| Course Title: Advanced Seminar: 'Love, Gender-Crossing, and Women's Supremacy: A Reading of The Story of the Stone' |
| Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026 |
| Term: Spring Semester 2026 |
| Description: A seminar on the eighteenth-century Chinese masterpiece The Story of the Stone and selected literary criticism in response to this work. Discussions will focus on love, gender-crossing, and women's supremacy and the paradoxical treatments of these themes in the novel. We will explore multiple aspects of these themes, including the sociopolitical, philosophical, and literary milieus of eighteenth-century China. We will also examine this novel in its relation to Chinese literary tradition in general and the generic conventions of premodern Chinese vernacular fiction in particular. |
| Distribution(s): I - Humanities , MP - Multicultural Perspectives , SI - Speaking-Intensive , WI - Writing-Intensive , TP - Topics Course |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Ying Wang | 413-538-2281 | yingwang@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026 | Lecture | Tuesday and Thursday | 10:30AM - 11:45AM | CIRU - Ciruti | 209 | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| Prereq: 8 credits in Asian Studies or Gender Studies. | Take previously | Required |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Course Tags | ||
| EASIA0001 | EASIA: East Asian Studies major | This course has been approved to count towards the East Asian Studies major. |
| ASIAN0001 | ASIAN: Asian Studies minor | This course has been approved to count towards the Asian Studies minor. |
| NOPRI0001 | Used to identify non-primary sides of crosslisted courses for Workday conversion |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| ASIAN-340-01 The Story of the Stone |
| GNDST-333HH-01 The Story of the Stone |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 9 | Available: 9 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| To be determined. |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is the complete book list for this class. |
| Copies are on order at students can order the books at Amazon |
| Instructor's comments about the book list: The following books need to be purchased on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions: Cao, Xueqin. The Story of the Stone. Trans. David Hawkes and John Minford. Volumes 1-5. Penguin Books, 1973. |