This is a seminar on one important premodern Chinese literary genre, the song drama, taking the Yuan plays (zaju) by Guan Hanqing (14th c.) as its focus. In the seminar (2 h) the students engage with a range of philological and contextual questions regarding this author and his body of texts, including genre, sources, textual transformation, stage performance, themes, and the history of reception. Four plays are analyzed in greater detail. In the accompanying source reading (1 h), we read passages in the Chinese original along with an English translation.
The students in this course gain familiarity with a range of philological methods and approaches.They learn to employ conceptual terminology and to involve methodological reflection. In particular, they develop their skills in the analysis of drama libretti. As part of their graded course work, they improve their skills of argumentation and their technique of oral presentation in class.