Mar 29, 2024  
2016-2017 Catalogue 
    
2016-2017 Catalogue [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CHIN 22500 - Performance Traditions of China

Course Credit: 1
(CMLT, EAST)
The course introduces topics in the rich panorama of oral and oral- connected performance traditions of China. Local traditions of professional storytelling, epic singing, folksongs, ritual, and local drama will be explored from an interdisciplinary perspective that will include folkloristics, vernacular and popular culture, performance studies, ethnopoetics, and translation studies. Taking a multi-ethnic approach, stress will be given to the idea that the performance traditions in China, rather than being parts of a monolithic “Chinese” tradition are better represented as diverse and distinct traditions with occasional similarities that exist or have existed within the modern borders of China. The course is not a comprehensive coverage of the hundreds of local traditions, but will alert students to the variety and nature of this vast corpus, in which much remains to be explored and documented. [AH, C]