Spring 2016 Literature Course, Dream of the Red Chamber: Beauty, Ambition, and Folly in China’s Greatest Love Story With Stephen Roddy

Literature Courses
Woman’s informal coat with scenes from “Dream of the Red Chamber”, approx. 1900–1950. China. Silk. Courtesy of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Gift of Merrill Randol Sherwin and Dr. Stephen A. Sherwin, 2014.2. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of SF

Spring 2016 Literature Course, Dream of the Red Chamber: Beauty, Ambition, and Folly in China’s Greatest Love Story With Stephen Roddy

Instructor: 
Stephen Roddy
When: 
Repeats every 2 weeks every Sunday until Sun Apr 17 2016 except Sun Apr 03 2016. Also includes Sun Mar 06 2016, Sun Mar 20 2016, Sun Apr 10 2016, Sun Apr 17 2016.
February 7, 2016
Time: 
10:15 am – 12:15 pm
Place: 
Education Studios (2/21, 3/20, 4/17) and Community Room at Opera Plaza (2/7, 3/6, 4/10)
Fee: 
$110 Society members, $135 non-members (after Museum admission), includes $10 materials fee for readings to be provided during the course

This course presents an overview of the 18thcentury masterpiece of Chinese fiction, Dream of the Red Chamber. While centered on a tragic love story among cousins, the novel depicts the lives of a large, extended family struggling to maintain appearances amidst financial decline. Many of its characters immerse themselves in poetry, aesthetics, philosophy, and some of the other elite pursuits that flourished during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-95), making the book a kind of compendium of classical Chinese culture during its last, most mature phase. In selected chapters we will explore topics such as the symbolism of classical gardens, the poetic genres of shi, ci, and qu, the system of official recruitment through competitive literary examinations, and the influence of the novel on later Chinese literature and art. We will also touch on its reception by a few of its most influential readers and interpreters, including Hu Shih (a disciple of John Dewey) and Mao Zedong.

Stephen Roddy holds a PhD from Princeton University and is currently Professor of Modern Languages at the University of San Francisco, where he teaches courses in the literature and culture of China and Japan. His recent research has covered topics such as the Chinese civil service examinations, literati tea (bunjincha) in Japan, Ming and Qing Dynasty fiction, essays, and poetry, and 19thcentury Chinese and Japanese writings about the West.

 
 

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