87348 - Literary Civilisation of Ancient and Modern China (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will have acquired a thorough knowledge of Chinese civilization in its different historical, cultural and literary expressions. They will be able to approach critically the related literature and its problems, to identify and classify literary works and to develop analytical investigations of the written sources.

Course contents

The present course will explore the realm of wen (the art of writing): what is wen and which are its forms? During the archaic, the classical and the modern eras, which genres were considered as integral part of this fundamental category of Chinese traditional knowledge and which texts instead were aprioristically excluded from it? Starting from this basilar concept of wen, the course will focus on the different discoursive regimes of poetry, philosophy, historiography and fiction. A special emphasis will be given to this last genre, which had been banned from the official literature for many centuries, but in the end turned into the highest symbol of modern national culture.

Main themes and issues covered in class:

• Wen: the practice of writing and its historical subjects: shamans from Shang dynasty, the preQin thinkers, the officials, the hermits, the scholars and the artists
• The relationship between thinking and ruling: preQin philosophical-literary texts
• The poetic language: from the metaphor of power to the power of metaphor, Tang poetry
• History (“zhengshi”) and stories (unofficial historiography, short stories, novels: “what the Master would not discuss”)
• The outsiders of Chinese literature: the novels on monsters, ghosts, fox-spirits and other strange creatures, like women

Readings/Bibliography

Excerpts from:

• Cheng, Anne, “Storia del Pensiero Cinese” (vol. I), Torino: Einaudi, 2000
• Cheng, François, “La Poesia T’ang”, Napoli: Guida, 1987
• Hsia, Chih-tsing, “The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction”, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1980
• Lu Xun, “A Brief History of Chinese Fiction”, Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1964
• Masi, Edoarda, “Storie del Bosco Letterario”, Milano: Libri Scheiwiller, 2002
• Materials provided by the teacher

All the texts are available at our library

Teaching methods

Close reading; text-context analysis; reception theory (a special emphasis is given to the reader and his/her role in bringing the text to life by reading it)

Each lesson is divided in two parts: besides the introduction to each literary work and the description of its historical context along with the close reading under the teacher’s guide, an open discussion among the students will be held (both about the linguistic aspects and the content). The students are required to read by themselves the texts that will be discussed in class and prepare a 15-min presentation (the assignment shall consist of few pages per week: from 5 to 30 at most)

Assessment methods

This 6 CFU course can be chosen as a part of the 12 CFU Integrated Course “CIVILTA' LETTERARIA CINESE (C.I.) (LM)". If the student's study plan includes the Integrated Course (12 CFU), the final grade will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two parts (“Civiltà letteraria cinese antica e moderna (LM)" and “Civiltà letteraria cinese contemporanea (1) (LM) “).

An oral examination will verify the students' ability to orient themselves in the scanning of the events covered during the course, and to grasp continuity and discontinuity in the main historical, literary and artistic contexts and on the subjects dealt with during the course.

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Students who cannot attend the classes should follow a reading program previously arranged with the teacher, moreover they should write a short paper (+ Notes and bibliography).

The student's achievement of an organic vision of the topics dealt with in class and the knowledge required for the discipline combined with their critical use, the demonstration of possession of an expressive mastery and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence.
A mnemonic knowledge of the subject and the ability to synthesize and analyze articulated in a correct language, but not always appropriate, will lead to discrete evaluations.

Training gaps and / or inappropriate language, even in a context of minimal knowledge of the exam material, will lead to votes that will not exceed sufficiency. Formal gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation in the bibliographic materials foreseen by the course will be negatively evaluated.

 

Teaching tools

IOL, Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint slides, links to video and websites

Office hours

See the website of Gaia Perini