CHINESE 305:

CHINESE  LITERATURE AND SOCIETY 1900-1949

SPRING 2006

Instructor: Richard King, CLEC217. Phone: 721-8708, E-mail: rking@uvic.ca.

Office hours:

Time and place: TWF

Brief description: The first half of the twentieth century was a time of unprecedented upheaval and change in China; after military and economic humiliation by the foreign powers, the Qing government collapsed, ending two thousand years of imperial rule.  A new generation of Chinese intellectuals, dismayed at their nation’s decline, rejected the cultural traditions of empire and pursued a vision of modernity learned in part from Japan and the West.  A cultural and literary revolution followed the political transformation to a republic, producing writings that trace China’s traumatic incorporation into the world order of the twentieth century.

We will follow that new culture, principally through required readings of Chinese fiction (with some drama, film and popular music), with supplementary readings from literature, history and cultural debate.

Students are expected to have an extremely thorough knowledge of the required readings, and will take regular turns in leading classroom discussion. Supplementary readings are highly recommended; most will be assigned to individual students for classroom reports.

Assignments: Three pieces of written work are required:

two brief (5 double-spaced pages) analytical essays on works of fiction,

and a final paper (10 pages) on one of a choice of assigned questions or a subject agreed between student and instructor.

There will be a final examination in which students will be asked to identify and             comment on brief extracts from class readings, and answer an essay question relating to the term’s work.

Grading: brief analysis of literary texts (two papers each worth 15%)                 30%

final paper                                                                                             30%

final examination                                                                                    20%

attendance and participation                                                                  20%

(includes classroom assignments; marks will be deducted for non-attendance or lack of preparation)  

*****

Required texts (available from the bookstore or library):

Ba Jin, Family, trans Sidney Shapiro.  Any edition – they’re all the same translation!  (PL2780             F4C413 1964 or 1978).

Chinese text: PL2780 F4C4, on reserve

Lao She,  Rickshaw, trans.  Jean M.  James. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1979.              (PL3000S5L613 1979)

Chinese text on reserve

Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, trans.  William A. Lyell.  Honolulu:                      University of Hawai’i Press, 1990 (PL2554S5A25 1990).

Chinese text: PL2754S5L79, on reserve

Zhang Henshui, Shanghai Express, trans.  William A.  Lyell. Honolulu: University of                 Hawai’i Press, 1997.  (Not available in the library)

Chinese text on reserve

Other, shorter, required readings are indicated in the schedule below.

English Chinese texts for all required readings will all be available in the reserve room of the library.

Background reading:

 Everyone is recommended to read from this list.

Kirk A.  Denton, “General Introduction,” in Denton ed., Modern Chinese Literary                       Thought: Writings on Literature 1893-1945.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996             (PL2302M64), pp.1-61.

Leo Ou-fan Lee, “Literary Trends I: the Quest for Modernity,” The Cambridge History of China vol.12.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  (DS735             C3145 v.12), pp. 452-504.

----------, ALiterary Trends II: the Road to Revolution,@ Cambridge History vol.13,                         pp.421-91.

Jonathan D.  Spence, The China Century.  New York: Random House, 1996 (DS755.2 S64), pp.              1-159.

----------, The Gate of Heavenly Peace.  New York: Viking, 1981 (DS774S596), pp. 1-311.

Joanna Waley-Cohen, The Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History.  New York:   Norton, 1999  (DS721 W268).

Introduction to major works:

A Selective Guide to Modern Chinese Literature 1900-1949.  Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988-90 (ref PL2302S45):

vol.  1: The Novel, ed.  Milena Dolezelova-Velingerova; intro.  pp.  1-45.

vol.  2: The Short Story, ed. Zbigniew Slupski; intro.  pp.  1-22.

vol.  3: The Poem, ed.  Lloyd Haft; intro.  pp.  1-25.

vol.  4: The Drama, ed.  Bernd Eberstein; intro.  pp.  1-45.

Schedule:

Week 1 (January 4&6): Introduction

January 4: Introductory lecture: A Moment of Modernity

January 6: Historical background: The End of Empire

Week 2 (January 10-13): Saving the Nation

January 10: Saving the Nation with Fiction: the Late Qing Novel

January 11: The Travels of Lao Can

required reading: Liu E, The Travels of Lao Can, trans.  Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi.  Beijing: Panda Books, 1983, preface and chapters 1 & 2, pp.3-34.  PL2718I8L313 (English and Chinese texts available on reserve)

supplementary readings:

Liang Qichao, “On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Government of the People,” Modern Chinese Literary Thought, pp. 74-81.

