Literati culture came into full bloom in late imperial China over the second millennium. Besides belles-lettres like classical poetry and prose, late imperial literati also engaged in calligraphy, painting, and connoisseurship, which in turn shaped their self-identity. This course aims to enrich and retell the literary history of premodern China by defining literati culture as a field of scholarly expertise as well as a “laboratory” of artistic experimentation. It takes an interdisciplinary approach by introducing intellectual and poetic discourses, socio-historical contexts, literary criticism, visual and material culture, in order to envision a “common ground” for Chinese literati community. Textual, visual sources plus material objects are meant to have conversations with each other in this course.
- Teacher: לילי קסיה