Postgraduate Course: Keywords of Chinese Modernity (ASST11031)

Course Outline
School	School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	Raymond Williams small pocket dictionary Keywords, A Vocabulary of Culture and Society has continuously played a pivotal role in Cultural Studies. Through etymological research of changing meanings of seemingly familiar words, Williams shaped new understandings of the relations between ideology, culture and society, in that language is not reflecting social change, but important social and historical processes occur within language. On the basis of this assumption the study of 'keywords of modernity' in China is crucial for understanding the processes of formation of 'modern China'. From the 19th century onwards China's agenda of modernization was informed by modern European (Western) discourses, which engendered the displacement of pre-modern discourses and discursive modes and the formation of new taxonomies, terms, and terminologies, mainly through translation and transnational cooperation. However, the possibility of linear cultural translation of keywords and concepts was at the same time always undermined by complex indigenous orders of knowledge, personal constellation, and institutional frameworks. Within the process of appropriating new Western ideas, pre-modern conceptual modes merged with foreign and new linguistic import into cultural hybrids which started their own careers as Chinese concepts shaping the modern Chinese world. The seminar will look at key concepts in Cultural Studies which had stirred academic debates in Chinese Studies. After introductions to the origins and backgrounds of these concepts, we will discuss articles, which try their application to the Chinese case.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	One 4,000 word essay
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
- to understand key concepts of Cultural Studies which shaped and informed the field of Chinese Studies - to understand and reflect on problems and possibilities arising with the application of concepts from one culture in another cultural context - to understand changing perceptions of key concepts in different historical and cultural context - to critically reflect on methodological and theoretical questions in relation to his/her own academic writing