| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EAS H84 | TRAVELING EAST/WEST | HU YING | This course invites students to consider how travel literature affects and shapes its readers and their perception of the world. It offers the students an opportunity to consider the powerful experience and metaphors of voyaging, homecoming, and wandering as they play out in actual and imaginative travels. The course begins with Marco Polo’s romantic picture of a distant and exotic land and traces his influence on real travelers such as Christopher Columbus (who closely annotated his copy) and John King Fairbank (influential Harvard historian of China who carried a copy with him when he first landed in Shanghai in 1930s). Students then read a fantastic fiction by Italo Calvino in which an imaginary Marco Polo weaves tales of his travels to an old and feeble Kublai Khan. The rest of the course exposes students to a wide variety of travel writings by Chinese, Indian, European and American authors in which they contemplate the complexities of cross-cultural encounters and how knowledge about others and knowledge of ourselves are closely intertwined. (same as 28200 Human H84, Sem A) Note: This class is restricted to students in the Campuswide Honors Collegium only. Students in the Campuswide Honors Collegium must enroll in the class for a letter grade. |
| EAS 15J | STUDY OF MDRN JAPAN | PITT, J. | This course is designed to help Japanese and other East Asian Studies majors develop the skills they will use in upper division courses in the department. We will examine literature and film spanning nearly 150 years of Japan’s modern history. We will begin with short stories written during Japan’s transition from feudalism to a modern nation state and move into texts that narrate the rise and fall of Japan’s wartime colonial empire. We will then turn to Japan’s postwar economic recovery and recession, ending with the crisis of the March 11, 2011 triple disaster. All readings will be in English. Through close engagement with these texts, we will focus on the following necessary skills for majors in the department: close reading, library and web-based research, analytical writing, and critical thinking. |
| EAS 55 | EA X-ROAD TAIWAN | SCRUGGS, B. | This course is designed to introduce students to the interplay of the global and the local that makes up contemporary Taiwanese culture. We will examine a tangled thicket of unique genealogies, which includes Austronesian, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, and even American roots; consider a strangely harmonious jumble of languages and sounds including Mandarin, Hakka, Southern Min, and Native languages as well as crashing waves and rumbling mountains; and reflect on the location of Taiwan and its culture in global, national, and local contexts. In addition to Taiwan-specific concerns, topics covered include indigenization, local culture, and globalization. Course materials include short-stories, novels, academic papers/book chapters, and fiction/documentary films screened in class. All readings are in English, all films include English subtitles. The course grade is based on five short in-class quizzes, a midterm, a cumulative final, and a discussion section grade. Course Fulfills GE Category IV, Category VIII. |
| EAS 110 | CONTEMP CH FICTION | SCRUGGS, B. | In this class we read closely three novels by Jia Pingwa, Ma Jian, and Mo Yan; a few short stories by Han Shaogong and Shi Tiesheng; and literary and historical studies of the original works. The course grade is based on two short (4-5 pps.) reflective essays, online and in class discussions, and two exams. All readings are in English or English translation. Students are encouraged to read the original texts in Chinese if they can; however, the course is conducted entirely in English. |
| EAS 116 | ART&CLTR JPN BDDHSM | TINSLEY, E. | This course is an introduction to and exploration of the Buddhist arts and visual cultures of Japan which are enchanting, profound, puzzling, repulsive, quirky, simple, elaborate, rough, refined, and much more besides. We begin with sculptures from around the early 7th century onward, and move through the courtly works of the 8th to 12th centuries. These include mandalas; Pure Land works; sutras on intricate handscrolls; reliquaries; narrative paintings that unrolled to reveal tales of Buddhist sites and their occupants; and even early caricature. We will learn how sculpture and painting developed under a new military rule between the 12th to 16th centuries: powerful and realistic portrayals of Buddhist divinities and masters co-existed with Zen aesthetics in ink-painting, tea utensils, and amusing sketches of Zen eccentrics. Art that fused Buddhism with the worship of (“Shinto”) kami deities often linked with nature also flourished, and an entirely syncretic astrological art used by Buddhist monks emerged. The 18th century with its woodblock-print boom brought humor and erotica into Buddhism, and in the modern period and present day, manga artists such as Tezuka Osamu, Nakamura Hikaru, and painter-sculptors Matsui Fuyuko and Murakami Takashi investigate Buddhist aesthetics and themes in compelling ways. (same as 21030 Art His 150, Lec A; and 31230 Rel Std 120, Lec A) |
| EAS 130 | KOREAN SOC & CULTRE | GIM, C. | This course is a survey of modern Korean society and culture. We will examine and interpret the meanings of Korean social and cultural institutions. Topics of discussion include family y and gender relationship, war and national division, industrialization, social movement, globalization, multi-culturalism, and popular culture and culture industry. We will also explore the life and society of North Korea and follow the current events closely. (same as 64800 Intl St 179, Lec D) |
| EAS 140 | KOREAN POP CULTURE | SAEJI, C. | This is a class for those who want to more deeply understand contemporary Korea through its fascinating popular culture products. The class will address the development of modern popular culture including literature, fashion, and games, but focusing on films, television, and music. We will track how the changes in technology and tastes of Korean people are linked to historical, social, and cultural shifts on the Korean peninsula. Although some classes may profile specific directors, actors, or musical artists this will be done to demonstrate key shifts in popular culture, and will relate their creative productions back to the context, Korea. At the end of the course students can expect to be familiar not just with a wide range of Korean cultural products but with how those products—across platforms—reveal the socio-cultural conditions of 21st century Korea. Students are not expected to be deeply familiar with Korean music, history, culture, or language. Class will use abundant film, drama, music and video clips, incorporate discussions based on academic articles and chapters, and require student analysis that connects popular culture to its context. (same as 24240 Flm&Mda 145, Lec A) |
