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 aims at exploring the peculiarities of Chinese literature generally speaking and the movements, authors and works of Chinese literature from the first documents to the end of Tang Dynasty, focusing on those texts (in Italian and in the original language) that had the biggest influence in the formation of literary genres and trends.
Giuliano Bertuccioli, La letteratura cinese, L'Asino d'oro edizioni, 2013 (fino a p. 189).
Wylt Idema; Lloyd Haft, Letteratura cinese, Cafoscarina, 2000 (fino a p. 168)
Cheng, Anne, Storia del pensiero cinese, Einaudi, 2000 (vol. 1; chapter II, II and VII).
Edoarda Masi, Cento capolavori della letteratura cinese.
Materials provided by the professors.
Besides the manuals, it is necessary to read:
two books chosen among:
- Confucio, Dialoghi, Torino, Einaudi, 2003.
- Zhuangzi, (a cura di Liou Kia-hway), Adelphi, 1992.
- Sunzi, L’arte della guerra, Demetra (Giunti), 2017. (Or Sun Tzu, L'arte della guerra, a cura di A. Andreini e M. Biondo, Einaudi, 2011).
- 101 storie Zen, (a cura di N. Senzaki e P. Reps), Adelphi, 2007.
Two more books chosen among:
- Ban, Zhao, Precetti per le donne e altri trattati cinesi di comportamento femminile, Torino: Einaudi, 2011.
- Baccini, Giulia, I sette savi del bosco di bambù: personalità eccentriche nella Cina medievale, Venezia: Marsilio, 2016.
- Zacchetti, Stefano, Storie delle sei perfezioni: racconti scelti dal Liu du ji jing. Venezia: Marsilio, 2013.
- Wang, Wei, Le stagioni blu: l'opera di Wang Wei poeta e pittore, Milano: Luni, 1994.
- Li Bai, L’uomo, il poeta, Milano: Ariele, 2016.
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 first literary forms to the X 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.
For Chinese students, other information will be available on Moodle.
Type of Assessment
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 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 beginning to the X century;
- 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
The course will present the most important stages of the development of Chinese literature , since the first divinatory forms on oracle bones and ritual bronzes, to the decline of Tang dynasty. The course will have a preliminary part on peculiarities of Chinese language and writing system ad of literary genres. The following part of the course will be dedicated to the essential points of ancient philosophical thought, with special attention to Daoism and Confucianism. Moving on in chronological order, the course will present the various historical periods in analysis, focusing on authors, genres, works and literary trends. Particular attention will be given to philosophical, military, historical and poetic texts that will be analyzed in class in their original language.