Externe Veranstaltung: "Zurich Workshop on Du Fu, Olga Lomová"

Vom 16. bis zum 17. Dezember 2016 wird an der Universität Zürich ein Workshop zum großen chinesischen Poeten Du Fu stattfinden. Der Workshop richtet sich an fortgeschrittene Studierende in Master- und PhD-Programmen. Alle weiteren Details zum Workshop finden Sie unten.

Professor Olga Lomová (Charles University, Prague) will teach a two-day intensive seminar on
*** The greatest Chinese poet – Du Fu  ***
at the University of Zurich on Dec 16-17, 2016 (9 am-6 pm on each day).

The course is targeted at advanced M.A. and Ph.D. students in sinology with a solid command of Classical Chinese. You will find a short course outline below.

Auditors from other universities are welcome to participate for free, but required to register by sending a mail to <wolfgang.behr@aoi.uzh.ch> with a cc: to <julia.escher@uzh.ch> until November 15. We will unfortunately not be able to provide accomodation in Zurich, one of the most expensive cities in Europe. External participants are thus advised to look for affordable accomodation via airbnb.com, wimdu.com, budgetplaces.com or similar platforms at their earliest convenience.

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The greatest Chinese poet – Du Fu
(Prof. Olga Lomová, Charles University, Prague)
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Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770) has been regarded by generations of Chinese readers and scholars as the greatest Chinese poet ever, and this understanding was reaffirmed in the West as well, at least by the scholars. Although he achieved some reputation already during his lifetime, he was elevated to this position only during the Song. The prevailing image of Du Fu in Chinese literary history is that of a patriotic poet and a poet of social consciousness; either in the garb of a man loyal to his sovereign beyond death (in pre-modern times), or a patriotic poet loving his country and its people (in the 20th century). This reading goes hand in hand with reading Du Fu primarily as a witness of his times, a “poet historian” (史詩). However, once we start reading Du Fu's poetry beyond the standard selections in poetry anthologies, we soon discover that he is a poet of broad interests, original vision of the world, and that he uses a variety of styles unprecedented in Chinese
poetry.

This intensive course aims at showing Du Fu as an original and daring poet speaking to us in different voices, sometimes far away from the canonical interpretation. At the same time we will discuss the process of Du Fu's reception and transformation into a canonical figure, including considerations of the continuation or transformation of the tradition in 20th century China.

Introductory literature
-Chou, Eva Shan. Reconsidering Tu Fu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
-Hawkes, David. A little primer of Tu Fu. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967; 2nd rev. ed., Hong Kong: The Chinese UP.
-Owen, Stephen. The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'ang. New York: Yale Univ. Pr., 1981.
-Yu, Pauline and Peter Bol, eds. Ways with words: writing about reading texts from early China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. (chapter on 自京赴奉先縣詠懷五百字)

Additional readings
-Hu-Sterk. L'apogée de la poésie chinoise: Li Bai et Du Fu. Paris: You Feng, 2000.
-Hung, William. Tu Fu: China´s Greatest Poet. Harvard University Press, 1952.
-von Zach, Erwin. Tu Fu's Gedichte: Volume I, II. Ed. by James Robert Hightower. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952.