Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
Chinese Language and Literature Courses
The course is designed for students who are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment; or who are of Chinese origin but do not speak Chinese and whose parents do not speak Chinese. The course develops beginning learners’ functional language ability—the ability to use Mandarin Chinese in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways at the beginning level. It helps students acquire communicative competence in Chinese while sensitizing them to the links between language and culture.
The course is designed for students who are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment, or who are of Chinese origin but do not speak Chinese and whose parents do not speak Chinese. The course continues to focus on training students in the four language skills--speaking, listening, reading, and writing with a gradually increasing emphasis on basic cultural readings and developing intercultural competence. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A.
This course is designed specifically for Mandarin heritage students who possess speaking skill but little or no reading and writing skills in Chinese. The course utilizes students’ prior knowledge of listening and speaking skills to advance them to the intermediate Chinese proficiency level in one semester. Close attention is paid to meeting Mandarin heritage students’ literacy needs inmeaningful contexts while introducing a functional vocabulary and a systematic review of structures through culturally related topics. The Hanyu Pinyin (a Chinese Romanization system) and traditional/simplified characters are introduced. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Elementary Cantonese 3B is designed for non-Chinese heritage learners with no prior knowledge of Cantonese, a regional variety of Chinese, introducing students to its use through oral, written and visual texts related to daily life. Topics include meeting people, shopping, leisure activities, telling the time, discussing daily routines, describing people and family members, and transportation, and students will compose texts in Cantonese that show the relationship between language and culture. Finally, the course develops students’ awareness of socio-culturally situated language use and their ability to compare and negotiate similarities and differences between the target culture and their own culture. Prerequisite: Chinese 3A or consent of instructor.
The course further develops students’ linguistic and cultural competence. In dealing with texts, students are guided to interpret, narrate, describe, and discuss topics ranging from real-life experience and personal memoir to historic events. Intercultural competence is promoted through linguistic and cultural awareness and language use in culturally appropriate contexts. Prerequisites: Chinese 10A; or consent of instructor.
The course continues to develop students’ literacy and communicative competence through vocabulary and structure expansion dealing with topics related to Chinese heritage students’ personal experiences. Students are guided to express themselves on complex issues and to connect their language knowledge with real world experiences. Prerequisites: Chinese 1X; or consent of instructor.
The course helps students further develop their linguistic and cultural competence in Mandarin Chinese. It trains students to use Mandarin more appropriately and confidently in speaking, reading, and writing. With the expanded repertoire of Chinese language use and the increased awareness of the differences between cultures and subcultures, students are equipped to negotiate their way in an intercultural environment. Prerequisites: Chinese 1Y; or consent of instructor.
Going beyond satisfying basic communicative needs, students would learn to use Cantonese to complete more complicated tasks such as elaborating, comparing, analyzing, defending, debating, etc. Students would be frequently exposed to discussions regarding broader societal issues such as housing, food culture, fashion, safety, recreation, education, etc. Assuming basic competence of Cantonese, the course attempts to relate the learners to Chinese subculture through analyzing the link between Cantonese expressions and societal phenomenon in the Cantonese speaking society. Difference between Cantonese and Mandarin expressions and its cultural implications, as well as the social position of Cantonese globally and regionally. Prerequisites: Chinese 3X; or consent of instructor.
This course examines the complex worldviews of China’s Han period, the centuries that follow its unification and the establishment of its empire. The momentous changes of this period shaped traditional and contemporary views of history and society, philosophy, and religion, and as a result are still relevant today. This course will look at Han “thought,” a word chosen for its range, including religion, state ritual, social conventions, moral philosophy, and thinking about the natural world. It covers both elite and popular culture, and pays particular attention to two works of the second century B.C.E.: the Shiji (i.e., Records of the Historian) or the Huainanzi.
