美國德克薩斯州立大學英語系教授羅伯特·塔利是文學空間研究領域重要學者之一,現任帕爾格雷夫·麥克米倫出版社"地理批評與文學空間研究"叢書主編。近年來在文學繪圖、馬克思主義批評及世界文學研究方面著述頗豐。采訪者袁源博士,在加州大學伯克利分校訪學期間,于2019年美國現代語言協會芝加哥年會間隙對塔利教授進行了專訪,探討有關文學空間研究的以下重要議題:一、理論淵源及發展脈絡;二、中外學者在這一學術領域對話的可能性;三、相關教學研究;四、發展趨勢展望。塔利強調空間文學研究固有的跨學科特性,認為空間意識廣泛存在于寫作、閱讀及批評三個層面。他指出,波特蘭·威斯特法爾以地理為中心的研究方法存在的問題,并分析了以斯坦福文學實驗室為代表的數字人文研究帶來的負面影響。然而,他認為文學空間研究可以和人工智能、敘事學及生態批評等各領域形成交集,在文學教學中可以進行實地考察旅行,并采用多種情感地理學教學方式。訪談促使我們進一步認識馬克思主義研究方法的跨學科性、全面性、辯證性,以及其中所蘊含的人文精神。

Robert T. Tally Jr., Professor of English at Texas State University, is one of the leading figures in Spatial Literary Studies. He is the chief editor of Palgrave Macmillan’s Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies book series. He has published extensively in Literary Cartography, Marxist criticism and World Literature. Dr. Yuan Yuan, while working as a visiting scholar at UC, Berkeley(2018—2019), interviewed Professor Tally at the 2019 Modern Language Association of America Convention in Chicago and sought his opinions on some of the major issues in Spatial Literary Studies: 1) theoretical genealogy; 2) possibility of dialogue between Chinese and Western scholars in this academic field; 3) pedagogy; and 4) tendencies in future development. Tally emphasizes the inborn interdisciplinarity of Spatial Literary Studies. He believes that place-mindedness prevails on three different levels: writing, reading, and criticism. He points out the problem with Bertrand Westphal’s geocentric approach and argues against the negative influence of digital humanities represented by Stanford Literary Lab. However, he sees possible interfaces among Spatial Literary Studies and AI studies, Narratology, Ecocriticism, and so on. Literature teachers can arrange field trips and adopt other approaches to Affective Geography in their courses. The interview thus inspires a reemphasis of the Marxist approach which is interdisciplinary, comprehensive, dialectical, and full of humanity in its essence.