Gender and Sexuality in China

Catalog description

Study of gender roles and the imaginary of sexuality in the literary, filmic, and artistic production of modern China. CHNS 416 Gender and Sexuality in China (3) (IL) This course explores gender roles and the imaginary of sexuality in the literary, filmic, and artistic production of modern China (from the end of the 19th century up to today), paying attention also to developments in Chinese cultural spheres beyond the People's Republic, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora. This course will use the representation of gender, sex, and sexuality as a lens through which modern and contemporary Chinese culture can be understood in its historical, social, and aesthetic changes. The analysis of representations of gender and sexuality throughout the class will focus on literary and filmic texts, as well as art, rather than on theoretical work on gender and sexuality (in China or in general). Course Objectives include:1. Critically assess the complex construction of gender roles and sexuality in modern and contemporary Chinese literature and film2. Reflect critically on different ways of understanding and representing gender difference.3. Critically assess the connections between gender and sexuality and changing political, historical, and cultural contexts.4. Question your assumptions about gender and sexualities in the context of cultural difference, understand cultures and value systems that may be different from (or be shared with) your own.