course aims at helping PhD students in their acquisition of specialized knowledge and competence in understanding Western mainstream schools of linguistic theories and theories concerning applied linguistics as well as the status quo and future trend in studies on modern Western linguistics. Students can develop critical thinking ability and competence in conducting independent research and academic writing. Based on the general theory of modern linguistics, this course reviews the development of modern linguistics to illustrate that modern linguistics has broken free from the burden of the original tradition. It has become an “advanced science” thanks to all the outstanding achievements made by various researchers. By linking different social backgrounds, students can examine the different schools of modern functional linguistics, and analyze their major academic proposals and characteristics in their researches;

Theories and Practice of Literary Translation
The objective of this course is to assist PhD students in recognizing the activity of translation in various dimensions: language, literature and socio-cultural elements. The course covers the following content: selection of texts to be translated, choice of words and phrases, standards and principles of translation, experience and rational understanding of translation as a process of re-creation, subjectivity in translation, representation of styles, artistic images, representation of cultural images, content and form, internal and external resemblance, domestication and alienation, literal and free translation, interpretation of contemporary translation theories.

4. Supervisors

Jie Zhang, Bin Xin, Junwei Yao, Chuanbin Ni, Hui Zhang, Xuezhi Song, Minjie Lin, Xiaoying Wang, Shaohua Wang, Liping Chen, Aimin Chen, Yuhong Liu, Yongxiang Wang, Haiying Guan, Hongling Lv, Qingqi Wei.