LETTERATURA CINESE

The course is designed in order to provide a satisfactory and thorough knowledge of the cultural production in China, in the field of poetry, art and music, from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the beginning of 21st century.

The course will alternate frontal and interactive lessons, also including projections of films and documentaries as a fundamental tool of integration to the theoretical content.

If the teaching is delivered in a mixed or remote mode, in order to comply with the prospect program reported in the syllabus further changes may be introduced in accordance with what previously stated.

1) Chinese literature during Maoism: art or propaganda?

2) Authors and representative works.

3) East is Red and the myth of the foundation.

4) The Cultural Revolution, a "traumatic event" as the premise of contemporary Chinese literature. The notion of trauma, trauma studies and trauma as a common thread of contemporaneity.

5) The "literature of scars" 伤痕文学: origins; context; key issues

6) The children of the Cultural Revolution: the film To Live (活着, 1994) by Zhang Yimou and comparison with the novel of the same name by Yu Hua (1992)

7) The literature of the roots 寻根文学: themes and authors

8) Re-education in the countryside and literature as a tool of redemption: Ah Cheng and Gao Xingjian.

9) Mo Yan and the myth of the native country in Red Sorghum.

10) Introspective literature and the scars in the works of Chinese writers

11) Autobiographical accounts and the role of the female authors in overcoming the collective trauma

12) Wang Bing and the documentary He Fengming Chronicle of a Chinese woman (2007)

13) Modernist literature and the "new historical novel": themes and authors

14) Su Tong: evoking the past to talk about the present

15) Comparison between Wives and Concubines (1991) by Su Tong and the film adaptation Raise the Red Lantern (1992) by Zhang Yimou

16) Chinese literature in the era of reforms and economic opening

17) "Orphans and bastards" of the Cultural Revolution: the literary case of Wang Shuo and the literature of "Liumang" 流氓 and "Pizi" 痞子

18) A good memory: the Cultural Revolution told by Wang Shuo and Jiang Wen in In The Heat of the Sun (1994).

19) The "new" literature of the "new" China. Continuity and discontinuity in the era of economic opening.

20) Business partners and brothers in the stories of Yu Hua and in the cinema of Feng Xiaogang and Jia Zhangke.

21) Metamorphosis of the Chinese perifery in the film Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke).

22) Gao Xinjiang: story of an author who defied history.

23) Economic development and environmental sustainability

24) The environmentalist turn and the cinema of denunciation.

25) Modern or contemporary? Reflections on the meaning of Chinese modernity.

26) Generations compared: Post-80 (八零后) and beyond.

27) The Tiny Times saga and the beginning of Chinese globalization

• N. Pesaro, M. Pirazzoli, La narrativa cinese del Novecento, Carocci, 2019
• Y. Huang, Chinese Literature, From the Cultural Revolution to the Future, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
• Z. Hong, A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature, (trad. Michael. M. Day), Brill Academic Pub, 2008.
• Acheng, La Trilogia dei Re, (trad. Maria Rita Masci), Edizioni Theoria, 2018
• Han Han, Le Tre Porte, (trad. Silvia Pozzi), Metropoli d’Asia, 2011
• Mo Yan, Sorgo Rosso, Einaudi tascabili, (trad. Rosa Lombardi), 2014
• Su Tong, Mogli e Concubine, (trad. Maria Rita Masci), Universale Economica Feltrinelli, 2012
• Yu Hua, Vivere, Universale Economica Feltrinelli, (trad. Nicoletta Pesaro), 2012
• Lecture notes and miscellaneous material provided by the Convenor.

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 programs can be consulted in the Library.