Comparative Literature

Teaching Purpose:

To understand the general process of the history of the development of world literature, to explain the formation and evolution of major literary trends and schools on the background of the history of ideological and cultural development; To be able to interpret the ideological content and artistic characteristics of the classic works (about ten works) of classic writers in detail.

The teaching content includes the basic knowledge of literary history as well as the general situation of social history and culture that affect the development of literature. Due to the limited class time, the teaching content is mainly European literature, with appropriate intersperses related content about the influence of Eastern literature on the development of Western literature.

This course teaches about the best achievements of Chinese literature in various ancient periods, enabling students to master the basic characteristics of major literary genres such as ancient Chinese poetry on the basis of studying some of the most representative works.

This course enables students to have a general and basic understanding of ancient Chinese literature, thereby improving their literacy in Chinese literature and laying a solid foundation for further education.

Part One: Tang Dynasty Literature; Part 2: Literature of the Song Dynasty.

Chinese Language (Foreign Language) is an undergraduate major offered by Fudan University for international students from all over the world. "Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature" is a compulsory course of this major, which is divided into two parts: "Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature (first)" and "Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature (second)". It is a major backbone course for international students to study for one academic year after entering the third grade.

As a professional literature course for international undergraduates, the design and implementation concept of this course not only strives to show the overall style of modern and contemporary Chinese literature with time as the history and works of writers of different styles as the background, but also hopes to take emotion, humanity and values as the main line. To present Chinese society and the Chinese people in the literary world in a broader interdisciplinary perspective of literature, culturology and sociology, and to interpret China through literature.

"Modern Chinese Literature" and "Contemporary Chinese Literature" are one of the most popular courses among students from the Chinese Department of Chinese Language and Literature. However, because these two courses are both 4-hour professional compulsory courses, their training objectives, teaching content and The amount of works read far exceeds the needs of students from other departments. This course "Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature" is a public elective course tailored for students from other departments to learn and understand modern and contemporary Chinese literature. This course condenses the essence of "Chinese Modern Literature" and "Chinese Contemporary Literature". By telling the interaction between the important works of Chinese writers from 1917 to the present and Chinese society, it reproduces the "emotional structure" and "collective unconsciousness" of Chinese literature on modern China. "The expression can comprehensively enhance students' artistic realm and humanistic feelings.

The course analyses various depictions of "heroic women" in different cultural contexts and historical times. It explores the notion of female heroism in contrast to male heroism, indicating major differences and similarities. It also deals with women writers’ responses to male writers’ depictions of female protagonists. This course introduces students to certain major representative works of literature/topics from different cultural milieux and thereby develops their literary awareness and sensitivity, with a particular emphasis on the theme of heroic women in literature across a range of cultures and periods; engages students imaginatively in the process of reading and analyzing selected culturally different texts; develops an awareness of intercultural issues by presenting set texts not only individually, but also in relation to each other.

This class focuses on travel writing from English and German speaking countries after 1945.  From the 1970s onwards, travel writing has displayed a strong tendency towards hybridity. The course covers works such as Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia;" The Middle Passage" by V. S. Naipaul, and W. G. Sebald's "The Rings of Saturn." 

The course also deals with some eminent representatives of German-speaking travel writing like Roger Willemsen and Christoph Ransmayr, whose works will be read against the background of the aforementioned classics. Last but not the least, this course will give a short overview of the history of travel writing, discussing the role of ethnology and topics like orientalism, primitivism and postcolonialism.

The course explores select classic and contemporary plays, poems, short stories, and novels by Norwegian authors. It analyzes literary texts and reflects on their intersections with gender, place, and history. Texts include folktales, an Ibsen play, novels, and other works of fiction. Through lectures and class discussions, the course develops proficiency in close reading and an understanding of the cultural contexts of literary expression.

This course practices the methodology of textual analysis using an anthology of texts of different genres from the 16th to the 21st century. 

This course will invite famous novelists and new writers at home and abroad to give lectures or a series of lectures, which will be open to all students in the form of elective courses. Three to seven writers will be invited for the course. The invited writers are expected not only to be highly established, original and representative, but also to have deep theoretical thinking in fiction. Through this course, novelists share their creative experience with students, introduce their creative theories and experiences, stimulate their creative enthusiasm, and encourage and guide their writing and communication. At the same time, it can also cultivate students' sentiment and achieve the good purpose of aesthetic education.

This course considers the relationship between the noir genre and social criticism, particularly from the perspective of the Situationist International group which was active between 1957 and 1972. It compares texts from the Situationist International and several novels by Jean-Patrick Manchette, in particular Ô DINGOS! O CASTLES! (1972), one of the first novels of the writer, very marked by situationist themes (critique of architecture, play, merchandise); THE LITTLE BLUE OF THE WEST COAST (1976), which marks a shift towards a more perceptible formal research while continuing the critique of daily life alienated; and THE POSITION OF THE PRONE SHOOTER (1981), where social criticism seems to take a back seat in favor a return to the violent and very refined action novel.