Università Roma Tre

The course aims to offer an overview of the development of Chinese literature from its origins (approximately from the 9th century BC) to the mid-19th century, focusing on the genres, currents, works and authors who occupy a privileged position in the literary canon and in the cultural imagery of China. The course also includes elements of Chinese history, which are essential for the historical, social and cultural collocation of the topics covered.
At the end of the course, students must demonstrate a precise knowledge of the historical and cultural profile of Chinese literature, as well as a good familiarity with the most renowned and influential genres, texts and authors, serving as a basis for future studies in Chinese literature.

Program:
1. Periodization of Chinese history, archaic China, basic philosophical concepts, foundation myths, early documents
2. Development of the Chinese literary tradition, wenyan and baihua, the figure of the man of letters and the relationship between culture and state
3. From the Zhou dynasty to the Han dynasty: historical context and first literary texts
4. Confucianism: Confucius, Mengzi, and Xunzi
5. Daoism: Laozi and Zhuangzi
6. Buddhism
7. Poetry: from Shijing to fu poetry
8. Six dynasties and Tang dynasty: history and shi poetry
9. Tang fiction: bianwen and chuanqi
10. Song dynasty: historical context and main literary genres
11. Yuan dynasty: historical context and qu poetry
12. Zaju and the birth of the theatre
13. Ming dynasty: historical context and vernacular novels
14. The Great Ming Classical Novels
15. Qing dinasty: historical context and fiction
16. Development of theatre and Peking Opera
17. Tang Poetry: analysis of selected poems

- Bertuccioli, G. (2013). La letteratura cinese. Roma: L’asino d’oro (chs. 1-7).
- Cheng, A. (2000). Storia del pensiero filosofico cinese (voll. 1-2). Torino: Einaudi (chs.: Introduction, 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16, 19).
- Additional materials uploaded on Teams and Moodle