Fall 2013 Course Descriptions
Chinese Language and Literature Courses
Elementary Chinese. A beginning (Mandarin) Chinese class developing basics in listening, speaking, reading, and writing 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: None.
Please note: Chinese 1A 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.
This course is designed specifically for heritage Chinese students who possess speaking skill but little or no reading and writing skills in Chinese. It introduces functional vocabulary and provides a systemic review of grammar through various cultural related topics. The course teaches and uses pinyin and traditional/simplified characters. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Please note: Chinese 1X is for students who: 1) were born in a non-Chinese-speaking country but were raised in a home where Mandarin (or Mandarin and another dialect) was spoken and possess little or no reading and writing skills in Chinese, or 2) were born in a Chinese-speaking country and received zero or limited formal education in that country up to the second grade. All students must take the online Chinese Language Placement Test at ealc.berkeley.edu before enrolling. Any student who enrolls in a class below his/her level will be dropped.
This course is designed for students who have had exposure to a non-Mandarin Chinese dialect but cannot speak Mandarin and possess little or no reading and writing skills in Chinese. Students will gain fundamental knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. While there is training in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, prominence is given to listening and speaking. This course will help students meet their basic needs in functioning in Mandarin-speaking environments, while exploring aspects of their Chinese heritage. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Please note: Chinese 1Y is for students who: 1) were born in a non-Chinese speaking country but were raised in a home where a non-Mandarin Chinese dialect was spoken but cannot speak Mandarin and possess little or no reading and writing skills in Chinese, or 2) were born in a Chinese-speaking country in a home where a non-Mandarin Chinese dialect was spoken and received zero or limited formal education in that country up to the second grade. All students must take the online Chinese Language Placement Test at ealc.berkeley.edu before enrolling. Any student who enrolls in a class below his/her level will be dropped. The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
Intermediate Chinese. This course is designed to develop student's reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities in Mandarin Chinese. It teaches both simplified and traditional characters. Additional time is required for tutorials and language lab. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A/B; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
Advanced Chinese for Heritage Learners. This course helps students to further develop their Chinese language competence. More sophisticated linguistic forms are used and reinforced while dealing with various socio-cultural topics. Close reading knowledge and skills, formal and informal registers, discourses in speaking and writing, and different genres of Chinese reading and writing are introduced and practiced. Students learn to recognize a second version of Chinese characters. Prerequisites: Chinese 10X or 10Y; or consent of instructor.
Readings in Modern Chinese - Social Sciences and Literature. The emphasis of this course is on Chinese social, political, and journalistic readings. The readings are further supplemented by newspaper articles. Students are required to turn in essays written in journalistic style in Chinese. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B or 100XB; or consent of instructor.
ntroduction to Literary Chinese. This course is the first semester in a yearl-long sequence that introduces the basic grammatical structures and core vocabulary of literary Chinese, also commonly known as "classical Chinese". During this semester, students will focus on reading excerpts of key pre-Han philosophical texts. Emphasis is on grammatical analysis and careful explication of classical usage; in addition, students will acquire some introductory background on the formation of the “Confucian Classics” and the texts of the “Taoist Canon.” Prerequisites: Chinese 10B is recommended.
Fifth-Year Chinese A. Fifth-Year Chinese A. 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.
Readings in Classical Chinese Poetry: "Permutations of the Imagination." Students in this course will read deeply in the works of three Tang Dynasty poets: Li Bai, Li He, and Li Shangyin. Although wildly disparate in their respective styles, all three have been characterized as particularly “imaginative”—given to uses of poetic language that, at the very least, challenge readers’ expectations of real-world referentiality. We will devote the early part of the course to articulating such key concepts as “imagination,” “fiction,” and “reality” (primarily through the lens of classical and modern Chinese terminology), reading selected theoretical works in both Chinese and English. Then, engaging in the intensive reading and discussion of the works of the three poets, we will interrogate the content, the function—and the limits—of fantasy and imagination as practiced during this important moment in the history of Chinese poetry. At the same time, we will consider the historical reception of their works and the construction of their personae in order to better understand the contested nature of fantasy in the shifting world of Chinese poetic criticism. Prerequisites: Chinese 110A; or consent of the instructor. In addition, Chinese 7A and Chinese 110B are recommended, but not required.
