| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EAS 55 | GHOSTS & FANTASIES | RAO, X. | This course introduces students to the rich world of ghosts, monsters, and fantastic animals and plants in East Asia. Adopting a thematic approach, this class uses fantastic literature as a lens to examine premodern East Asian societies, cultures, and religions. We will explore materials from the first millennium BCE through the 19th century, covering topics such as memory, romance, the religious and cultural significance of animals, aestheticization of female ghosts, and more. Course is taught in English. No prior knowledge in East Asian languages required. |
| EAS 110 | BOUNDARY FICTION | SCRUGGS, B. | A boundary marks the division between two areas, but the emphasis is less on the existence of a barrier than on simply defining the area. Boundary is also commonly used in a figurative sense and the dividing line is seen as more fluid; for example, the boundary between traditional and modern culture. This class is designed to encourage and help students locate, explore, and evaluate boundaries by closely reading fiction from the remote regions of Gansu, Qinghai, and Heilongjiang provinces while at the same time carefully considering ideas such as local culture, Sinophone literature, and indigeneity. |
| EAS 120 | NARR NATURE IN JPN | PITT, J. | Japanese culture is often portrayed as having a uniquely harmonious relationship to nature. From Shinto to Buddhism, from haiku poetry to the animated films of Miyazaki Hayao, nature has served as a central concern for Japanese thinkers, writers, and artists more broadly. At the same time, Japan has suffered from devastating natural disasters and industrial pollution. This course begins with two questions: 1) How can the human relationship to nature be both harmonious and harmful? and 2) What happens when we stop seeing nature as merely the background for human action, and start considering it as a character in a text? To answer these questions, we will adopt an interdisciplinary approach from the emerging field of environmental humanities. We will focus on examples of modern Japanese literature and film in which landscapes and non-human animals and plants play a central role, as well as religious texts, works of Japanese environmental philosophy, environmental history, and anthropology. We will examine the different ways nature is represented in all of these texts, and what these descriptions might say about the human relationship to nature. All readings will be in English translation; no Japanese language ability is required. (same as 22776 Com Lit 144, Lec B; and 31170 Rel Std 120, Lec A) |
| EAS 126S | JAPANESE SOCIOLING | RIGGS, H. | This course is an introduction to Japanese sociolinguistics, which is the study of the relationship between a language and society. We will explore variety of language uses in modern Japanese and how such variation is constructed by identity and culture. An exploration of attitudes and ideologies about these varieties will be of importance to understanding this relationship. Its main goal is to provide students a systematic introduction to the nature and characteristics of the language use. The course covers: • Language assimilation and unification of a nation • Speaking a dialect as manifestation of identity • Inside and outside of a social group • Honorific system as the art of socializing in the society • Use of male/female language based on social norms (same as 65150 LSCI 165S, Lec A) |
| EAS 140 | KOREAN POP CULTURE | KIM, K. | This course will examine the history of Korean popular culture--from the early 20th Century to the present. In so doing, the course will learn concepts like ‘colonial modernity,’ ‘postmodernism,’ ‘mimicry,’ and ‘cultural hybridity.’ The class will first think about whether it is possible for Koreans to extricate nationalism (minjok-juui) from its popular culture by examining the pop culture of the colonial period. Then we will examine, via pop music, sports, television, food, film, and visual materials, how the globalization pursued by Korean Wave has defined the core of Korea’s national identity over the past several decades. The course will tackle each area of the aesthetic, geopolitical, and ‘authenticity’ debates that are crucial to the redefining of Korean popular culture. (same as 24250 Flm&Mda 145, Lec A) |
| EAS 150 | CARE&HEAL JPN LIT | LONG, M. | This class introduces novels, stories, documentaries and ethnographies from modern Japan to discuss care and care work. Why is it so hard to take care of others, and why does care work, when performed for a wage, pay so poorly? If we think of care work as taking care of children, the elderly and the sick, is it only ever drudgery? Or does it teach us something? Is care work “healing?” Topics include eldercare (feminist poet Ito Hiromi), environmental care (Minamata novelist Ishimure Michiko), care for mental illness (Karen Nakamura), care of the neurodivergent self (Murata Sayaka, Shishido Daisuke) and care in the age of #MeToo/Epstein (Ito Shiori). Assignments include discussion board posts, mid-term and final lists, and weekly reading quizzes (easy if you do the reading). |
| EAS 190 | KOREA URBAN/RURAL | KIM, K. | South Korea has rapidly changed over the last few decades. No longer a predominantly rural country, it is now a nation with a mature capitalist economy and a sprawling metropolitan culture. It is hard to imagine that a country now renowned for its K-pop and K-drama was once largely rural. This course will focus on how Korean literature and film have been shaped by modernization, urbanization, and industrialization. With the rural and farming population having dwindled to only a very small percentage of the total population, the course asks whether it is still possible to represent the country as anything more than a temporary vacation space for urban dwellers. If values remain firmly associated with the countryside, what are they, and how do they differ from urban ways of life? More importantly, how does the rural help define the urban? Through modern and contemporary Korean visual and literary texts, the class will explore the urban–rural divide. All mandatory texts for the course will be available in English translation. |