20th C Chinese Fiction in Tran

Catalog description

This course introduces key events in 20th-century Chinese cultural history, with a specific focus on the role fictional stories played in the development of modern Chinese identity. Assigned readings represent the evolution of modern Chinese literary culture across the 20th-century, tracing how the fictional exploration of identity negotiated between an emphasis on the individual VS. the collective. Assigned readings reflect the complex ways authors adopted, experimented with, and rebelled against prescribed literary styles and topics. Our main goal is to explore how literary texts provide unique insights into the development of modern Chinese culture and society, with special focus on the many ways individual and collective identities are formed, understood, imagined, disrupted, questioned, expanded, etc. Taught entirely in English, no knowledge of Chinese language or history required.