Readings in Medieval Prose: "Tang Dynasty Prose Fiction." Tang dynasty writers developed a tradition of gossip and storytelling that included elaborate and formally sophisticated written narratives, often of exotic, strange, or scandalous events, where wild flights of imagination are often intermingled with unusually detailed accounts of contemporary life, persons, and events. The most popular and widely circulated of these tales, which later readers came to designate under the heading of chuanqi, or “accounts of the strange,” had a lasting impact on later literary tradition: plots of Tang tales serve as the basis for many of the best-known works of fiction and drama of later periods. In this course we will read some of the best-known works from this body of writing, seeking to develop our critical faculties in responding to the texts, and to build reading ability and stylistic sense in reading classical Chinese prose, while also using these readings as windows onto larger topics in Chinese society, culture, and history. Prerequisties: Chinese 110B; or consent of instructor.
Chinese 155: Readings in Vernacular Chinese Literature: "Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase)"
Readings in Vernacular Chinese Literature: "Jin Ping Mei." Chinese 155 this fall focuses on Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase), one of the “Four Masterworks” of pre-modern Chinese fiction. The novel is known as a banned book, but beyond the sensual content there is much we can investigate in terms of the novel’s extraordinary composition. What do we make of a novel that “out-sources” many of its crucial moments by suturing in other texts? How ought we to conceptualize the interiority of its characters, when many of their “thought” come from pre-existing sources beyond the boundaries of the novel itself? How does the novel ask us to conceptualize literary character – and how might characters be read differently than the characters of, for example, nineteenth-century British novels? The last portion of the course will be devoted to Jin Ping Mei’s extraordinary after-life in filmic and other incarnations. Prerequisites: Chinese 100A/100AX (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.
Exploring Pre-modern Chinese Novels. Vernacular fiction in late imperial China emerged at the margins of official historiography, traveled through oral storytelling, and reached sophistication in the hands of literati. Covering the major genres and masterpieces of traditional Chinese novels including military, martial arts, libertine, and romantic stories, this course investigates how shifting boundaries brought about significant transformations of Chinese narrative at the levels of both form and content.Prerequisites: None.
Confucius and His Interpreters. This course examines the development of Confucianism in pre-modern China using a dialogical model that emphasizes its interactions with competing viewpoints. Particular attention will be paid to issues of ritual, human nature and morality, stressing the way that varieties of Confucianism were rooted in more general theories of value. Prerequisites: None.
Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts: "Early Chan Buddhism." This course will look at the early development of the Chinese Chan tradition through a variety of documents, with a focus on Dunhuang manuscripts and the writings of medieval Tang exegetes. In addition to the usual philological and historical issues, we will focus on a hermeneutic question: what epistemological "frame" is best suited for understanding these early materials? Should we approach them phenomenologically, as attempts to denote and delimit a particular experience or understanding of the world that is immediately available to us as human beings? Are they exegetical works: attempts by the Chinese to grapple with various doctrinal formulations and puzzles found in Buddhist scriptures? Are they performative: prescriptive models of "enlightened" speech and activity used to legitimize Chinese ecclesiastical authority? What other options might there be? This course is intended for graduate students with advanced facility in literary Chinese. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required for all students, with the exception of graduate students in EALC or GBS.
