Course teached as: B004688 - LETTERATURA CINESE 1 (12 CFU) 3-years First Cycle Degree (DM 270/04) in LANGUAGES, LITERATURES AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES Curriculum STUDI LINGUISTICI, LETTERARI E INTERCULTURALI
Teaching Language
the course is taught in Italian and Chinese
Course Content
the course provides an introduction to the most important literary movements, authors and works in Chinese literature from the fall of Tang dynasty (907) to the Treaty of Nanjing (1842). A most comprehensive view on the history of cultural contacts between Italy and China is provided, starting from Marco Polo through Jesuit missionaries in China and to the first Chinese Catholics who reached Italy. Part of the course is dedicated to the analysis of materials in Chinese language.
Manuals on the history of Chinese Literature: Giuliano Bertuccioli, La letteratura cinese; Wylt Idema; Lloyd Haft, Letteratura cinese, Edoarda Masi, Cento capolavori della letteratura cinese; Mario Sabattini, Paolo Santangelo, Storia della Cina (only the part from the Fall of Tang Dinasty to 1842)
All these manuals deal with a period of the Chinese literature history that covers both the two Chinese literature courses provided. For each one-year course, then, students are required to study only about a half of each manual, that means that for the year-two course of Chinese Literature it will not be necessary to buy other new study material, and only the reading list will be different. In addition to the study of the manuals, students are also required to read a work for each literary genre choosing from the list below:
Historical records: One of the following texts: Bellonci, M., Marco Polo; 2) Spence, J., Il palazzo della memoria di Matteo Ricci.
Theatre:
Short stories:
Novel: One of the following novels: Sogno della camera rossa, Scimmiotto, Jin Ping Mei, Destino dei fiori allo specchio, Sul bordo dell’acqua (I briganti).
Other study materials and texts will be shared on UNIFI MOODLE e-learning platform and must be considered as part of the course as well.
Learning Objectives
1. Knowledge and understanding: the course aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge of the most relevant literary genres, authors, works and literary events between the 10th and the 19th century.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding: by the end of the course students are able to employ the knowledge learnt using it in the more complex field of Chinese civilization studies and are able to compare it to cultural elements belonging to the European tradition.
3. Making judgements: by the end of the course students are able to independently increase the study of Chinese classical literature deriving information from sectorial bibliographies and choosing by themselves readings pertaining to the historical period they have studied in class. Moreover, students are able to critically frame the contents of these readings and works.
4. Communication skills: by the end of the course, students are able to clearly illustrate the knowledge acquainted, giving proof of their competence in using technical terminology and of their capability to analyse different literary events.
5. Learning skills: by the end of the course students are able to improve their knowledge on Chinese Classical literature exchanging views with teachers and other students. In addition, they are able to find out both bibliographic and audio-visual tools, useful to research the field of Chinese literature and which can be used as an instrument to an additional and independent in-depth study of the discipline.
Prerequisites
an understanding of the Italian language and of the Chinese language (level HSK2 or CEFR’s A2) is required.
In addition to frontal teaching time, this course includes (only for the students who already passed one exam in Chinese literature) language drills taught by a native Chinese speaking instructor and the vision (especially for students who are attending their first Chinese literature course) of audio-visual materials made available on MOODLE e-learning platform. These activities have to be considered as an essential part of the course.
The suggested manuals deal with a period of the history of Chinese literature that covers both the two courses of Chinese literature provided in the first cycle degree in Languages, Literatures and Intercultural Studies of the University of Florence, that is Chinese literature 1 and Chinese literature 2. Students are required to only study about half of each manual for each course of Chinese literature. For the course of Chinese literature 2, then, it will not be necessary to acquire more manuals, as only the reading list will be different.
Type of Assessment
At the end of the course, students who have attended their first course of Chinese literature at the University of Florence are asked to publish on MOODLE a written document which includes their personal comments on the audio-visual materials analyzed during the course. On the contrary, for the final test, students who already passed an exam in Chinese literature and have attended their second course of Chinese literature are required to study and prepare more advanced texts in Chinese. The final examination consists only in an oral test. Students are required to answer three open-questions: the first deals with a topic freely chosen by the student among those studied in class; the second deals with the reading list; the third deals with a specific literary genre studied in class. In addition to these general questions, students are required to answer a more specific question on the texts in Chinese language studied in class (the text will belong to different levels for students who have or have not already attended and passed a course in Chinese literature at the University of Florence). To pass the examination, students are required to answer all the three questions, must have published on MOODLE a document on the audio-visual materials presented during the year (only for students who have attended their first course of Chinese literature), must be able to read, translate and comment the texts in Chinese language taught throughout the class (different texts depending on the level of the students).
The oral conversation aims to verify:
- A basic knowledge on the history of the Chinese literature from the fall of Tang dynasty to the Treaty of Nanjing;
- The competence to recognize and describe literary events in Chinese history.
- The skill to read, comprehend and translate texts in Chinese language previously studied in class.
- The skill to properly use the terminology in use in this discipline.
Course program
During a semester, the course will present the most important stages in the development of the Chinese literature - from the era of divisions following the fall of the Tang dynasty to the violent penetration of European powers in the late-Qing period. The most relevant Chinese authors and literary phenomena of these centuries are then illustrated, with special emphasis on the historical period in which these authors lived and produced art and literature. The course also focuses on the development and changing of some literary genres: the affirmation of ci poetry in the Song period; the rising of theatre as a literary genre in the Yuan period; the success of short stories and novels during the Ming and Qing dynasties.