Carrie Wiebe
Office
Voter Hall 103
Tel
(802) 443-5703
Email
wiebe@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
SPRING 2024: Tuesday 3:40-5:00, Wednesday 12:30-2:30 and by appointment.

Carrie (Reed) Wiebe has a PhD from University of Washington in pre-modern Chinese Literature and has been at Middlebury since 1995. She teaches courses in the Chinese language and pre-modern Chinese prose and poetry. Outside the department, she teaches a course in world literature for the Comparative Literature Program, and in ancient mythologies and cosmologies for the First Year Seminar program. She has served as the Director of the East Asian Studies Program and twice as the Chair of the Chinese department.

Carrie has published two Chinese textbooks, two books on the Tang dynasty miscellany, Youyang zazu, and a number of articles on ancient tattoo and on the informal narrative forms, zhiguai and chuanqi. Her most recent research has focused on medieval folktales that made their way from India to China. She is currently working on a full translation of the Youyang zazu, as well as a series of children’s stories retold from ancient Chinese tales.

Selected Publications

Books:

A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎, Boston and   New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2003.

Xiaoyuan Hanyu 校园汉语:  Speaking Chinese on Campus—an Intermediate Course for College Mandarin. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003 (With Stella Chen and Cao Yuqing).

Advanced Reader of Contemporary Chinese Short Fiction: Reflections on Humanity. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003 (ed., with Wang Ying).

Chinese Chronicles of the Strange: The “Nuogao ji,” Boston and New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2001.

Articles:

“Unpacking the Goose Cage: A Close Reading of a Chinese mise en abyme.”                             Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 39 (2017):79-94.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/45014211

“’Banqiao san niangzi’ 版橋三娘子 (Third Lady of Plank Bridge Inn) from                             Xue Yusi薛漁思, Hedong ji 河東記,” Translation and Study in William                 Nienhauser, Tang Tales Vol 2, 2016.

“Tattooing in China,” in Enclycopaedia of the History of Science, Technology                                  and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (On-Line Encyclopaedia) 2014.     http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-           5_10172-1.

“Plowing in the Bedroom, Braying at the Table: Competition and Control in the Tang Tale ‘Banqiao San Niangzi.’” Tamkang Review 43.2 (June, 2013): 3-32.

            https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA434045579&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00492949&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=vol_oweb&isGeoAuthType=true

“Parallel Worlds, Stretched Time, and Illusory Reality: The Tang Tale ‘Du Zichun.’” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 69.2 (2009): 309-42.

            https://www.jstor.org/stable/40602966

“Messages from the Dead in ‘Nanke Taishou zhuan.’” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 31 (2009): 121-30.

            https://www.jstor.org/stable/20799719

“The Lecherous Holy Man and the Maiden in the Box.” Journal of the American   Oriental Society 127.1 (January-March 2007): 41-56.

            https://www.jstor.org/stable/20297210

 “Motivation and Meaning of a “Hodge-podge”: Duan Chengshi’s Youyang zazu.”

            Journal of the American Oriental Society 123.1 (January-March 2003): 121-        145. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3217847

“Early Chinese Tattoo,” University of Pennsylvania: Sino-Platonic Papers Number 103 (June-Sept. 2000): 1-52.

            http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp103_chinese_tattoo.pdf

“Tattoo in Early China,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 120.3 (Sept. 2000): 360-376. https://www.jstor.org/stable/606008

 

In progress:

Full, annotated translation of the ninth century Chinese miscellany, Youyang zazu.

Stepping Out of Time: Illusory Reality in “Nanke taishou zhuan,” Zhenzhong                                    ji,” “Yingtao qingyi,” and “Du Zichun.”

Chuanqi Tales from the Tang Retold for Children (Six Illustrated Children’s Books  (series of illustrated retellings of Tang dynasty chuanqi. with Roland Wiebe, illustrated by Stephanie Pui-mun Law).

“‘Southern Branch’: Speculations on a Name, A Close Reading.”

