On December 23, to promote the study of English and American literature, the College of Foreign Languages invited Professor Duan Bo from Ningbo University to give a lecture on Moby Dick and the ‘Pacific Empire’ Imagination of Melville in Room 326 of the Foreign Languages Building. The lecture was hosted by Vice Dean He Shaobin, and attended by some teachers and graduate students of all years.
In the lecture, Professor Duan Bo shared the issues related to the historical trajectory of the American “Pacific Empire” and the “frontier” expansion of the Pacific Ocean in Melville’s Moby Dick. The lecture was presented from a trans-Pacific perspective to describe the historical path of the U.S. He also drew on the spatial representation of the “blank” map of the South Pacific to map out the geopolitical map and power of the United States in the Pacific region.
Vice Dean He Shaobin summarized the lecture and shared his views, and graduate students in the audience also raised questions about marine literature, to which Professor Duan Bo gave patient and detailed answers.
Through the lecture, the students not only had a deeper understanding of marine literature and culture, but also further thought about the connection between marine issues and national thought and culture.
(Reported by the College of Foreign Languages office; Written by Zhao Shen and Ouyang Shu; Translated by Li Huixian)
