EA 232
Male Friendship in Chinese Literature

COURSE SCHEDULE BESIO EA STUDIES COLBY COLLEGE
This course provides a survey of Chinese literature through the prism of male friendship. Friendship, particularly among men, was a theme that resonated powerfully in traditional Chinese literature, perhaps because it was the only one of the five Confucian relationships which was not innately hierarchical. During the course of this semester we will examine a variety of literary works on friendship and famous friends. We will begin with early philosophical and historical prose, move to a consideration of the poetic tradition, and conclude with an examination of fiction, drama and film from the later Imperial period to the present. Among the issues I hope to explore in this course are the search for a "soul mate" as a search for self, the primacy of male friendships over romantic and domestic ties, and changing constructions of masculinity. The format of the class is lecture-discussion with an emphasis on discussion. 

Required Texts:
  •  Victor Mair, ed.  The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1994

  •  Moss Roberts trans. & ed. Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel.  Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999.

    •  All the above are available at the Colby College Bookstore.
     



Readings will also be assigned from:

  • J.I. Crump.  Chinese Theater in the Days of Kublai Khan.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1980.

  •  Patrick Hanan ed.  Silent Operas.  Hong Kong: Renditions Paperbacks, 1990.

  •  Patrick Hanan ed.  A Tower for the Summer Heat.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

  •  David Hawkes, trans. The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems By Qu Yuan and Other Poets.  Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1985.

  •  Wu-chi Liu and Irving Lo ed.  Sunflower Splendor.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press

  • William A. Lyell trans. Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun..  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

  •  Paul S. Ropp ed.  Heritage of China:  Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1990.

  • Paula M. Varsano, "Immediacy and Allusion in the Poetry of Li Bo," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jun., 1992) 225-261.

  •  Burton Watson trans.  Chuang Tzu Basic Writings.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.

  •  Burton Watson trans.  Records of the Grand Historian.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

  •  Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang trans. Stories Old and New compiled by Feng Menglong.  Seattle:  University of Washington Press, 2000.
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    All of the above are on reserve in Miller Library.  

    COURSE SCHEDULE

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

     

    INTERNET RESOURCES

    PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

    HISTORY & ART

    LITERATURE

    Romance of the Three Kingdoms