Spring 2014 Course Descriptions
Chinese Language and Literature Courses
A continuation of Chinese 1A, Chinese 1B develops listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in modern standard Chinese, using pinyin and simplified characters. Five hours in class, two hours in the language laboratory, and one required half-hour tutorial meeting every week. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A; or consent of instructor.Please note: Chinese 1B is for students who: 1) are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment; or 2) are of Chinese origin but do not speak any dialect of Chinese and whose parents do not speak any dialect of Chinese. Students are responsible for enrolling in the appropriate level and section. They must also accurately inform instructors about their language proficiency level. Any student who enrolls in a class below his/her level will be dropped from the class. The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
Chinese 7B is the second semester in a year long sequence introducing students to the literatures and cultures of China. We will read many of the major authors, works, and literary genres from the Yuan Dynasty to modern times, and place these writings in their historical, cultural, and material contexts. We will pay particular attention to the emergence of vibrant new urban and vernacular cultures in the late imperial period and their relation with classical traditions and literati culture, as well the revolutionary cultural transformations of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The course will both survey the literary and cultural topography that every serious student of China ought to know, while at the same time developing the critical reading and writing skills necessary to traverse and imaginatively engage with that historical terrain. All readings are in English translation. Students who are conversant in Chinese are encouraged to read original texts whenever possible. Prerequisites: None. Recommended: Chinese 7A.
The course, a continuation of Chinese 10A, is designed to develop the student's reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities in Chinese, and teaches both simplified and traditional characters. Additional time is required for tutorials and language lab. Prerequisites: Chinese 10A; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin
This course is for students who have taken Elementary Chinese for Mandarin Speakers or who have similar language proficiency. It further helps students develop their Chinese language through various culturally-related topics. Students are provided opportunies to use the language knowledge learned in class in real world experiences.. Prerequisites: Chinese 1X; or consent of instructor.
This course continues to help students develop their communicative competence in Mandarin Chinese by engaging in a variety of formal and informal communications. It trains students to use Mandarin more accurately and fluently in speaking and in writing and to become more competent and confident in reading and informal texts. It helps students connect with the knowledge and information of other disciplines through the study of Chinese. Prerequisites: Chinese 1Y; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
In this seminar, we will plunge into the pleasure of reading Jin Yong —one of the most popular martial arts and chivalry (wu xia) fiction writers in twentieth century Chinese literature. We will try to understand the complex ways in which the values represented by the martial hero—honor, courage, loyalty, truthfulness, disregard for fame and wealth, and so on—relate to and interact with the commercial world in late imperial China and our modern world. Jin Yong’s last novel The Deer and the Cauldron (Lu ding ji) will provide a focal point for our inquiry. We will also examine a short story by the modern Chinese writer Shi Zhecun’s, and Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to bring in other perspectives on the relation between the martial hero and the modern world. Prerequisites: Freshman or Sophomore standing.
The goal of the course is to introduce modern Chinese culture while developing competence in reading, speaking and writing standard modern Chinese. The readings include stories, essays, and plays, mostly by leading writers of recent decades. Students prepare in advance, then read and discuss in Chinese in class. Literary aspects are discussed in addition to problems of vocabulary and syntax. A half-hour tutorial meeting is required every week. Prerequisites: Chinese 100A; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
This course continues to develop students' analytical skills, including advanced skills in interpreting texts and writing in different genres and styles. It guides students to use their linguistic knowledge and skills to survey portions of Chinese history and society and comprehend Chinese cultural heritage in contemporary and historical economic, social, and political contexts. Prerequisites: Chinese 100XA; or consent of instructor.
This course is designed to elevate abilities in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Students will read the works of famous Chinese writers. Movie adaptations of these writings are also used. Students' writings will be circulated, and students will act in plays they write. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B or 100XB; or consent of instructor.
This course is designed to elevate abilities in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Students will read the works of famous Chinese writers. Movie adaptations of these writings are also used. Students' writings will be circulated, and students will act in plays they write. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B or 100XB; or consent of instructor.
Built on the foundation of Chinese 110A, which has focused on grammar learning through brief excerpts from ancient works, this course introduces students to longer and more complex essays in Classical Chinese including philosophical treatises, biographies, and fictions from Ancient to Late Medieval China. Samples of regular verses will also be covered. Students will be trained to use dictionaries, categorized compilations (leishu), and annotated editions to facilitate reading comprehension. The goal is to equip students with independent abilities to explore advanced Classical Chinese texts. Prerequisites: Chinese 110A; or consent of instructor.