David Der-wei Wang, Fin-de-siècle Splendour: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction 1849-1911.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997 (PL2437W37), pp.13-52 & 117-82.

Shu-ying Tsau, “The Rise of ‘New Fiction,’” in Milena Dolezelova-Velingerova ed., The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980 (PL2437C54), pp. 18-37.

Donald Holoch, “The Travels of Laocan: Allegorical Fiction,” The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century, pp.  129-49.

January 13: The May Fourth Movement

supplementary reading:

Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986 (DS775.2S38), pp.  12-144.

Milena Dolezelova-Velingerova, “The Origins of Modern Chinese Literature,” in Merle Goldman ed., Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era.  Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1977 (PL2253M6) on reserve, pp.  17-32.

Weeks 3-5 (January 17- February 3): “Save the Children”: Lu Xun

supplementary reading: Kirk Denton, Lu Xun Biography http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/bios/lxbio.htm

January 17: The Giants Within: Lu Xun

January 18&20: Critique of the Chinese Tradition

required reading: “Preface”, Diary of a Madman, pp.  22-8,

“Diary of a Madman”, pp.  29-41.

supplementary reading:

Rey Chow, Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1995 (PN1993.5 C4 C525), pp. 4-11.

Gang Yue, The Mouth That Begs: Hunger, Cannibalism and the Politics of Eating in Modern China. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1999 (PL2303 Y83), pp.61-100 (on reserve).

Xiaobing Tang, “’Diary of a Madman’ and a Chinese Modernism”, in Tang, Chinese Modern: The Heroic and the Quotidian.  Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2000 (HM101 T195) pp. 49-73. (on reserve).

Yomi Braester, “Dreaming a Cure for History”, in Braester, Witness Against History: Literature, Film and Public Discourse in Twentieth-Century China.  Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2003 (PL2303 B73), pp.  31-55 (on reserve).

David Der-wei Wang, Fictional Realism in 20th-Century China.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1992, (PL2442W294), on reserve, pp.  1-10.

January 24: “Medicine”

required reading: “Medicine,” Diary of a Madman pp. 49-58.

supplementary reading:

Milena Dolezelova-Velingerova, “Lu Xun’s ‘Medicine’,” Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era, pp.  221-231.

January 25: “Hometown”

required reading: “Hometown”, Diary of a Madman pp.  89-100.

.            supplementary reading:

Xiaobing Tang, “Beyond Homesickness: An Intimate Reading of LuXun’s ‘My Native Land’,” Chinese Modern, pp. 75-96 (on reserve).

January 27: “New Year’s Sacrifice”

required reading: “New Year’s Sacrifice,”  Diary of a Madman pp.  219-241.

supplementary reading:

Carolyn T.  Brown, “The Paradigm of the Iron House: Shouting and Silence in Lu Xun’s  Short Stories,” CLEAR vol.  6 #1-2 (July 1984), pp.  101-119 (on reserve).

January 31, February 1: “Ah Q -- The Real Story”

required reading:

“Ah Q -- The Real Story,” Diary of a Madman pp.  219-241.

supplementary viewing:

The True Story of Ah Q, dir.  Cen Fan, 1982 (PN1997A236).

supplementary reading

Marston Anderson, The Limits of Realism: Chinese Fiction in the Revolutionary Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990 (PL2442A53), on reserve, pp.  1-26 & 76-92.

----------, “The Morality of Form: Lu Xun and the Modern Chinese Short Story,” in Leo Ou-fan Lee ed., Lu Xun and his Legacy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985 (PL2754S5Z737), on reserve, pp.  32-53.

C.T. Hsia, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961 and later reprintings (PL2442H8 1971), pp.  28-54.

Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices from the Iron House: A Study of Lu Xun.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987 (PL2754S5Z6968), on reserve, pp.  49-88.

William Lyell, Lu Hsün’s Vision of Reality.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976 (PL2754S5Z759), on reserve, pp.  140-303.

Selective Guide vol.2, pp.  113-24.

February 3: Lu Xun discussion and wrap-up; instructions for first assignment.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT DUE FEBRUARY 10

Week 6 (February 7-10): Drama in Republican China: Thunderstorm

February 7: The Giants Within: Cao Yu

February 8-10: Thunderstorm act 4.

required reading:

Cao Yu, Thunderstorm.  Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1958 and later editions (PL2821N3T48 1964). Act 4 is on pp. 116-151.

English and Chinese text on reserve.

Supplementary reading:

Marian Galik, Milestones in Sino-Western Literary Confrontation (1898-1979).  Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz, 1986 (PL2274G34), pp.  101-121

Weeks 7&8 (February 14-17 & 28): Revolt Against the Family: Ba Jin

required reading: Family

supplementary reading:

Nathan K.  Mao, Pa Chin.  Boston: Twayne, 1978, pp.  1-37 & 85-102.

Ba Jin,  “My J’accuse Against this Moribund System: Notes on a Crumbling Landlord Clan of Western Sichuan,” in Helmut Martin and Jeffrey Kinkley eds., Modern Chinese Writers: Self-Portrayals.  Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1992 (PL2277 M65), pp. 277-83.

Supplementary viewing:

The Family, dir.  Chen Xihe, 1956

February 14: The Giants Within: Ba Jin

February 15: Family, chapters 1-13

February 17: Family, chapters 14-24

February 28: Family, chapter 25-end.

Week 8&9 (March 1-7): “A Paradise Built on Hell”: the Culture of Republican Shanghai.

March 1&3: Cultural hybrids: Popular music and film in the Paris of the Orient

supplementary viewing:

Street Angel, dir. Yuan Muzhi (1937), translated text by Andrew F. Jones.

Goddess, dir.  Wu Yonggang (1934), translated titles by Yomi Braester.

Supplementary reading:

Isabel K.F. Wong, “The Incantation of Shanghai: Singing a City into Existence,” in Timothy J.  Craig and Richard King eds., Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia.  Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003, pp.  246-64.

Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern: the Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China 1930-1945.  Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1999, pp.  82-119.

Rey Chow, Primitive Passions, pp.  23-6.

Yingjin Zhang, The City in Chinese Literature and Film.  Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996 (PL2303Z43), on reserve.

Kristene Harris, “The Goddess: Fallen Woman of Shanghai,” in Chris Berry, ed., Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes. London: British Film Institute, 2003 (PN1993.5 C4C466), pp.111-19.

March 7: Mao Dun and Midnight.

required reading:

Mao Dun, Midnight.  Hong Kong: C&W Press, 1976 (PL2801N2S6913 1979), chapter 1, pp.  9-32.  Additional copy, and Chinese text of chapter 1, on reserve.

supplementary reading:

 Jaroslav Prusek, “Mao Tun,” in Prusek, The Lyrical and the Epic, ed. Leo Ou-fan Lee.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980 (PL2302P7), pp.  121-142.

C.T. Hsia, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, pp.  140-164.

March 7: Instructions for the second assignment

SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE MARCH 17

Weeks 9-11 (March 8-21): Beijing Reinvented: Lao She and Rickshaw.

March 8: The Giants Within: Lao She

required reading:

Lao She, Rickshaw.

supplementary reading:

Frederic Jameson, “Literary Innovation and Modes of Production: a Commentary,” in Modern Chinese Literature vol. 1 #1, (1984), pp.  67-77 (on reserve).

C.T. Hsia, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, pp.  165-188.

David Der-wei Wang, Fictional Realism, pp.  111-200, esp.  pp.  144-156.

supplementary viewing:

Rickshaw Boy, dir.  Jiang Zifeng, 1982 (PN1997L678).

March 14: Rickshaw, chapters 1-6

March 15: Rickshaw, chapters 7-12

March 17: Rickshaw, chapters 13-20

March 20: Rickshaw, chapters 21-end.

March 21: Three ways to end a novel; instructions for the major paper

MAJOR PAPER DUE APRIL 14

Weeks 12 (March 24-6): Mandarin Ducks, Butterflies and Zhang Henshui

required reading:

Zhang Henshui, Shanghai Express

supplementary readings:

E.  Perry Link, Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Literature in Early Twentieth Century China.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981 (PL2442H8 1981), on reserve, pp.  1-39.

Zhang Henshui, “Fate in Tears and Laughter” (introduction and selections by Sally Borthwick), in Liu Ts’un-yan ed., Chinese Middlebrow Fiction.  Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1984 (PL2658E8C4665), pp.  255-287.