New World Literature and Comparative Literature in the Digital Age: The Neglected “Heise Report” of the 2017 American Comparative Literature Association

The American Comparative Literature Association State of the Discipline Report published in 2017 failed to attract the attention of the academic community as much as the previous four reports, with few citations to domestic and foreign academic papers, and even fewer research articles. The broad perspectives, relatively complex topics, and long-flourishing ecological perspective presented in the report fail to provide a clear and visible direction for the future of comparative literature, as the title suggests. However, as a discipline report in the new digital era, the networking way of the contribution, the diversity of presentation modes, the attention to digital humanities, and the discussion of world literature in this report show the transformation of the paradigm of comparative literature research. Its contribution lies in reconceiving comparative literature, achieving a balance between disciplines, conducting dialogue between nationalities, and paying attention to the environment and emerging technologies, which provides an effective reference for the study of comparative literature in the new era.