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The Cultural Revolution: From Testimony to Allegory |
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The Cultural Revolution has been described in films, spawned an industry of memoirs, and has inspired many works of surreal fiction. The seminar explores the relation between history, testimony and allegory through works such as oral histories, first-person accounts, fictional novels, state-sponsored and commercial films. How does each kind of account cope with memories of the Cultural Revolution and respond to its own times? Although students are not expected to have native skills in Chinese, the course requires relatively high language competence. When possible, texts and films will be discussed in accordance with the original Chinese versions, and many are unavailable in English. The syllabus includes Yige ren de shengjing (One man's bible), the latest novel by 2000 Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian. |
Hours: T, Th
Classroom:
5 credits
| Instructor: | Yomi Braester |
| office: C-504 Padelford |
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| office hours: MW 4:50- 5:30 and by appointment |
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| e-mail: yomi@u.washington.edu |
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| course website: http://faculty.washington.edu/yomi/cr.html |
| Weekly reading reports | 20
(10 x 2) |
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| Presentation and presentation report: |
20 |
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Final
paper: |
60 |
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| Late
submissions must be pre-approved by the instructor or they will not be
accepted. The course adheres to UW’s rules on plagiarism (see http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm). Students with disabilities are encouraged to
inform me, and I’ll do my best to provide the relevant accommodations. |
| Readings |
| Books
are available at the University Bookstore as well as on reserve at the
relevant library. Otherwise-unavailable
sources are provided in the reading packet. Students interested in purchasing |
| Texts: |
| - Dai Houying, Ren a, ren! (Stones of the Wall, 1980) |
| Films shown: |
| Cheng Yin, Yang Yanjin, Xiao jie Yang Yanjin, Zhang Nuanxin, Qingchun ji |
| Recommended
secondary readings: On Testimony: Blanchot, Maurice. The Writing of the Disaster. Trans. Ann Smock. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1995. Caruth, Cathy, ed. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995. Felman, Shoshana. Testimony: Crises in Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History. New York and London: Routledge, 1992. Halbwachs, Maurice, The Collective Memory, trans. Francis J. Ditter and Vida Yazdi Ditter. New York: Harper & Row, 1980. On China-related theoretical questions: Anagnost, Ann. National Past-times: Narrative, Representation, and Power in Modern China. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Wang, Ban. The Sublime Figure of History: Aesthetics and Politics in Twentieth-Century China. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1997. On the Cultural Revolution and The Red Lantern: Dai Jiafang. Yangbanxi de fengfeng yuyu - Jiang Qing,Yangban xi ji neimu [Gossip on the model plays: Jiang Qing, the model plays and the back stage]. Beijing: Zhishi chubanshe, 1995. Geming de Hongdeng - zan geming xiandai jingju Hongdeng ji [The red lantern of the revolution: in praise of the revolutionary modern Beijing opera The Red Lantern]. Hangzhou: Renmin chubanshe, 1970. Jingtian dongdi de weida geming zhuangju - zan geming yangban xi [The earth-shattering great revolutionary achievement: in praise of the revolutionary model plays]. Hong Kong: Xianggang sanlian shudian, 1970. Yang, Lan. Chinese Fiction of the Cultural Revolution. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 1998. On post-Cultural Revolution film: Bashan yeyu: cong juben dao yingpian [Night Rain in Bashan: from script to film]. Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 1982. Jiang Wen, Dansheng [Birth]. Beijing: Huayi chubanshe, 1997. Tianyunshan chuanqi - cong xiaoshuo dao dianying [The Legend of Tianyunshan: from novel to film]. Beijing: Zhongguo dianying chubanshe, 1983. |
week
1
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Introduction: Can history be read allegorically? |
| 1/4 | |
| Excerpts from the TV program Lao sanjie | |
week
2
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| 1/9 | Oral
history -- |
| Read:
Thurston, Enemies of the people |
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| 1/11 | |
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| week
3 |
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| 1/16 |
The
Aesthetics |
| View:
Cheng Yin, Hongdeng
ji |
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| 1/18 | |
week
4
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| 1/23 | Testimony
of the older generation |
| Read:
Ji Xianlin |
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| 1/25 | Film after
the Cultural Revolution (II) |
| View:
Wu Yanjin, Xiao jie |
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week
5
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| 1/30 | |
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Read:
Chen Kaige, |
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| 2/1 | |
| View: Chen Chong, Tianyu | |
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week
6
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| 2/6 | |
| 2/8 | |
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week
7
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| 2/13 | The
Cultural Revolution as spectacle |
| View:Xie
Jin, Furong zhen |
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| 2/15 |
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week
8
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| 2/20 | |
| Read:
Zhang Xianliang, "Mimosa"; Wode puti shu |
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| 2/22 | Autobiography
as fiction |
| Finish
reading Zhang Xialiang |
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week
9
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| 2/27 | In-class screening: Jiang Wen,
In the Heat of the Sun |
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| 3/1 | |
week
10
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| 3/6 | Nostalgia
and street-smart literature |
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| 3/8 | Allegory
and fantasy |
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| 3/15 |
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