China created one of the world's great traditions of written fiction, developing short and extended printed fiction for the market centuries before Europe. This course will look closely at what Chinese fiction has been doing across two millennia and how it has done it. Stories and novels will be examined in English translation.

Among the topics to be discussed will be how stories are structured and told; the relationship between written fiction and such performances as oral storytelling and theatre; characters, stereotypes, class, men and women; how the market and printing affect fiction; entertainment and propaganda; and how fiction has changed since the impact of the West.

The fiction that will be looked at will include Zuo zhuan and Shi ji; the early mediaeval story; stories about urban life from Ming collections; Three Kingdoms; Journey to the West; Shui hu (Water Margin); Jin Ping Mei and novels of Ming daily life; Hong lou meng (A Dream of Red Mansions, the Story of the Stone, the Dream of the Red Chamber); fictional responses to the West and the decay of the old order in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; new roles for fiction under the Republic; fiction in the service of the Communist Party; fiction and protest; the fiction of the Deng era and after.

Essay 3500 words (30%), Tutorial Presentation (30%), Final Exam (40%)

32 contact hours per semester

6 university courses (36 units)

with ALIT 2003