Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber)

Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber) PDF Author: Andrew Schonebaum
Publisher: Modern Language Association of America
ISBN: 9781603291118
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber), a Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin and continued by Gao E, tells of an amazing garden, of a young man's choice between two beautiful women, of his journey toward enlightenment, and of the moral and financial decline of a powerful family. Published in 1792, it depicts virtually every facet of life in eighteenth-century China—and has influenced culture in China ever since.Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides information and resources that will help teachers and students begin and pursue their study of Stone. The essays that constitute part 2, "Approaches," introduce major topics to be covered in the classroom: Chinese religion, medicine, history, traditions of poetry, material culture, sexual mores, servants; Stone in film and on television; and the formidable challenges of translation into English that were faced by David Hawkes and then by John Minford.

Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber)

Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber) PDF Author: Andrew Schonebaum
Publisher: Modern Language Association of America
ISBN: 9781603291118
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber), a Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin and continued by Gao E, tells of an amazing garden, of a young man's choice between two beautiful women, of his journey toward enlightenment, and of the moral and financial decline of a powerful family. Published in 1792, it depicts virtually every facet of life in eighteenth-century China—and has influenced culture in China ever since.Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides information and resources that will help teachers and students begin and pursue their study of Stone. The essays that constitute part 2, "Approaches," introduce major topics to be covered in the classroom: Chinese religion, medicine, history, traditions of poetry, material culture, sexual mores, servants; Stone in film and on television; and the formidable challenges of translation into English that were faced by David Hawkes and then by John Minford.

Rereading the Stone

Rereading the Stone PDF Author: Anthony C. Yu
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691090139
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The eighteenth-century Hongloumeng, known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone, is generally considered to be the greatest of Chinese novels--one that masterfully blends realism and romance, psychological motivation and fate, daily life and mythical occurrences, as it narrates the decline of a powerful Chinese family. In this path-breaking study, Anthony Yu goes beyond the customary view of Hongloumeng as a vivid reflection of late imperial Chinese culture by examining the novel as a story about fictive representation. Through a maze of literary devices, the novel challenges the authority of history as well as referential biases in reading. At the heart of Hongloumeng, Yu argues, is the narration of desire. Desire appears in this tale as the defining trait and problem of human beings and at the same time shapes the novel's literary invention and effect. According to Yu, this focalizing treatment of desire may well be Hongloumeng's most distinctive accomplishment. Through close readings of selected episodes, Yu analyzes principal motifs of the narrative, such as dream, mirror, literature, religious enlightenment, and rhetorical reflexivity in relation to fictive representation. He contextualizes his discussions with a comprehensive genealogy of qing--desire, disposition, sentiment, feeling--a concept of fundamental importance in historical Chinese culture, and shows how the text ingeniously exploits its multiple meanings. Spanning a wide range of comparative literary sources, Yu creates a new conceptual framework in which to reevaluate this masterpiece.

Reading Dream of the Red Chamber

Reading Dream of the Red Chamber PDF Author: Ronald R. Gray
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476681147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A masterpiece of world literature, Honglou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763) is widely considered China's greatest novel and serves as a compendium of traditional Chinese life and culture during the Qing Dynasty. This guide offers a comprehensive introduction and overview to Honglou Meng, providing more than 200 alphabetical entries describing characters, key events and a wide range of topics, with discussion of important themes and narrative techniques. A brief biography of Cao is included, along with a history of Chinese and English critical receptions, an extensive bibliography and recommended reading.

Approaches to Teaching The Plum in the Golden Vase (The Golden Lotus)

Approaches to Teaching The Plum in the Golden Vase (The Golden Lotus) PDF Author: Andrew Schonebaum
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 1603294139
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
The Plum in the Golden Vase (also known as The Golden Lotus) was published in the early seventeenth century and may be the first long work of Chinese fiction written by a single (though anonymous) author. Featuring both complex structural elements and psychological and emotional realism, the novel centers on the rich merchant Ximen Qing and his household and describes the physical surroundings and material objects of a Ming Dynasty city. In part a social, political, and moral critique, the novel reflects on hierarchical power relations of family and state and the materialism of life at the time. The essays in this volume provide ideas for teaching the novel using a variety of approaches, from questions of genre, intertextuality, and the novel's reception to material culture, family and social dynamics, and power structures in sexual relations. Insights into the novel's representation of Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, legal culture, class, slavery, and obscenity are offered throughout the volume.

