MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY CHINESE LITERATURE

This course aims at helping students obtain a deeper knowledge of some themes and texts of modern and contemporary Chinese literature (from the early twentieth century up to the present day), while training them develop critical awareness and a method of research, mainly based on the close reading of texts (including texts in Chinese). Students will be also guided in setting Chinese literature within a larger cultural, social, and historical perspective, throughout hte shaping of modern China, and to present their personal reflections on the contents of the course by means of both written (final paper) and oral presentations.
The main subject of the course will be the different attitudes, ethical and aesthetic choices - between adherence and dissent - of modern Chinese writers in their relationship with political power, starting from Lu Xun (1881-1936), the "father" and critical conscience of modern Chinese literature.

1. Knowledge and understanding:
• Know the historical and social context in which each writer's attitudes, ideas and works took shape, and their interplay with the society and cultural life of the time;
• Know the literary trends defining the historical context: students will be guided into a critical reflection upon the literary texts read in class weekly, in order to let them recognise their stylistic features and understand the underlying meanings, also in relation with the shaping of modern Chinese society and culture.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
• Students will be able to recognise and categorise texts in terms of genre, linguistic and lexical features specific of the author's time and social context;
• Students will be able to analyse and compare literary texts and phenomena to western literature;
3. Judgement capacity
• assess the level of one’s knowledge of texts, genres and textual analysys skill;
4. Communication skills
• argumentative skill;
• be able to communicate orally by means of class presentation and in the final exam, with clarity of exposition and accuracy in citing sources (both English and Chinese sources)
• be able to communicate in written form (final paper), demonstrating a general knowledge of the sources and of the basic rules of academic writing.
5. Learning skills
Students' ability to analyse and research autonomously Chinese literature will be tested through the final paper they are requested to write on a new topic agreed upon with the teacher. Besides, oral skills and argumentative skills will be tested during the class presentation and the final oral exam, by which they will have to demonstrate their general understanding and critical view on the course contents.

A good knowledge of Chinese language is requested, in order to be able to read modern literary texts and literary criticism in Chinese. A basic knowledge of the history of Chinese literature in the twentieth century is also recommended.

The tie that binds Twentieth century Chinese writers with their country's political and social issues is undeniable. Through relevant literary readings and discussions the course will explore the different attitudes they adopted in terms of adhesion or dissent and all the nuanced positions in between, in order to cope with political power. From Lu Xun and Shen Congwen to Wang Xiaobo and Wang Shuo, the course will take into account also "problematic" writers such as Ding Ling, Zhao Shuli, Ru Zhijuan, and disruptive literary movements such as the "menglongshi" group (Misty poetry), the 1980s avantgarde to the group of "duanlie" (rupture) at the end of last century. Finally, regarding the first two decades of the Twentieth-first-century, the oblique strategies adopted by writers such as Yan Lianke, Mo Yan and Sheng Keyi, the limits and opportunities of genre fiction such as science fiction and the voices of dissenting writers from abroad

Nicoletta Pesaro, Melinda Pirazzoli, La narrativa cinese del Novecento. Autori, opere, correnti. Roma, Carocci, 2019 or
Kirk Denton ed., The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature, New Work, Columbia University Press, 2016.

Works in translation
Fang Fang, Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City, trans. by M. Berry, Harpervia, 2020. (it is recommended to read the original Chinese version on Caixin: http://m.app.caixin.com/m_topic_detail/1489.html )
Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain, trans. by M. Lee, London, Harper Perennial, 2000.
Hao Jingfang, "Folding Beijing", in Ken Liu ed., Invisible Planets, Tor Books, 2016, pp. 219-293.
Lao She, “Black Li and White Li”, in T. Huters ed., Reading the Modern Chinese Short Story, Armonk, New York, Sharpe, 1990, 121-136.
Lu Xun, The Real Story of Ah Q and Other Tales of China, trans. by J. Lovell, London, Penguin, 2009.
Ma Jian, The Dark Road, trans. by F. Drew, London, Chatto & Windus, 2013.
Mo Yan, Frog, trans. by H. Goldblatt, London, Penguin, 2015.
Ru Zhijuan, "Lilies", trans. by in T. Huters, Reading the Modern Chinese Short Story, Armonk, New York, Sharpe, 1990, pp. 162-172
Sheng Keyi, Un paradis, trad. par B. Duzan, Arles, Picquier, 2018.
Sheng keyi, Death Fugue, trans. by S. Bryant, Sidney, ReadHowYouWant, 2014.
Xiao Hong, The Field of Life and Death and Tales of Hulan River : two novels by Hsiao Hung trans. by H. Goldblatt and E. Yeung, Bloomington, Indiana University, 1979
Yan Lianke, Dream of Ding Village, trans. by C. Carter, New York, Grove Press, 2012.
Yan Lianke, The Four Books, trans. by Carlos Rojas, London, Vintage, 2015.
Yu Hua, The Past and the Punishments: Eight Stories (Fiction from Modern China), trans. by A. Jones, University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
Yu Hua, To live, trans. by di M. Berry, New York, Anchor Books, 2003.

The exam for attending students is divided into two parts:

1) short paper (max. 3500 words) to be handed in at least one week before the oral exam;
2) oral exam about the individual paper and the general contents of the course.

Non-attending students will have to agree on a topic (related to the course content) with the teacher and write a paper of about 10 thousand words. The paper shall be sent by email at least two weeks before the oral exam. During the exam, the student will present and discuss his/her paper and will be asked general questions about the theme of the course.
Please have a look at the teacher's material on the moodle platform for the guide to essay-writing.

Classes will be carried out both in presence and online. The teaching methods include a close-reading of primary texts, through which relevant topics will be presented and analysed, and a discussion with students on weekly assigned readings.

Italian

further bibliographic information and Chinese texts will be provided throughout the course

written and oral