Overview
An introduction to modern Chinese literature by exploring its contribution to world literature and its thematic and stylistic relations with other literatures. No knowledge of Chinese language is required.
How can we understand China not as a foreign or a native country, but in terms of our shared human conditions?
About this paper
| Paper title | Reading Chinese Literature in the World |
|---|---|
| Subject | Chinese |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2025 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,040.70 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- 36 points
- Restriction
- CHIN 204, CHIN 343
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Notes
- At least one 100-level CHIN or ENGL paper is highly recommended.
- Eligibility
- Suitable for students specialising in any discipline. No knowledge of Chinese is required.
- Contact
- languages@otago.ac.nz
- Teaching staff
Convener: Dr Lorraine Wong
- Paper Structure
This paper introduces major literary trends and influential writers and draws comparisons with themes and styles developed in other literary contexts. It provides students with selected texts (all written in or translated into English) from mainland China and its minority regions, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, as well as overseas Chinese literature written in English. By questioning "China" as a monolingual and monolithic entity, we come to understand Chinese literary modernity from multiple angles.
- Teaching Arrangements
- NOTE: This paper is also offered as CHIN 343 - the content of the paper is the same for both CHIN 243 and CHIN 343, but assessment is differentiated between the two levels (students taking this paper at the more advanced level are asked to produce a longer research essay).
- Textbooks
- All required readings are available for you as electronic reserve at the Otago Library as well as on Blackboard.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Research, Self-motivation.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
- By reading the texts and participating in lectures, tutorials and discussion in class, students will:
- Understand the major intellectual paradigms and aesthetic trends of Chinese and Sinophone literatures in the 20th and 21st centuries
- Gain a critical understanding of the ways China and the world shape each other in literature and in history
- Develop a global perspective and a self-reflexive understanding of their own cultures
- Cultivate their ability in literary criticism