This course is designed to bring up the students to advanced-high competence in all aspects of modern Chinese; it aims to prepare students for research or employment in a variety of China-related fields. Materials are drawn from native-speaker target publications, including modern Chinese literature, film, intellectual history, and readings on contemporary issues. Radio and TV broadcasts will also be included among the teaching materials. Texts will be selected, in part, according to the students' interests. With the instructor's guidance, students will conduct their own research projects based on specialized readings in their own fields of study. The research projects will be presented both orally and in written form by the end of the semester. Prerequisites: Chinese 102; or consent of instructor.
Among our sources of early Chinese poetic tradition, the Chuci (or “Songs of Chu”) may be considered an unruly and often problematic younger sibling to the canonical Shijing (or “Classic of Poetry”). The poems of the Shijing tend to foreground “horizontal” relations among members of social groups (family, clan, state); the view of poetry that takes shape around this collection is one that emphasizes harmony, balance, and the proper regulation of desires as means of preserving the stability of a larger political order. In the Chuci, on the other hand, even in poems written to vent political grievance, the language and the landscape of imagination that unfolds is dominated by “vertical” connections: contacts, sometimes anguishingly tenuous and fleeting, sometimes overwhelmingly powerful, between humans and divine or cosmic powers. If the Shijing projects a world of rationality, sobriety, and balance, in the Chuci we glimpse poetry as a visionary language of divine possession and altered states of consciousness.
Reading the Chuci is a uniquely valuable way of learning about the mythology, cosmology, and religious rites of Warring States (5th–3rd centuries BCE) Chu culture, and its survivals in early imperial music, religion, and politics. In the dialogue that unfolds in later imitation of and commentary on the Chuci, moreover, we witness both the struggles that generations of writers underwent to come to terms with this problematic anthology (and with Qu Yuan, its legendary central poet-suicide), as well as the uses they made of Chuci language and references to give expression to the wilder flights of their own imaginations. Prerequisites: Chinese 110B; or consent of instructor. Students with strong interest in the topic who lack the requisite language preparation may arrange to take the course while preparing readings primarily or exclusively in translation.
This course is an introduction to the study of medieval Buddhist literature written in Classical Chinese. We will read samples from a variety of genres, including early Chinese translations of Sanskrit and Central Asian Buddhist scriptures, indigenous Chinese commentaries, philosophical treatises, and hagiography. The course will also serve as an introduction to resource materials used in the study of Chinese Buddhist texts, and students will be expected to make use of a variety of reference tools in preparation for class. Readings in Chinese will be supplemented by a range of secondary readings in English on Mahayana doctrine and Chinese Buddhist history. Prerequisites: This course is intended for students who already have some facility in literary Chinese, and at least one semester of Classical Chinese (Chinese 110A) is prerequisite for enrollment. Prior background in Buddhist history and thought is helpful but not required.
Chinese cities are the sites of complicated global/local interconnections as the nation is increasingly incorporated into the world system. Understanding Chinese cities is the key to analyzing the dramatic transformation of Chinese society and culture. This course is designed to teach students to think about Chinese cities in more textured ways. We will trace a number of key themes (the social construction of space, the politics of planning, the invention of traditions, and the relation between space, knowledge, and power) across a variety of materials. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.
Ideals of good governance are a core concern of many brands of traditional Chinese thought. The image of the ruler whose authority is exercised in harmony with the desires and interests of the society at large and of the broader cosmos plays a key role not only in theories of governance per se but also in thought about ethics and psychology, since the art of government as exercised by the ruler is persistently viewed as an analogue to the art of individual self-cultivation. For many of these same reasons, however, there is also from quite early on a fascination with the bad ruler. On the one hand, bad rulers serve as negative examples just as good rulers serve as positive examples: they show the dangers and errors that threaten the ideal balance between ruler and ruled. On the other, however, the bad ruler also provides an imaginative space for thinking about extremes of human will, offering an outlet for fantasy and vicarious gratification of desires that normally remain taboo. Prerequisites: None.
