Graham Sanders (Ph.D., Harvard University) 
Associate Professor
Department of East Asian Studies
Office Location: Robarts Library #14366 (14th floor)
E-mail: graham[dot]sanders[at]utoronto[dot]ca
I am fascinated with the portrayal in narrative of the composition, performance and reception of poetry in pre-modern China as a way of enriching our understanding of how poetic practice was envisioned in the Chinese tradition. In my research, I range from the pre-Qin through the Tang dynasties and I am currently working on a multi-year project on the poetry and life of a Tang poet named Meng Jiao 孟郊 (751-814), which will result in a website devoted to his work. I also enjoy translation and have published a new edition of Shen Fu’s 沈復 (b. 1763) Six Records of a Life Adrift 浮生六記 (2011). I am currently working on a combined translation project of the two most important Tang dynasty collections of anecdotes on poetry: Friendly Conversations at Misty Brook 雲谿友議, compiled by Fan Shu 范攄 (fl. 877); and Storied Poems 本事詩, compiled by Meng Qi 孟啟 (fl. 841-886). These bilingual translations have been commissioned by De Gruyter to be part of their forthcoming twenty-volume Library of Chinese Humanities. I teach classical Chinese language, and literature survey courses from the pre-Qin through the Qing eras at the undergraduate level, and more specialized courses in pre-Tang and Tang literature at the graduate level.
Academic Background:
- Ph.D. (1996) in East Asian Language and Civilizations, Harvard University.
- Mellon Fellow (1990-1996)
- B.A. (1990) in Chinese Studies, University of Toronto.
Major Publications:
- “I Read They Said He Sang What He Wrote: Orality, Writing and Gossip in Tang Poetry Anecdotes.” In Idle Talk: Gossip and Anecdote in Traditional China, edited by Jack Chen and David Schaberg. University of California Global, Area, and International Archive, 2013. 25 pp. (http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9781938169090)
- Shen Fu. Six Records of a Life Adrift. Translated with an Introduction by Graham Sanders. Cambridge, Mass.: Hackett Publishing Company, Sep 2011. (http://www.hackettpublishing.com/six-records-of-a-floating-life)
- “Out With It! Torture and the Aesthetics of Narrative in Chinese Vernacular Stories.” Universitas: Philosophy and Culture 37.3 (Mar 2010), pp. 103-30. (http://www.umrpc.fju.edu.tw/index.html)
- Words Well Put: Visions of Poetic Competence in the Chinese Tradition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006. (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674021402)
- Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena, Oldrich Král and Graham Sanders, eds. The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China’s May Fourth Movement. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Asia Center, 2001. (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674007864)
Courses:
- Classical Chinese I
- Chinese Lit. I: Pre-Qin to Tang
- Chinese Lit. II: Song-Qing
- Chinese Poetry I
- Chinese Poetry II
- Approaches to East Asia
- Beyond Orientalism