75706 - Chinese Language and Literature 3B (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student completes and deepens its advanced level skills in the Chinese language; the student should deepen the relevant literature and issues related to it, referring to the given bibliography.

Course contents

Quick summary of the Ming-Qing narrative presented in the second course IIB.

Presentation of the works of the reformers of 1898: Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong, Liang Qichao. The contribution of the great translators: Yan Fu and Lin Shu. The fall of Sun Yat-sen, and the three principles of the people.

The 20th Century as a Set of Intellectual Configurations: The New Culture Movement - May 4 Configuration and the principal authors Cheng Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Hu Shi, Mao Zedong.
The stories and novels of the main authors of the 20th century Chinese fiction: bio-bibliografical nods and mandatory reading of some stories and / or novels. Luxun (at least two stories and two essays), Guo Moruo (a story); as for the following writers chose a story to present orally during the exam: Ba Jin, Lao She, Ding Ling, Han Shaogong, Acheng, Yu Hua, Mo Yan.

Poets of the 20th century: Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, Bin Xing, Ai Qing.

The Contemporary Poetic Configuration. Reading of some authors: Bei Dao, Mang Ke, Gu Cheng, Shu Ting, Xi Chuan, Yang Lian, Zhai Yongming. Two migrant workers poets: Xu Lizhi and Guo Jinniu

Readings/Bibliography

Dutrait Noël, Leggere la Cina. Piccolo vademecum di letteratura cinese contemporanea, (1976-2001), Editrice Pisani, 2005.

Lu Xun, (Lu Hsün), da Fuga sulla luna, De Donato, 1969; i racconti "Diario di un pazzo" e "Medicina"; da La falsa libertà, ristampa Quodlibet, 2006; Introduzione e almeno due saggi: "Come oggi essere padri" e "Che cosa accade dopo che Nora se ne è andata", "Confucio nella Cina moderna".

Masi Edoarda, Cento capolavori della letteratura cinese, Quodlibet, 2009, presentazione delle opere e degli autori trattati nel corso.

Masi Edoarda, Storie del bosco letterario, Libri Scheiwiller, 2002

Nuovi Poeti Cinesi (a cura di C.Pozzana e A. Russo), Torino, Einaudi, 1996, lettura degli autori presentati nel corso e Introduzione al volume.

Pozzana Claudia, La poesia pensante, Quodlibet, 2010.

Samarani G., La Cina del Novecento. Dalla fine dell'Impero ad oggi, Torino, Einaudi, 2008.

Suggested readings:

Cao Xueqin, Il sogno della camera rossa, (tr. e cura di E.Masi), Milano,1964, 2008. English edition of Honglou meng.

Wu Jingzi, Storia non ufficiale della foresta letteraria [Rulin waishi], in English The Scholars, edited by Yang Xianyi e Yang Gladys, Peking, 1957 and/or other editions; in French Chronique Indiscrète des mandarins, ed. byTchang Fou-jouei, 2 vols., Paris, 1986, 2006.

Pu Songling, Racconti straordinari dello studio Liao[Liao zhai zhi yl, (a cura di N. di Giura), 3 voll., Milano, 1926, Milano Oscar Mondadori,1997,at least one short story. Do exist many English edition also on the web.

Wu Cheng'en, Viaggio in Occidente [Xi you ji], tr. italiana ridotta Lo scimmiotto, Torino, 1960, Milano, Adelphi, 1971.In English many different editions, at choice.

Some modern and contemporary authors translated into English. Suggested Lu Xun, Sheng Congwen, Ba Jin, Lao She, ‘Acheng, Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Zhang Ailing, Han Shaogong, Dai Sijie, Ha Jin, Ge Fei.

Teaching methods

Lecture and presentation of a few authors and works. Reading, translating and learn by heart of a few poems in Chinese.

Assessment methods

Written translation from the Chinese of a text already presented in class, in which students will have to provide a comment, contextualizing the historical and literary author.

In order to facilitate those students who could not attend classes regularly, one week before the end of the class the professor will give a list of the texts on which they can prepare for the traslation test. In the same week and in that before, all students will give a short lecture of their paper to the other students. Focus will be on an essay or a novel or a poem or a short story, or even only an author of the New Culture- May Forth 1919 Movement.

Non-attendants in addition to the program will have to submit one week prior to examining a paper about  a chosen author of the period of the New Culture Configuration-May 4, 1919.

The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the topics dealt with in the lesson and of the knowledge provided for the joint discipline of their critical use, the demonstration of the possession of an expressive mastery and of a specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence. A mnemonic knowledge of matter and synthesis and analysis skills articulated in a correct, but not always appropriate, language will lead to discrete evaluations. Inappropriate formative and / or inappropriate language, though in a context of minimal knowledge of the exam material, will lead to vows that will not suffice. Lack of training, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials provided by the course will be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

Reading in the classroom of narrative and poetic texts of authors of the program.

Presentation of short video with poets readings and interviews where the focus on inequalities in the society of XIX-XX century China will be discussed. What avout the XXI century?

Office hours

See the website of Claudia Pozzana