近年来,随着学科内涵的重大调整和变化以及服务国家战略和社会需求的意识不断增强,外国语言文学学科呈现日益明显的学科跨界融合加速发展态势。新文科建设全面启动,交叉学科成为我国第14个学科门类,尤其是区域国别学从外语学科五大研究领域之一成为交叉学科门类的一级学科,这些重大战略机遇叠加对新时代外语学科的发展提出了新的命题和挑战,凸显了外语学科如何在固本强元的基础上打开学科边界、推进跨学科研究的紧迫性和重要性。外语学科如何打开学科边界,融合人文科学、社会科学、自然科学的跨学科属性,以下五个维度是必须从顶层设计高度厘清、建构并凸显的战略问题:如何凸显明确的国家意识,以提升国家外语能力为己任,回应国家经济和社会发展的需求;如何构建中国特色的知识体系和话语体系;如何平衡人文科学、社会科学和自然科学,实现知识结构更新,开启科技人文时代的跨学科研究;如何实现跨界融合推进区域国别学研究;如何凸显中外文化交流与异质文明互鉴。总而言之,外国语言文学学科必须从服务国家战略和维护国家利益的高度出发,充分发挥外国语言文化和国别知识等优势,更好地在国际舞台上用中国知识体系解释和描述中国推进全球治理的理论创新依据所在,构建中国特色的对外话语体系,助推中外人文交流,促进文明交流互鉴与平等对话,这是外国语言文学学科知识体系和话语体系创新的必由路径。

With some major readjustments in the intension of disciplinaries and increased awareness of serving national strategies and social needs, the discipline of foreign language and literature (DFLL) has seen accelerated integration with other disciplines in recent years. Many emerging strategic opportunities such as the effort toward the new liberal arts, the establishment of interdisciplinary study as China’s 14th disciplinary category, and in particular, the establishment of area studies, originally one of the five major research fields of the DFLL, now as a primary discipline under the cross-disciplinary category, has raised fresh questions and posed new challenges to the development of the DFLL in the new era. These opportunities reveal the urgency and importance of the pushing back of disciplinary boundaries and the promotion of interdisciplinary research on the basis of a stronger DFLL per se. To this end, it is necessary to clarify, construct and highlight the following five dimensions in top-level strategic design regarding the DFLL: how to raise the national consciousness of those in the DFLL and their initiative to promote national foreign language capability and responsibility to respond to China’s economic and social needs; how to construct a knowledge system and a discourse system with Chinese characteristics; how to balance the knowledge of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, realize the renewal of knowledge structure, and open the interdisciplinary research in the era of the techno-humanities; how to achieve cross-boundary integration and advance area studies; how to highlight cultural exchanges between China and other countries and mutual learning between heterogeneous civilizations. In short, a sure path of the DFLL’s innovation of the epistemic and discourse system lies in its serving the country’s strategy and safeguarding national interests, communicating the rationale for China’s theory and practice of global governance to the global community with its strong capabilities in foreign language and culture and area studies hardly rivaled by other disciplines, building a discourse system with Chinese characteristics for external communication, and facilitating Sino-foreign people-to-people exchanges, mutual learning and dialogue between civilizations on an equal footing.