Chinese Stories: Modern Fiction and Film

Description

This program will take a journey through modern Chinese history by way of reading and viewing Chinese stories in fiction and film. The fiction of modern China found its first and most resounding voice in Lu Xun's short story, "The Diary of a Madman," in 1918, five years after the first independent screenplay was filmed in Shanghai, China. Since then, Chinese stories in the hands of many ingenious artists have enlivened life and documented modernization. Writers such as Ding Ling, Lao She, Mo Yan, Han Shaogong and Wang Anyi traced the joy, pain, suffering, dignity as well as everyday experiences of modern Chinese people, whose lives spanned some of the most turbulent and atrocious chapters of human history. Film directors Yuan Muzhi, Fei Mu, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Jia Zhangke and Li Yu, leading the way for continuously emerging new-wave film makers, retold Chinese stories through the unique lenses and distinct aesthetics of each film generation.

We will alternate between selective works of fiction and film, analyzing each work and genre independently as well as comparing them in aesthetic and thematic terms. Faculty will provide related historical and cultural information through lecture and additional readings. Students are required to analyze literary forms and film aesthetics and to explore their contents through reading, writing and seminar discussions. In addition to weekly papers in response to individual works, they will compose a final essay relating the artistic works of modern China to their historical and cultural contexts.