CLS2160

Chinese literature and modernity

Gloria Davies

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should have developed critical perspectives on the differences between Chinese and Western understandings of modernity; explored questions of nationalism and ethnicity in relation to `third world' literatures and post-colonialism; developed interpretive skills appropriate for reading Chinese literature as well as an ability to question their own cultural and political assumptions as readers.

Synopsis This subject introduces students to twentieth-century Chinese literature and its social, political and intellectual contexts. It focuses on the issue of modernity by examining Chinese and Western cultural expectations and aesthetic values for the ways in which they condition our understanding of the `ethnic' experience. A range of literary texts in translation, mainly prose fiction dating from the 1910s to the present time, will be discussed. The approach taken is one informed by theoretical writings on third world literatures, Orientalism and postcoloniality.

Assessment Two tutorial papers (1500 words each): 50%
* Essay (3000 words): 50%
* Second-year students are expected to demonstrate familiarity with the set readings and with the general concerns of the course.

Prescribed texts

Ba Jin Family Anchor Books, 1972
Duke M (ed.) Worlds of modern Chinese fiction: Short stories and novellas from the People's Republic, Taiwan and Hong Kong Sharpe, 1991
Lee L Farewell my concubine Harper Collins, 1992
Li Ang The butcher's wife Point Press, 1986
Lu Xun Selected stories Foreign Languages Press, 1964
Lu Xun A brief history of Chinese fiction Foreign Languages Press, 1976
Zhao Y H and Cayley J (eds.) Under-sky, underground: Chinese writing today I Wellsweep, 1994

Recommended texts

Bhabha H (ed.)Nation and narration Routledge, 1991
Chow R Woman and Chinese modernity: The politics of reading between East and West U Minnesota P, 1990
Lau J Hsia C T and Lee L O (eds) Modern Chinese stories and novellas 1919- 1949 Columbia U P, 1985
Lee M and Syrokomla-Stefanowska A D (eds) Modernization of the Chinese past Wild Peony Press, 1993
Spence J The gate of heavenly peace: The Chinese and their revolution, 1895- 1980 Penguin, 1982
Spivak G The post-colonial critic: Interviews, strategies, dialogues ed. S Harasym, Routledge, 1990