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Theses

Graduates in the Chinese department, whose theses are listed below, have worked on Chinese literature spanning more than two thousand years of history, from the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic through Cyberfeminist poetics, from medieval Buddhist poetry through contemporary documentary film, and everything in between. Individually they demonstrate intellectual creativity, careful and critical research, innovative use of primary and secondary sources, accurate translation, incisive literary analysis, and clear and compelling writing. Collectively they show the wide range of potential areas, topics and methodologies Chinese seniors can address.  

Past theses can be found in the Thesis Tower in the ¹û½´ÊÓƵ Library. ¹û½´ÊÓƵ community members can also browse Chinese theses via the .

Students in Comparative Literature also work closely with Chinese faculty on topics related to Chinese literature, and their theses can be found listed on the Chinese Studies website.

2023

• Sierra Abbott. More Than Words: An Examination of Different Functions of Language in Han Shaogong’s 韩少功 A Dictionary of Maqiao 马桥词典
• Sophie Bacher. Swayed and Swaying All Under Heaven: A Consideration of the Mao Commentary to the Poetry 毛詩訓詁傳

2022

• Stephanie Shu. Writing Love and Liminality: Female Homoeroticism in Early Republican Chinese Fiction

2020

• Jake Buck. Tales to Crack a Smile: A Translation and Analysis of Qǐyán lù

2018

• Christoper Stasse. Buddhism, Nature, and 'Mystic Vision': A Study of the Poem and Preface on a Journey to Stone Gate

2017

• Benjamin Landauer. Cyberfeminist Poetics in China and Taiwan: Zhai Yongming, Yin Lichuan, and Xia Yu
• Caroline Toll. Humanimals: An Analysis of the Progression of Animal-Human Hybrids in Mo Yan's Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out

2016

• Ian Connelly. Remembering the Folk: Visibility and Bearing Witness in the Folk Memory Project
• Aaron Finsrud. Alienation and Conceptions of Self: A Close Reading of Three of Bai Xianyong's Short Stories
• Joseph Winitsky. Gender in the Jianghu: Transgressive Gender Performance in "Wuxia" Cinema

2015

• Keegan Luke Burns. Iconoclasm and Subjectivity: Reflections on Locating Reverence in Luo Fu's Driftwood
• Joan Guldin. Abandoned Trails and False Peaks: A Journey Though the Xiyouji
• Victoria James. Biographies of Tang Military Officials: An Exercise in Genre
• Antonio C. Marin. The Daoist Hero's Tale: Moral Doctrine in the "Ba xian de Dao zhuan" Stories of Lü Dongbin
• Owen Maurince Mee. Tying Together a Classic: An Analysis of the Interpretation of "The Book of Changes" Found in the "Great Commentary"

2014

• Wendell Britt. The Dystopian Present: Recontextualizing Yu Hua's 1980 Fiction
• Joseph Anthony Vincent. Samadhi Through Pleasure: Three Readings and a Translation of the "Voice and Countenance" section (聲容部) of Li Yu's (李漁, 1611-1680) "Xianqing ouji" (閒情偶寄)

2013

• Michelle Kathleen Baxa. Autumn is Coming: The Poetry of Qiu Jin
• Max Maller. Xiangsheng and its Audience: Comedy, Remonstrance, and the Invention of Tradition in Modern China
• Alan Montecillo. Songs in the "Jin ping mei cihua"
• Rose Eugenia Statman. "Make the Past Serve the Present": Images of the Past in Two Pre-Cultural Revolution Modern-day Peking Operas
• Joel Whitehead. Thymotic Community and the Sovereign Chinese Self in Jiang Rong's "Wolf Totem" and Other Root-seeking Fiction
• Amy Egerton-Wiley. Already Exiled From Home: History and Nostalgic Dissonance in Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum"

2012

• Lev Navarre Chao. Confucianism and Christianity in Francis Wei's Vision of a Modern China
• Rex Crabb. Revisiting the Taibo temple: the Organization and Themes of "The Scholars"
• Matthew Wild. One Star Like the Moon: The Poetry of Huang Jingren

