Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, NCCU

The graduate school of Taiwan Literature is a brand new academic study. Though the study has become most popular in recent years, it would still need much more efforts before it can be transformed into a matured study, The focuses of development after the establishment of the graduate school are found as follows:

•  enhancement of quality for the study of Taiwan literature

Taiwan literature is not of isolated discipline, and it has already become an inseparable link to cultural study as it has to be inter-connected and combined with historical study, politics, sociology, psychology, and cultural anthropology. The graduate school has also strengthened theoretical training for diverse disciplines in literary study so that the development of literary significance can be more profaned and thorough. The involvement of literary theory is also placed with much involvement as the study on post-modernism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and feminism has been well introduced and designed in the curriculum of the graduate school. We are convinced that the quality of study on Taiwan Literature can be well enhanced through the combination of these theories.

• training the faculty for the study on Taiwan literature

Since the study on Taiwan Literature is only opened after the lifting of martial law, it has rendered some rapture in terms of teaching so that there is insufficient faculty teacher to cope with the ever increasing number of graduate students. Since 1995, the amount of master thesis on the study of Taiwan Literature has come to the similar amount as that of classical literature, and the soaring trend of learning and research is wholly incommensurable to exiting faculty structure. Thus, the objective for the establishment of this graduate school is, on one hand, to enhance the quality of research, and on the other hand to explore and development research talents for it would taken the complete cultivation of faculty talents to render Taiwan literature to become a majestic and serious academic study. The graduate school should put in ceaseless efforts into this regard for its accomplishment.

• scope expansion for the study of Taiwan Literature

As the study on Taiwan literature has gradually more and more popular domestic and overseas, this graduate school will, after it establishment sponsor large-scale academic conference regular. It is believed that through the exchanges of conferences it can provide itself as bridge for a mutually beneficial dialog among domestic and international scholars so that they can share their results of research. The graduate school will, also, invited relevant scholars and host speeches on special topics. Furthermore, advanced English is the absolute need for foreign language so that the graduate students can be well versed in reading overseas literary theory and literature works, and students will be required to pass the recognition test of second foreign language (Japanese, French, and Germany), while the training on classical Chinese will be further strengthened for intensification.

• full utilization of domestic historical material of Taiwan Literature

The materials on Taiwan Literature are found distributed in many of the large libraries throughout the country, and a great deal of historical materials is kept by private individuals. The graduate school will work to collect and find out these materials in each of the libraries around Taiwan. In northern Taiwan, there are the National Taiwan University (historical materials during the Japanese occupation), National Cheng Chi University (post-war historical materials on literature), Academia Sinica (historical materials on aborigine), and National Central Library (historical materials on classical literature) which can work in alliance to set down the most consolidated foundation for the study of Taiwan Literature. In central Taiwan, much historical materials on aborigine, classical Chinese, and works during Japanese Occupation are collected by Taiwan Provincial Literature Association (now put down Academic Historica), while manuscripts and writer’s collection are kept in the National Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Southern Taiwan (preparatory office of National Museum of Taiwan Literature), which are considered the targets for close cooperation after the establishment of the graduate school.

above-mentioned focuses of development, the pursuit for the graduate school after establishment are found into two primary approaches:

• The College of Social Science of National Cheng Chi University has already set up Center of Taiwan Study, and the humanistic training of the graduate school can be conducted of inter-disciplinary integration with the center. To be more specific, it is inevitable that the objective of Taiwan Literature will be heading towards cultural study, and at the present stage of knowledge-based economy today it is necessary that the researchers of Taiwan literature should transcend existence boundary so as to render its research methodology more wide-spectral and profound. The cooperation of eh graduate school with the Social Science Information Center will be taken as the primary approach of development for the graduate school.
• In order to help concentrate all of the literary information, the graduate school will set up a library on Taiwan Literature, and it will massively collect and copy the lost literature works. Besides, it will continue to collect extensively all of the master and doctoral thesis in foreign languages overseas related to Taiwan literatures, and the provision of a comprehensive research environment and a well-equipped faculty resource should be the other important approach for the development of the graduate school.