Volume Preface
Meaningfully Linking Intercultural and Literary Studies:Toward the Emerging Field of Intercultural Literature
Inquiry into“Intercultural Communication””studies,which some call “”IC,””now has over 30 years of history in China and over 50 years internationally.Most programs of””Intercultural Communication”as a field of study usually trace their roots to the post-World-War-II U.S.diplomatic training program developed by Edward T.Hall and his associates and the publication of his book The Silent Language(1959).These approaches often focus on descriptive or interpretative elements of culture isolated for meaningful comparisons across cultural groups, or the social scientific examination of important cultural constructs, dimensions,or theoretical frameworks across cultures.In either case,the academic assumptions are generally rooted in functional,structuralist, positivist,social-science approaches to research.Though an“intercultural approach””to literature has at times been proposed,literary scholars often find it intellectually incongruous to attempt to link or utilize the””pragmatic”or””scientific””dimensions or theories that arise from the IC tradition in meaningful ways.