This course will follow a generally chronological order, beginning with the early legends of the “classic” bad rulers Jie and Zhou (last kings respectively of the Xia and Shang dynasties) and King Li of the Zhou—bad kings whose legends took shape hand-in-hand with the Eastern Zhou moral and political theories (such as the theory of the “Mandate of Heaven”) that were to remain foundational for much later thought and writing—and continuing to consider the complexes of legend, fantasy, and debate that surrounded rulers such as Qin Shihuang, Emperor Wu of the Han, and Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty. Wu Zetian, the single female emperor in Chinese history, and the renowned and controversial Tang emperor Xuanzong, become the subjects of rich, long-lived, and evolving traditions of retelling and rewriting. The Song emperor Huizong, whose reign and life ended with the capture of the Northern Song capital by “barbarian” Jurchen invaders, was renowned for his cultural sophistication and the splendor of his court; at the same time, his rule was to become the setting for the fantasies of moral chaos and political violence that became the “outlaws of the marsh” stories of stage and fiction in the late imperial popular imagination. Prerequisites: None.
This course explores Chinese cultures of sex and gender from antiquity to the seventeenth century. Primary materials, all in English translation, include moral treatises, medical guides, religious canons, and drama and fiction. We concentrate on three interconnected issues: women’s status, homoeroticism, and the human body. Our discussion will be informed by cross-cultural comparisons with ancient Greece, Renaissance England, and Contemporary America. In contrast to our modern regime of sexuality, which collapses all the three aforementioned issues into the issue of identity intrinsic to the body, we will see how the early Chinese regime of sexual act evolved into the early modern regime of emotion that concerned less inherent identities than a media culture of life-style performance. Prerequisites: None.
How can we understand and analyze the aesthetics and politics of sound - both musical and otherwise - in Chinese cultures? Through auditory and textual explorations of both musical discourse and discourses on music, this course will trace the ways in which music has been produced, understood, and debated across a broad swath of Chinese history. How has sound served as an instrument of social power, political protest, literary expression, philosophical speculation, commercial exploitation, pleasure and desire? What kinds of stakes are involved in the production, consumption, and interpretation of both noise and organized sound? Does sonic culture have a history, and if so, how can we use literary texts as a means of listening to the music and the auditory landscapes of cultures predating the age of sound recording?
We will attempt to answer this set of questions with reference to both premodern and modern Chinese sonic and literary cultures. We will begin by familiarizing ourselves with recent methodologies for the study of sonic culture, and then continue on to a consideration of the conceptualization of both naturally occurring sound and music in a diverse set of early and medieval Chinese texts. In the Confucian classics, music — as rite, as figure for cosmic order, and as the basis of traditional Chinese poetics — is an essential aspect of social and political theory. In the Daoist textual tradition, moreover, listening emerges as a central hermeneutic and philosophical problem: how can we understand other people and other worlds by way of the auditory realm? We will examine the way in which these discourses resonate in Chinese poetic practice, as well as the ways in which the noise of urban culture and the rise of a commodified popular music change Chinese musical life in the Tang dynasty and beyond. In the second half of the course, we turn toward an exploration of Chinese musical modernity within the larger context of global histories of colonialism, capitalism, and the dissemination of technologies for the recording and reproduction of sound in the 20th century. Topics to be covered will include Confucian and Daoist music theory, poetry and music, the introduction of Western music into China in the 19th and 20th centuries, its impact on traditional musics, the transformation of sonic culture by the gramophone and the cinema, the emergence of a variety of urban popular musics, the revolutionary role of mass-mediated sound in the articulation of political movements such as the Cultural Revolution, and the soundscapes of recent Chinese films from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the PRC. Prerequisites: Chinese 7A or B, and/or previous college-level coursework in either literature or music.
This course sets out to examine a set of “focus chapters” from the Zhuangzi along several dimensions: 1) in the context of Warring States thought, 2) as independent stories that need to be puzzled through and read critically, and 3) tracing the influence of those chapters on subsequent periods of Chinese thought. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.
This course offers graduate students focusing on the literature and history of traditional China a systematic, hands-on introduction to the print and electronic resources necessary for conducting advanced research in these fields. In addition to being introduced to the history of Chinese bibliography and “sinology,” students will learn to use the vast array of ever expanding resources, and to consider what research questions these resources facilitate, and what sorts of questions remain relatively unexplored. Prerequisites: Graduate standing, and competence in reading Classical Chinese; or consent of instructor.
