31331 - Chinese Literature 3

Course contents

This course has a two-fold task: to strengthen reading and translating skills and to discover new topics in contemporary Chinese literature. We shall explore different narrative registers, compare communicative strategies in terms of rhetoric, levels of readings, mood, language through various expedients. When possible, we shall analyze how the same topic is handled in narrative and in filmic language:

-  AVANT-GARDE LITERATURE :  

 1) Yu Hua's Chronicles of a Blood Merchant

 2) Su Tong's Huili's Brand Sneakers

Analysis of the movies:  Ermo (Zhou Xiaowen)

TOPICS: FETISHISM, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRICE ANE VALUE  

- THE APPEAL OF CHINESE HOOLIGANS

1) Wang Shuo's Playing for Thrills

2)Li Er's The Crime Scene

Analysis of the movies: In the Heat of the Sun (dir. Jiang Wen) e A World Without Thieves (dir. Feng Xiaogang)

TOPICS: VIOLENCE, MANIPULATION OF THE PAST

 THE BIRTH OF THE WANSHENGDAI (“NEWLY BORN GENERATION”)

1) Wang Gang's English

2) Zhu Wen's I Love Dollars

TOPICS: THE CRISIS OF CONFUCIAN VALUES, PARRICIDES

 

EROTICISM AS A FORM OF DISSENT

 1)      Wang Xiaobo's Serving the People

2)      Yan Lianke's To serve the People

3)      Bi Feiyu's The Three Sisters

Analysis of the Movie: East Palace, West Palace (regia di Zhang Yuan)

TOPICS: BODY AND WRITING

 

HISTORY OR NOSTALGIA?

1)      Wang Anyi's The Song of Eternal Regret

Office hours

See the website of Melinda Pirazzoli