Seminar in Modern Chinese Culture: Rethinking the Vernacular Revolution
Instructor: Prof. Chris Hamm
SLN: 12342
T,Th 1:30-3:20 pm, Sieg Hall 229
The success of the early 20th century vernacular language movement (baihua yundong 白話運動) is widely held to be one of the greatest achievements of the New Culture and May Fourth movements and a cornerstone of Chinese cultural modernity. In this seminar we will seek a deeper understanding of the modern vernacular movement in theory and practice. We will begin with key documents from the vernacular’s May Fourth champions, but move beyond them to examine the vernacular’s history in the literary canon and the movement’s antecedents in late Qing nationalism and Western missionary activity; the range of written linguistic registers available in late Qing and Republican-era China; agents and opponents, not only in literature and the academy but in the worlds of education, government, and commerce as well; the movement’s legacy in subsequent decades of the 20th century; and its place in transnational currents and in the comparative understanding of vernaculars.
Reading knowledge of Chinese required. Previous coursework in modern Chinese history and/or literary history recommended. Enrollment by instructor’s permission: please contact Chris Hamm at jcsong@uw.edu.
Course assignments are presented as biweekly discussion threads, organized under the weekly modules. Discussions a and b are intended for Tuesday and Thursday of each week respectively; e.g. 03a is for Tuesday of Week 03 on 4/9, and 03b for Thursday 4/11. Post a reading response to each discussion by midnight of the day before the class in question. Your response might be a close reading of one of the assigned texts (or a portion of the text), an overview of the assigned readings, an exploration of connections between one of the texts and our previous readings, an introduction to other materials or concepts that illuminate something about the day's assignments, or anything else substantive and relevant to the topic at hand. In some cases, I may pose specific questions for you to respond to, or assign particular readings to specific members of the class.