75721 - History of Modern and Contemporary China (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has acquired advanced knowledge on the history of China, in particular as regards the modern and contemporary era. The student has knowledge of historical research methodology, and can cope with the historiographical themes in an original and autonomous way. The student critically explores the sources and knows how to navigate the specialized bibliography; possesses the ability to explain and communicate what has learned and to formulate valid judgments in the field of history.

Course contents

From the Reformers movement of 1898 to the fall of the Chinese Empire in 1911."The New Culture - May 4th Movement 1919 Configuration" - Other Intellectual Configurations of '900: Yan'An, People's War, two United Fronts.After 1949.Building Socialism. Studying the political and philosophical essays by Mao as documents of the time.The'6'-'70 and the equalitarian experimentations.The epoch after Mao's death and the time of Deng Xiaoping Reforms.The 80ies and 90ies and the beginning of the XXI century. Economic development, globalisation and new phenomena of the inequalities, labour, internal and external migration,  a new middle class, consumerism and market. The contents of the contemporary world are the focus oo the second part of the course.

Readings/Bibliography

Mao Zedong, 1970, in Collected Works, Waiwen chubanshe, vols 1-4; spec. "The analysis of classes of Chinese Society; The Hunan peasant movement, How to correct the wrong ideas in the Party; Where do the correct ideas come from?; How Yukong moved the mountains"; "On Contradiction"; "On the Practice".

Mao Zedong, 1979, Rivoluzione e Costruzione. Scritti e Discorsi 1949-1957, Einaudi, spec. "Introduzione", "Sui dieci grandi rapporti", e "Il dibattito sulla cooperazione agricola e l'odierna lotta di classe". Students are suggested to carefully study and grasp the cronoligy of the events. All these texts can be easily found on the web. This is a special anthology of texts published in Italian.

Perini Gaia, 2006, "La casa di ferro: la Cina del XX secolo si confronta con il capitalismo e l'imperialismo stranieri" in Oscar Marchisio (a cura di), Cina & Capitalismo, ovvero un matrimonio quasi riuscito, Sapere 2000 edizioni, 2006, p. 97- 110.
Positions, East Asia Culture Critique, 2005, vol. 13, n.3, Special Issue: Alain Badiou and Cultural Revolution. All the volume contains many essays very useful to understand the Sixties historical decade.

Claudia Pozzana, 2010, " La Cina del XX secolo come insieme di configurazioni intellettuali", in La poesia pensante. Inchieste sulla poesia cinese contemporanea, Quodlibet, , pp. 51-72

Claudia Pozzana e Alessandro Russo, 2010, "Continuità e discontinuità. La dialettica di autonomia e apertura", in <<Inchiesta>> ed. Dedalo, Giugno

Samarani, Guido, 2017, La Cina contemporanea. Dalla fine dell’impero a oggi, Torino Einaudi.

For non-attending students it is suggested to produce a small paper elaborating the crucial texts read about the experimenta era before 1949 e after. The following text are also Recommended reading for those who want to deepen their knowledge:

AA.VV., 2009, La Cina, Einaudi, , 3 vols.

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, 2008, India, Russia, Cina. Le premesse per tre rivoluzioni, Il Saggiatore. Ibis,. (almeno la Parte sulla Cina).

Wang Hui, , 2007, Il nuovo ordine cinese, Il Manifesto libri., spec. “Introduzione” di E. Masi, pp. 209-249..

Wang Hui, 2009, Impero o stato nazione? La modernità intellettuale in Cina, Academia Universa Press, spec. “Introduzione e postfazione”.

Su molti argomenti riguardanti il XIX e XX secolo si possono consultare i saggi contenuti in Cambridge History of China, 6 vols.

Teaching methods

Method: seminars, discussion of some issues and questions to be answered in written form, from week to week, with a note of a page. The texts to be read will be presented during the lessons so everybody can answer questions weekly and show one's concern.
At the end of the course, on the last week, each student will present to the other students a small paper of his impression about the readings he found most interesting.

Assessment methods

An oral examination will assess the ability of students to move in the scanning of the events covered in the course and to seize and continuity and discontinuity in major historical junctures. The test asks the student to be able to summarize the main sequences of the period studied, deepening the themes of the papers presented in class, and using the vocabulary pertaining the themes. Students will present the paper with their impressions about the most interesting text that was read.

Teaching tools

Photo, videos, films

Office hours

See the website of Claudia Pozzana