Abstract:

In this increasingly globalized world no culture can be observed or studied separately from other cultures. Moreover, the disciplines within the humanities are nowadays overlapping in order to provide a more complete image of human society. Consequently, it became necessary to integrate the cross-cultural component within the humanities study programs. Although cross-cultural studies are primarily related to the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, political and economic sciences, philological studies have also became unthinkable and insufficiently comprehensive unless they include diverse cross-cultural topics.

The Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade designed the study program Language, Literature, Culture on all three levels of studies, enabling over 1000 students to choose from more than 30 different languages, literatures and cultures. By merging these three scientific fields, which are essential for a more in-depth understanding of philology, the courses within the LLC study program offer a comparative overview of various subjects. This primarily refers to the module Culture where several courses focus on comparative and cross-cultural topics. The paper will emphasize successful examples of how cross-cultural topics can be integrated within the courses dealing with language, literature or culture. We will present the courses such as the West and Japanese literature, which considers the impact that the English, French, German, Spanish and Russian literature had on Japanese literature, i.e. the influence of the writers Walter Scott, Swift, Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas-father, Jules Verne, Victor Hugo, Goethe, Schiller, Cervantes, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov, etc. Namely, we intend to indicate that it is through the works of these writers that the Japanese nation gained a better understanding of European customs and living conditions, thus enabling intercultural and cross-cultural impact between Japan and Western countries. We will consider this type of courses as they provide an excellent framework for cross-cultural studies and research.

Keywords:

Cross-cultural, studies, research, humanities, philological studies, study program, Language, Literature, Culture, Faculty of Philology, West and Japanese literature.