This course surveys Chinese folk literature. Selected texts of different genres such as the Singing
Narrative (Tanci ), Drum Songs (Guci ), Qing ballads (Zidishu), Precious Scrolls (Baojuan), Daoist
poetry, story-telling (Pingshu, Huaben) folk tales, folk songs and scripts of folk performance
will be sampled and examined. Themes such as historical development, orality and textual
influence, the use of formulaic expressions during composition, dialectal features, audience and
transmission of oral literature will be discussed.
Programme: CHIN(HSS)
This course surveys Chinese folk literature. Selected texts of different genres such as the Singing Narrative (Tanci ), Drum Songs (Guci ), Qing ballads (Zidishu), Precious Scrolls (Baojuan), Daoist poetry, story-telling (Pingshu, Huaben) folk tales, folk songs and scripts of folk performance will be sampled and examined. Themes such as historical development, orality and textual influence, the use of formulaic expressions during composition, dialectal features, audience and transmission of oral literature will be discussed.