ASIA 291
Red Chamber Dreams: Reading China's Greatest Novel
Last Offered Fall 2021
Division I Writing Skills
Cross-listed COMP 291
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Since it first began to circulate in manuscript in the mid-eighteenth century, Cao Xueqin’s novel Story of the Stone (Shitou ji), also called Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng), has captured the imaginations of readers young and old with its sprawling story of the coming-of-age of members of a wealthy family on the cusp of ruin. As critically acclaimed as it is beloved, Story of the Stone is widely regarded as China’s greatest novel due to the intricacy of its narrative, the complexity of its characters, and the sophistication with which it deals with themes as varied as romance, enlightenment, sexuality and gender identity, and the construction of public and private spaces. The focus of this tutorial will be reading the 120-chapter novel. Students will have the option to read either in Chinese or English (though papers and class discussion will be in English). We will also read scholarly literature to learn about some of the major critical approaches to the novel, and about its enduring importance in the Chinese literary tradition.