EAST 351 WOMEN WRITERS OF (Fall 2021) Instructor: Wang Wanming Time: 10:05 AM-11:25 AM, Tuesday and Thursday Office hours: Tuesday 11:30AM-12:30 PM, or by appointment Email address: [email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES: The course examines a variety of textual forms and genres of writing – poetry, fiction, drama, letters, diaries, travelogues, auto/biography, etc. – by women in imperial China from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) to the twenty-first century. Close readings of texts will focus on the manipulation of language and literary devices and the construction of voice and subject positions from the perspective of gender. We will also pay attention to women’s lives, gender relations, and the socio-historical contexts and thematic contents of their writings. Central questions that we will explore and attempt to answer include: what class and category of women wrote and under what social and historical circumstances did they write? Why, how, and what did they write in imperial China? What motivated them? What genres were especially favored by and/or considered “appropriate” for women writers in imperial China? Can we detect or intuit a “feminine voice” in the writings of women that distinguishes their works from those written by male scholar-officials? How did women construct their identity and subjectivity within the more complex literary, historical, cultural, and political contexts after the last dynasty fell in 1911? How did feminist movements and new technologies (e.g. internet) influence gender relations as well as women’s roles, education, marriage, friendship, etc. in post-imperial China? Our consideration of these and other questions will enhance and deepen our understanding of the range and contents of Chinese women’s literary production, the forces shaping women’s writing in China, the significance of writing in women’s lives and culture, and the role of women writers in the literary-historical tradition.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture and discussion of critical readings and close analysis of the themes, literary methods, and discursive constructions in selected works by women.

COURSE MATERIALS: All required readings will be available in myCourses or are available through the online library catalogue.

METHODS OF EVALUATION:

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1. Class participation (5%) Students must read the assigned materials before each class and come prepared with questions and observations on the readings for the week. You are encouraged to raise questions and comments in class on issues arising from the assigned texts and critical studies. Regular attendance and active participation in class discussion are required. One point will be deducted from the participation grade for each unexcused absence. 2. Two short essays (30%): 4-5 typed, double-spaced pages 1) Choose one scholarly article from the assigned readings to respond to these questions: What are the main points of the article? What approach does the author take to analyze the selected texts? How does the article advance your understanding of the topic or issues concerned? 2) Close reading of a text by a Chinese woman writer and comment on the text’s gendered aspects or lack thereof. The first essay is to be submitted in class on Sept. 28; the second on Oct. 21. 3. Oral Presentation of reading material (10%) From Sept. 16, each class will have 1-2 students to give a 10-20 minute prepared presentation. The presentation should critically summarize the main points and arguments of weekly readings, engage the topic in a creative manner, and raise thought-provoking questions. 4. Paper proposal with preliminary bibliography (15%) A two-page double-spaced proposal (plus a bibliography of at least four items) is due in class on Nov. 11. The purpose of the proposal is to identify the feasibility of your research project (i.e., select a topic, identify key works that will serve as the basis for the paper) and ensure that you begin research on the final project early in the term. 5. Final paper (40%): 8-10 typed, double-spaced pages Due Dec. 9 before 23:59pm.

Late submissions: 1% per day will be deducted from the assignment.

COVID-19 POLICIES: Students are required to wear a procedural mask in classroom even if they are seated two metres or more apart. For more requirements and information, please check: https://www.mcgill.ca/coronavirus/health-guidelines/health-guidelines-mcgill-students.

McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information). In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the

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right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

CLASS SCHEDULE: WEEK 1 Sept. 2 (TR) COURSE OVERVIEW Idema, Wilt and Beata Grant. Introduction to The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, 1-9. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2004. Cai, Zong-qi. Introduction to How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, 1-9. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

UNIT 1: Early Models WEEK 2 Sept. 7 (T) The Han Dynasty: Scholars and Neglected Palace Ladies The Red Brush, 11-42 (Ban Zhao), 73-82 (Concubine Ban)

Sept. 9 (TR) The : Scholars and Poets The Red Brush, 54-57 (the Song sisters), 174-195 (Li Ye, , Yu Xuanji). Robertson, Maureen. “Voicing the Feminine: Constructions of the Gendered Subject in Lyric Poetry by Women of Medieval and Late Imperial China.” Late Imperial China 13, no.1 (June 1992): 63-110, esp. 63-79.

WEEK 3 Sept. 14 (T) The Tang Dynasty: Shangguan Wan’er The Red Brush, 61-71 (Shangguan Wan’er). Wu, Jie. “Vitality and Cohesiveness in the Poetry of Shangguan Wan’er (664–710).” Tang Studies 34, no.1 (2016): 40-72.

Sept. 16 (TR) The Song Dynasty: Li Qingzhao Egan, Ronald. “Writing and the Struggle for Acceptance.” In The Burden of Female Talent: The Poet Li Qingzhao and Her History in China, 44-90. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013.

UNIT 2: The Flourishing of Women’s Literature in Late Imperial China WEEK 4 Sept. 21 (T) Ropp, Paul S. “Ambiguous Images of Culture in Late Imperial China.” In Writing

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Women in Late Imperial China, 17-45. Ellen Widmer and Kang-i Sun Chang eds. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Sept. 23 (TR) Ideal Ko, Dorothy. “Talent, Virtue, and Beauty: Rewriting Womanhood.” In Teachers of Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China, 143-176. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University, 1994.