2011

• Lacy Rose P. Lackey. Enacting Time in the Chu Silk Manuscript
• James McMath. Zhong se qing you: a Study of Seduction in the "Shui Hu Zhuan"
• Jeremy A. Nelson. Our Revolution: Youth, Love, and Chronology in the Works of Wang Meng

2010

• Frances Kershaw. Spatializing identity: a Reading of Eileen Chang's Chuanqi Stories
• Aaron Matthew Gordon McCloud. Papercuts: the Literary and the Martial in the Genre of Wuxia Fiction
• Arianne Rivard. Genre and Function in Underground Literature of the Cultural Revolution (Chinese and History)

2008

• Alia Elizabeth Breitwieser. Narrative indulgence : the Theoretical Implications of Li Yu's "The Twelve Halls"
• Clare Ingram Dunathan Lawrence. Violation and Redemption in the early 20th-century Chinese Rape Narrative

2007

• Evelyn Salazar. An Analysis of Gender Reconstruction in Zhang Yimou's "Red sorghum," "Ju dou," and "Raise the Red Lantern"
• Justin Gillette. Reading the Republican Child: May Fourth Ideology and the Creation of a Modern Chinese Children's Literature in "The Scarecrow"
• Joshua Willey. Cinematic absence

2006

• Om Buffalo. Su Shi's "Poems matching Tao"

2005

• Clara Chiyoko Iwasaki. In Love with the Past: the Relationship between Nostalgia and Same-sex Love in "Farewell my Concubine" and "Fleeing by Night"
• Colin Mieling. A Personal Public: Form and Meaning in Han Shaogong's "Maqiao cidian"

2004

• Christopher René Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek. Re-articulating literary dissent : an analysis of Wang Shuo's "Playing for Thrills"

2003

• Avery Quinn Larson. The Development of Intellectual Historiography in the Classical Period: Early Attempts to Order the Hundred Schools of Chinese Philosophy

2002

• Amelia Raguso. Reclaiming the self : an autobiographical reading of Wang Meng's "Bolshevik salute"

2001

• Brian Gottlieb. Hi-yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! decoding the martial arts film: genre utilization in Tsui Hark's "The Blade"
• Heidi Janes. Cosmological models and healing in the "Huangdi Neijing"

2000

• Kyle Steinke. A mirror for the romantic: literary creativity in Pu Songling's "Liaozhai zhiyi"
• Jennifer Jane Hong. Writing "Qing", or "my innermost feelings" in "Ci": marginality in the poetry and poetics of Liu Yong and Li Qingzhao
• Shaheen R. Rassoul. Investigating the myth of Chinese identity and national crisis: an unintended aftershock of NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy
• Chris Nutter. The growth of hope in the writings of Xu Dishan

1999

• Thomas James Maxwell Strong. Poor Han Yu

1998

• John Goff. Strategies of representation and the concept of legitimacy in Sanguo Yanyi and Sanguo Zhi
• Jonah Salt Greenberg. The ghost of the pot: aesthetic and pragmatic approaches to Yuan dynasty justice operas
• Deeanna Gunderson. Beyond the pleasure of spectacle : the aesthetic contribution of China's fifth generation film-makers
• Laura Peterson. Fishbones in their throats: the poetry and political dissent of Qu Yuan, Su Shi and Hu Feng

1997

• Shannon Lorraine Henderson. I eat jade: on the correction and prevention of pronunciation difficulties for American students learning Mandarin Chinese

1996

• Daniel Stone Rote. Considering the un-revolutionary character of Lao She's teahouse: a question of loyalty in modern Chinese fiction
• Jessica Lee Patterson. The early development of Wu Wei: a comparative evaluation
• Catherine Maria Hart. Hegemony, exoticization, alienation: a reading of Bertolt Brecht's construct of the alienation effect in the Chinese theatre
  

1994

• Katharine Esther VonIsakovics Poundstone. Sculpting an image of the times: a translation of Wang Shuo's novella The players

1993

• Nicolle Yvette LaFleur. But you're a woman: perspectives on the representations of women in post-cultural revolution Chinese cinema