(BA) (4-year-programme) - The University of Hong Kong

97Note: This is a survey course which students can take in the second, third, or fourth year.Assessment: 100% coursework.CLIT2087.Modern Chinese culture and society: Rebellions and revolutions (6 credits)This course focuses on the social history, politics, and culture of modern China. We will studyimportant moments of the May 4th and “reform” eras, but most of our attention will be spent on themost maligned but fascinating and still influential era of modern China: that of Mao Zedong and thecontinuous revolution (1930s-1979). This course is an advanced introduction but does not presumetoo much knowledge about mainland China. We’ll look at the development of the P.R.C. as it isreflected and refracted in select literary, film, ethnographic, scholarly, and primary/historicaldocuments from China and the world. Writers can range from Lu Xun, Liang Chi-Chao, and MaoZedong to William Hinton and Gao Mobo. Films can include “agit-prop” as well as documentaries.But in addition to surveying this complex socio-cultural history, we will also contest conventionalwisdom about the People’s Republic. We will take China’s long revolution seriously, in all its gloryas well as its gory details. We’ll explore some of the theoretical, ethical, interpretive, and politicalissues raised by a rich history of revolution and rebellion in modern China.Note: This is a survey course which students can take in the second, third, or fourth year.Assessment: 100% coursework.CLIT2088.Critical approaches to film studies (6 credits)This course is designed to acquaint the student with the principal critical methods and theoreticaldebates of film theory. In addition to providing a survey of film theories, this course focuses on theinterconnections of theory with film criticism and production practices. A range of fiction and nonfictionfilms will be screened, including early Soviet, classical Hollywood, Third Cinema, FrenchNew Wave, and contemporary international productions. Theoretical perspectives includestructuralism, semiology, Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, post-structuralism, andcultural studies. Some of the theoretical issues covered include questions of narrative and narration,realism, formalism, modernism, postmodernism, post-colonialism, gender, sexuality, ideology,authorship, and genre.Note: This is a capstone learning course which students should take in their third or fourth year.Prerequisite: CLIT 2007 or with consent of the instructorNote: This is an advanced topical course which will fulfill the department’s capstone learningpurposes. Students should take it in their third or fourth year.Assessment: 100% coursework.CLIT2089.Culture and ‘queer’ theory (6 credits)This course aims to examine the interconnections between queer and other discourses, such as race,class, gender, and politics. Topics may include queer consumerism (the myth of the pink dollar aswell as gay/lesbian icons) and activism, and we will see how queer potentially “invades” establishedstructures like religion and the nuclear family to explore both the vibrancy and limitations of queertheories. By consulting both theoretical accounts of queerness and engaging with a wide range offilmic and literary texts drawn from both Asian and Western contexts, this course aims at bringingstudents a global perspective to decipher the multifaceted nature of queer culture, theory, anddynamics.Note: This is a survey course which students can take in the second, third, or fourth year.Assessment: 100% coursework.