East Asian Lang & Literature 131 - WRITING AND POWER IN CHINA

This class explores how writing has been used to gain, maintain and overturn power in China from antiquity through the present, functioning as an expression of individual agency, a force for social change, and an instrument of state power. Drawing on primary sources in a wide range of genres and media, from oracle bones and classical philosophy to poetry, propaganda, and social media, we examine how different kinds of writing have shaped history and how different forms of textual transmission contain and disseminate power. All readings are in English translation.