87349 - Literary Civilisation of Contemporary China (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will have acquired an advanced level of knowledge of contemporary Chinese culture and literature with reference to the original sources. They will be able independently to conduct documentary and bibliographic research, so as to apply their skills in the editorial and publishing field and in the promotion of the cultural heritage.

Course contents

Programmi e contenuti

Quick overview of contemporary literature: from novels and socialist poems of the fifties, to the group of poets Menglong, and the artists of the Xinxin group of the seventies and eighties. Women writers and women of major importance. Importance.

Some Chinese films from the seventies to the present day: suggestions and contextualizations. The theme of the city / countryside difference in the era of experimentation and subsequently with the reforms.

Globalization and literature. Other poets and storytellers, from the nineties to the contemporaries of the twenty-first century: suggestions on new authors, contexts, vehicles, artistic and literary places. The new phenomenon of migrant workers poets.

Readings/Bibliography

AA.VV, 1989, Racconti dalla Cina (a cura di Rosanna Pilone e Yuan Huaqing), Milano, Oscar Mondadori.

AA.VV, 1993, Narratori cinesi del Novecento, (a cura di Rosanna Pilone e Yuan Huaqing), Milano, Tascabili Bompiani.

AA.VV, 2003, Rose di Cina, edizioni e/o

AA.VV, 2003, China Reflected, (a cura di Lau Kin Chi & Huang Ping), Hong Kong, Asian regional Exchange for New Alternatives , da “Asian Exchange”, vols. 18-19.

Pascucci Angela, 2008, Talkin’ China, Roma, Manifesto libri.

Pozzana Claudia, 2010, La poesia pensante. Inchieste sulla poesia cinese contemporanea, Macerata, Quodlibet Studio.

Sang Ye, 2006, Candid China. Il popolo sulla Repubblica Popolare, (a cura di Geremie R.Barmé e Miriam Lang, edizione italiana a cura di Mita Masci), Torino, Einaudi.

Teaching methods

Discussion and seminars on focus issues. Each week students will have to answer with a written page to the questions raised by the course content.The texts to read will be shortly presented and read loudly a few crucial sentences to comment cin class and at home.

Each student will have to present a short paper (no more than 5pp. + notes and bibliography) at the end of the course. The presentation in the last week to all the class will be considered as 1/3 of the final exam. The non attending students will have to write a 6 pages paper and send it one week before the exam.

Assessment methods

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.

Topics will be chosen in the collection of China Reflected essays, which deal with the main issues still open today. In addition to expressing himself on the chosen essay, the student must make hypotheses of connection with the present on the basis of his readings.

Non-attending students must also present a paper (of 6 pp. + Notes and bibliography) on one of the essays of the above volume or another paper on the general understanding of the entire course reading. This paper must be presented at the oral exam proposing possible links with the present situation, based on personal readings and reasearch.

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

Video, photos and film, will be seen in the classroom and other will be suggested for home vision. Student are invited to propose additional materials to present in the class.

Office hours

See the website of Claudia Pozzana