How to Read Chinese Poetry

From earliest vestiges of Chinese poetry more than two thousand years ago, to doors of contemporary Chinese homes, and to San Francisco’s Angel Island in late 19th century, few students of China (or pre-modern East Asia) go far without suddenly encountering pervasive presence of Chinese poetry (shi). Examination of why poetry, roles poetry plays in Chinese culture, and how to read it. Basic beginning in learning how to read Chinese classical poetry. Study is topical and accumulative, designed to have effect of building blocks and progressive overlays. Introduction to language, forms, and history of shi poetry. Study of smallest integral unit of Chinese lyric poetry, individual words and their selection; formal elements and rhetorical features; modes of perception and how it governs lyric description, narration, and argument. Consideration of presuppositions of what poetry is and how it is to be read. Concurrently scheduled with course C237.

P/NP or letter grading.