30050 - Chinese Literature 1 (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes The student will be expected to have a good knowledge of discourse strategies in the Chinese language, and will be able to apply these skills to text-analysis and translation. Through practical exercises, their communicative competencies in all the abilities, active and passive, will reach a C2 level of the European Common Framework which will provide them with sufficient skills to effectively interpret socio-linguistic and cultural codes of people involved in a communicative rapport.

Course contents

CHINESE LANGUAGE: PROGRAMME

TRANSLATING FROM CHINESE SOURCES IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND CHINA

A. The course focuses on strategies of word formation in Chinese. Neologisms are analyzed in relation to the social changes they mirror and as powerful tools for categorizing the world.

This year, for the first time, neologisms prevaling in the homosexual literature and among homosexuals will be discussed as a case-study on the action of social reality on language and vice-versa.

B. Translation and discussion of Chinese texts across disciplines with the aim of understanding China. Rejecting the approaches that stress ‘cultural essentialism' and ‘universality of cultural pathways', the course critically analyses aspects of the Chinese culture in different realms including literature, cinema, figurative arts, sociology, philosophy, and historiography. In particular the following topics will be discussed:

1. Representations of the body: art, cinema and fiction. The body has become overwhelmingly present in different cultural expressions. The course examines the common matrix of these different cultural expressions;

2. The plurality of traditions, expressions, and choices of wording in Chinese classical thought schools, focusing on keywords, and themes in Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and Zhuangzi;

3. The translation of Chinese poetry and works of fiction viewed as production of knowledge and construction of the ‘other’. The first Italian translations of Chinese poetry will be analysed and discussed. Moreover, the students will be guided in the translation of modern and contemporary Chinese texts of poetry and fiction;

4. The documentary sources for the analysis of China’s contemporary history, focusing on the dilemmas in the interpretation and translation of the Chinese communist party and government's documents.

CHINESE LITERATURE - PROGRAMME

1. Lu Xun and the birth of Chinese realism (excerpts from “A Madman’s Diary”)
2. Romanticism (excerpts from Miss Sophie’s Diary)
3. Realism(excerpts from Xiao Hong’s “Hands”)
4. The “Beijing school” (excerpts from “After Drinking”))
5. The “Shanghai school”( excerpts from Shi Zhecun’s “Kumarajiva’s Tongue”
6. The Revolutionary Era
7. High Culture Fever (excerpts from Yu Hua’s “One Kind of Reality”)
8. The “breaking-up” movement (Excerpts from Bi Feiyu’s “Remote Control”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

* Handouts will be provided by the instructor

Teaching methods

CHINESE LANGUAGE, FIRST PART: Lectures, translation of materials from Chinese to Italian, and students’ presentations.

CHINESE LANGUAGE, SECOND PART/CHINESE LITERATURE:Group activities. Students will be asked to work in small groups to develop translation techniques and critical reading skills.

Classes with a native speaker of Chinese (professor Hu) are integral part of the course.

Assessment methods

ASSESSMENT METHOD: CHINESE LANGUAGE, FIRST PART

Partial examination (based on the program for the first semester):
Students are required to produce a 8-10 page written text on one of the topics discussed during the course, and to present their work to the class. Besides, they are required to produce a short text presenting the main points of the lectures.

Moreover, an assessment of the Chinese language competencies will take place, based on the classes by the Chinese native speaker (professor Hu).

 

ASSESSMENT METHOD: CHINESE LANGUAGE, SECOND PART/ CHINESE LITERATURE

Written exam. Students will be asked to translate short passages and to locate them in a broader cultural framework

 

ASSESSMENT METHOD: CLASSES WITH NATIVE SPEAKER (Prof Hu Guiping):

 

EXAMPLE OF WRITTEN EXAM (Prof Hu Guiping):

期末考试 (lettorato 15 分)

姓名

词汇填空 ： 展 （ ）高飞

选择适合的成语填空： 旅游虽然结束了，还不停议论水乡见闻，似乎（ ）。

选择适合的成语填空： 他们两人的能力和水平差不多，（ ） 。

用以下至少10个成语写一篇150字的短文

Teaching tools

multi-media tools

Office hours

See the website of Antonella Ceccagno