Contemporary Chinese Literature

This course introduces students to contemporary Chinese literature produced after 1949, and particularly after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), by selecting literary works that are not widely taught outside China and that depict and directly affect life in China today. China has made some of the most dramatic changes in its history during the last thirty years, and the literary works created after 1976 are equally meaningful and certainly rival, if not surpass, many works produced during the Republic. Through the magnifying lens of contemporary literature, the course closely examines the cultural, social and environmental concerns of this remarkably transformative period. Students will learn to contextualize modern and contemporary Chinese literature within specific historical periods and eras as a means to analyze and understand literature not just as an art but as an expression of social change. In other words, the historical use of literature for the purpose of addressing social problems and as a vehicle for social development in China is the main concern of this course.