20th-century Chinese Writers in Global Context

Catalog description

The literary scene in the 20th centuryChinese-speaking world is diverse in sound and script, vast in the scope of subject matters, and challenging for those migrant or exilic minds whose creative energy is driven by their critical insight to the world around them. Working in,outside, and between places like mainlandChina, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, America, and France, Chinese-language writers may have in mind an imagined community of fellow countrymen when they write. Oftentimes, however, they may also ask provocative questions about nationalism, linguistic loyalty, and authenticity as Anglophone, Francophone, or bilingual writers living in the West. From andacross multiple cultural margins, they speak to probe the nature of modernity, cultural contact, and otherness amid the global flows of labor and ideas. How do Lu Xun, Lao She, Ha Jin, Alai, and Gao Xingjian represent China on the world stage and find their place in this picture? Where in their works can we find stylistic and cultural hybridization? How do novels and stories by Zhang Ailing, Bai Xianyong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gish Jen, and Shirley Lim cement or deconstruct the conventional ground on which we compare Eastern and Western civilizations? What kind of an alternative literary geography, and worldview, do these writers offer? Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE HPC or IPC; GCS elective Media, Arts and Literature; Chinese Language and Literature Minor.