Modern Chinese Literature and Film

This course serves as a thematic introduction to modern Chinese literature and cinema in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and transnational Chinese communities from the late imperial period through the entire twentieth century to the present. By discussing a wide range of key literary and filmic texts, this class looks into major issues and discourses in China’s pursuit of modernization: enlightenment and revolution, politics and aesthetics, sentimental education and nationalism, historical trauma and violence, gender and sexuality, social hygiene and body politics, diaspora and displacement, youth sub-culture and urban imagination.