What is the city? Is it a space, a place, a process, or practice? Is it actual or virtual? How do we demarcate the spatial and temporal limits of the city? How does the city become a unit of social space and experience? How does such a unit register both social contiguity and tension in spatial terms and recast relations of gender, class, race, and other power configurations such as the global and local? How are the changing experience of the city perceived and mediated through film and other media? How do media technologies and their aesthetic articulations create and occupy actual and virtual spaces of the city and contribute to its demise and transformations? Each class will be taught jointly by both instructors. It will feature a simultaneous film program, as well as well as presentations by prominent guest speakers, whose presentations will be open to the wider campus community. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.
Taking the city as the concentrated and contested site, this class examines key issues of urban modernity and postmodernity at the intersection of urban planning, architecture, and film and media. The purpose of this jointly-taught doctoral-level seminar is to examine the fundamental precepts of approaches to urban theory, method, and analysis that characterize disciplines in the humanities and environmental design. Its specific goal is to explore the extent to which integrating the diversity of these approaches is possible and/or desirable, and the extent to which this integration could advance understanding, research practices, and pedagogy in global urban humanities disciplines.
Each class will be taught jointly by both instructors. It will feature a simultaneous film program, as well as well as presentations by prominent guest speakers, whose presentations will be open to the wider campus community. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.
East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
This course explores the representation of romantic love in East Asian cultures in both premodern and post-modern contexts. Students develop a better understanding of the similarities and differences in traditional values in three East Asian cultures by comparing how canonical texts of premodern China, Japan and Korea represent romantic relationship. They explore how these values might provide a narrative framework or, contrarily, the definition of transgressive acts. This analysis is followed by the study of several contemporary East Asian films, giving the student the opportunity to explore how traditional values persist, change, or become nexus points of resistance in the complicated modern and post-modern milieu of East Asian cultures maintaining a national identity while exercising an international presence. Prerequisites: None. [WEBSITE]
This course will explore some of the most difficult bioethical issues confronting the world today from the perspective of traditional values embedded in the cultural history of India, China, and Japan as evidenced in their religions, legal codes, and political history. Possible topics include population control, abortion, sex-selection, euthanasia, suicide, genetic manipulation, brain-death, and organ transplants. Prerequisites: None.
While including the monastic Theravada traditions of Sri Lanka and Thailand, this class will focus on the Mahāyāna tradition of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, which here—uniquely in South Asia—has survived till the present day. We will approach this tradition by examining particular themes such as Buddhist monasticism and its interaction with the laity, the adaptation to the caste system, the cult of stupas and images, festivals of Buddhists deities, life-cycle and other rituals, the tradition's narrative literature, etc. Exploring continuities and ruptures, Nepalese Buddhism will be contrasted with Theravada Buddhism. For this we will draw on material from Sri Lanka and Thailand, and consider the recent introduction of Theravada Buddhism to the Kathmandu Valley, and the impact of Buddhist modernism. In this way the class will not only make sense of a complex religious field—the Kathmandu valley where Buddhism exists alongside Hinduism and indigenous traditions—but also allow for more general insights into Buddhism and how it functions in society. Prerequisites: None.
This course explores East Asian Cinema from the perspective of film genre. In particular, the course examines East Asian genre films as active interaction with the circulation of global film genres as well as mass mediated engagement with specific economic, social, and political histories of East Asia. We will study contemporary theories of film genre, examine how the case of East Asian genre films complicate existing theories while paying due attention to the parallel transnational traffics--between East Asian Cinema and global film genre, and across East Asian Cinema in their history of cultural and economic flow as well as political confrontation. We will integrate our investigations of genre-specific questions (industry, style, reception, spectatorship, affect) with those of gender, ethnicity, power as well as nation and transnational/transregional identity. Prerequisites: None.
Japanese Language and Literature Courses
Continuation of Elementary Japanese 1A using the same general format (written and oral/aural quizzes every Friday) and textbook. Emphasis is on spoken, reading, and written Japanese. Grades will be determined on the basis of attendance, quiz scores, homework, in-class final examination, and class participation. Prerequisites: Japanese 1A; or consent of instructor.
This course provides a survey of important works of 19th- and 20th-century Japanese fiction, film, visual culture, and cultural criticism. The course will explore the manner in which writers, filmmakers and other creators of culture worked within their aesthetic forms as they responded to the challenges of industrialization, internationalization, and war. Topics include the changing nature of Japanese aesthetic form, shifting notions of tradition and modernity, the impact of Westernization on the constructions of the self and gender, writers and the wartime state, literature of the atomic bomb, the 1960s, nuclear Japan, and postmodern fantasies and aesthetics. All readings are in English translation. Techniques of critical reading and writing will be introduced as an integral part of the course. Prerequisites: None.
