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31563 - Chinese Culture and Literature 1

Academic Year 2020/2021

                
                        Docente:
                        Melinda Pirazzoli
                    
                        Credits:
                        9
                    
                        SSD:
                        L-OR/21
                    
                        Language:
                        Italian
                    
                        Teaching Mode:
                        Traditional lectures
                        
                            Campus:
                            Bologna
                        
                            Corso:
                            First cycle degree programme (L) in
                            Asian Languages, Markets and Cultures (cod. 0980)

                                Also valid for
                                
                                    First cycle degree programme (L) in
                                    
                                        Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
                                    
                            Teaching resources on Virtuale

Course contents

The first part of the course will focus on the Shijing. We shall study "The Great Preface" and we shall read many poems from the "Book of Songs". We shall understand the basic concepts of "qing" 情 e "jing" 景. We shall enjoy the haofang 浩方 style of Qu Yuan. We shall also discuss the difference among "fu" 赋, "bi"比 and "xing"兴 (Yeh). Then we shall introduce the concept of interconnectedness between 内 and 外 (Varsano).

While students will learn philosphy in the mandatory course about Chinese philosophy we shall nevertheless introduce Confucius, Mengzi, Mozi and Zhuangzi（大学）. More speficically, the reading of the Great Learning will help us to undertand that the 内 andl 外spheres are also foundational in the philosophical discourse.

While readings excerpts from Zhuangzi, we shall read about the "happiness of the fish", the "dream of the butterfly" and the "usefulness of the useless" and, finally of the principle of wei 为.

Then we shall deal with commentaries such as the Zuozhuan 左传and the Zhanguo ce 战国策。ILast, but certainly not least, we shall read excerpts from Sima Qian 司马迁's Shiji.

We shall then move on to the Chinese middle ages. We shall read important yuefu and poems such as the "Nineteen old poems". We shall also read poems by Tao Qian (we shall focus on the principles of "chongdan " 冲淡， and "ziran " 自然). , Xie Lingyun and Shen Yue. we shall also read excerpts from Liu Xie's 文心雕龙.

We shall devote at leat two weeks reading in both Chinese and Italian poems by Meng Haoran 孟浩然， Li Bai 李白， Du Fu 杜甫，Wang Wei王维， Meng Jiao 孟郊，Han Yu 韩愈，Bai Juyi 白居易，Li He 李贺，Du Mu 杜牧，Wen Tingyun 温庭筠 and Li Shangyin 李商隐。 we shall not overlook the short stories ( 传奇，with a focus on "Storia di Yingying".

The second part of the course will begin by focusing on Ou Yangxiu 欧阳修 e Su Shi 苏轼. We shall also briefly mentions the evolution of the Chinese drama during the Song and Yuan dynasties.

We shall spend the last three weeks focusing on Ming and Qing fiction. All students are required to read Cao Xueqin's The Dream of the Red Chamber and excerpts from the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, the Jin Ping Mei , Feng Menglong's and Pu Songing's short stories.

Readings/Bibliography

Owen, Stephen: An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (Norton, 1996)

Pirazzoli, Melinda: Intenti poetici (Ananke, 2016)

Baccini, Giulia, I Sette Savi del Bosco di bambù: modelli di letterati eccentrici nella Cina antica, Letteratura Universale Marsilio: la Fenice (monografia), 2016

Bisetto, Barbara, Il laccio scarlatto, Venezia, Marsilio, 2011

Cao. Xueqin, Il sogno della camera rossa, (Masi Edoarda, a cura di),(Milano: BUR, 2013)

Teaching methods

Lectures

Group activities

Assessment methods

Written text

Office hours

See the website of Melinda Pirazzoli