FL/ENG 394 Sinophone Literature in Translation

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1 FL/ENG 394 Sinophone Literature in Translation INSTRUCTOR AND COURSE INFORMATION: Instructor: Dr. Nathaniel Isaacson Office: Withers 208 Telephone: Office Hours: Mo, Weds 10-11:00 am and by appointment COURSE DESCRIPTION: Over one fifth of the world s population speaks Chinese as a native language, but what does this really mean? The Chinese-speaking world consists of upwards of 13 dialects, spoken by 56 ethnic groups in Mainland China, the inhabitants of Taiwan and Hong Kong, and throughout Southeast Asia. Many speakers of these dialects cannot communicate orally with speakers of another dialect. Chinese newscasts and game shows are almost always subtitled in Chinese. Despite the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Chinese-speaking world, all of these languages or dialects share the written Sinitic script. In recent years, scholars of literature and cinema have begun to use the term sinophone to describe literature and other cultural production that is written in the Chinese script while evincing a tenuous and transitional relationship to the People s Republic of China. Such texts include ethnic Chinese minority works, texts by authors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, writings by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and the Americas, and Chinese authors in exile. The Sinophone has become a topic of serious debate in mapping out the relationship between the nation-states and Chineseness. These debates uncover issues of cultural and political identity in the Chinese-speaking world, and in the construction of the category of world literature. Through readings of a number of works of Sinophone literature, occasional film viewings, and examination of theoretical works on the subject, this course explores the cultural and political forces that shape Chinese-language literatures from the People s Republic of China and beyond. COURSE MATERIALS: A Lai. Red Poppies: A Novel of Tibet. Translated by Howard Goldblatt. New York: Mariner Books, ISBN: Cost: Han Shaogong. A Dictionary of Maqiao, Translated by Julia Lovell. New York: Dial Press, ISBN: Cost: Ha Jin. The Crazed. New York: Vintage Press, ISBN: Cost: Ma Jian. Stick Out Your Tongue: Stories, Translated by Flora Dew. New York: Picador, ISBN: Cost: 13.00

2 Shen Congwen. Border Town. Translated by Jeffrey Kinkley. New York: Harper Perennial, ISBN: Cost: Zhang Guixing. My South Seas Sleeping Beauty, Translated by Valerie Jaffee. New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN: Cost: Additional primary and secondary sources shall be posted to the course website GRADING: In-class midterm (15%). This mixture of short-answer and essay questions will cover all material presented in the first half of the course. The midterm exam will be comprised of some combination of the following elements: factrelated short answer questions about the authors, historical contexts of the material, and secondary analysis of the materials; and an essay question. A midterm study guide will be distributed one week before the examination date. Take-home final (25%). This cumulative final will be in essay form. It is due, by to me by 5pm Dec. 9. The exam will be comprised of some combination of the following elements: fact-related short answer questions about the authors, historical contexts of the material, and secondary analysis of the materials; and one long-essay question. Class Preparation and Participation (10%) Class preparation and participation is essential for success in this course. Students are expected to come to class having completed all written and reading assignments and should be prepared to actively participate in meaningful discussion about texts in question and/or complete a short factquiz (these will be occasional, but usually unannounced). Active participation may include sharing your questions and comments about the readings with the class, engaging your class mates in relevant and meaningful dialogue based on the topics/readings, and/or participating in other class activities (e.g., close readings, small group discussions, worksheets, and so forth). Class preparation and participation is evaluated using the following criteria: Short Essays (10%) Two short essays of 2-4 pages (5% each). Essay questions will be distributed at the end of class on the day they are assigned, and are to be submitted one week later. Storyboard Assignment (5%) Students will be asked to make a film storyboard detailing how they would create a film version of one of the short stories read in class. Reading Worksheets (25%)