This course continues the development of critical awareness by emphasizing the link between socio-cultural literacy and a higher level of language competence. While continuing to expand their critical literacy skills, students interpret texts related to Chinese popular culture, social change, cultural traditions, politics and history. Through linguistic and cultural comparisons, students understand more about people in the target society and themselves as well as about the power of language in language use to enhance their competence in operating between languages and associated cultures. Prerequisite: Chinese 100A.
This course is designed for Chinese heritage language learners who have taken Chinese 100XA or an equivalent course. It guides learners to use their Chinese language knowledge and skills to survey portions of Chinese history and society and to comprehend Chinese cultural heritage in economic and socio-political contexts. Students read and analyze texts discussing cross-strait relations, Chinese people’s basic living necessities, and their changing lifestyles and mindsets since the economic reforms in mainland China. They are also introduced to several important historical figures in modern Chinese history and to modern literary works. In addition to the continuous development of reading techniques for communicative purposes, critical reading skills in the heritage language are also developed in order to interpret subtle meanings in texts. Different styles and genres of Chinese discourses in speaking and writing are further explored along with an increasingly sophisticated vocabulary, phrases, and structures. Moreover, students are required to be able to read both simplified and traditional versions of Chinese characters. The development of critical reading and writing skills enables students to understand more about people in the target culture and themselves, about what determines values and actions, and about the power of language. Prerequisite: Chinese 100XA. If you have not taken Chinese 100XA, to enroll in this class you must first take the online Chinese Language Placement Exam and be interviewed. Students are responsible for following the instructions at ealc.berkeley.edu to complete the placement process. 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.
This course is designed to assist students to reach the advanced-mid level on language skills and to enhance their intercultural competence. Students read the works of famous Chinese writers. Movie adaptations of these writings are also used. In addition to reading and seeking out information, students experience readings by interpreting and constructing meanings and evaluate the effect of the language form choice. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B, 100XB, or 100YB. If you have not taken Chinese 100B, 100XB, or 100YB, to enroll in this class you must first take the online Chinese Language Placement Exam and be interviewed. Students are responsible for following the instructions at ealc.berkeley.edu to complete the placement process. 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 second half of a one-year introductory course in literary Chinese, continuing the topics from the first semester, and giving basic coverage of relevant issues in the history of the language and writing system. This course examines the canonical texts of the late-imperial period, placing them in the context of literary culture of the Ming-Qing. The course focuses on a different set of texts each time it is taught; the aim is to introduce students to the primary issues in scholarship of late-imperial fiction and drama over a period of several years. Prerequisite: Chinese 110A.
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 sectarian works, including Chan (Zen koans). 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.
Spring 2022: This course is an introduction to the study of medieval Buddhist literature written in classical Chinese. We will cover some of the most substantial and inspirational works in the history of East Asian Buddhism. Readings are carefully selected from a variety of genres, including early Chinese translations of Sanskrit and Central Asian Buddhist scriptures, hagiographies of eminent monks, and polemical treatises. The course will also serve as an introduction to resource materials used in the study of Chinese Buddhist texts, and students are expected to make use of a variety of reference tools in preparation for translation of classic Chinese texts. Readings in Chinese will be supplemented by a range of secondary readings in English on Mahāyāna doctrine and Chinese Buddhist history.
Prerequisites: Chinese 110A; or one semester of classical Chinese. Prior background in Buddhist history and thought is helpful, but not required.
This course discusses Taiwan’s social and cultural transformation throughout its history of colonization, economic development, and democratization. Students are expected to gain a better understanding of Taiwanese history, literature, and culture, new skills in the reading and analysis of textual and cultural artifacts, and the ability to rethink colonialism, nationalism, and resistance in the era of globalization. Prerequisites: Chinese 100A/100XA (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.
