On April 6, 2021, visiting associate professor of comparative literature Emily Sun will publish her latest book, On the Horizon of World Literature: Forms of Modernity in Romantic England and Republican China, with Fordham University Press. On the Horizon of World Literature is informed by Sun's long-standing academic interests in relating the literary traditions of the East and West.
In the book, Sun compares the literary climate of Romantic England and Republican China — two asynchronous time periods where each culture was on the cusp of literary modernity. Examining a body of work spanning from Jane Austen to Eileen Chang, Sun considers how the literature of these periods correlate in their depictions of the universal themes of identity, politics, society, and creative discipline. Sun challenges generalized, "monocultural" readings with her close examinations of these texts, and emphasizes the continuing importance of trans-national readings of world literature.