| EAS 150 | KOR WOMEN FIC&FILM | CONTE, J. | In this course we will explore the themes, issues, and styles of the works of contemporary Korean women writers and film makers from the 1970s to the present. This is Korea’s high growth period in the aftermath of the Korean War and the national division. We will examine the women’s experiences of gender and sexuality against the historical backdrop of industrialization, social movement, economic development, and globalization. We will examine not only the 1970s and 80s writings of Pak Wan-so, O Chong-hui, and Choe Yun but also those of the millennial writers including Kim Ae-ran, Chon Un-yong, and Pyon Hye-yong. We will also analyze the works of award winning women film makers. (same as 25250 Gen&Sex 189, Lec A) |
| EAS 150 | CHINESE POETRY | FULLER, M. | This course introduces the Chinese poetic tradition from its beginnings to its flourishing in the Tang and Song dynasties. Students often have little experience with poetry in general, so I begin the course with a brief survey of basic aspects of poetry: structure, voice, tone, rhyme, allusion, genre, and so on. Chinese poetry, like all poetry, draws on the resources of the language—its sound, grammar, and rich vocabulary—but these rarely |
| EAS 155 | SACRED MOUNTAINS | TINSLEY, E. | This is a lecture course designed for the exploration of mountains, caves, and grottoes as sacred places in East Asia. Mountains have long exerted a pull on the imagination and they induce feelings of awe and a sense of mystery in those who view, walk in, and explore them. In East Asia they have long been cast as the abodes of spirits, gods, and Buddhist beings, and often considered sites of and for the dead. As colossal structures, they are perceived as close to the heavens, and understood as the center of the cosmos. And while natural, they are constructed into material and symbolic architectures by the humans – spiritual practitioners, pilgrims, hermits, climbers, and other seekers - who interact with them. Caves are made into meditational spaces, and sites for carved and painted sacred statues. Mountains inspire art, too. These are among the reasons why—and how—religious practices take place in the mountains: they might take on the form of massive Buddhist mandalas, paradises populated by Daoist immortals, wombs of divine mothers, and provide energetic resources for Shamans and meditators. We will consider mainly the Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, and Shinto views of and interactions with mountains, and the religious practices and cultures they produced. Why are they circumambulated, entered, decorated, climbed, and “conquered”? We will focus on Japan, China, and Korea, with some Tibetan materials, think of the smallest stone, cairn, and stupa, to the greatest ranges and trails, and discover what might make a place sacred. |
| EAS 190 | KOREA URBAN/RURAL | CHO, E. | Adam Johnson, who wrote The Orphan Master’s Son and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2013, has said that “North Korea is a nation without literary art. If we define art to mean revealing the truth and speaking to the human condition, there has been no art whatsoever since the nation’s founding.” Is this true? Do literary and cinematic art exist in North Korea? Or is North Korea just a member of Bush’s “axis of evil?” To answer this question, this course explores literature and film from North Korea in comparison with South Korean literature on North Korea(ns). Students will be introduced the emergence of the two Koreas in the postcolonial and the Cold War era. Moving on to the relatively familiar representations of North Korea(ns), we will read two novels to see South Korean authors’ conceptions of North Korean spy and the meaning of border crossing. The latter half of the course will focus on North Korean literature and films available in English. By reading and watching these representations, students will focus on ongoing changes in expressions of, techniques in, and messages conveyed through North Korean art. At the end of the course, we will openly discuss topics relating to the possibility of Korean unification and the current peace talks between the two Koreas and the United States. By the end of this course, students will have (1) deepened their understanding of the history and culture of the two Koreas, (2) contextualized literary and artistic works within the historical particularity of the Korean Peninsula, (3) learned to read and interpret actively and analytically while thinking critically, (4) learned how to work with their colleagues, and (5) demonstrated an original perspective on Korean culture and literature/film in at least one topic by completing an essay. |
| EAS 220 | JAPANESE ENVIRO HUM | PITT, J. | This seminar focuses on environmentally-minded writers of both science and literature in Japan from the turn of the 20th century to the present day as means of developing an interdisciplinary field of Japanese Environmental Humanities. In order to theorize the contours of this emerging field, we will read works of ecocriticism, environmental philosophy, environmental science, anthropology, and literary texts that engage with questions of ecological identity and environmental degradation in modern Japan. We will read works written in Japanese (and offer English translations for students without Japanese language skills) alongside classic and contemporary ecocritical texts from the Western tradition in an attempt to widen the geographic scope of the study of the humanities and ecology, while also questioning how the nation-state paradigm functions within an international exchange of ideas concerning the environment. No Japanese language experience is necessary, but students able to read texts in Japanese will have the opportunity to do so. (same as 28672 Human 270, Sem B) |