CN3307 Poverty in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature and Culture

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

15

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 9

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Restricted to students on Chinese Studies joint honours programmes. This module is restricted to 35 students.

Planned timetable

To be confirmed

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr K Cai

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Keru Cai

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

Poverty has defined and haunted modernity in China. As the scourge and the impetus behind major historical convulsions of the 20th century, poverty shaped China’s project to catch up with the West in the late-Qing and Republican periods, drove the rise of socialism, and continues to afflict the post-socialist period in evolving guises. Poverty in Chinese art forms appears as an experience that crosses divisions of class, gender, geographic origin, or ethnicity; it afflicts struggling writers, urban laborers, and peasant farmers alike. How have Chinese art forms grappled with the problem of poverty and its varying ramifications? How does the topic of poverty give rise to innovations in aesthetic forms? We will look closely at manifestations of poverty in fiction, visual culture, and film.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

STUDENTS MUST HAVE READING KNOWLEDGE OF CHINESE.

Assessment pattern

100% coursework

Re-assessment

100% written examination

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1.5 hour lecture/seminar x 11 weeks

Scheduled learning hours

17

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

132

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Understand how poverty is defined in literature and other art forms in modern and contemporary China.
  • Demonstrate insight into why the issue of poverty was so central to artistic production throughout the 20th and 21st centuries in China.
  • Discuss how formal qualities of literature and art are marshalled to address social and political problems of poverty.
  • Analyse key works of fiction and cinema from modern and contemporary China for their formal innovations.
  • Debate how the portrayal of poverty changed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries in China.