FLO 3930 03
11:00-12:15, Tue., Thu.
Instructor: Dr. Lan
Dept. of Modern Languages

FLO 3930 03

Spring 2002

The Formation of the Nation-State and the Pursuit of Individual Rights

In Modern Chinese Literature

OBJECTIVES

This special-topic course will be offered in Spring 2002 to students who are interested in Chinese literature or concerned with the human rights issues raised by the Chinese human rights situation. No knowledge of the Chinese language is required. The course satisfies the multicultural requirements, and can be taken for minor credits in Chinese and major or minor credits in Asian studies.

Throughout the twentieth century, Chinese culture was dominated by two agendas: national salvation and the liberation of the individual. The first agenda aimed to save China from the threat of Western imperialism and colonialism by revitalizing the Chinese nation.The second agenda, sustained by the belief that revitalizing the Chinese nation depended on releasing the power of each societal member from China’s stifling feudal tradition, advocated the individual pursuit of liberty, equality and personal happiness.While they could be mutually enhancing in the shared vision of achieving Chinese modernity, these two historical endeavors for the most part clashed with each other. The mission of national salvation, which was primarily empowered by the Confucian ideology of an authoritarian state, entailed reducing the individual to the tool of redeeming the Chinese nationhood and compromising individual values in the name of communal and national interests. Since the early decades of the twentieth century, the tension between the two forces has defined the relationship between the state authority of modern China (either Nationalist or Communist) and its largely liberal intelligentsia, and informed the situation in which the violation/promotion of human rights has been conducted. Not only is such a historical process reflected in modern Chinese literature, but it has also determined the way this literature is engendered.

Integrating historical explorations with literary studies, this course enables students to approach modern Chinese literature both as an aesthetic form and as a political discourse. Upon completing this course, students will have attained 1) an overall view of the development of modern Chinese literature, 2) skills to interpret and appreciate Chinese literary works; 3) knowledge of the socio-historical conditions for the production of modern Chinese literature and 4), more importantly, a better understanding of Chinese intellectuals’ persistent struggles for the rights and dignity of the individual human being.

FOCUS AND STRUCTURE

The course will examine major Chinese writers from the early twentieth century to the post-Mao era. Although arranged in a chronological order, course materials will be organized around meaningful topics that can help students to grasp the major concern of this course in a systematic and coherent manner. Such topics include: traditional (Confucian) concepts of the individual and the state; the May Fourth New Culture Movement (1910s-1920s) calling for the emancipation of the individual; the emergence of Chinese nationalism demanding the individual to serve the cause of establishing a new China; gender inequality and women's movement; the Communist revolution and its impact on Chinese culture; neo-humanism in post-Mao China; and contemporary Chinese dissident writers in exile. The course will introduce each literary period and new topic with a lecture, but it will place great emphasis on class discussion and on creating a dialogue of interpreting the texts covered in the course.