Spring 2022: What is loosely called a “martial arts” (or “martial heroes,” wu xia 武俠) tradition is one of the most prominent contributions of Chinese tradition to modern global culture. This narrative type draws on a fascinating range of sources in early and medieval China that span historical writing as well as philosophical, religious, and even medical traditions. The “rivers and lakes” (jianghu 江湖), the traditional zone in which martial arts heroes circulate, is not a geographically defined space, but a realm of countercultural fantasy—but one that often has tangible real-world effects in shaping behavior and social meaning. Our readings will center on the Shuihu zhuan, doubtless the single largest and most influential work in the tradition. An introductory unit will examine antecedents of the “martial arts” tradition from the Han to the Song dynasties, with our readings from the novel itself occupying the middle part of the semester. In the concluding weeks we will turn to later works in the tradition, such as latter-day “martial arts” works in popular fiction and cinema.
Prerequisites: Chinese 100A or Chinese 100XA (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor
When was the last time you watched a film at the movie theater? During a time when the movie theater seems to be becoming obsolete, we may also question how shifts in viewing and screening practices change how we define the cinematic experience. The course offers a new way to think about the changing media practices while also introducing Chinese-language cinema from Mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong since the late 1980s. Through research and writing assignments, we will focus on questions of not only where these films were produced and directed, but also how and where they were screened around the world—such as in the Bay Area. We will investigate past, current, and evolving viewing practices, not just in terms of circulation and screening, but also in terms of how the theater and theater-going are represented and commemorated within these films. Introducing major theoretical and historical scholarship on contemporary Chinese language cinema, we will consider how memories, screens, and theaters concretize the pleasure of viewing and imagining through film and media. Students will practice their analytical writing skills in response posts and papers. Lastly, students will work on a semester-long research projects using local and online archival materials, focusing on Chinese cinema and its connections with screening and theater practices in the Bay Area.
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.
This course centers around intensive reading and analysis of Cao Xueqin’s 18th-century masterpiece of Chinese fiction (also known as the Dream of the Red Chamber). Students will be introduced to the literary, cultural, philosophical, and material world from which this work emerged, as well as various approaches to the world within the text.
Chinese 234: Texts on the Civilization of Medieval China: "Women’s Writings in Late Imperial China "
In the master narrative constructed by modern Chinese intellectuals in the early 20th-century May 4th Movement, women were represented as the oppressed and voiceless victims of the dominant Confucian ideology in premodern China. Engaging with the large quantity of rediscovered women’s writings from the Ming and Qing dynasties (17th-19th centuries), feminist historians and literary scholars have challenged this stereotype. Drawing on a rich corpus of digitized collections of women’s works held in the Ming Qing Women’s Writings (MQWW) digital archive and database (http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/mingqing/), this seminar aims to engage with women’s textual practices and inscriptions to explore forms of gendered subjectivity, voice, and agency in a male-dominated literary tradition located in a patriarchal society. The MQWW database also offers opportunities to explore some digital humanities methods and tools for research. To contextualize women’s textual production, we will consider what social and historical forces and personal circumstances motivated women to write and shape their writings from the seventeenth century on. Topics to be discussed include women’s interventions in literary genres and topoi in poetry and prose; the role of writing in constructing and articulating gendered subjectivity and self-identity; the social function of poetry and its relation to the visibility of women’s homosociality; the religious dimension in women’s writing, among others.
Much of the modern Chinese literary archive is now on-line; keyword searches (and the algorithms that undergird them) allow us to trawl through vast amounts of data in search of relevant material with unprecedented ease. But, as we all know, the digital archive is an inadequate and incomplete replica of the messy and ineluctably material world it purports to represent. More insidiously, its algorithmic and target-driven logic tends to suppress styles of reading that remain indispensable to literary and cultural historiography. In this workshop, we will return to what is arguably the most important site of modern Chinese literary production: the literary journals through which new writing emerged and forged a reading public.