WEEK 5 Sept. 28 (T) Literary Families Essay 1 due in class Ko, Dorothy. “Domestic Communities: Male and Female Domains.” In Teachers of the Inner Chambers, 179-218.

Sept. 30 (TR) The Cult of Qing Ko, Dorothy. “The Enchantment of Love in The Peony Pavilion.” In Teachers of the Inner Chambers, 68-103.

WEEK 6 Oct. 5 (T) Ming-Qing Transition Li, Wai-yee. “Female Voices Appropriating Masculine Diction.” In Women and National Trauma in Later Imperial Chinese Literature, 146-84. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, 2014.

Oct. 7 (TR) Women’s Literary Lives (I) Mann, Susan. “Writing.” In Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century, 76-120. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.

WEEK 7 Oct. 12 (T) Fall Reading Break

Oct. 15 (F) Women’s Literary Lives (II) Fong, Grace. “Writing and Illness: A Feminine Condition in Women's Poetry of the Ming and Qing.” In The Inner Quarters and Beyond: Women Writers from Ming through Qing, edited by Grace Fong and Ellen Widmer, 19-48. Leiden: Brill, 2010.

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WEEK 8 Oct. 19 (T) Women’s Literary Networks (I) Ko, Dorothy. “Social and Public Communities: Genealogies Across Time and Space.” In Teachers of the Inner Chambers, 219-250.

Oct. 21 (TR) Women’s Literary Networks (II) Essay 2 due in class Hamilton, Robyn. “The Unseen Hand: Contextualizing Luo Qilan and Her Anthologies.” In The Inner Quarters and Beyond, 107-140.

WEEK 9 Oct. 26 (T) Women’s Literary Networks (II) Grant, Beata. “Chan Friends: Poetic Exchanges between Gentry Women and Buddhist Nuns in Seventeenth-Century China.” In The Inner Quarters and Beyond, 215-248.

UNIT 3: Modern and Contemporary Women’s Literature Oct. 28 (TR) Late Qing Reformers and Feminists Liang, Qichao. “On Women’s Education.” In The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory, edited by Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, and Dorothy Ko, 187-203. New York, US: Columbia University Press, 2013. He-Yin Zhen. “On the Question of Women’s Liberation.” In The Birth of Chinese Feminism, 53-71.

WEEK 10 Nov. 2 (T) Revolutionary Martyr Qiu Jin Li, Xiaorong. “The Old Boudoir and the ‘New Woman’: The Late Qing and Early Republican Era.” In Women’s Poetry of Late Imperial China, 145-178. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012.

Nov. 4 (TR) Autobiographical Writings: Lu Yin Yin, Lu. “Autobiography (excerpts).” In May Fourth Women Writers: Memoirs, edited by Janet Ng and Janice Wickeri, 97-119. Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. Wang, Jing. “Writing Her Own Identity: Autobiography of Lu Yin.” In When “I” was Born: Women’s Autobiography in Modern China, 103-119. Madison, Wis.: University of

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Wisconsin Press, 2008.

WEEK 11 Nov. 9 (T) Bing Xin Xin, Bing. “Autobiographical Notes,” “How I Wrote A Maze of Stars and Spring Water,” “Selections from Spring Water,” “Selections from A Maze of Stars,” “The Little Orange Lamp.” Renditions: A Chinese-English Translation Magazine 3 (Autumn 1989): 85-117, 130-132. Chen, Mao. “In and Out of Home: Bing Xin Recontextualized.” In Asian Literary Voices: From Marginal to Mainstream, edited by Philip F. Williams, 63-70. Amsterdam, NL: Amsterdam University Press, 2010.

Nov. 11 (TR) Ding Ling Ling, Ding. Mother, I Myself Am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling, edited by Tani Barlow and Gary Bjorge, 201-239. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990. Barlow, Tani. “Gender and Identity in Ding Ling’s Mother.” Modern Chinese Literature 2, no. 2 (Fall 1986): 123-142.

WEEK 12 Nov. 16 (T) Eileen Chang: A Legendary Writer (I) Paper proposal due in class Chang, Eileen. “Love in a Fallen City.” In Love in a Fallen City, translated by Karen Kingsbury, 109-167. New York: New York Review Books, 2007.

Nov. 18 (TR) Eileen Chang: A Legendary Writer (II) Lee, Ou-fan. “Eileen Chang: Romances in a Fallen City.” In Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945, 267-303. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999.

WEEK 13 Nov. 23 (T) A New Era: Shu Ting and Wang Anyi Shu, Ting. “Poems by Shu Ting.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 16, no.3: 34-36. _____. “Shu Ting: Selected Poems.” Renditions 27 & 28 (1987): 253-269. Kubin, Wolfgang. “Writing with Your Body: Literature as a Wound - Remarks on the Poetry of Shu Ting.” Modem Chinese Literature 4, no. 1/2 (Spring & Fall, 1988): 149-162. McDougall, Bonnie. “Self-Narrative as Group Discourse: Female Subjectivity in Wang Anyi’s

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Fiction.” Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century, 95-113. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2003.

Nov. 25 (TR) The 21st Century: Internet Literature (I) Feng, Jin. “Addicted to Beauty.” In Romancing the Internet: Producing and Consuming Chinese Web Romance, 53-83. Leiden: Brill Press, 2013.

WEEK 14 Nov. 30 (T) The 21st Century: Internet Literature (II) Feng, Jin. “Rewriting Classics, Righting Wrongs.” In Romancing the Internet, 109-137.

Dec. 2 (TR) Conclusion

Dec. 9 (TR) Final Paper Due

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