Course Description

This course is constituted of video and audio files that examine the semiotics of exile in world literature: Poetics of Exile (Byron, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Hai Zi, Gu Cheng); Exile in Tragedy ( Dreiser's "The American Tragedy", Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby", Toni Morrison's "Beloved") and photography (Wang Anyi's "Meloday of Everlasting Regret; Peter Handke's "Short Letter, Long Farewell");  Exile in E'criture Feminine (Susanna Bombal, Marguerite Duras, Toni Morrison); Cosmic Exile and Fourth Dimension (Escher's painting, Borges, Proust); Artist in Exile (E. A Hoffmann; James Joyce).


Professor of Chinese, English and Comparative literature

Hong Zeng

I am an award-winning professor of Chinese, English and Comparative Literature. I have taught Mandarin Chinese at all levels in prestigious American colleges altogether for 16 years. I have taught nine years as a tenure-track professor of Chinese and comparative literature at Carleton College, ranked No. 1 in undergraduate teaching in all liberal arts colleges in America, and have directed the Chinese program for two years at Hamline University (the first university in Minnesota). In both my second year coming to Carleton and Hamline, I more than doubled their Beginning Chinese Class enrollment. I have also taught at Swarthmore College, College of William and Mary and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before I came to United States, I have taught English and American literature for 3 years at Beijing Foreign Studies University. I have two PhDs, one in Chinese and comparative literature from UNC, Chapel Hill, the other in  English and American literature, literature translation and second language education from Beijing Foreign Studies University. I have published five books in America (including two from Macmillan) on Chinese, English and comparative literature, film study, language study and language philosophy that are well-endorsed by world-renowned experts and book review journals in my field. I have earned 30000 dollars large grant from Asian Network in Chinese study.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Introduction of the course final 1

    • Chinese Film 1 Revised

    • Chinese Film 2 Revised

    • Chinese Film 3 Revised

    • Chinese Film 4 Revised
  • 2

    Chapter 1: Poetics of Exile

    • Introduction to Poetics of Exile

    • 西尔维亚普拉斯和爱德华蒙克苦闷的心景1 revised final.MOV

    • 西尔维亚普拉斯与爱德华蒙克苦闷的心景2 revised final 1.MOV

    • Sylvia Plath and Edvard Munch: Mindscape of Chagrin

    • 艾米莉狄金森的死亡诗歌与海德格尔的存在哲学1revised final.MOV

    • 艾米莉狄金森的死亡诗歌与海德格尔的存在哲学2 revised.MOV

    • 艾米莉狄金森的死亡诗歌与海德格尔的存在哲学3 revised.MOV

    • An Heidegerian Approach to Emily Dickinson's Poetry on Death

    • 唐璜1 revised

    • 唐璜2 revised

    • 唐璜3-1 revised

    • 唐璜3-2 revised

    • 唐璜revised 4

    • Ghost as Eros and Irony in Byron's Don Juan

    • Hai Zi's Zagreus

    • Exiled from Taoist Paradise: The split voice of Gu Cheng's poetry

    • merwin 1 revised

    • Merwin 2 revised

    • Merwin 3 revised

    • Merwin 4 revised
  • 3

    Chapter 2: Exile in Tragedy

    • Introduction to the Semiotics of Exile in Tragedy

    • 托尼莫里森的爱娃与西方悲剧传统1.MOV

    • 托尼莫里森的爱娃与西方悲剧传统2

    • Tony Morrison's "Beloved" in the tradtion of Western Tragedy

    • A Comparative Study of Dreiser's "American Tragedy" and Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"
  • 4

    Chapter 3: Exile and Semiotics of Photography

    • Introduction of Semiotics of Exile in Photography

    • 王安忆1-1revised

    • 王安忆1-2revised

    • 王安忆2-1revised

    • 王安忆2-2revised

    • 王安忆3 revised

    • Exile, mourning and lyrical time in the semiotics of photography in Wang Anyi's The Melody of Everlasting Regret

    • 为了长久告别的短信1-1revised

    • 为了长久告别的短信1-2revised

    • 为了长久告别的短信2-1revised

    • 为了长久告别的短信2-2revised

    • 为了长久告别的短信3revised

    • Time, Image and Fiction in Peter Handke's Der Kuze Brief Zum Langen Abschied
  • 5

    Chapter 4: E'criture Feminine and Semiotics of Exile

    • 女性写作1-1

    • 女性写作1-2

    • 女性写作2-1

    • 女性写作2-2

    • 女性写作3

    • E'criture feminine and Semiotics of Exile in Bombal, Duras and Morrison
  • 6

    Chapter 5: Cosmic Exile and the Fourth Dimension in Escher, Borges and Proust

    • cosmic exile and fourth dimension in Escher, Borges and Proust
  • 7

    Chapter 6: Artist in Exile: The Divinely and Diabolically Possessed

    • Introduction to Artist in Exile: divinely and demoniacally possessed

    • 霍夫曼1-1 revised

    • 霍夫曼1-2 revised

    • 霍夫曼2-1 revised

    • 霍夫曼2-2 revised

    • Irony, Grotesque and Fragmentation in the Figure of the Artist in Hoffmann's Two Stories

    • French Symoblist Poetry and the Imagery in Joyce's The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man