CHINESE CULTURE AND LITERATURE 2

Knowledge and understanding: general overview of the historical, philosophical and artistic basic themes and issues of Chinese civilization for understanding the events and critical debate on the Chinese literature, from the thirteenth century to contemporaneity.

Applying knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to understand and relate main historical events in the cultural and literary fields.

Making judgement: students will be able to obtain critical skills with the chinese reality, in different context of everyday life and professional life.

Communication skills: students will be able to express their ideas, projects and results obtained in a complex and articulated way.

Learning skills: students will be able to interact with different professional and cultural contexts. They know how to interpret, understand and use independently their expressive capabilities

Face-to-face lectures.

Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the syllabus.

The course will focus on the evolution of Chinese literature, from the Yuan dynasty at the threshold of contemporaneity, especially on crime fiction. The students are required to study the historical, philosophical and artistic contexts and the critical analysis of most representative literary works. The active participation in class will be strongly encouraged. In addition to the reference manuals, the teacher will submit additional materials during the semester. The course will focus on the evolution of Chinese literature, from the Yuan dynasty at the threshold of contemporaneity, especially on crime fiction. The students are required to study the historical, philosophical and artistic contexts and the critical analysis of most representative literary works. The active participation in class will be strongly encouraged. In addition to the reference manuals, the teacher will submit additional materials during the semester.

The main topics to be studied are:

- Period of the Five dynasties and Song dynasty: prose (cultured and popular), story (huaben) and poetry (fu, shi and ci)

- Yuan dynasty: poetry sung on arias (qu) and theater (zaju)

- Ming and Qing dynasties: poetry (educated and popular), literary schools, theater (zaju and chuanqi), the novel (different phases and the four great novels), crime literature, the influence of Western literature and the Translation studies.

- Literature until the 1920s of the 20th century

Moreover, phenomena transversal to the different epochs will be studied, such as: the imperial exams (the different levels); the social and cultural transformations from the tenth century onwards (urbanization, expansion of education, relationship between culture, literature and power) the role of the literate official (the three sublime arts of painting, poetry and calligraphy); the philological question (the jinwen, the guwen and the hanxue) and the crime literature (theories and literary works). During the lessons we will analyze literature passages contained in the manual and other literary sources.

1. Cheng A., Storia del pensiero cinese, Einaudi, Torino, 2000. (volume II, parte V e VI)
2. Bertuccioli G., La Letteratura Cinese , L’asino d’oro, Roma, 2013 (dal VI capitolo in poi) oppure Idema W. - Haft L., Letteratura cinese, Cafoscarina, Venezia, 2000 (dal cap. XVIII in poi)
3. Sabattini M., Santangelo P., Il Pennello di Lacca. La narrativa cinese dalla dinastia Ming ai giorni nostri, Laterza, Bari, 2008 (prima parte);
4. Benedetti L., Storia del giallo in Cina. Dai casi giudiziari al romanzo di crimine, Aracne, Roma, 2017;
5. Pesaro N., “Letteratura cinese moderna e contemporanea” in G. Samarani e M. Scarpari (a cura di), La Cina. Verso la modernità, Tornino, Einaudi, vol. III, pp. 693-745​.
6. A reading chosen from the following classic novels, in any available translation (Italian, English, French, German, etc.):
   - Sanguozhi yanyi (Il Romanzo dei Tre Regni)
   - Shuihu zhuan (Sul bordo dell’acqua/I briganti)
   - Xi you ji (Viaggio in Occidente/Lo scimmiotto)
   - Jinpingmei (Chin P’ing Mei)
   - Honglou meng (Il sogno della camera rossa/Storia della pietra)

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programme can be consulted in the Library.