Literature, Gender Violence, and Trauma in Contemporary East Asia

Undergraduate

This course studies how literature shapes, narrates, witnesses and intervenes in the experience of gender-based trauma in an East Asian context through a theorized close reading of the Taiwanese author Yihan Lin’s novel Fang Si-qi’s First Love Paradise (2017). An important and influential work that ignited MeToo movements across East Asia, the novel tells the story of a young, beautiful and literature-loving girl who is a victim of repeated acts of sexual violence by her tutor. The author died by suicide shortly after publishing the novel. Secondary readings in the course include works on trauma theory, gender violence, conceptions of Chinese femininity and masculinity in relation to letters ( wen ) and literary lyricism, literature as testimony, creative writing as healing, and literature-inspired contemporary MeToo movements in East Asia. The goal of the course is to contemplate the relationship between literature and gender-based trauma in a non-Western context and to explore the healing and empowering potential of literary creativity. The focus on a single, carefully selected novel ensures that the class will have ample time to study these complicated topics in depth.