1975年以來美國的中國現代文學研究學界先後出現了三個前後相繼的學術刊物,目前定型為《現代中國文學與文化》。三個刊物的改名體現了研究思路、範圍、理論與方法的轉型,也反映了美國的中國學研究的歷史變遷與發展趨勢。從轉型角度來看,《現代中國文學與文化》雜誌體現了如下特點:文學與政治的整合研究、傳統與現代的融合、學科壁壘的拆除、中西文化的對話、中西文獻的匯聚。該刊物轉向跨學科、文化研究的趨勢,與區域研究熱潮的衰退、左翼批判思潮的興起具有相當密切的關係。全球化的興起和冷戰格局的變化,導致美國本土文學研究趨向的改變,這些思潮的變化為英語世界現代中國文學研究的轉型提供了契機。這種轉向影響了研究者對這一學科的定位,這一定位又反過來影響了該領域研究者的學術旨趣。
Since 1975, there have been three academic journals in the field of modern Chinese literature studies in the United States, which are now classified as Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. The renaming of the three journals reflects the transformation of research ideas, scope, theories and methods, as well as the historical changes and development trend of sinology research in the United States. From the perspective of transformation, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture embodies the following characteristics: the integration of literature and politics, the integration of tradition and modernity, the dismantling of disciplinary barriers, the dialogue between Chinese and western cultures, and the convergence of Chinese and western information. The trend of the journal towards interdisciplinary and cultural studies is closely related to the decline of the regional research upsurge and the rise of the left-wing criticism. The rise of globalization and the change of the cold war pattern led to the change of the trend of literary research in the United States, which provided an opportunity for the transformation of modern Chinese literary research in the English-speaking world. This kind of turn affects the orientation of the researcher to this discipline, which in turn affects the academic purport of the researcher in this field.