Recently, “An Appointment with Tutors”—an exchange activity for postgraduates was successfully held in Room 110 of the Seventh Building. More than fifty master and doctoral students attended this event, which was hosted by the Postgraduate Student Affairs Department of the Party Committee of Nankai University and was undertaken by the Postgraduate Student Association of College of Foreign Languages. The guest lecturer was director of the English Department and deputy director of the Center for Regional and National Studies, Associate Professor Hao Yunzhi. He gave a special lecture entitled Interactions between American Literature and Changes of Political Culture in the 21st Century from the Award-Winning Works.
The thread running through Professor Hao’s lecture was the focus on the changes of political culture and their influence on literature during the 28 years of the presidential administrations from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump. By analyzing and comparing the characteristics of political culture, representative cultural products, as well as the list of award-winning works such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award during those presidents’ tenure, he analyzed the interactions between the changes of political culture and literature in the United States in the 21st century, thus deepening the audiences’ understanding of the 21st-century American literature and its development trends. For instance, during the Clinton administration, American liberal ideology gradually formed and neoliberal economy flourished, which promoted the process of global integration and the division of American society. During this period, the patriarchal social structure began to collapse, female literary creations and criticism took the stage, and more powerful female images began to emerge in TV shows and movies. Meanwhile, the influence of the pluralistic cultural movement increased, and ethnic literatures emerged and gradually became the mainstream, which was mainly manifested in the increasing number of awards for works written by ethnic minority writers and works on homosexual issues. Then, during the Obama administration, the implementation of Obamacare, the LGBTQ+ affirmative act, the legalization of gay marriage and other major changes made American society enter a stage of social resource redistribution under egalitarianism. With further improvement of the social status of ethnic minorities and women, there has been an apparent increase of ethnic literatures in the award-winning bibliography during this period. Being the most sensitive to political changes, more powerful black female roles have appeared in TV dramas. At the same time, the multiculturalism that dominates American culture has evolved into a cultural ideology of political correctness, and the leftist's influence on higher education and mainstream media has been ascending.
Professor Hao mentioned that the issuance of American Literary Awards has a certain political orientation. A comparative study of the changes in various aspects of the award-winning works over the years will help us accurately grasp the pulse of American political culture.In the interactive session, the audiences exchanged ideas by questions and answers. Professor Hao also recommended some introductory books about American culture to help students understand American culture more comprehensively in future studies.
