During the 1990s, within the growing interest in and need of research that focuses on Taiwan, scholars at National Taiwan University started to discuss the necessity of founding an official institution to fulfill that interest and need. Against this background, with Professor Chang Heng’s support and Professor Ko Ching-Ming’s organization, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature was officially founded in 2004.
As an independent institution in College of Liberal Arts, Graduate Institution of Taiwan Literature inherits the materials and archives from the Faculty of Literature and Politics of Taihoku Imperial University which was founded in 1928. The institution also leads the Taiwan Studies Program, an undergraduate program that offers transdisciplinary course and seminars on Taiwan-focused topics.
The GITL integrates resources from various disciplines such as foreign languages and literatures, Chinese literature, history, sociology, and anthropology. Building upon the vast array of documental, material and digital archives of the NTU museums, the institute sees Taiwan literature an organic embodiment of the interplay between humanity and history. In this light, the institute visions Taiwan literature studies a transdisciplinary studies that constantly resonate with global issues.
From Chinese philology and phonology, comparative literature, region-specific cultural studies, sociolinguistics, literary sociology to literary theory and cultural criticism, GITL’s academic undertakings are characterized by a constant attentiveness to both linguistic and corporeal practices, such as related to Taiwan cultures and histories. Within the rapid development of humanity studies, we aim to fashion Taiwan literature studies that constantly interact with and contribute to the current global issues. Through various academic exchanges with domestic and international institutions, we hope to keep deepening and widening the established scholarships on Taiwan literature studies.