ASIA 342: Chinese Literature in Translation: The Vernacular Tradition. T1W 2024

Java Python ASIA 342: Chinese Literature in Translation: The Vernacular Tradition.  T1W 2024

This course will focus on the development and flowering of Chinese novels in the Ming   and Qing dynasties written in the vernacular, as opposed to classical, language. We will be reading extracts in translation from two of the “great six” (六大奇書) pre-modern

Chinese novels appearing between the 16th  and the 18th  centuries.

This year, the readings will focus on two works: The great novel of civil war and political intrigue, The Three Kingdoms 三國演義 (abridged) attributed to Luo Guanzhong 羅貫中, and the first (translated) volume of the late 18th  c. Cao Xueqin’s 曹雪芹 magnificent The Story of the Stone, 石頭記 or 紅樓夢 (chapters 1-26 and 120).

We will explore power struggles, pride and tragic failure, violence, masculinity, and

heroism in the grandly sweeping historical epic Three Kingdoms and themes such as

utopias/ dystopias, nostalgia and remembrance, gardens as sites of beauty and

threatened havens, the intimacies of domestic life and family dynamics, the complexities of gender roles and duties, and love and death in Stone.  We will attempt to appreciate   these texts as both works of art and significant cultural artifacts, and, through reading

them, enter into worlds and contexts both familiar and strange, beautiful and difficult, and always profound.

Note: Due to the length of these works it is important to pace yourself if you are to

keep up with the reading. Those of you who wish to read the novels in Chinese as well are of course welcome to do so, but please be familiar with the English translations too since class lectures and class assignments will refer to the translated texts and all will   be conducted in English. I encourage all of you to dip into the unabridged version of

Three Kingdoms and the other volumes of Stone but it is not compulsory (just a

pleasure!) I will provide an overview of the novels and you will also read some important secondary sources discussing the works in their entirety.

Required texts:

1. Luo Guanzhong, Three Kingdoms, trans. Moss Roberts (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1999. Abridged version. Paper.) NB: UBC Library has downloadable access to the 2020 e-book via the series World Literature in Translation

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520976665 

2. Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, Vol. 1: A Dream of Golden Days, trans. David    Hawkes (Penguin, 1973, paper). The first volume of a 5-volume unabridged translation. Another unabridged translation, A Dream of Red Mansions, is published by Foreign

Language Press. Hawkes’ version is the more complete an ASIA 342: Chinese Literature in Translation: The Vernacular Tradition. T1W 2024 d lively translation, but either is fine. However, all references / names etc. will be based on the Hawkes’ version.  Do not use an abridged translation of this novel. UBC Library does not have e-copies

available for download but there are copies on reserve and the Penguin volumes are widely available.

3. See course outline for other required and suggested readings.

Course Directions, Assignments and Requirements:

1. Reading literature offers us all opportunities to enter other worlds and other ways of being and helps us empathize with people both different and the same as us as they struggle, cope, fail, learn, succeed and live their lives. Literature offers escape, safe harbours, intellectual and emotional challenges, and, most importantly, windows into the lives of others which help us understand them and ourselves.

2. This is a lecture course, but provision will be made for discussion. I expect you to do the reading on time, and your informed participation in discussions will be a factor in  final grading decisions. I will post versions of my lectures on Canvas, but these are meant as extra clarification and information and not substitutes for attending classes, listening to the lectures, and participating in class discussions.

Canvas: Further course information can be found on the course Canvas website, which you can access with your CWL. This can be found at https://canvas.ubc.ca

3. Assignments will be uploaded onto Turnitin and will be a mixture of individual written take-home assignments and in-class written tests. Attendance will be noted through active engagement with the readings in class. Details / rubrics for assignments will be  given through instructions posted on Canvas and in lectures.  Please feel free to email me or attend in-person or virtual office hours if you have questions or concerns. (See   email etiquette below.)

4. Assignments:

A) Two individual reading responses (450 – 600 words approx, each) to certain chapters, scenes, events, characters, or themes. Deadlines: October 15th ;

November 21st. Details will be given in class and posted on Canvas.  Submit to Turnitin. (20% each. Total: 40%)

B) Three Kingdoms in-class essay October 17th  (20%)

C) One short analytical essay or think piece on Stone due December 12th  on

Turnitin): topics and details to be given later. (1200 words, plus annotated

bibliography). Submit to Turnitin