The aims of the seminar are several. We are fortunate to have much of the archive, in analog form, available to us at the East Asian Library, and this seminar will serve as an introduction to those resources. Precisely because the journals we will be covering loom so large in the standard literary historiography, revisiting their pages will provide with something of a survey of the field. (We will also supplement our readings of original materials with readings from book and media history, as well as recent research pertaining to modern Chinese print culture.) While we will revisit some canonical writings from each journal, however, we will also read in a non-algorithmic manner: immersively and laterally, with close attention to chance encounters, surprising connections, forgotten or neglected texts, historical contingencies, visual cues, formatting and paratextual framings. In this sense, revisiting these important journals may allow us to unearth something of the non-canonicity of the canonical. Secondly, we will consider the journal itself as an artifact, and as a form of social agency, particularly with respect to the translation of epistemic formations, discursive practices, and literary forms that characterized the Chinese twentieth-century. In what sense does the analog archive represent a trace, or even a fossilization of the larger social worlds or historical moments from which it emerged? What kinds of reading are adequate to the task of understanding and generating compelling narratives about those worlds?
East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
In this class we will be exploring Asian and AAPI Speculative fiction through how Asian-Futurism engages time and the body in particular ways. Inspired by the artists and scholars who forwarded notions of Afro-Futurism, we will try to understand the unique dynamics of AsianFuturism. Ideas of futurism have always had its tendrils extending into the present and the past, so we will contextualize the other worlds and realities put forth in course texts through the real world histories and living realities of Asian and AAPI communities. Like Afro-Futurism, Asian-Futurism engages ideas of post-humanism, race, gender, sexuality and labor and highlights the ways in which bodies are marked as “other,” categorized, placed in hierarchies and understood as human. Through mapping the way bodies are presented across time and space in Asian speculative fiction, we will explore the way Asian bodies are understood in a world quickly changing from the forces of globalization and new technologies. More than anything, this course is devoted to your writing, so there will be a strong emphasis on learning to identify essay topics that interest you. You will spend a great deal of time reading and revising student work, as well as considerable attention to the mechanics of argumentative prose. To this end, you will learn how to analyze cultural texts with care and precision as well as critically read non-fiction articles as a tool to contextualize creative work. This class is intended to be a safe space where students can engage deeply with complex topics through thoughtful, critical, and respectful dialogue with each other. Hopefully our work together throughout the semester will not only help you hone your writing skills, but also lead you to think more broadly about the histories, positionalities and futures of Asian and AAPI communities globally.
“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism,” said the soon-to-be assassinated Martin Luther King in 1967. This course will survey these various “evils” through the tumultuous conditions of the so-called radical '60s from the standpoint of East Asia. Drawing from works of literature, film, art, music, and engaged scholarship, we will endeavor to both appreciate and critically reflect on the unique East Asian experience of communization, US imperialism, third world revolution, women’s liberation, the environmental movement, and Afro-Asian solidarity. Was the utopian energy of this decade misplaced? Did the 1960s fail to enact lasting change? Or do the documents from this era still communicate with our present in prescient and instructive ways? Addressing these and related questions, we will delve unflinchingly into this era, never to return the same.
What does it mean to “know” a person in writing, and how does one make oneself—or someone else— “known” through writing? Beginning with both ancient and modern philosophical and literary treatments of the topic, this seminar guides students in reading and writing about people, skills they will need long after this course has ended. Prerequisites: None.
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.
A study of the Buddhist tradition as it is found today in Asia. The course will focus on specific living traditions of East, South, and/or Southeast Asia. Themes to be addressed may include contemporary Buddhist ritual practices; funerary and mortuary customs; the relationship between Buddhism and other local religious traditions; the relationship between Buddhist institutions and the state; Buddhist monasticism and its relationship to the laity; Buddhist ethics; Buddhist "modernism," and so on.
