Rivi Handler-Spitz
Assistant Professor of Chinese
Email: rhandlerspitz@middlebury.edu
Phone: work802.443.5984
Office Hours: SPRING 2013: Tues 3:00-5:00, Fri 1:30-2:30 and by appointment only
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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 2010, Fall 2011
CHNS 0102 - Continued Beginning Chinese
Beginning Chinese
An intensive continuation of CHNS 0101, this course is required of those wishing to take CHNS 0103 in the spring. Students may anticipate learning a significant amount of new vocabulary, sentence patterns and idiomatic expressions. Skits, oral presentations, writing assignments, and cultural activities are also part of this course. (CHNS 0101)
Winter 2011, Winter 2013
CHNS 0103 - Beginning Chinese
Beginning Chinese
This course is a continuation of the fall and winter terms with accelerated introduction of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence patterns designed to facilitate speaking and reading. Toward the end of this semester students will read Huarshang de meiren (Lady in the Painting), a short book written entirely in Chinese. (CHNS 0102 or equivalent) 5 hrs. lect., 2 hrs. drill
Spring 2011, Spring 2012
CHNS 0201 - Intermed Chinese
Intermediate Chinese
This course is designed to enable the student to converse in everyday Chinese and to read simple texts in Chinese (both traditional and simplified characters). Discussion of assigned readings will be conducted primarily in Chinese. Familiarity with the vocabulary and grammar introduced in CHNS 0101, CHNS 0102, and CHNS 0103 is assumed. Grammatical explanations, written exercises, dictation quizzes, sentence patterns, oral drill, and CD's will accompany assignments. By the completion of CHNS 0202, which follows CHNS 0201 directly, students should be able to read and write approximately 1,200 characters. (CHNS 0103 or equivalent) 5 hrs. lect., 1 hr. drill
Fall 2012
CHNS 0202 - Intermediate Chinese II
Intermediate Chinese
This course is a continuation of the first term's work, with the class conducted primarily in Chinese. (CHNS 0201) 5 hrs. lect., 1 hr. drill
Spring 2013
CHNS 0218 - Writing Lives in China
Writing Lives in China
How are human lives conveyed in words? Whose lives are deemed worthy of being recorded, for whom, and to what ends? Do life narratives focus on outstanding individuals and heroic feats, or on people with ordinary cares? How do the conventions of autobiography both resemble and differ from those of biography? Approaching these questions in the Chinese literary tradition, we will explore themes of friendship, love, education, death, mourning, and commemoration in prose genres ranging from official biographies to personal letters and diaries. We will read texts by Sima Qian, Li Qingzhao, Liu Zongyuan, Shen Fu, Yang Jiang, and others. This course will be taught in English.
Spring 2011
CHNS 0219 - Chinese Literary Tradition
The Chinese Literary Tradition (in translation)
This course, an introduction to the works of literature that formed the basis of traditional Chinese culture, is a discussion-based seminar. It focuses first on texts written in classical Chinese from the earliest times up through the Song dynasty, including selections from early poetry and history, Daoist classics, stories of the strange, and Tang Dynasty poetry by Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. These texts shaped the traditional Chinese understanding of the world, and provided models of what was perceived to be powerful, beautiful language. In the second part of the course we will explore narratives written in the vernacular language, focusing on the literary significance and aesthetic value of drama, stories and novels long treasured by the Chinese. Students will gain a better understanding of traditional Chinese literary values, as well as Chinese society and worldviews. This class is not intended for native Chinese students who have studied Chinese literature in high school classes in China. (No background in Chinese culture or language needed.) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Fall 2010, Fall 2012
CHNS 0361 / CMLT 0361 - Ancient Poetics
Ancient Poetics: China and the Greco-Roman World
In this course we will examine questions that have rankled human beings for millennia: What constitutes a great work of literature? What ends does it serve, and how does its structure aesthetically achieve these ends? While we will not endeavor to answer these questions definitively, we will explore theories of aesthetics elaborated in two of the world’s great literary traditions, the Chinese and the Greco-Roman. To what extent do these cultures’ answers resemble one another, and where do they diverge? Is poetic value culturally circumscribed, or do both traditions attempt to articulate universal norms, each within its unique context? Through close readings of primary texts, we will examine some of the guidelines ancient theorists established for the production of literature that not only expresses the author’s innermost sentiments but also—in Horace’s words—both pleases and instructs. Primary texts to be examined from the Chinese tradition include the Great Preface to the Book of Poetry, Lu Ji’s Poetic Exposition on Literature, and Liu Xie’s Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. Texts from the Western tradition include selections from Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Poetics, and Horace’s Art of Poetry. (Three college-level literature courses or approval of instructor) 3 hrs. sem.
Spring 2012
CHNS 0500 - Independent Project ▹
Senior Essay
(Approval Required)
Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, Spring 2014
CHNS 0700 - Senior Essay
Senior Thesis
(Approval required)
Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
CMLT 0101 - Intro to World Literature
Introduction to World Literature
This course is an introduction to the critical analysis of imaginative literature of the world, the dissemination of themes and myths, and the role of translation as the medium for reaching different cultures. Through the careful reading of selected classic texts from a range of Western and non-Western cultures, students will deepen their understanding and appreciation of the particular texts under consideration, while developing a critical vocabulary with which to discuss and write about these texts, both as unique artistic achievements of individual and empathetic imagination and as works affected by, but also transcending their historical periods. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Spring 2013
INTL 0405 / CHNS 0405 / HARC 0405 - Confusions of Pleasure
Confusions of Pleasure: Early Modern Culture in China and Europe
In this course we will explore how the social, economic, demographic, and technological transformations associated with early modernity inflected the visual, literary, and material cultures of Early Modern China and Europe. We will focus on internal phenomena and the influences of globalization. Through investigation of various genres and media, including painting, prints, drama, fiction, and porcelain, we seek to understand central cultural preoccupations of the age, including anxiety over imitation and falsification, the elevation of the exotic and peculiar, and the quest for authenticity. Readings in secondary literature will be paired with primary texts. To study selected primary texts in Chinese, register for INTL 0405B. This course is equivalent to CHNS 0405 and HARC 0405. 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2011
LITS 0701 - Independent Reading Course
Independent Reading Course
Intended for majors in literary studies preparing for the senior comprehensive examinations. At the conclusion of this course, students will take a one-hour oral examination (part of the senior comprehensive examination) in a specialization of their choice. (Approval Required) (Staff)
Fall 2012
