|
C LIT 596 (Special Studies in Comparative Literature) |
| Chinese
Cinema:
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Class discussions will be based on a weekly assignment of one book and two films. Topics covered include: early cinema; the Cultural Revolution; the Fifth Generation; Urban Cinema; Documentary; Taiwanese cinema; Hong Kong cinema. |
| Instructor: |
Yomi Braester |
| |
office:
C-504 Padelford |
| |
office
hours: BY APPOINTMENT |
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e-mail:
yomi@u |
Assignments:
1. Reading and film viewing: all
assigned readings and viewings should be completed before the week's seminars.
2. Reading reports: every participant will email the instructor
a 400-word informal report pointing out points for discussion based on the
week's readings.
3 .Book review: Each participant will write a 1,000-word
review on a book on Chinese cinema.
4 .Presentation: A formal 20-minute presentation, delivered
during the last week of the term, based on the final paper draft.
5 .Final paper: Approximately 12 pages. Details will be discussed
in class. Due no later than December 16.
Tentative schedule:
| week 1 |
Film in China: A national cinema? |
| (MW 5:30-7:20) |
Readings: Rey Chow, "Visuality, Modernity, and Primitive Passions"; Michael Berry and Mary Farquhar, "Cinema and the National" & "How Should a Chinese Woman Look?"; Chris Berry, "Chinese Film Scholarship in English." Optional: Yingjin Zhang, "The Rise of Chinese Film Studies in the West" |
| Films: The Banquet; (for next week:) Laborer's Love; Goddess | |
| week 2 |
Early Cinema |
| (M 3:30-7:00) | Readings: Zhang Zhen, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, chapters 1-4; 7 Laikwan Pang, "Walking into and out of China's Early Film Scene" |
| Films (for next week): Fuck Cinema; Shattered | |
| week 3 |
Independent cinema |
| (M 3:30-7:00) |
Readings: Paul Pickowicz, "Political and Social Dynamics of Underground Filmmaking in China"; Yingjin Zhang, "My Camera Doesn't Lie?"; Valerie Jaffee, "'Every Man a Star'"; Song Hwee Lim, "Screening Homosexuality" (optional: Qi Wang, "Performing Documentation") |
| Films: Enter the Clowns, Crime and Punishment | |
| Friday: Meeting with Cui Zi'en | |
| week 4 |
Maoist cinema |
| (M 3:30-7:00) |
Readings: Yomi Braester and Tina Mai Chen, "Missing in Plain Sight"; Zhuoyi Wang, "From The Life of Wu Xun to the career of Song Jingshi"; Yomi Braester, "The Political Campaign as Genre"; Clark, "Artists, Cadres, and Audiences"; Robert Chi, "The Red Detachment of Women" |
| Films: Serfs; The Red Detachment of Women | |
| week 5 |
The Fifth Generation |
| (M 3:30-7:00) | Readings: Xudong Zhang, "The Making of a Modern Cinematic Language"; Ideology and Utopia in Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum" |
| Films: Red Sorghum; Raise the Red Lantern | |
| week 6 |
Urban Cinema |
| (M 3:30-7:00) | Readings: Zhang Zhen, "Bearing Witness"; Yomi Braester, "'This is the Story of Our Street'"; Yomi Braester, "From Urban Films to Urban Cinema" (optional: Yomi Braester, "The First Precinct Under Heaven") |
| Films: On the Beat; Suzhou River | |
| week 7 | Post-Socialist Cinema |
| (M 3:30-7:00) |
Jason McGrath, "'Independent' Cinema"; Jason McGrath, "New Year's Films"; Michael Berry, "Xiao Wu"; Stanley Rosen, "Film and Society in China: The Logic of the Market"; Dudley Andrew, "Pursuing Cinema in the Twenty-First Century" |
| Films: Xiao Wu; Aftershock | |
| week 8 | No seminars |
| week 9 |
Loose ends |
| (M 3:30-7:00) |
Animation, 1941-present |
| (W 3:30-6:00) |
Reconsidering film history |
| Films: In the Heat of the Sun, I Wish I Knew | |
| week 10 | Taiwan and Hong Kong cinema |
| (M 3:30-7:00) |
Readings (some optional):Tan See Kam, "From South Pacific to Shanghai Blue"; Akbar Abbas, "Hong Kong"; Gina Marchetti, "The Hong Kong New Wave"; Akbar Abbas, "New Hong Kong Cinema and the Deja Disparu"; Shu-mei Shih, "The Incredible Heaviness of Ambiguity"; Emilie Yeh and Darrell Davis, "Challenges and Controversies of the Taiwan New Cinema"; Yeh and Davis, "Camping Out with Tsai Ming-liang"; David Li, "Yi Yi"; James Tweedie, "Morning in the new metropolis" |
| Films: Terrorizers; The Wayward Cloud; Fallen Angels | |
| week 11 | Presentations |
| (M 3:30-7:00) |