This course studies the purview of astral science under Buddhist dominion. Here it is at once promoted for promulgating Buddhist world order and repudiated for begetting the suffering-inducing physical universe, a warped vessel of ceaselessly turning stars that the Buddhist dharma must transcend. The course begins with the part astral science plays in genesis, the creation of Buddhist world order. It then covers the science’s central aspects, celestial systems, spatial orientation, time reckoning, the making of a calendar, and publication of an almanac. Thereafter, it treats the science’s outgrowth into interrelated forms of Buddhist propaganda manifest as divination, magic, medicine, ritual, scripture, and iconography.
In this course, we will engage with a range of works in East Asian horror cinema (Japan and South Korea) and explore their power to provoke and disturb, in light of issues such as spectatorship, the uncanny, and the staging of gender and sexuality as modes of critique. We will also discuss the ways in which these films theorize cultural memory and the transmission of traumatic knowledge in the context of their adaptation into other Asian sites (Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand). The aim of the course is to generate a critical understanding of horror cinema, its stock figures and conventions, as well as its inventive potential.
This course is a capstone experience that centers on the philosophies and religions of East Asia examined from multiple theoretical perspectives. It comprises several thematic units within which a short set of readings about theory are followed by chronologically arranged readings about East Asia. Themes will alternate from year to year but may include: ritual and performance studies; religion and evolution; definitions of religion and theories of its origins; and the role of sacrifice.
Did you ever wonder how other people get their work done? Or where they get their ideas? Are you curious about the best strategies and habits for clear, forceful, and engaging writing? Do you want the inside story on the joys of the process of submitting your work to a journal? Over the course of the semester each of you will revise for submission to a journal a seminar paper you have already written. At the conclusion of the semester you will send your revised essay for review at a journal. (You are not required to have it accepted!) Over the course of the term, we will read and discuss the written work of the seminar members, as well as model examples of writing, including that of Berkeley faculty. Time will also be set aside each session for work on professionalization: publication cover letters, job applications and interviews, mock talks
Spring 2022: "Limitlessness. Intertextual understanding of perceptual thresholds and liminality, between sutta, śāstra, sūtra and bhāṣya." Daily and habitual perceptual experiences exposes us to one of the most intricate and obscure cognitive dilemmas. Starting from the mere move into the spatial domain, in fact, we have to cope with the phantasmatic phenomena of thresholds, limits, borders, constrains. Each and every shape we sees, sound we hears, odour we smells, surface we touches, flavour we tastes, appear to us, simultaneously, limited as unlimited, clear and precise as blurred and indistinguishable. Everything that reaches our five senses seems to be ambiguous and double. Therefore, every single ‘thing’ looks like equivocal and uncertain: all the realia are cognised as limited and unlimited, confined and boundless, inaccessible and accessible, closed and open, finite and infinite, calculable and incalculable, comprehensible and incomprehensible. Given the cognitive relevance and practical outcomes of such a problematic situation – which is contained within the Sanskrit term of bheda (in lat. limen)–, it is not surprising to know that it was extremely important for the authors of the first mahāyānasūtras, as well as for those to whom the various works written in the form of kārikā, sūtra, śāstra, tantra and bhāṣya during the first five centuries of the common era are attributed. Authors and works that participate to different traditions and worldviews –such as sāṃkhya, yoga, vyākaraṇa, vaiśeṣika, cikitsā, abhidharma, madhyamaka, yogācāra– and that were proposing different, and often antithetical, perspectives (darśana). The totality of these works, indeed, constitutes the vast intertextual corpus to which those interested in the problem of perceptual thresholds and liminality cognition can devote their attention. During this seminar the perceptual dilemma of limitlessness will be explored and illustrated through a parallel and intertextual reading of selected passages taken from Vasubandhu’s works and from Patañjali's Yogasūtra, after the analysis of which the interpretative advantage derived from the synoptic reading of texts belonging to different intellectual traditions could be experienced and tested.
