本课程为面向各专业本科生开设的人文通识课。围绕“‘经典’与经典化”的主题,本课程将选取中国中古文学里为大众
所熟知的特定时代、作家和作品展开专题探讨。通过引导学生广泛接触、阅读和思考相关的史料、文学文本、研究文献、
以及当代大众文化视野下的文学和影视作品,旨在向学生“重新介绍经典,”启发学生以新的视角和开阔的视野重新认识
“经典”标签下的作家、作品、文学活动以及文化现象,并进一步思考文学的“经典化”过程。
课程内容除“概论”和“结语”部分外,主体部分分别聚焦于“三国”“陶渊明”“李、杜”和“《长恨歌》”四个专
题,以“经典化”和“重新发现”为核心,在每个专题下辟数讲展开探讨。中古文学自其产生之初迄今已经历了一段漫长
的历史,此间中古文学的作家和作品不断被选择和扬弃,相关的文学行为和文化现象则不断被取舍和诠释。这一过程是中
古文学被接受的过程,也是其被“经典化”的过程。在这一“经典化”语境下,当代的大众阅读和认知往往对中古时期的
著名诗人及其作品形成了僵化的印象,却同时表现出理解上的单薄和思考上的匮乏。鉴于此,本课程能够带着学生重访他
们所“熟悉”的内容,在重访的过程中,通过对相关的历史文献和文学文本的充分阅读,引导学生回到中古时期相应的历
史和文化语境去重新思考在他们印象中已经僵化的文学经典,探索不同的观照和解读面向,寻求对同一问题的多元理解。
并由此进一步启发学生的问题意识和批判性思维。
This is a GE oriented course in humanities area, designed for the undergraduate students of all majors. Centering on the
theme of "classics and canonization", this course chooses certain periods, writers and literary works from medieval China
that are familiar to general readers, and takes a closer look behind their "classicism". Throughout the course, the students
will be guided through a broad spectrum of historical records, literary texts, academic research, and even certain literary
and cinematic works from the contemporary popular culture, and in a sense be "re-introduced" to these "classics". The
goal is to inspire the students to reconsider, from different perspectives and with a broadened view, these writers, their
literary works, activities and the relevant cultural phenomena that are customarily labeled as "classics", and to further
contemplate the process of literary canonization.
Apart from the "Introduction" and the "Conclusion", the main content of this course will respectively focus on four topics,
namely, "the Three Kingdoms", Tao Yuanming, "Li (Bai) and Du (Fu)", and the "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", and the
content under each topic will unfold across multiple sessions. Chinese medieval literature has had a long history of being
received, during which its writers and works have been continuously selected while its literary and cultural phenomena
interpreted. Such is the process of reception, as well as one of canonization, of medieval literature. In this context, the
reading experience and the general knowledge of a contemporary reader on Chinese medieval literature tend to fix on a
rigidly cliché impression of a handful of "famous" writers and their "representative" works, meanwhile revealing a serious
inadequacy in thinking about and truly understanding the subject matter. In this light, this course will guide the students to
revisit certain contents that are believed to be "familiar". In this process, through extensive reading and exploration of
relevant historical and literary materials, this course will bring the students back to the historical and cultural contexts of
the medieval periods, so as to encourage them to reflect on their fixed impressions of these literature being labeled as
"classics", to discover different perspectives and see things in different light, and further to sharpen their abilities to raise
questions and to inspire their critical thinking and originality.