EAC 212Y (#8843)
MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
Fall 2008
Tu Th: 4:15-5:35, Rm: SS133

Instructor: Dr. Fan Pen Chen
Office: Humanities 246
Office Hours: Tu 10:15-11:15; Th 3:00-4:00 and by appointment
Phone: 518-442-2600
Fax: 518-442-4118

E-mail: fanchen@albany.edu

Course Description:
This course is an introduction to Chinese literature from the May Fourth Movement (1919) to the present, including works written after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The purpose of this course is to gain an appreciation and critical understanding of modern Chinese literature through the reading and discussion of short stories. Since this is a General Education “Oral Discourse” course, oral presentation and discussion are vital components of the course. This course also fulfills the General Education “Humanities” requirement. There are no prerequisites for the course.

Required Texts:

· (M) Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas: 1919-1949, Ed. Joseph S. M. Lau, C. T. Hsia, and Leo Ou-Fan Lee. Columbia University Press. Available at Barnes and Noble Bookstore on campus and Mary Jane’s on Western Ave.

· Stories from the following books will be available through E-res.

(C) Chinese Stories from Taiwan

(T) Twentieth Century Chinese Stories

(L)The Lost Boat

Testing and Grading:

- Oral reports: 25% (20% understanding, 20% depth of analysis, 20% clarity of analysis, 20% structure, 20% manner and style of presentation)

- Discussion leading: 15% (70% significance and interest of the question, 30% leadership in discussion)

- Attendance and participation in discussions: 20%

- Mid-term: 20%

- Final: 20%

Attendance will be taken regularly; students are expected to attend class unless extenuating circumstances prevent it. The grade is reduced by a notch (e.g., a B becomes a B-) for every three absences. Each student will be responsible for presenting two oral “reaction” reports as well as leading two class discussions (with five questions and their answers prepared) on assigned readings. Grading of these oral components is based on both the form (relationship with the audience, vocal punctuation and expressiveness, volume and pace of speech, poise and comfort, fluency, eye contact) as well as the content of the presentations (understanding, analysis, structure). Study guides for the mid-term and final will be handed out one week before they are administered.

The grade of "Incomplete" is for emergencies (death in the family, extreme illness, etc.) only, not for students who fail to plan ahead. Grades are not curved, nor are extra credit assignments given. The grading scale is as follows: 93-100%=A; 90-92%=A-; 87-89%=B+; 83-86%=B; 80-82%=B-; 77-79%=C+; 73-76%=C; 70-72%=C-; 67-69%=D+; 63-66%=D; 60-62%=D-; 0-59%=E. If you want to check on your performance at any point in the semester, feel free to come to my office and we'll run through the numbers. If there are extenuating circumstances which you anticipate will unduly affect your grade, it is your responsibility to speak with me IN ADVANCE.

Characteristics of all General Education Courses

1. General Education courses offer introductions to the central topics of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields.

2. General Education courses offer explicit rather than tacit understandings of the procedures, practices, methodology and fundamental assumptions of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields.

3. General Education courses recognize multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

4. General Education courses emphasize active learning in an engaged environment that enables students to be producers as well as consumers of knowledge.

5. General Education courses promote critical inquiry into the assumptions, goals, and methods of various fields of academic study; they aim to develop the interpretive, analytic, and evaluative competencies characteristic of critical thinking.

Learning Objectives for General Education Humanities Courses

Humanities courses teach students to analyze and interpret texts, ideas, artifacts, and discourse systems, and the human values, traditions, and beliefs that they reflect.

1. Humanities courses enable students to demonstrate knowledge of the assumptions, methods of study, and theories of at least one of the disciplines within the humanities.

Depending on the discipline, humanities courses will enable students to demonstrate some or all of the following:

2. An understanding of the objects of study as expressions of the cultural contexts of the people who created them

3. An understanding of the continuing relevance of the objects of study to the present and to the world outside the university

4. An ability to employ the terms and understand the conventions particular to the discipline

5. An ability to analyze and assess the strengths and weaknesses of ideas and positions along with the reasons or arguments that can be given for and against them

6. An understanding of the nature of the texts, artifacts, ideas, or discourse of the discipline and of the assumptions that underlie this understanding, including those relating to issues of tradition and canon

Learning Objectives for General Education Oral Discourse Courses

Approved courses provide opportunities for students to develop the oral communication skills they need to participate more effectively in public and academic debates and discussions. Courses offer opportunities to participate in a variety of communication contexts and to reflect on the principles of theory relevant to specific oral communication activities. Approved courses include instruction on presentation as well as feedback and evaluation of oral performances.

Approved courses generally have a minimum of two exercises in which oral performance is required and graded. An oral performance exercise can be accomplished in any of the following activities, either live or in a crafted recording:

1. A stand-up monologue presentation or a minimum of 3-5 minutes

2. A debate where each participant speaks for a minimum of 3-5 minutes

3. A question and answer dialogic process where the student fields a succession of questions or asks a succession of questions that build on and comment on prior answers

4. A discussion within a group, where each member will be required to make 3-5 “paragraph-length” contributions in the course of the discussion.

Course Schedule

(Subject to Amendment)

			Topic	Reading
August	26	Tu	Course Introduction Systems of Romanization
	28	Th	Overview of Chinese literature
September	2	Tu	Historical film (The Chinese Revolution: 1911-1989 DVD DS774 C49V 2005)
	4	Th	Film Lu Hsun “K’ung I-chi”	M: pp.3-5
	9	Tu	“Medicine” “My Old Home” “The New Year’s Sacrifice” Excerpt of the film, The New Year’s Sacrifice	M: pp. 6-10 M: pp.11-16 M: pp.17-26
	11	Th	Hsu Ti-shan “The Merchant’s Wife”	M: pp.41-50
	16	Tu	Yeh Shao-chün “Rice”	M: pp.90-94
	18	Th	(Start Reading Response and Student-led Discussions) Mao Tun “Spring Silkworms”	M: pp.144-156
	23	Tu	Lin Shu-hua “Embroidered Pillows”	M: pp.197-199
	25	Th	Shen Ts’ung-wen “Pai-tzu” First 20 mins of the film, Girl from Hunan	M: pp.222-226
	30	Tu	NO CLASS
October	2	Th	“Hsiao-hsiao”	M: pp.227-236
	7	Tu	Ting Ling “When I was in Hsia Village”	M: pp.268-278
	9	Th	NO CLASS
	14	Tu	Pa Chin “Nanny Yang”	M: pp.293-298
	16	Th	MID-TERM
	21	Tu	“Piglet and Chickens”	M: pp.313-321
	23	Th	Chao Shu-li “Lucky”	M: pp.324-333
	28	Tu	Chang T’ien-I “The Bulwark”	M: pp.336-344
	30	Th	Wu Tsu-hsiang “Young Master Gets His Tonic”	M: pp.372-381
November	4	Tu	Eileen Chang “The Golden Cangue”	M: pp.530-560
	6	Th	Film, Hibiscus Village
	11	Tu	Hibiscus Village; discussion
	13	Th	Ch’en Jo-hsi “The Last Performance”	C: pp.2-12
	18	Tu	Pai Hsien-yung “Li Tung: a Chinese Girl in New York”	T: pp.218-239
	20	Th	Li Rui “The Brake-Stone”	L:pp.21-27
	25	Tu	Ma Yuan “Mistakes”	L: pp.29-42
	27	Th	NO CLASS
December	2	Tu	Wen Yuhong “The Mad City”	L: pp.43-52
Final Exam:	4	Th	TBA December 17, 1:00-3:00