In this course, students will learn how to integrate the basic structures and vocabulary which they learned in Japanese 1A/B and Japanese 10A in order to express a wider range of ideas, and will study the new structures and vocabulary necessary to express such ideas in a manner appropriate for many social situations. Students are expected to participate fully in classroom activities and discussions. Prerequisites: Japanese 10A; or consent of instructor.
Continuation of J100A. This course aims to develop further communicative skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing in a manner appropriate to the context. It concentrates on enabling students to use acquired grammar and vocabulary with more confidence in order to express functional meanings, while increasing linguistic competence. Course materials include the textbook, supplemented by newspaper and magazine articles and short stories to provide insight into Japanese culture and society. Active student participation is not only encouraged but required. Prerequisites: Japanese 100A; or consent of instructor.
This course helps heritage learners of Japanese who have completed 10X to develop further their linguistic and cultural competencies. More sophisticated linguistic forms are introduced and reinforced while dealing with various socio-cultural topics. Close reading knowledge and skills, formal and informal registers, and different genres of Japanese reading and writing are practiced. The materials covered are equivalent to those of 100A-100B.. Prerequisites: Japanese 10X; or consent of instructor.
This course is designed for students who have studied Japanese for three years or more at college level to improve their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. It aims to develop further the vocabulary and knowledge of kanji and Japanese grammar through reading and discussing various topics related to Japanese culture. Students will research culture topics and give a short presentation on their findings. Prerequisites: Japanese 100B; or consent of instructor.
This course provides further development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills to enable students to express their points of view and construct argumentative discourse. Students read a variety of texts on Japanese history as sources for discussions to deepen their understanding of Japanese society and people. Prerequisites: Japanese 100B or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
This course provides focused, high-level language training for those students who possess advanced ability in the modern Japanese language. Students will improve their skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in their areas of specialty and in fields of particular interest to them. The course has a dual-track approach, requiring the completion of both class-wide and individually designed projects. The balance of the course focuses on perfecting reading and writing skills. With the instructor’s assistance, students pursue their own projects based on extensive reading of materials in their areas of specialization. These projects will be presented orally to the class. Further, when possible, visiting scholars from Japan are invited to the classroom to speak, their topics discussed afterwards. This provides a valuable opportunity for students to practice listening and speaking high-level, educated Japanese. Committed study at home is expected, and essential for success in this course. Prerequisites: Japanese 111 or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
Writings in the Japanese vernacular constitute only a limited part of the total pre-modern Japanese written corpus. Until the twentieth century, the preferred medium for most historical texts and male diaries was Sino-Japanese (/kanbun/). Familiarity with the grammar of this extraordinarily rich tradition is therefore essential for all students of pre-modern Japanese disciplines. We will cover the basics of /kanbun/ grammar and then read parts of court diaries and a historical account. Prerequisites: Japanese 100A and Japanese 120; or consent of instructor.
This class provides an opportunity to read and discuss some of the central ideas that Ōe Kenzaburō (1935– ) has developed over his writing career. We will be read primarily fiction written from the early days of his writing in 1957 through about 1994, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. We will focus on his attitude towards family and the disadvantaged and, through these themes, consider his ideas about marginalized individuals and social classes. We will pay close attention to how his concepts have developed or otherwise changed over time. We read both in English translation and his original modern Japanese. Prerequisites: J100B (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor. [WEBSITE]
This course deals with issues of the usage of the Japanese language and how they have been treated in the field of linguistics. It concentrates on pragmatics, speech varieties (politeness, gender, written vs. spoken), topic management, historical changes, and genetic origins. Students are required to have advanced knowledge of Japanese. No previous linguistics training is required. Prerequisites: 100B (may be taken concurrently) or equivalent, or consent of instructor.
