In this course, we will read key modern Chinese aesthetic and literary texts in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. Beginning in the late Qing period (ca. 1880 – 1911), we will examine philosophical-aesthetic texts by important “transitional” Chinese intellectuals, such as Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, and Xu Nianci, who sought to bring about a new modern consciousness while adhering closely to classical Chinese principles. We will then move on to the Republican period (1912-1949) and the May Fourth Literary and Cultural Movement, during which many thinkers, writers, poets, and artists engaged in travel, translation, and creative re-imagination of Chinese and foreign aesthetic, poetic, and literary impulses. By reading the works of Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Cai Yuanpei, Feng Zhi, Zhu Guangqian, Zong Baihua, Bing Xin, and others, we will trace how each of these thinkers, poets, and writers created distinct syncretic fusions of classical Chinese, modern Western, and/or Japanese aesthetic, literary, and cultural ideas. In particular, we will trace the ways in which modern German aesthetic thinkers, such as Schelling, Schopenhauer, Kant, Nietzsche, and Rilke came to be translated and understood in China. At the same time, developments in the visual arts, such as the avant-garde New Woodcut Movement of the 1930’s and 1940’s, was inspired by German Expressionism, Soviet wood engravings, and creative Japanese prints, and revealed a fundamental reconstruction of aesthetic and political dynamics in Chinese modern art. We will consider the evolution of internationalist Marxist aesthetics, and their popular appeal, engendered by influences from Soviet culture during the highly ideological Maoist years (ca. 1946-1976). Turning to the post-Mao period beginning in the early 1980’s, we will read key representatives of contemporary Chinese aesthetic thought, such as Li Zehou and others, who reflected on contemporary Chinese literature and art in light of classical Chinese, modern Western, and other influences. Finally, we will consider new cross-cultural aesthetic encounters and innovation by Chinese writers and artists within China in the Sinosphere in Europe as well as the world more broadly. Throughout the course, we will read aesthetic, literary, poetic, and philosophical texts while also considering simultaneous developments in the realms of visual and cinematic art. We will read all texts in English translation, though the original Chinese, Japanese, German, and French texts will be available.

This seminar explores the complex system of relations between the transatlantic slave trade and the consequent rise and fall of the plantation complex in the British, French and Iberian Atlantic. Primary source material from the mid-eighteenth to early-nineteenth centuries is complemented by contemporary fictional musings concerning how to "make sense" of events that have left a profound impact on the social, economic and aesthetic landscape of the present. Close attention is paid to questions of genre, particularly natural histories, the novel, poetry, polemical essays and the strident periodical press that polarized both proslavery and anti-slavery agendas. How do these forms explore the nature of freedom and unfreedom, and excise or re-inscribe people of African descent, Native Americans and women into debates about citizenship and equality? Particular emphasis is put on the new “archival turn” in literary scholarship and the increased role of digital humanities projects. Influential historical studies and in-class close readings of visual material provide secondary context. The course satisfies the department’s historical breadth requirement and will be conducted in a hybrid in-person and zoom format.

LTCS 225

In this seminar, we will study scholarly and literary engagements with race, gender, and sexuality within transnational frameworks. One of the goals of this course is to examine the cultural, social, and political theorizations of feminist and queer cultural producers, scholars, and activists. In addition to working through the significance of migrations and diasporas for studies of gender, sexuality, and transnational feminisms, this seminar attends to political affiliations across and beyond “the national.” As we pursue critical connections, we will be attentive to the historical specificities that shape particular experiences. Readings include scholarly works as well as cultural productions such as literature, films, and multimedia art forms that model diverse methods and practices of theorization.

This is the third in the three-part introductory theory sequence for PhD students in the UCSD Literature department. This segment will focus on contemporary conversations in literary and critical theory on method, field-formation, the university, and the labor of knowledge-production. This course aims to not only orient students in some major conversations in contemporary literary/critical theory, but also equip students to undertake the practical matter of literary scholarship: proposing papers to and presenting at conferences, writing publishable articles targeted at particular journals, teaching literary and theoretical texts effectively, and building a generative writing/revision practice.