EAST 305 - Tang Dynasty Tales: Fiction, History, Hearsay

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
China’s Tang dynasty saw a veritable explosion of long-form classical prose tales known as chuanqi (“transmissions of the marvelous”), whose sophisticated narratives most often treat life on the margins of respectable society, featuring heroic knights-errant (xia), mischievous fox-spirits, and ill-fated lovers. But are these colorful stories the origin of conscious fiction-writing in China? Or are they better seen as a private alternative to imperial history? Or do they belong in the murkier realm of gossip and “believe-it-or-not?” This course will explore many of the most famous Tang chuanqi in their historical context, and ask how ideas of genre, intentionality, and authenticity affect how we think about written narratives both medieval and modern, which so often lie at the fascinating intersection of fiction, historiography, and the well-told tale.