Texts on the Civilization of Medieval China: "Writing Manuals and Model Texts in Medieval and Early Modern China." In Chinese tradition, the customary emphasis on the identity between author and writing often distracts us from the countless hours of devoted practice and imitation needed in order to acquire even mediocre competence in any formal genre of written “self-expression.” Similarly, the indispensable texts specifically tailored to the needs of the slow process of practice and imitation—primers, practical manuals, and chapbooks of model texts—were often hidden, or even considered embarrassing or lowbrow. Examining the range of practical “how-to” material that survives from traditional literary culture, however, provides us with a valuable perspective both on the constitutive rules and compositional structures of traditional genres of writing, and on the relations between formal writing as a mode of social performance and claims of status or identity and the exercise of political power. To study writing manuals means to study approaches to mastering a specific range of textual genres, and our readings will center on instructional texts oriented toward a few key forms: a) classical shi poetry; b) letters; c) formal administrative documents (such as imperial edicts); and d) examination texts (encompassing shi, fu, and jing yi or “eight-legged” essays). Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
Modern Chinese Literature: "Chinese Modernism." We will be examining the literary and visual cultures of Chinese modernism, with a particular focus on three pivotal moments: the interwar period, Taiwan in the 1960s, and the post-Mao P.R.C. We will situate each of these moments in the global context of contemporary modernist movements in Japan, Europe, and the Americas, as well as within the specific urban locales from which these styles emerged. We will also read extensively in the literary-critical historiography of global modernism. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
Introduction to the Study of Buddhism. This course will provide a basic understanding of the teachings and practices of Buddhism. The central issues will be situated within their broader Indian historical contexts, and the readings follow a generally chronological order. The course begins with the life of the Buddha, the early teachings, and the founding of the Buddhist monastic order. The course then progresses to the cosmological and philosophical developments of the Mahayana, followed by the ritual and mythological innovations of the Buddhist tantras. The final section takes a brief look at how Buddhism moved into other regions such as Tibet, China, and Japan. Prerequisites: None.
War, Empire, and Literature in East Asia. This course will examine war, empire, and the writing and memorialization of history through an eclectic group of literary, graphic, and cinematic texts from China, Japan, Europe, and the U.S. We will begin by examining crucial issues of imperial power, violence, and historical representation through the lens of the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's classic accounts of "terrorism" in the Warring States period, the rise of the Han empire, and its conflicts with the Hsiung-nu "barbarians" to the north. With these earlier examples in mind, we will turn our focus to two crucial conflicts in modern history - the Boxer Uprising of 1899-1900, and the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 - and their diverse representations in a number of different times, places, and media. Prerequisites: None.
History of the Culture of Tea in China and Japan. Tea has a long and complex history in both China and Japan. It has been part of philosophical, religious, and literary discourse, and had influence on, as well as been influenced by, visual arts and artisan crafts, architecture, and social practices. This class is about the interaction of tea and the high arts (including philosophy and poetics) in premodern China and Japan. Broadly stated, we begin with the early tea origin myths of China then become more earnest in our analysis with events in the Tang and Song dynasties. While we cover briefly Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties our focus swings towards Japan in the second half of the course where we look at tea practices in the Kamakura, Muromachi and early Edo periods. Comparing how tea was received in these two countries illuminates characteristics of both cultures and provides a unique example of how culture flows between them. Further, there is an interesting tension between the ordinariness of brewing and drinking tea with the arts and philosophy that have been attached to it and we therefore consider the cross-over of concepts (the movement of cultural “signs”), such as how yin-yang philosophy and the Chinese medical texts based on it created contexts for thinking about tea (Tang China) and how linked-verse poetics informed tea-related social practice (Muromachi Japan). Of necessity, this class devotes a certain amount of time to historical perspectives (era-specific economies, politics, religions) in both countries, geography, and, to properly situate the tea plant itself, we begin with the basics of tea’s origin and the evolving cultivation and crafting practices associated with the plant. Prerequisites: none. [WEBSITE]
Buddhism on the Silk Road. This course will discuss the social, economic, and cultural aspects of Buddhism as it moved along the ancient Eurasian trading network referred to as the “Silk Road”. Instead of relying solely on textual sources, the course will focus on material culture as it offers evidence concerning the spread of Buddhism. Through an examination of the Buddhist archaeological remains of the Silk Road, the course will address specific topics, such as the symbiotic relationship between Buddhism and commerce; doctrinal divergence; ideological shifts in the iconography of the Buddha; patronage (royal, religious and lay); Buddhism and political power; and art and conversion.
This course is designed as an historical introduction to the Silk Road, understood as an ever-changing series of peoples, places, and traditions, as well as an introduction to the study of those same peoples, places, and traditions in the modern period. In this way, the class is intended both as a guide to extant textual, archaeological, and art historical evidence from the Silk Road, and as a framework for thinking about the modern Silk Road regions from the perspective of a contemporary American classroom. Prerequisites: None.