Japanese Language and Literature Courses
Japanese 1A is designed to develop basic Japanese language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will learn the Japanese writing system: hiragana, katakana and approximately 150 kanji. At the end of the course, students should be able to greet, invite, compare, and describe persons and things, activities, intensions, ability, experience, purposes, reasons, and wishes. Grades will be determined on the basis of attendance, quiz scores, homework and class participation.
Japanese 1B is designed to develop basic skills acquired in Japanese 1A further. Students will learn approximately 150 new kanji. At the end of the course students should be able to express regret, positive and negative requirements, chronological order of events, conditions, giving and receiving of objects and favors, and to ask and give advice. Grades will be determined on the basis of attendance, quiz scores, homework and class participation. Prerequisite: Japanese 1A
An introduction to Japanese literature in translation in a two-semester sequence. 7B provides a survey of important works of 19th- and 20th-century Japanese fiction, poetry, and cultural criticism. The course will explore the manner in which writers responded to the challenges of industrialization, internationalization, and war. Topics include the 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, 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.
The goal of this course is for the students to understand the language and culture required to communicate effectively in Japanese. Some of the cultural aspects covered are; geography, speech style, technology, sports, food, and religion. Through the final project, students will learn how to discuss social issues and their potential solutions. In order to achieve these goals, students willlearn how to integrate the basic linguistics knowledge they acquired in J1, as well as study new structures and vocabulary. An increasing amount of reading and writing, including approximately 200 new kanji, will also be required. Prerequisites: Japan 1 or Japan 1B.
The goal of this course is for the students to understand the more advanced language and culture required to communicate effectively in Japanese. Some of the cultural aspects covered are; pop-culture, traditional arts, education, convenient stores, haiku, and history. Through the final project, students will learn how to introduce their own cultures and their influences. In order to achieve these goals, students will learn how to integrate the basic structures and vocabulary they acquired in the previous semesters, as well as study new linguistic expressions. An increasing amount of more advanced reading and writing, including approximately 200 new kanji, will also be required. Prerequisites: Japan 10A; or consent of instructor.
Introduction to Japanese culture from its origins to the present: premodern historical, literary, artistic, and religious developments, modern economic growth, and the nature of contemporary society, education, and business. Class conducted in English.
This course aims to develop further context-specific skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing. It concentrates on students using acquired grammar and vocabulary with more confidence in order to express functional meanings, while increasing overall linguistic competence. Students will learn approximately 200 new Kanji. There will be a group or individual project. Course materials include the textbook supplemented by newspapers, magazine articles, short stories, essays, and video clips which will provide insight into Japanese culture and society. Prerequisites: Japan 100A; or consent of instructor.
Students will be trained to read, analyze, and translate modern Japanese scholarship on Chinese subjects. A major purpose of the course is to prepare students to take reading examinations in Japanese. The areas of scholarship to be covered are: politics, popular culture, religion, sociology and history as well as areas suggested by students who are actively engaged in research projects. Two readings in selected areas will be assigned, one by the instructor and the second by a student participant. Prerequisites: Japanese 10B and graduate standing.
This course provides students an opportunity to develop their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in order to express their opinions in argumentative discourse. Students read and discuss a variety of Japanese texts to deepen their understanding of Japanese society and people and to improve their intercultural communicative competence. Prerequisites: Japan 100, Japan 100B, or Japan 100X; or consent of instructor.
An introduction to the critical analysis and translation of traditional Japanese poetry, a genre that reaches from early declarative work redolent of an even earlier oral tradition to medieval and Early Modern verses evoking exquisitely differentiated emotional states via complex rhetoric and literary allusion. Topics may include examples of Japan's earliest poetry in Man'yoshu, Heian courtly verse in Kokinshu, lines from Shinkokinshu with its medieval mystery and depth, linked verse (renga), and the haikai of Basho and his circle. Prerequisites: Japanese 120 or consent of instructor.
This course examines the historical production and reception of key Japanese literary and film texts; how issues of gender, ethnicity, social roles, and national identity specific to each text address changing economic and social conditions in postwar Japan. Prerequisites: Japanese 100A (may be taken concurrently).
