John Berninghausen
Truscott Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
CHNS 0101 - Beginning Chinese
Beginning Chinese
This course is an introduction to Mandarin (guoyu or putonghua). The course begins with simple words and phrases, the pronunciation and cadences of Mandarin, romanization, Chinese characters, and simple vocabulary items, all taught in the context of practical communication. Sentence patterns and other fundamentals of speaking, reading, and writing will be taught, including both traditional characters (used everywhere before the 1950s and still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) and simplified characters (used in China). Students should have achieved active command of more than 600 Chinese characters and more than 800 compounds by the end of the sequence CHNS 0101, CHNS 0102, CHNS 0103. 5 hrs. lect., 2 hrs. drill
Fall 2009
CHNS 0206 / HARC 0206 - Chinese Painting Trad & Innov
Chinese Painting: Tradition & Innovation
The history, philosophy, techniques and appreciation of China's unique and enduring traditions of painting and calligraphy—water, ink and pigments applied to silk or rice paper with the writing brush. The first half of this course will provide an overview of major artists and developments: early painting through Northern Song and Southern Song masterpieces, the rise of wenrenhua (literati painting) and painting theory on through the Yuan and Ming dynasties to the individualist masters of the early Qing. In the final third of the course we will explore developments in the last century and a half with considerable attention given to innovations and trends emerging among traditionally trained contemporary Chinese artists working in this medium in China, Taiwan and elsewhere. 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2009
CHNS 0360 / LITS 0360 - Intro To Lit Theory
Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism
An overview of various literary theories and critical approaches to the reception and analysis of literary texts, this discussion-based seminar will introduce concerns central to Western literary theories while familiarizing students with contemporary critical terminology. From Aristotle's Poetics to postmodernism, from issues of "literariness," authorial intention, hermeneutics, and narrative angle to the premises and practices of Russian formalist, "new critical," structuralist, Freudian, Marxist, feminist approaches, etc., we will study short theoretical and critical essays in conjunction with literary works by Coleridge, Lu Xun, Dickens, Natsume Soseki, Henry James, Hwang Chunming, Borges, Kafka, and others. Narrative prose fiction is the main focus. Discussion-based, senior-junior seminar. (Minimum of three college-level literature courses required; priority enrollment given to seniors and juniors majoring in Chinese and Literary Studies, or by waiver) 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2009, Fall 2010
CHNS 0500 - Independent Project
CHNS 0700 - Senior Essay
INTD 1097 - The Great Depression
The Great Depression of the 1930s as Reflected in Fiction, Film, Photographic Image, and Oral History
In this course we will look back at the 1930s by reexamining classic novels and films, oral history, and photographic images related to the Great Depression. In this discussion-based course we will read Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, James M. Cain's 1934 classic California hard-edged murder novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, and excerpts from Studs Terkel's oral history Hard Times. We will also view and analyze the photos of Arthur Rothstein, and five classic films: Charlie Chaplin's 1936 Modern Times, John Ford's 1940 The Grapes of Wrath with a young Henry Fonda, Robert Rossen's 1949 All The King's Men, Arthur Penn's 1967 Bonnie and Clyde, and Ken Burns' 1986 Huey Long.
Winter 2010
Expertise and Research Interests
Chinese fiction of the Twenties and Thirties
Twentieth-century Chinese politics and aesthetic movements Twentieth-century western literary theory and criticism
The history of traditional Chinese ink painting
Twentieth-century classical ink painting
