ASIAN 6670 - Nature and Ecology in Ancient Chinese Travel Writing

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: reading knowledge of classical and modern Chinese. Permission of instructor required. Co-meets with ASIAN 3370/CAPS 3370.

D.X. Warner.

This course traces the development of travel writing from the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 221) to the Song dynasty (960–1279). Special attention is paid to the ways in which Chinese writers have ceaselessly negotiated humankind’s relationship with the natural world in their accounts of travel—both imagined and actual. An additional weekly seminar session introduces students to contemporary scholarship on critical questions and issues pertaining to the thematic foci of this course. A final research paper on an approved topic pertaining to the central theme of this course is required. (LL)