Zen Buddhism.This course is an intensive introduction to the history, doctrine, and monastic culture of Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen Buddhism in the light of modern scholarship. We will focus on the interrelationships between Chan and Zen philosophy, ritual, literature, institutional structure, and meditative practice. Our approach will be multidisciplinary, drawing from anthropology, history, philosophy, and literary hermeneutics, and we will use a wide range of primary and secondary readings as well as visual resources. Prerequisites: None.
Seminar in Buddhism and Buddhist Texts: "The Guhyasamāja Tantra." Seminar in Buddhism and Buddhist Texts. This seminar will focus on the innovations and ritual systems of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. Readings will be in both Sanskrit and Tibetan. Particular attention will be paid to chapters two, five, eight, and thirteen of the root tantra, and to gain a clearer understanding of how early tantric Buddhists of India and Tibet interpreted these chapters, we will also consider Candrakirti’s Pradipodyotana and other commentarial material. Secondary literature on the Guhyasamaja ritual tradition will also be consulted. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Japanese Language and Literature Courses
Elementary Japanese. Japanese 1A is designed to develop basic speaking skills and to learn hiragana, katakana, and approximately 150 kanji. At the end of the course, the students should be able to describe themselves, their family and friends, and to talk about everyday events with basic vocabulary and structures. They also should be able to read simple passages in Japanese. Prerequisites: None.
Introduction to Premodern Japanese Literature and Culture. Through lecture, discussion and essay, we will read and analyze selections from premodern Japanese literature, especially via the consideration of early aesthetics and poetics. Along the way we also consider a number of other “high culture” endeavors. Students will be expected to master a range of factual and conceptual information as well as produce interesting and credible analysis on relevant texts and other topics. Goals: The student will develop skills in reading premodern literary works with some sophistication, will become versed in a wide range of cultural concepts that are an important part of the cultural history of the country and/or relevant to contemporary Japanese culture, and will have a good overview of some of the major historical events relevant to premodern Japanese culture. Texts: We read from a very wide range of texts (more than twenty) but place special emphasis on Tale of Genji (11th c.), Tale of Heike (mid-13th c. - 14th c.), Narrow Road to the Deep North (17th c.), plays by Chikamatsu (18th c.), and several of the major poetry collections (8th c. - 13th c). Prerequisites: None. [WEBSITE]
Intermediate Japanese. In this course, students will learn how to integrate the basic structures and vocabulary which they learned in Japanese 1A/B 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. Although the main emphasis will be aural/oral skills, an increasing amount of reading and writing will also be required. Prerequisites: Japanese 1A/B or equivalent; or consent of instructor. Students who have not taken Japanese 1A/B at this University may wish to contact the instructors during Phase I Tele-BEARS to have their language proficiency assessed.
Intermediate Japanese for Heritage Learners. This course is designed specifically for heritage learners who possess high fluency in casual spoken Japanese but little reading and writing abilities. It introduces formal speech styles, reinforces grammatical accuracy, and improves reading and writing competencies through materials derived from various textual genres. Students will acquire the amounts of vocabulary, grammar, and kanji equivalent to those of 10A-10B. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Fourth-Year Readings: Social Sciences. 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. Readings include Japanese newspapers, magazines, a selection of Japanese literature as sources of discussions. Students learn various writing styles and in-depth aspects of Japanese culture. Prerequisites: Japanese 100B or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
Fourth-Year Readings: Japanese Literature. 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. In addition to Japanese literature, readings include newspaper articles and other texts as sources of discussions in order to become familiar with various writing styles and learn more aspects of Japanese society and culture. Prerequisites: Japanese 100B or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
Fifth-Year Japanese A. This course provides focused, high-level language training for those students who possess fourth-year level ability or equivalent in the modern Japanese language. Students will improve their ability in reading, writing, speaking and listening in their areas of specialty and in fields of particular interest to them. The course may have a dual-track approach, requiring the completion of both class-wide and individually designed projects. The balance of the course will focus on the development of reading and writing skills. With the instructor’s assistance, students will conduct their own projects based on in-depth reading of materials drawn from their areas of specialization. These projects will be presented orally to the class. Further, when possible, visiting scholars from Japan will be invited to the classroom to speak, their topics to be discussed afterwards. This will provide an additional opportunity for the student to practice listening and speaking of high-level, educated Japanese. Committed study at home will be essential for success in this course. Prerequisites: Japanese 102 or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
Japanese Buddhism. A critical survey of major themes in the history of Japanese Buddhism. The course covers: the transmission of Buddhism from China and Korea to Japan; the subsequent evolution in Japan of the Tendai, Shingon, Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen schools of Buddhism during the medieval period; the interaction between Buddhism, "Shinto," and "folk religion"; the relationship between Buddhism and the state, especially during the Edo period; Buddhist perspectives on nature, healing, and pilgrimage; and Buddhist modernism of the Meiji period. Prerequisites: None.
