Wen-chin Ouyang

Global Literary Leaders: Keynote Speakers

Abstract

Light, darkness and shadow are integral to seeing, imagination and works of art. Science, such as optics, and technology, such as spectacles, camera, and film projector, are today indispensable in how we visualise the world in our representation of it and, more importantly, how we receive and comprehend a work of art.  Shadow Theatre, as story, performance and entanglement of literature and technology, offers multiple avenues for theorizing and practicing comparative literature without being bugged down by the modern temporary frame and the West influencing the East paradigm or abandoning the role cultural encounters play in intercultural exchanges. The evolution of Shadow Theatre has been informed by its travels around the world across regions, languages, storytelling traditions, and cultures as well as developments in science and technology. It is multilingual in three ways. It speaks the languages of the parts of the world it has sojourned, it combines word, image, sound and performance in its expression, and it entangles science and technology in works of art. It points to multilingualism as method for networking languages, storytelling traditions, literature, science and technology, and the world.

Bio

In 2022, Professor Wen-chin Ouyang FBA was among 19 new ‘academicians’ to have been elected to the prestigious Academia Sinica, the national academy of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Wen-chin is Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at SOAS, University of London, and joins two other humanists in this year’s elections. The Academia Sinica was founded in China in 1928 to promote and undertake scholarly research in the sciences and humanities. After the ROC government moved to Taiwan in 1949, Academia Sinica was re-established in Taipei. She has been Fellow of the British Academy since 2018.