Summer 2023 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 continues to focus on training students in the four language skills--speaking, listening, reading, and writing with a gradually increasing emphasison basic cultural readings and developing intercultural competence. This course is the equivalent of Chinese 1B offered in the regular academic year. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A.
East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
Topics vary by semester. Course description coming soon
Neurodiversity in Literature will investigate how neurotypical and neurodiverse (or neurodivergent) authors depict and discuss neurodiversity. This course will give special emphasis to two Japanese authors: Nobel Prize-winner Oe Kenzaburô, who has treated the subject of a disabled/neurodiverse child extensively in his work, and Higashida Naoki, whose autobiographical work, The Reason Why I Jump, generated considerable international attention (and controversy) following the release of its English translation in 2013.
Course material covers both fiction and non-fiction, and also includes work by Steve Silberman, Temple Grandin, Oliver Sacks, Roy Richard Grinker, Donna Williams, Clara Claiborne Park, Andrew Solomon, and former Talking Heads front-man David Byrne. The course will be reading-intensive. Through the course, students will develop a more nuanced understanding of neurodiverse identity, the personal and societal challenges faced by this community, and how these topics are represented in literature.
This course will explore the many ways in which horror films (from East Asia and beyond) articulate the relation between human bodies and media technologies and how the questions of gender and sexuality may trouble these articulations, thus inviting comparative reassessment and critique. The aim of the course is to generate a critical understanding of horror cinema, its pleasurable conventions as well as its power to provoke and disturb.
Japanese Language and Literature Courses
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.
Korean Language and Literature Courses
This six-week course introduces students to beginning level Korean, including the basic structures and hangul (Korean script). Emphasis is on speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This class is for students with minimal or no knowledge of Korean. This course is the equivalent of Korean 1A offered in the regular academic year. Prerequisites: None.
With equal attention given to speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cultural aspects of the language, students will learn vocabulary, expressions, and varieties of speech styles beyond the basic level. Prerequisites: Korean 10A; or consent of instructor.