Although much of the material is sociopolitically oriented, the focus of the course is within the realm of literary and cultural criticism. Full course for one semester. The Yijing, or Book of Changes, is a text of limitless possibilities. This course explores various strategies of reading the text and examines philosophical, religious, historical, and literary critical implications of the text and the tradition associated with it. The system and the language of the 64 hexagrams and various layers of attached verbalization are the focus of investigation.
Readings are in English.
Students who take the course for Chinese credit meet for additional tutoring to read parts of the text in the original. Cross-listed as Literature 334. Full course for one semester. A study of vernacular Chinese poetry and poetics in the present century, from its experimental stage in the 1910s down to the post-Mao reblossoming of the '70s and '80s. All critical materials are in English.