Recent research suggests that reading “high discourse” literature improves a reader’s “emotional intelligence” by enhancing the ability to construct a “Theory of Mind” (TOM) of others—that is, to make a good estimate of what they are thinking and feeling. Premodern Japanese literature was composed with strong TOM expectations: readers were to make effort at understanding the deep feelings of the fictional characters they encounter. We will read primarily premodern Japanese prose works and plays whose characters are overtaken with “urami” (rancor, hatred) and related emotions—jealousy, envy, resentment and revenge. A portion of the content of these feelings can fairly be described as universal. However, there are culture-specific aspects to them in terms of thought content, the cause of the emotion, and what is considered a remedy. Trying to understand these specifics is key to accurate TOM construction. Our texts will be diverse—from folktales to aristocratic works that date from the 10th to 18th centuries. Some selections are famous, others are not, but they all have a fascinating relationship with these powerful emotions. No prerequisites or prior knowledge of Japan or its language is required or expected. Prerequisites: None.
The course considers the different literary, social and ethical formations that arise or are destroyed in disaster. We will pay particular attention to a range of works that explicitly or obliquely reframe discursive and popular representations of disasters in cinema, literature and other media. Throughout the semester, we will examine how these works transpose historical trauma into the post-3/11 environment, what new vulnerabilities are made legible by these emergent representations and what becomes of communities and individuals in times of catastrophe. Prerequisites: None.
The focus will be on Japanese writings on Buddhism from the Meiji period through early Showa periods, looking primarily at examples of how modernity affected Japanese Buddhist thought. Probable topics: defining the place of the Buddhist priest in modern society, government led attempts to fuse Buddhism and Shinto (daikyoin), consideration of non-monastics in defining sectarian traditions (shugaku), redefining the two-truth doctrine in political terms (shinzoku nitai), demythologization (hishinwaka), the impact of German philosophy and Christian theology on Zen and Pure Land thinkers (= Kyoto School), the issue of the Mahayana scriptures not being the word of the historical Buddha, and the appeal of the Tannisho as the most representative text of modern religious thinking. This class can be taken for either 2 or 4 credits. A research paper and presentation on one's research topic are required for 4 credits. Prerequisites: This class will be open to undergraduates who have either completed will be concurrently enrolled in J100B (advanced Japanese), and at least one semester of classical Japanese (Japan 120) is also required.
The Tale of Genji is universally recognized as the greatest literary accomplishment of Japan's classical era and one of the enduring monuments of world civilization. This course is devoted to that work and to the literary milieu out of which it arose, including Man'yôshû and Kokinshû poetry, female poetic memoirs, earlier forays into prose fiction, and historiography. The goal is to acquire a synthetic appreciation of the classical literary world. Each unit will consist of readings in primary texts in Japanese together presentation and discussion of central studies in English. Though primarily intended for graduate students, advanced undergraduates are also encouraged to attend. The course may be taken for four units with a seminar paper, or for two units without. Prerequisites: graduate standing or advanced undergraduates; or consent of instructor.
This course will have both pedagogical and practical goals. Its chief purpose is to acquaint graduate students at every level and across various disciplines with the history and current state of the field of Japanese studies. In addition to the faculty coordinator, three or four faculty members from different departments will make presentations on their respective fields, incorporating a selection of key works for joint reading along with discussion of their own research and related issues of methodology. On the more practical side, in cooperation with the East Asian Library staff, proseminar presenters will introduce resources available on campus for graduate level research, and devote substantial attention to the “how-to” of making research contacts and navigating archives and other facilities in Japan. In this way, the proseminar will leave graduate students with an enhanced understanding of the field they have chosen and prepare them for the challenges of fieldwork, which remains – digitalization notwithstanding – the core experience of our field. Prerequisites: graduate standing; or consent of instructor.
The departure point of this seminar is a reworking of the notion of the literary archive as a tributary to the way it is perceived in different periods and in relation to different media (painting, photography and cinema). We will concentrate on the critical arts that oscillate between image and text, taking into account of the complex and intricate ways in which these cultural forms lend themselves to archival capture and release. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.
Korean Language and Literature Courses
These courses are designed for students who have little or no prior knowledge of the Korean language. With emphasis on speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills, the course will introduce the basic grammar of the Korean language. The courses are also intended to introduce certain cultural aspects through media sources and various activities.
Please note: Korean 1B is not open to heritage students who have some background knowledge in Korean.
These courses are designed for students who already have elementary comprehension and speaking skills in Korean and have minimum exposure to reading and/or writing in Korean.
Prerequisites: Korean 1AX; or consent of instructor.