3 Prior to weekly readings, worksheets covering basic questions about the readings will be distributed. Completed worksheets are to be shown to the instructor before the beginning of class, and submitted after the materials have been discussed. Group Discussion Leadership (10%) Every student must sign up to lead two of the class discussions, in a group of 2-3 (if pre-term class counts remain accurate). More detailed requirements and a sign-up will be distributed during the first week of instruction. This Course uses Standard NCSU Letter Grading. Course Schedule The most current version will be posted on EN/FL 394 Moodle Website *A useful thing to know: Chinese surnames are written first, without a comma separating them from the given name (e.g. Isaacson Nathaniel). Unit One: World Literature; Minority Literature; Minor Literature January 8: Introduction to the course and to each other Lecture: Sinophone literature and the Sinophone world Optional Additional Reading: Shih Shu-mei, Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Articulations Across the Pacific, Berkeley: University of California Press, Pp January 10: Sign up for group presentations; Review Guidelines Distributed Primary Text: Lu Xun, Diary of A Madman Optional Additional Reading: Cassanova, Pascale, World Republic of Letters, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp January 15: Primary Text: Shen Congwen, Border Town (Trans. Jeffrey C. Kinkley), New York: Harper Perennial, Pp Optional Additional Reading: Moretti, Franco, Conjectures on World Literature, New Left Review 1, Jan-Feb. 2000, pp January 17: Primary Text: Shen Congwen,,

4 Optional Additional Reading: Delleuze and Guattari, Kafka- Toward a Minor Literature (trans. Dana Polan), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Pp Unit Two: Tibetan-Chinese Authors January 22: Primary Text: Alai, Red Poppies: A Novel of Tibet (Trans. Howard Goldblatt), New York: Houghton Mifflin, Pp January 24: Alai, January 29: Primary Text: Alai, pp January 31: Primary Text: Ma Jian, Stick out Your Tongue Essay #1 Assigned Interlude: Imaginary Ethnography February 5: Primary Text: Han Shaogong, Dictionary of Maqiao February 7: Han Shaogong, cont d Essay #1 Due Unit Three: Hong Kong, Betwixt and Between February 12: Liu Yichang, Intersection, Renditions No. 29 & 30 (Spring and Autumn, 1988), pp Optional Additional Reading: selections from Rey Chow, Ethics After Idealism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Pp Storyboard Assignment February 14: Primary Text: selections from Zhang Xianghua, Sleepless Green Green Grass and Other Poems (trans. Stephen L. Smith), Hong Kong: Joing Publishing, Posted on course Moodle Optional Additional Reading: Abbas, Ackbar, Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Pp. 1-15;

5 February 19: Primary Text: Film: In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000) Storyboard Due February 21: Primary Text: Poems by PK Leung, City at the End of Time (trans. Gordon T. Osing and the author), Hong Kong: Twilight Books Company, Ah Lian: If I had Roots Renditions No. 29 & 30 (Spring and Autumn, 1988), pp. Huang Sicheng, The THC Tab, Renditions No. 29 & 30 (Spring and Autumn, 1988), pp Xin Qishi, Missing Person, Renditions No. 29 & 30 (Spring and Autumn, 1988), pp February 26: Film: Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan, 1996) Midterm Examination Guidelines Distributed February 28: In-class midterm March 4-8 Spring Break Unit Three: Taiwan March 12: Film: Warriors of the Rainbow (Seediq Bale) (We Te-sheng, 2011) Secondary Reading: Modernism and Nativist Resistance March 14: Primary Text: Wang Zhenhe, Rose Rose, I Love You March 19: Wang Zhenhe, cont d March 21: Wang Wen-hsing, Family Catastrophe Essay #2 Assigned (via Moodle)

6 I will be out of town; students will conduct and report on the class in my absence. March 26: Wang Wen-hsing, cont d Essay #2 Due March 28-29: Spring Holiday Unit Five: Singaporean and Malaysian Sinophone Literature April 2: Primary Text: Poems of Wong Yoonwah April 4: Primary Text: Selections from Wang Mengvoon, Glimpses of the Past: Stories of Singapore and Malaysia April 9: Primary Text: Zhang Guixing, My South-Seas Sleeping Beauty April 11: Zhang Guixing, cont d Unit Six: The Author in Exile April 16: Primary Text: Primary Text: Selections from Bei Dao, At the Sky s Edge and Gu Cheng, Nameless Flowers: Selected Poems of Gu Cheng, and Sea of Dreams: the Selected Writings of Gu Cheng Closing: Is Ha Jin a Chinese Novelist? April 18: Primary Text: Ha Jin, The Crazed, London: William Heinemann, pp April 23: Ha Jin, pp FINAL EXAM: Thursday, May 2 9:35-10:50 am