| source Harvard (X) |
level |
department Chinese Literature (X) |
This class will look at China's most famous traditional tales, such as Mulan, Meng Jiangnu, The White Snake and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. We will study both the richness and variety of these tales in premodern times, and the way in which modern and contemporary artists and intellectuals have reflected on these tales in their essays and novels, and adapted them for the stage and the screen in their search continuity between the Chinese past and the Chinese present.
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We look at the place of theory and criticism in the study of `Asia' in the academy today. We engage in topics such as the construction of `literature', literary traditions, and national cultures in a comparative context; articulations of internationalism and cosmopolitanism as counter-discourses; recent debates on nationalism and modernity, cultural studies, gender studies, translation and travel, and the proliferation of `post-' studies (postmodern, post-colonial, post-ethnic) as they pertain to our research and writing.
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Explores ways that "Chinatown" has circulated as `memory, fantasy, narrative, myth' in the dominant cultural imagination the last century and a half, and how realities of overseas communities, Asian American history, and conceptions of `Chineseness' have engaged with real and phantom Chinatowns. Though emphasis is on cultural and theoretical issues rather than socio-historical study of the "Chinatown" phenomenon, participants are encouraged to pursue multi-disciplinary approaches, such as studies in urban history, economics, or creative projects.
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Primarily generals preparation for those who are interested in taking a field in film and visual studies, with a special focus on Chinese cinema. This year's special topic will be the history of cinema on Taiwan, with special emphasis on the work of Edward Yang.
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Explores lyricism as an overlooked discourse in modern Chinese literature and culture. Looks into lyrical representations in poetic, narrative, and performative terms and re-defines the polemics of "the lyrical" in the making of Chinese modernities.
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Examines the way in which historical and cultural notions of nations, diasporas, and homes intersect with new economic and social arrangements that have created transnational flows of people across the globe.
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Studies the Shiji (Records of the Historian) in the context of Warring States and Han thought and historical developments. Uses the text to explore conceptions of rhetoric, narrative, history, and interpretation in early China. Readings are in classical Chinese, but some of the materials will also be available in English translation.
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Examines works in Qing prose, poetry, fiction, and drama. Focuses on memory and representation of the fall of the Ming in early Qing. Explores how this preoccupation merges and co-exists with developments in this period.
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This seminar deals with the dialogics between historical dynamics and literary manifestation at select moments of twentieth century China. It focuses on two themes: history and representation; modernity and monstrosity.
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A seminar on how literature helped to "emplot" modern Chinese history from the late Qing era to the Cultural Revolution. Discussion focuses on the fictional making of a national history, gendered subjectivity, and nativist vision.
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Uses conceptions of gender and representations of women to examine shifting paradigms of virtues and vices, notions of rhetoric and agency, ideas about politics, power and historical explanations, and boundaries of supernatural realms and religious transcendence.
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Continuation of Chinese Literature 201a. Provides an in-depth overview of the development of Chinese literature during the late imperial period, with special (but not exclusive) emphasis on the development of vernacular literature.
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In-depth, scholarly introduction to history of Chinese literature and literary culture from antiquity through 1400. Also examines state of the field and considers issues for future research. Includes bibliography. Essential for generals preparation.
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A close reading of the masterpiece of Chinese fiction, Honglou meng, drawing on commentary traditions and modern interpretations. We will explore how Honglou meng sums up and rethinks various aspects of the Chinese tradition.
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General introduction to the study of traditional vernacular fiction, including its origin and later development, as well as traditional and modern Chinese approaches to this body of literature. Special attention paid to available reference works.
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Surveys writings from second half of sixteenth century until fall of Ming, including prose (including "informal essays"), poetry, drama, fiction. Examines late-Ming literary-aesthetic sensibility (and questions how such a category may be justified.)
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Examines stories from Pu Songling's masterwork, focusing on development of the text. Compares the author's handwritten copy to later manuscripts and the earliest printed versions; and examines annotated editions, and adaptations.
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Focus for 2009-10: Examines various topics in the literature and culture of Eastern Han through Western Jin.
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An introduction to the masterworks of Chinese fiction from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Beyond close readings of excerpts from some of the best known Ming-Qing novels, we will explorethe contexts that establish their cultural significance: the traditions they build on, their social and intellectual contexts, the commentaries and sequels they generate, and their reverberations in contemporary culture.
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Survey of the concepts, institutions, canons, debates, experiments, and actions that gave rise to, and continually redefined, modern Chinese literature. Equal attention given to theories drawn from Chinese and Western traditions.
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Traditional and modern Chinese literature have a rich dramatic tradition. We will read (in translation) representative plays from the major dramatic genres from the 13th to the 20th century. Drawing upon existing scholarship and criticism, we emphasize the ways in which the conflict between passion (love, revenge) and duty (filial piety, loyalty to the state) is dealt with in each case.
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An introduction to the study of pre-modern Chinese literature, its history and customs, sources and resources, tools and methods, and theoretical issues.
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Examples will be read and discussed of seven of the major genres of shuochang wenxue: bianwen, zhugongdiao, baojuan, cihua, liqu, zidishu, and tanci. Building on my chapter on these genres for the Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, the class also will offer an introduction to the secondary scholarship on these genres.
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This course will focus in class on the close reading and translation of a small number of selected plays, which will illustrate the textual development of the genre.
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This course uses images of women to explore major themes in Chinese literature: the relationship between self and society, individual and tradition, gender and political power. We also examine conceptions of desire, agency, and yin-yang polarity. Tropes that persist through different periods will be used to chart changes in literary history. Whenever feasible, we juxtapose representations of the same subjects by male and female writers. Readings are in English.
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