This course explores various aspects of modern Korean literature and culture in the twentieth century. We will examine a range of literary works as well as art and film, in the contexts of colonialism and nationalism, the Korean War and national division, and the various issues that emerged in the process of modernization. No previous course work in Korean or Korean studies required. All readings are in English translation.
Through critical analysis of the works of fiction, poetry, and visual media, we will consider the following set of matters: 1) how the issues of national identity, gender, and socio-economic class are articulated in a diverse array of texts; 2) the complex relations between colonialism and a rise of modernist thinking about the national culture, and between cultural production and formation of identity; 3) modern views on urban and rural space; and 4) how the major events in modern Korean history (colonial occupation, war, urban unrest, political violence, dislocation and relocation) have been represented and remembered in literary texts and in popular culture. Prerequisites: None.
These are second-year courses in modern Korean with equal attention given to listening, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural aspects of the language.
Prerequisites: Korean 10A; or consent of instructor
These are second-year courses in modern Korean for students whose Korean proficiency level is higher in speaking than in reading or writing due to Korean-heritage background.
Prerequisites: Korean 10AX; or consent of instructor
These are third-year courses in modern Korean with emphasis on acquisition of advanced vocabulary and grammatical structure. Approximately 100 Sino-Korean characters will be introduced in each semester. Students will gain exposure and knowledge of advanced-level Korean by reading authentic texts and writing short compositions, summaries, essays, and critical reviews. Small group discussions will enhance speaking skills.
Prerequisites: Korean 100A; or consent of instructor
These are third-year courses in modern Korean for students whose Korean proficiency level is higher in speaking than in reading or writing due to Korean-heritage background.
Prerequisites: Korean 100AX; or consent of instructor.
These are fourth-year advanced courses in the reading and analysis of specialized texts in modern Korean drawn from literature, history, sociology, economics etc. Advanced conversation, writing skills, and practice in the use of standard reference tools will also be emphasized, with the goal of preparing students to do independent research in Korean.
Prerequisites: Korean 100B; or consent of instructor.
This course surveys modern Korean fiction in the second half of the twentieth century. Beginning with liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, this period in Korea was characterized by a highly charged political atmosphere, due to events such as the US occupation, the Korean War, the division, and the military dictatorship. In response, diverse and intense forms of activism emerged. This course will examine how modern Korean literature has been engaged with shaping historical memories by producing counter-narratives of critical historical and political events. Readings include major works in the genres of the novel, short fiction, and literary criticism. Various visual materials, including Korean films produced since the 1990s, will constitute a significant component course materials. Prerequisites: none.
This course will explore the moments in which interactions with foreign cultures came to the fore in Korean literature from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century. The reading list will cover a broad range of prose literature, including the narrative of a shipwrecked officer’s journey, travel accounts of Choson officials’ diplomatic visits to China, and fictional narratives produced during the times of war in East Asia in the seventeenth century. Questions to be addressed concern how experiences of the encounters with foreign cultures have been represented in Korean literature; what their domestic ramifications were, especially in terms of literary genres; and how the transformation of Korean national identity has been imagined and articulated in literary works. Students who have experience in Chinese and Japanese Studies are also welcome. All readings are in English. Prerequisites: none.
Tibetan Language and Literature Courses
A beginning Tibetan class developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in modern Tibetan (Lhasa dialect). Prerequisite: Tibetan 1A or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
This course seeks to develop a critical understanding of contemporary Tibet, characterized as it is by modernity, invasion, Maoism, liberalization, exile, and diaspora. It explores the cultural dynamism of the Tibetans over the last 100 years as expressed in literature, film, music, modern art, and political protest. The core topics include intra-Tibetan arguments regarding the preservation and "modernization" of traditional cultural forms, the development of new aesthetic creations and values, the constraints and opportunities on cultural life under colonialism and in the diaspora, and the religious nationalism of the recent political protests. Prerequisites: None.
This seminar will explore the origins and early development of Rdzogs chen (“the Great Perfection”) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The course will proceed chronologically, beginning with the tradition’s origins in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and ending with the codifying work of Klong chen rab ’byams pa in the fourteenth century. Texts considered may include a short manuscript from Dunhuang, the 9th-10th-century writings of Nupchen Sangye Yeshe, the early Snying thig tantras and their Vimalamitra-attributed commentaries, and the writings of Longchenpa. Readings will be analyzed with an eye for historical developments—philosophical, ritual, doxographical, etc.—that unfolded under the umbrella of Rdzogs chen. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor.