在外国语言文学学科中,语言学和翻译学的跨学科研究走在了前列,文学和区域国别研究相对滞后,但是这种情况在不久的将来可能改变。本文讨论外国文学的学科边界,以及在这个领域进行跨学科研究的可能性。过去50年,外国文学研究经历了从强调学科边界和学科独立性,到进行学科交叉和跨学科研究的历程,印证说明了跨学科研究是本学科的发展趋势和发展前沿。在我们这个信息时代,网络技术、大数据和人工智能等为外国文学的跨学科研究提供了又一个新的机遇。如果学界善于抓住机遇、迎接挑战,那么外国文学研究将迎来一个实现创新和突破的新契机。

Within the discipline of Foreign Language and Literature (FLL), literature and country-and-area studies have lagged behind linguistics and translation studies in developing cross-disciplinary approaches and strategies, but this situation is likely to change in the near future. This essay discusses the discipline’s boundary and the possibility of cross-disciplinary studies. In the past 50 years, the FLL discipline has gone through two periods of development: first the emphasis on boundary and independence, then the opening-up and the emphasis on cross-disciplinary study—the brief history indicates that the latter has become the order of the day and the direction of future development. In this age of information technology, big data and AI will provide new opportunities and challenges for FLL, which if we dare grasp them, will usher in a new era of innovative development for the discipline.