EALL 2225 - Medieval Chinese Ghost Stories

FDR: Literature (HL)
Credits: 3

This course introduces ghost stories and tales of the supernatural as forms of “social media” in medieval China. Students will undertake a context-rich examination of the earliest records of encounters with ghosts, demons, fox- spirits, and goddesses, as well as the poems full of gossip and innuendo, and popular songs that circulated on the physical border between the civil service examination district and the pleasure quarters of 9th Century Chang’an (modern Xi’an, China), then the capital of the Tang dynasty and one of the most densely populated and diverse cities in the world at the time. The course begins with a virtual tour of Chang’an and conclude with the “after-lives” of the literature of Chang’an in later short stories and films. We pay particularly close attention to the way ghosts and ghost stories have functioned as “media” through which each of these societies has narrated or staged its fears, anxieties, and hidden desires. All readings will be in English translation. No prior knowledge of the Chinese language, Chinese history, or Chinese literature is required.