Introduction to Classical Japanese. Japanese 120 is an introduction to classical Japanese, defined as the native literary language of the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. Four texts are read in whole or in part: 1) Hôjôki 2) Heike monogatari 3) Tsurezuregusa, and 4) Taketori monogatari. The emphasis is on grammatical explication and translation of the texts into English. Most class meetings are devoted to the reading of the assigned texts. Students read the text aloud, answer questions regarding grammar, and translate into English. Prerequisites: Japanese 10B or equivalent; or consent of instructor. Not open to graduates of Japanese high schools. [WEBSITE]
Classical Japanese Poetry. We read in the original Japanese poems from the Man'yôshû (mid-8th c.), Kokinshû (early 10th c.), Shin-Kokinshû (early 13th c.) and Edo period hokku (haiku) by Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson and Kobayashi Issa (17th c. - 19th c). While most of the poems from the three major collections will share for comparison purposes similar themes, we also read love poems as a miscellaneous segment of the course and, in another such segment, look at poems in their prose context. Our primary areas of focus are grammar and various aspects of the literary appreciation of premodern Japanese poems (authors and their styles, poetic techniques, and so on). By the end of the course the student should be much more comfortable with reading and appreciating premodern poems, have some sense of the stylistic and conceptual differences among various major poem anthologies, and be knowledgeable about a handful of the major poets over the centuries. Prerequisites: Completion of Japanese 120; or consent of instructor. [WEBSITE]
Modern Japanese Literature: "Japanese Modernism." This course is an introduction to Japanese modernism of the Taisho and early Showa periods. We will consider modernism as an aesthetic, cultural, and intellectual movement within and across the literary and visual arts. Through an examination of representative short stories, novels, poetry, films, and essays the course will explore a series of questions including but not limited to: How can we define Japanese modernism? What are the aesthetic bases of modernist literature, film, and art? How did writers and artists respond to contemporary political trends such as Marxism, feminism, imperialism, and nationalism? In what ways did modernist works reflect rapidly changing conceptions of space, time, and self in the early to mid-20th Century? Primary readings will be in Japanese with supplemental materials in English. Prerequisites: Japanese 100A (may be taken concurrently).
Introduction to Japanese Linguistics: Grammar. This course deals with issues of the structure of the Japanese language and how they have been treated in the field of linguistics. It focuses on phonetics/phonology, morphology, writing systems, dialects, lexicon, and syntax/semantics. Students are required to have advanced knowledge of Japanese. No previous linguistics training is required. Prerequisites: 100A or equivalent, may be taken concurrently.
Translation: Theory and Practice. This course provides an overview of the considerations that the translator must take into account when approaching a text. Special attention is paid to the structural differences between Japanese and English, cross-cultural differences in stylistics, writing with clarity, reference work, etc. Texts to be considered are drawn from both expository and literary writings in Japanese. By means of translating selected texts into English, students will acquire abilities to recognize common translation problems, apply methods for finding solutions, and evaluate accuracy and communicative effectiveness of translation. In consultation with the instructor, each student chooses an appropriate text to be translated during the course of the semester. Prerequisites: 102 or equivalent.
Archaeology of East Asia. The goal of this course is to provide a general picture of prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology in China, Japan and Korea. The course will emphasize the differences and similarities in archaeological studies between East Asia and North America. It will also consider the role of archaeology in East Asian societies today, and discuss how archaeological interpretations have been affected by the social and political contexts in these countries. Topics to be emphasized include changes in subsistence-settlement systems, origins and dispersal of food production, the development of social complexity, and the formation of state. Prerequisites: None.
