| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EAS 15C | INTRO CHNS STORIES | HUANG, M. | In this class we will read selected stories from different historical periods dealing with various social and cultural issues, such as the relationship between individual and society as well as family and gender relationships. We will also examine works from modern China to see how this important narrative genre underwent significant changes in both form and content during the last century. Class presentations, quizzes and exams. |
| EAS 15K | REPRESENT KOR WAR | KIM, K. | One of the most prevalent misconceptions about Korea is that the Korean War ended 70 years ago. Despite economic progress and cultural renaissance that South Korea has enjoyed in recent decades, it is still a precarious nation because of the inconclusive ending to the war that began in 1950 and the ensuing division of the peninsula. This course seeks to understand both the origins and the lingering impacts of the Korean War through literature, cinema, and visual art. All of the texts read and discussed in class will be in English translation. |
| EAS 55 | STORIES FROM KOREA | SUH, S. | The Course surveys modern Korean literature by focusing on short stories. All required readings are in English. |
| EAS 110 | GNDR & MODRN CH LIT | HUANG, M. | This course will focus on several fictional texts produced during the twentieth century. We will examine how gender and gender relationships were being reconstructed and renegotiated as China was pursuing her modernity.Quizzes and exams. |
| EAS 116 | PREMOD JPN GHOSTS | KLEIN, S. | This course will examine the historical development of premodern Japanese ghosts, from the 9th to 19th centuries, in response to historical changes in the political and religious context, as well as genre developments in literature, drama, and art. We will focus on how the changing literary and artistic representation of Japanese ghosts has embodied (or disembodied) problematic fissures in premodern Japanese society, especially with regard to gender and class issues. Requirements: take-home midterm and final, group class presentation. |
| EAS 126 | 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. (same as 65475 LSCI 169, Lec A) The course covers: 1. Language assimilation and unification of a nation 2. Speaking a dialect as manifestation of identity 3. Inside and outside of a social group 4. Formal vs. informal language 5. Honorific system as the art of socializing in the society |
| EAS 130 | THE TWO KOREAS | FEDMAN, D. | As seen today, the Korean peninsula is home to two starkly different societies: a pop culture powerhouse and a geopolitical pariah; a plugged-in innovator in consumer electronics and a closed-off authoritarian regime; a democratically elected government and a military dictatorship. These striking contrasts, however, belie a shared history and heritage. Taking the long view of the emergence and divergence of both polities, this course explores Korea's remarkable transformation over the twentieth century, a period that witnessed colonial liberation as well as devastating war, political repression as well as cultural efflorescence, economic vitality as well as devastating famine. Among the topics examined are colonial collaboration and resistance, Korea in the Cold War order, ethnic nationalism, postwar industrial and economic reforms, and the global ascendancy of K-pop. These topics will be examined through a wide range of sources (including films, memoirs, diaries, comic books, and scholarly assessments) that reflect the diversity of experiences of Koreans across social, class, and regional lines. (same as 26750 History 173G, Lec A) |
| EAS 150 | LIT CHRIST IN S KOR | SUH, S. | This course deals with a cultural moment during which literature, politics, and religion intersected in reaction to the oppressive rule of the South Korean state in the 1970s and 80s. Many literary works in 1970s and 80s South Korea implicitly and explicitly invoked the image of Jesus. Often, they offered thinly veiled social commentary on political and economic inequality and injustice resulting from rapid industrialization and urbanization under authoritarian rule. By paying especial attention to the recurring image of Jesus as rather an impotent and weak figure than the incarnation of omnipotent and omnipresent divinity in 1970s and 80s South Korean literary texts, the course explores what aspects of Christianity resonate with the concerns of writers and poets, and society in general under oppressive rule. |
| EAS 170 | FMNSM MOD J NOVEL | LONG, M. | This course reads some of modern Japan’s classic love novels. How much do we really understand love? What is the difference between love and passion, love and possession, love and perversion? Must there be an object of one’s love? Or can real love happen only between two subjects? Questions like these have been hotly debated in the rich tradition of Japanese feminism, but they are not culturally unique. Almost every college student alive today has her own answers. Our goal is to read 20th century Japanese literature (and some film) as an extended rumination on these questions. Historically, how do we identify the struggles – poverty, war, institutionalized prostitution, the burdens of care work, the promise of political activism -- that have intersected with the struggle to love? Literarily, how do fictional texts reveal these intersections in all their intensity and emotional complexity? The COVID-19 version of this course makes novels available in audio so students can get out of the house and walk while “reading.” Grades and assignments will be flexible to accommodate diverse online learning styles and situations. (same as 25375 Gen&Sex 170, Lec A) |
| EAS 190 | THE BUDDHIST BODY | TINSLEY, E. | This course explores the use and understanding of the human body in Buddhism. We live an embodied existence, which presents a contentious and fascinating question to religious traditions the world over: “is the body is a barrier to a spiritual realm, or a means toward it?” In all religions (indeed, in our everyday lives irrespective of our spiritual affiliations) the body is utilized to particular ends through its alteration, its transcendence, its care, its decoration, and its mortification. Buddhism, in its many forms, does not differ. Here we will focus mainly on East Asian Buddhist practices and beliefs, and will use primary sources including sutras and scriptural commentaries and literary and visual materials to consider understandings of the human body in Buddhism. Our topics will include ritual choreography; sex, sexuality, and gender; death; spirit possession; worship of the body-relic; and Buddhist icons. |