Chinese Literature

China! China has captured the American imagination: we encounter stories and articles about this country every day in the mainstream media. People talk about whether China will be the next superpower and what that means for the United States. And yet, despite the flood of articles about China, very few people here know much about its people, history, culture or literature. In this course, we’ll look at Chinese literature both as a means of broadening our literary knowledge and also as a means of deepening our understanding of the culture and history of a people who comprise more than a fifth of the world’s population. Come with an open mind and a willingness to tackle texts that will challenge your idea of literature. We’ll explore a bit of everything in this class: poetry, philosophy, history, plays, short stories, novels, and movies. Authors and texts will include: Confucius, Si Ma Qian, Li Bai, Lu Xun, and Dai Sijie among others. No knowledge of Chinese required!