A Companion to The Story of the Stone

A Companion to The Story of the Stone PDF Author: Kenneth Hsien-Yung Pai
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231553137
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
The Story of the Stone (also known as Dream of the Red Chamber) is widely held to be the greatest work of Chinese literature, beloved by readers ever since it was first published in 1791. The story revolves around the young scion of a mighty clan who, instead of studying for the civil service examinations, frolics with his maidservants and girl cousins. The narrative is cast within a mythic framework in which the protagonist’s rebellion against Confucian strictures is guided by a Buddhist monk and a Taoist priest. Embedded in the novel is a biting critique of imperial China’s political and social system. This book is a straightforward guide to a complex classic that was written at a time when readers had plenty of leisure to sort through the hundreds of characters and half a dozen subplots that weave in and out of the book’s 120 chapters. Each chapter of the companion summarizes and comments on each chapter of the novel. The companion provides English-speaking readers—whether they are simply dipping into this novel or intent on a deep analysis of this masterpiece—with the cultural context to enjoy the story and understand its world. The book is keyed to David Hawkes and John Minford’s English translation of The Story of the Stone and includes an index that gives the original Chinese names and terms.

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson PDF Author: Caroline McCracken-Flesher
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 1603291857
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Although Robert Louis Stevenson was a late Victorian, his work--especially Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--still circulates energetically and internationally among popular and academic audiences and among young and old. Admired by Henry James, Vladimir Nabokov, and Jorge Luis Borges, Stevenson's fiction crosses the boundaries of genre and challenges narrow definitions of the modern and the postmodern. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides an introduction to the writer's life, a survey of the criticism of his work, and a variety of resources for the instructor. In part 2, "Approaches," thirty essays address such topics as Stevenson's dialogue with James about literature; his verse for children; his Scottish heritage; his wanderlust; his work as gothic fiction, as science fiction, as detective fiction; his critique of imperialism in the South Seas; his usefulness in the creative writing classroom; and how Stevenson encourages expansive thinking across texts, times, places, and lives.

Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen

Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen PDF Author: Jacquelyn Y. McLendon
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 1603292217
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Nella Larsen's novels Quicksand and Passing, published at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, fell out of print and were thus little known for many years. Now widely available and taught, Quicksand and Passing challenge conventional "tragic mulatta" and "passing" narratives. In part 1, "Materials," of Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen, the editor surveys the canon of Larsen's writing, evaluates editions of her works, recommends secondary readings, and compiles a list of useful multimedia resources for teaching. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," aim to help students better understand attitudes toward women and race during the Harlem Renaissance, the novels' relations to other artistic movements, and legal debates over racial identities in the early twentieth century. In so doing, contributors demonstrate how new and seasoned instructors alike might use Larsen's novels to explore a wide range of topics--including Larsen's short stories and letters, the relation between her writings and her biography, and the novels' discussion of gender and sexuality.

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Anton Chekhov

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Anton Chekhov PDF Author: Michael C. Finke
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 1603292691
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Chekhov's works are unflinching in the face of human frailty. With their emphasis on the dignity and value of individuals during unique moments, they help us better understand how to exist with others when we are fundamentally alone. Written in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, when the country began to move fitfully toward industrialization and grappled with the influence of Western liberalism even as it remained an autocracy, Chekhov's plays and stories continue to influence contemporary writers. The essays in this volume provide classroom strategies for teaching Chekhov's stories and plays, discuss how his medical training and practice related to his literary work, and compare Chekhov with writers both Russian and American. The volume also aims to help instructors with the daunting array of new editions in English, as well as with the ever-growing list of titles in visual media: filmed theater productions of his plays, adaptations of the plays and stories scripted for film, and amateur performances freely available online.

Approaches to Teaching the Plays of August Wilson

Approaches to Teaching the Plays of August Wilson PDF Author: Sandra G. Shannon
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 1603292608
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The award-winning playwright August Wilson used drama as a medium to write a history of twentieth-century America through the perspectives of its black citizenry. In the plays of his Pittsburgh Cycle, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and The Piano Lesson, Wilson mixes African spirituality with the realism of the American theater and puts African American storytelling and performance practices in dialogue with canonical writers like Aristotle and Shakespeare. As they portray black Americans living through migration, industrialization, and war, Wilson's plays explore the relation between a unified black consciousness and America's collective identity. In part 1 of this volume, "Materials," the editors survey sources on Wilson's biography, teachable texts of Wilson's plays, useful secondary readings, and compelling audiovisual and Web resources. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," look at a diverse set of issues in Wilson's work, including the importance of blues and jazz, intertextual connections to other playwrights, race in performance, Yoruban spirituality, and the role of women in the plays.

Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Henry Fielding

Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Henry Fielding PDF Author: Jennifer Preston Wilson
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 160329225X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The works of Henry Fielding, though written nearly three hundred years ago, retain their sense of comedy and innovation in the face of tradition, and they easily engage the twenty-first-century student with many aspects of eighteenth-century life: travel, inns, masquerades, political and religious factions, the '45, prisons and the legal system, gender ideals and realities, social class. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," discusses the available editions of Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, Shamela, Jonathan Wild, and Amelia; suggests useful critical and contextual works for teaching them; and recommends helpful audiovisual and electronic resources. The essays of part 2, "Approaches," demonstrate that many of the methods and models used for one novel-- the romance tradition, Fielding's legal and journalistic writing, his techniques as a playwright, the ideas of Machiavelli-- can be adapted to others.