Ghosts and the Modern Literary Imagination. The course examines the complex meanings of the ghost in modern Japanese literature and culture. Tracing the representations of the supernatural in drama, fiction, ethnography, and the visual arts, we explore how ghosts provide the basis for remarkable flights of imaginative speculation and literary experimentation. Topics include: storytelling and the loss of cultural identity, horror and its conversion into aesthetic pleasure, fantasy, and the transformation of the commonplace. We will consider historical, visual, anthropological, and literary approaches to the supernatural and raise cultural and philosophical questions crucial to an understanding of the figure and its role in the greater transformation of modern Japan (18th century to the present). Prerequisites: None.
Cold War Culture in Korea: Literature and Film. This course examines the formation and transformation of global Cold War culture in South Korean literature and film of the 20th century. It pays close attention to representations of the Korean War and its aftermath in literature and cinema, but opens up the field of inquiry to encompass larger sociocultural issues related to the Cold War system manifest in literature and cinema. Prerequisites: None.
Topics in Japanese Film: "Contemporary Japanese Cinema." This course surveys cinema and animation in Japan from the late-20th Century to the present moment. We begin with the end of the studio system in the 1960s and the diverse trends that emerged in its wake. We then consider the industrial shifts, technological innovations, and formal experimentations that followed. Topics include postmodernism and consumption, youth violence and exploitation, changing views of the family, cultural and ethnic hybridity, globalization and genre formation, post-humanism, intermediality, and uses of the historical past. Throughout the course we will discuss current critical debates about broader trends in Japanese film and culture, as they illuminate the construction and ruptures in notions of Japanese cinema and identity. Prerequisites: None.
Seminar in Classical Japanese Poetry: "Seminar in Japanese Linked Verse (Renga)." Linked verse was one of the most popular forms of poetry in premodern Japanese history, both in its "orthodox" (ushin) form, practiced by such late medieval poets as Sôgi, Shôhaku, and Sôchô, and in its "unorthodox" (haikai) interation, adopted and then transformed by the great Edo-period poet Bashô. Orthodox renga is also the most difficult form of Japanese poetry to interpret, given its brevity and allusiveness. The goal of this course is to establish an overall appreciation of the history of linked verse and its rules, and to gain practice in reading the hundred-verse sequence (hyakuin) by those rules. Particular attention will be paid to the role of convention and intertextuality in the art of linking (tsukeai), to progression (yukiyô), and to the relationship between formula and creativity. We will also look at how contemporary poets "read" the hyakuin, by using one or more "self commentaries" (jichû). The course will conclude with an exploration of the haikai form of the genre, via a kasen (thirty-six-verse sequence) by Bashô and his coterie. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.
Seminar in Prewar Japanese Literature. Close reading of literary texts chosen from the late nineteenth century thorough the 1940s. The seminar will examine the major forms, themes, and contexts of the modern Japanese novel and the allied arts. We will draw on a wide variety of secondary sources including literary journalism, academic criticism, and theoretical works in the study of narrative, poetics, and the sociology of literature. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
Korean Language and Literature Courses
Elementary Korean for Non-heritage Speakers. Five classroom hours per week are required. This course introduces students to beginning level Korean, including Hangul (Korean writing system) and the basic grammar of the language. Emphasis is on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. This course is for students with minimal or no knowledge of Korean. Prerequisites: None.
Please note: Korean 1A is not open to heritage students who have some background knowledge in Korean.
Elementary Korean for Heritage Speakers. Five classroom hours per week are required. This course introduces students to beginning level Korean. This course is for students who can read Hangul (Korean writing system) or speak some Korean, but their ability to read, write, or speak in Korean is somewhat limited. Prerequisites: Some knowledge of the Korean language; or consent of Instructor.