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: 10B or equivalent.
An overview of the concepts of theoretical, contrastive, and practical linguistics which form the basis for work in translation between Japanese and English through hands-on experience. Topics include translatability, various kinds of meaning, analysis of the text, process of translating, translation techniques, and theoretical background. Prerequisites: Japanese 100, Japanese 100B, or Japanese 100X; or equivalent.
This course will examine the works of the novelist Murakami Haruki and the animator Miyazaki Hayao within the context of contemporary Japanese aesthetics and history. Both Murakami and Miyazaki debuted in 1979 and their work has very much defined Japan’s cultural experience from the tail end of the Era of High Growth Economics through the Bubble Era, the Lost Decade, and into the twenty-first century. Students will explore the works of these two figures in the context of the history of Japanese literature and film and its relation to larger political, social, and cultural trends of Japan from the 1980s to the present.
Course description coming soon.
Korean Language and Literature Courses
This course is designed for non-heritage students who have absolutely no prior knowledge of the Korean language. Students will learn written and spoken Korean on self-related and day-to-day topics, and present information both in oral and written forms using formulaic and memorized expressions. They will also engage in simple conversational exchanges on a variety of daily topics. Prerequisites: None.
This is a continuing course for non-heritage students who have completed K1A or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. Students will enhance and broaden their linguistic and cultural competence by learning more essential grammatical structures, daily life expressions and speech acts. The course is also intended to introduce certain cultural aspects through media sources and various activities. Prerequisites: Korean 1A; or consent of instructor.
This is a continuing course for Korean-American heritage students who have completed K1AX or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. More emphasis will be paid on reading and writing in order to establish their balanced four language skills. Students will enhance their linguistic competence by mastering essential grammatical structures and more elaborated daily expressions, as well as accompanying cultures. Prerequisites: Korean 1AX; or consent of instructor.
A survey of modern Korean literature and culture in the 20th century, focusing on the development of nationalist aesthetics in both North and South Korea. Topics include class and gender, urban culture, colonial modernity, war and trauma, and modernizatio
With equal attention given to speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cultural aspects of the language, students will further develop their language skills for handling various everyday situations. Prerequisites: Korean 1B; or consent of instructor.
This is an intermediate course for non-heritage students who have completed K10A or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. Students will continue to improve their linguistic skills with the goal of becoming more proficient and fluent in daily and extended communication needs, with a special emphasis on listening and speaking. The course will introduce expressions, vocabularies, and complicated sentence structure and students are expected to carry on more sophisticated conversations on various topics beyond daily life. Prerequisites: Korean 10A; or consent of instructor.
This is an intermediate course for Korean-American heritage students who have completed K10AX or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. It will emphasize reading and writing so that students can reach a comparable proficiency with their already high speaking and listening skills. More cultural aspects and social phenomena will be covered and students will be able to convey and write more than a paragraph level on various topics. Prerequisites: Korean 10AX; or consent of instructor.
This course is a continuation of K100A for non-heritage speakers. It will place more emphasis on listening and speaking through various authentic materials. Students will conduct individual projects on aspects where they intend to improve on. Various cultural aspects in addition to four-letter idiomatic expressions will be also covered. Prerequisites: Korean 100A; or consent of instructor.
This course is a continuation of K100AX for Korean-American heritage speakers. Students will be introduced to advanced-level Korean by reading authentic texts and writing short compositions, summaries, essays, and critical reviews. They will be encouraged to use advanced vocabulary and expressions including various idiomatic expressions. This course particularly emphasizes on heritage speakers’ speaking and writing competency. Prerequisites: Korean 100AX; or consent of instructor.
