Syllabus

Syllabus (PDF)

This course is an introduction to three of the major genres of traditional Chinese literature -- poetry, fiction and drama. This year the course will focus on fiction drama. We will read translations of a number of the "masterworks" of Chinese fiction and drama. We will also examine the intertextuality between these genres -- how poetry blends into narrative, how fiction becomes drama, and drama inspires fiction. Through reading these selected works of traditional Chinese literature, we will examine some of the major features of traditional Chinese society: religious and philosophical beliefs, the imperial system and dynastic change, gender relations, notions of class and ethnicity, family, romance and sexuality. All works are read in translation; no language background is necessary.

Weekly reading journal (graded at mid-term and end of term) and short oral presentations. Active class participation and regular attendance. No class absence, except in cases of illness, or family emergency. Please inform me in advance by e-mail.

Class participation 30%, reading journal 50%, weekly journal submissions 20%.

Outlaws of the Marsh. Abridged Version. Translated by Sidney Shapiro. Quarry Bay, Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1986.

Monkey. Translated by Arthur Waley. New York: Grove Press, 1984.

Plum in the Golden Vase. Translated by David Tod Roy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Cao Xueqin. Story of the Stone. 5 Vols. Translated by David Hawkes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979-1987.

Wang Shifu. Story of the Western Wing. Edited and translated with an introduction by Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Tang Xianzu. The Peony Pavilion. Translated by Cyril Birch. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.

Stephen Owen, ed. and trans. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

Luo Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms. Translated and edited by Moss Roberts. New York: Pantheon, 1976.

Shen Fu. Six Records of a Floating Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.

All texts are on reserve at the Reserve Reading Library. Please consult reading assignments before purchasing books, as many works will not be read in their entirety.