Introduction to Pre-Modern Korean Literature and Culture. This is an undergraduate survey course dealing with the most important works of Korean literature from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century, particularly focusing on the interactions between literature and performance. This class will consider adaptations of traditional Korean poetry, sijo and kasa, in various public and private venues of performance that include state rituals, gatherings of literati, and musical and dance performances by courtesans. Class readings will also include fictional narratives such as Tale of Ch’unhyang, which were circulated both as written texts and through oral transmission, and were adopted into the vocal performance of p’ansori. In the latter part of this course, the literary representation of courtesans as female performers will be investigated through readings of the tales of romance set at the court, as well as Dream of Nine Clouds, the most recognized classical Korean novel. Discussion topics will include the theatrical aspects of state ritual, the music and entertainment culture of the literati, the social functions of courtesan performance, and the conception of gender as a performed identity. All readings are in English. Prerequisites: None.
Intermediate Korean. A second-year course in modern Korean with about equal attention given to listening, speaking, reading and writing with the cultural emphasis. This course meets five classroom hours per week and requires one hour of language lab per week. Prerequisites: Korean 1A/B; or consent of instructor.
Intermediate Korean for Heritage Speakers. A second-year course 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 1BX; or consent of instructor.
Advanced Korean. Three 1-hour meetings per week. Readings and discussions in Korean, of modern writings. A variety of texts such as essays, literary works, magazines and newspapers will be introduced. Emphasis is on advanced-level vocabulary, including approximately 100 Sino-Korean characters. Prerequisites: Korean 10A/10B; or consent of instructor.
Advanced Korean for Heritage Speakers. Advanced Korean for students whose Korean proficiency level is higher in speaking than in reading or writing due to Korean-heritage background.Prerequisites: Korean 10AX/10BX; or consent of instructor.
Fourth-Year Readings – Literature. An advanced course in the reading and analysis of literary texts in modern Korean. 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 equivalent.
Fifth-Year Korean A. This course is designed to bring up the students' proficiency to advanced-high level in all aspects of modern Korean; it aims to prepare students for research or employment in a variety of Korea-related fields. Text materials are drawn from authentic sources including modern Korean literature, film, intellectual history, and readings on contemporary issues. Radio and TV broadcasts will also be included in the teaching materials. Texts will be selected, in part, according to student interests. With instructor's guidance, students will conduct research projects based on specialized readings in their own fields of study. The research projects will be presented both orally and in written form at the end of the semester. Prerequisites: Korean 102 or equivalent.
Critical Approaches to Modern Korean Literature: "Colonization/Decolonization." The course will examine the discourses of colonization and decolonization in modern Korea, through readings in modern fictional narrative, poetry, and literary criticism. Class discussions will deal with various aspects of Japanese colonialism in Korea in terms of class, gender, ethnic identities, and language. Particular attention will be given to the questions of how Japanese colonialism was involved in the formation of modern Korean literature, how Korean literary works were engaged in producing the colonial subject, and how Korean nationalism was developed as a counterdiscourse during the colonial period. The latter half of the course will examine how the colonial past was reimagined in relation to state formation in both Koreas after the Liberation of 1945. Students will be encouraged to develop comparative perspectives in East Asia and beyond. All readings are in English. Prerequisites: None.
This course examines representations of history and memory in contemporary Korean cinema. Korean films have displayed a thematic preoccupation with the nation's tumultuous past by presenting diverse stories of past events and experiences. The course pays close attention to the ways in which popular narrative films render history and memory meaningful and pertinent to contemporary film viewers. Prerequisites: None. Prerequisites: None.
Cold War Culture in Korea: Literature and Film. This course examines the formation and transformation of global Cold War culture in South Korean literature and film of the 20th century. It pays close attention to representations of the Korean War and its aftermath in literature and cinema, but opens up the field of inquiry to encompass larger sociocultural issues related to the Cold War system manifest in literature and cinema. Prerequisites: None.
Tibetan Language and Literature Courses
Elementary Tibetan. A beginning Tibetan class developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in modern Tibetan (Lhasa dialect).
Advanced Tibetan Conversation. This course is designed for advanced students of Tibetan language. Its goal is to provide an opportunity for students to further develop their colloquial Tibetan conversation skills. More sophisticated linguistic forms are used and reinforced while dealing with various socio-cultural topics, with a particular focus on Buddhist-related subjects toward the end of the term. Primary emphasis will be on the Lhasa dialect of Tibetan, though some variant dialects may also be introduced. Prerequisite: Tibetan 10B or equivalent; or consent of instructor.