This course aims to help students achieve a high-advanced level of proficiency in all aspects of Korean by deepening their knowledge of fast-changing modern Korean society through the lens of current issues. It covers various authentic media materials to facilitate class discussions and promote critical thinking skills. Special attention will be paid to the formal use of the Korean language through practices on advanced expressions and grammar. Prerequisites: Korean 100B/BX; or consent of instructor.
This course is uniquely designed for students who are interested in enhancing their proficiency level up to high-advanced or superior level through the lens of Korean popular media. By analyzing various media such as movies, documentary, TV shows, K-Pop songs, and news articles, students will broaden their knowledge and understanding about Korean society and culture in a deeper level, which is vital in advancing proficiency. Class discussions, presentations, article readings, and essay writings will help students learn and practice how to express their own opinion on various topics from aspects of Korean history to current social issues. Additionally, four-letter idioms, advanced grammars, and vocabularies will be introduced. Prerequisites: Korean 100B or Korean 100BX; or consent of instructor.
This course aims to help students acquire strong language proficiency in spoken and written Korean at the advanced-high (or superior) level required for academic research and in business or other professional fields. The focus will be on building advanced-level vocabulary that is useful in understanding and expressing their opinions on topics, such as social studies, politics, business, policy, and history. Students will gain knowledge in four-letter words, complex idiomatic expressions and proverbs that often appear on editorials, news discourse, and academic writings. Students will also learn skills in formal oral presentations and writing. Prerequisites: Korean 101/102; or consent of instructor.
This course will examine the works of major poets in the first half of the 20th century and will consider the formation of modern Korean poetry. Particular attention will be given to the ideas of lyricism, modernism, and the identity of a poet in the context of the colonial occupation of Korea. Prerequisites: 100B or equivalent.
This course aims to facilitate critical understanding of persistent themes and diverse styles of modern Korean literature through close readings of canonical works from the colonial period (1910-1945). It encourages students to develop broad comprehension of “post-colonial” characteristics of Korean literature. Concurrently, it explores how Korean literature aspired to the expression of the universal aesthetic values and judgment against the particularistic historical condition of colonialism. Prerequisites: Korean 100A; Korean 100AX; or equivalent (may be taken concurrently).
Mongolian Language and Literature Courses
This course examines the Mongol Empire founded by Chinggis Khan. We will study the empire from the time its founding in 1206 until its decline in the mid-14th century. The greater extent of the course covers the matter of the Mongol conquest: military technologies, methods and strategies, logistics, and the events of specific battles and actions. These events are framed in the context of the Mongolian culture.
This course covers the history of Mongolian Buddhism from its inception in the Yuan dynasty to the present. The importance of Mongolian Buddhism to the greater dharma lies not only with the ways of its priests but also with the means of its patrons, the Mongol aristocracy, in forging a distinctive tradition in Inner Asia and disseminating it throughout the world. While maintaining a historical thread throughout, this course will examine in detail some of the tradition’s many facets, including Mongolian-Buddhist politics, the politics of incarnation, the establishment of monasteries, economics, work in the sciences, astral science and medicine, ritual practice, literature, sculpture and painting, music and dance, and more.
Tibetan Language and Literature Courses
This course is a broad introduction to the history, doctrine, and culture of the Buddhism of Tibet. We will begin with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century and move on to the evolution of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist literature, ritual and monastic practice, the place of Buddhism in Tibetan political history, and the contemporary situation of Tibetan Buddhism both inside and outside of Tibet.
This seminar provides an introduction to a broad range of Tibetan Buddhist texts, including chronicles and histories, biographical literature, doctrinal treatises, canonical texts, ritual manuals, pilgrimage guides, and liturgical texts. It is intended for graduate students interested in premodern Tibet from any perspective. Students are required to do all of the readings in the original classical Tibetan. It will also serve as a tools and methods for the study of Tibetan Buddhist literature, including standard lexical and bibliographic references, digital resources, and secondary literature in modern languages. The content of the course will vary from semester to semester to account for the needs and interests of particular students.