Unit 3 - Asia- Resources
Essential Question: How does Asian literature both honor and challenge cultural traditions?
For the next two weeks we will be reading a variety of Asian writers. We are beginning with Chinese poet Li Bai and working on his poems including "A Song of Ch'ang-kan. Chinese literature is greatly influenced by Taoism and Confucianism. These philosophical beliefs are grounded in concepts of respect and harmony, love of nature and balance between earth and heaven. Using The Tao of Pooh as a foundation, we will learn how Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism have influenced Chinese literature. Buddha tasted vinegar as bitter, Lao Tzu tasted it as sweet and Confucius tasted it as sour. This was how they viewed life. We will begin working with two documents: The poem
A Song of Ch'ang-kan and information about his life. You can find them on this web page.
Read the collection of Li Bai poems and annotate. To annotate is to take notes about the poems. Li Bai was a Taoist poet. Du Fu leans more to Confucius.
We will be reading a variety of
works to understand how ancient philosophies, universal themes, Western
influence, and the historical can change our perceptions of literature.
·
Explore ancient and modern works of
literature from Asian countries
·
Consider how Asian literature both
draws on and questions cultural traditions
·
Consider how certain Asian authors integrate
Western literary influences into their cultural contexts.
·
Compare two or more translations of a
single poem
Li Bai Poems Clilck on the link for a list of Li Bai's poems. You may also go to poemhunter.com and look up his poems.
The only assignment for the unit on Asian Literature will be to prepare the Asian Comix assignment using the Macs. This assignment will need to be completed on 5/6 and 5/7. We will only be doing this in class.
