Discuss the author’s overall approach.
Lu, Xun; trans. by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, A brief history of Chinese fiction. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1959.
Gu, Ming Dong. Chinese theories of fiction: A non-Western narrative system. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006.
Shi ji
Durrant, Stephen W. The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Hardy, Grant. “Form and Narrative in Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Shih chi.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), 14 (1992): 1-23.
Hardy, Grant. Worlds of bronze and bamboo: Sima Qian’s conquest history. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999
Han shu
Clark, Anthony E. Ban Gu’s history of early China. Amherst, N.Y.: Cambria Press, 2008.
Your report (2 pages) should:
1. Discuss the author’s overall approach. E.g. is it focused on: Providing a general overview of a topic? Offering a close reading and interpretation of one or more texts? Explaining particular terms or concepts necessary to understanding a text? Discussing historical or cultural contexts? Exploring or establishing a theoretical model? Comparing different texts or contexts?
2. Summarize the author’s main thesis (or argument), and the main ways in which s/he attempts to justify that thesis (this is not the same as summarizing everything discussed in the work).
3. Offer a critique of the author’s approach and argument. What are its strengths and weaknesses? How effectively has the author established her or his thesis? To what extent has s/he accounted for the most important considerations?
Answer preview to discuss the author’s overall approach.
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