Spring 2006

ANS 372 • Chinese Film and Literature

Course Description

This course will introduce students to twentieth-century Chinese society and culture before and after the 1949 Communist Revolution through selected works of film and literature. The class will first read stories selected from the modern Chinese literary canon (works by the May Fourth writers, such as Lu Xun, Lao She, Mao Dun, and Ba Jin) and view films based on these works made in both pre- and post- Cultural Revolution years (i.e., the '50's and the '80's). While yearnings for progress and change by Chinese intellectuals of the pre-Revolution era are typically foregrounded in these films, one is invited to deliberate upon the subtle differences between ways in which these canonical works are interpreted by film makers from different historical periods. Attendance required at Wednesday film screenings.

Texts

Wen-Hsing Wang, Family Catastrophe Anyi Wang, Love In A Small Town

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