Asian Studies 247 - Chinese Women Writers in the 20th and 21st Centuries

In the last hundred years, China witnessed the emergence of many talented Chinese women writers. Not only did they take part in every stage of important socio-political changes in modern and contemporary China, they were and still are the avant-garde of literary reform and innovation. Many of their works, in particular, take gender and gender ideology/politics at issue, while deviating from the traditional discourse of marginalized or trivialized women, exploring creative and effective ways of literary dialogue and imagination. This course will cover women writers from both modern (1911-1949) and contemporary (1949-present) times. Some of the representative women writers include: Ding Ling, Xiao Hong, Zhang Ailing, Zong Pu, Yang Jiang, Wang Anyi, Tie Ning, etc.