Story Lines: New Translations of Ancient Chinese, Arabic and Sanskrit Stories                       (shared narratives of the Strange from Youyang zazu, 1001 Nights, and                      Kathasaritsagara).

Supplementary Reader in Classical Chinese: “Zhiguai” (With Rania Huntington,              University of Wisconsin).

 

Courses Taught

Course Description

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, and CHNS 0103. 5 hrs. lect., 1 hr. drill

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

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)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2023

Requirements

LNG, WTR

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Course Description

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., 1 hr. drill

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

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 online video and audio 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

Terms Taught

Fall 2022, Fall 2023

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

Intermediate Chinese
This course is a continuation of the first term's work, with the class conducted primarily in Chinese. (CHNS 0201 or equivalent) 5 hrs. lect., 1 hr. drill

Terms Taught

Spring 2023, Spring 2024

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

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. (No background in Chinese culture or language needed.) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023

Requirements

LIT, NOA

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Course Description

Traditional Chinese Poetry (in translation)
Introducing the basics of Chinese poetics, this junior/sophomore discussion-based seminar explores inter-connections across a wide spectrum of Chinese poetry belonging to a vibrant tradition spanning more than two thousand years--folk songs; court rhapsodies; courtesan love poems; extended allegorical fantasies; ballads and lyric verse of love, war, friendship, loss, and separation. Landscape, travel, romantic and metaphysical poems by masters such as Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Dongpo and Li Qingzhao will be studied. We will analyze poetic expression ranging from poetic genres following strict formal conventions to relatively free-form verse. Traditional Chinese literary theories regarding poetry and its appreciation will be considered, yet students will also be encouraged to apply other critical approaches. 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2024

Requirements

LIT, NOA

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Course Description

Early Chinese Novels (in translation)
This seminar focuses on pre-modern Chinese full-length novels, which rose and matured during the Ming-Qing period. Students will read from the "masterworks" of this genre, including Three Kingdoms (the epic deeds of heroes of the Chinese civil war of the second and third centuries), Outlaws of the Marsh (picaresque tales of Chinese Robin Hoods, as it were), The Journey to the West (a comic Buddhist-Daoist allegory better known in English as Monkey), The Plum in the Golden Vase (an erotic novel of manners), and The Story of the Stone-The Dream of the Red Chamber (widely recognized as a masterpiece of world literature); all are beloved and long treasured by the Chinese. We will also read an eighteenth century detective novel, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. We will not only trace the evolution of classical Chinese novels and consider their literary significance and artistic value; the course will also aim to provide a richer and deeper understanding of traditional China's history, society, culture, worldviews, beliefs, and sense of humor. (CHNS 0219 or CHNS 0220, or two Middlebury Literature courses, or by approval of the instructor.)

Terms Taught

Spring 2023

Requirements

CW, LIT, NOA

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Course Description

Senior Essay
(Approval Required)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Thesis
(Approval required)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Thesis Proposal
(Approval Required)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

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Course Description

Senior Thesis
(Approval required).

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

Requirements

WTR

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Course Description

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.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022

Requirements

CMP, CW, LIT

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Course Description

Myth and Cosmology
The course will trace the early development of thought and meaning, introducing some of the fundamental concepts underlying ancient ways of approaching the world. We will approach the subject with a comparative view, studying, for example, the Chinese, Judeo-Christian, Hindu, Navaho and Maori creation traditions, Chinese cosmology, divination systems of East Asian and African nations, and the rich symbolism that emerged out of some of the major centers of ancient civilization. Through our reading of myths, scholarly writings, and literary works, we will explore the ways China and various other cultures understood and dealt with the world around them, from flood myths to astrology, from the Yijing to omens and geomancy. We will learn about the place of story in the formation of worldview, particularly in notions of the place of humans in the world. 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021

Requirements

CMP, CW, PHL

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Areas of Interest

Tang dynasty Informal Literature

Pre-Qin to Tang Philosophical and Poetic texts

Medieval Indian Story Literature

Comparative Ancient Mythologies