Topic: Chinese Literature and Visuality

This course examines Chinese literature in terms of visuality.  We shall
cover a long span of historical periods and a wide variety of genres and
themes, ranging from traditional poetry, aesthetic criticism, landscape
painting, and pictorial illustrations, to modernist fiction, travel
writing, revolutionary posters, ethnographic film, and contemporary
avant-garde literature.  Students are encouraged to explore the connections
between the conceptual and the perceptual, between the philosophical and
the artistic, and between the literary and the visual in the rich tradition
of Chinese literature as well as its ongoing transformation.

No knowledge of the Chinese language is required for this class.
This course meets with Comparative Literature C257; credit given for only
one of EALC E332 and CMLT C257.

REQUIREMENTS for undergraduates (in EALC E322 or CMLT C257):

attendance & participation  10%
4 journals (1 single-space page each) 20%
mid-term exam  10%
1 team project (outline & presentation) 10%
1 term paper (4-6 double-space pages) 20%
final exam    30%

REQUIRED READINGS:

A course packet of readings
Harriet Evans and Stephanie Donald, eds.  Picturing Power in the People's
Republic of China: Posters of the Cultural Revolution (Rowman &
Littlefiled, 1999).
Shen Congwen (Shen Ts'ung-wen).  The Chinese Earth.  Trans. Ching Ti and
Robert Payne (Columbia, 1982).
Su Tong, Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas (Penguin, 1996).
Wu Hung, The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting
(Chicago, 1996).