| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EAS 15C | INTRO CHNS STORIES | HUANG, M. | This course will focus on short stories written in vernacular, which began to flourish during the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644 ). 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 self 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 and what these changes could tell us about a China in pursuit of modernity. Requirements: class discussions and presentations. A student is required to do in-class presentation on assigned topics and to serve as a discussant to comment on the presentations by other classmates. There will be mid-term and final exams. |
| EAS 15J | MDRN JPN &PRSNL NAR | LONG, M. | This is a small-format class for Japanese and other East Asian Studies majors. Students master core knowledge and skills in Japanese Studies by studying the distinctive literary form known as the “I-novel.” Why is it so popular in modern Japan? How did it revolutionize the Japanese language? The Japanese “self”? We read famous personal narratives in English translation from the Meiji Period (1868-1912) through the post-war “economic miracle” (1960s-80s), learning to interpret gestures of confession and self-revelation. Along the way we hone core skills in 1) close reading, 2) web research, 3) understanding culture as debate not consensus, and 4) clear, persuasive writing. Community-building is also a major goal. This class is designed for Japanese majors who take many classes together at UCI. Team assignments help you get to know each other so you can evolve as a group both socially and intellectually. |
| EAS 15K | TASTE OF KOREA | SUH, S. | This course revolves around the premise that food is a pivotal component of culture, and we can have a better understanding of a people if we learn about their food. By examining how food is featured in literary works derived from Korea, the course aims to introduce students to Korean culture, history, and literature. In order to understand the historical context in which these literary works were written, students will also read excerpts from a Korean history textbook. All readings are in English. |
| EAS 55 | KOREAN FAILURE | KIM, K. | This new course will focus on both historical and sociological backgrounds that point toward some of the contemporary crisis that Korea is facing. Most news reports and research on South Korea have thus far only emphasized the successes it has had over the past several decades; economic miracle, K-pop’s global success, and transition from military dictatorship to democracy. This course aims, however, to understand the reasons that attribute to some of the ailments that still plague Korean society: the high suicide rates, world’s lowest infertility rate, over-education, diminishing middle class, isolation of Korean language in the era of global English, unresolved problem with past historical matters such as comfort women, tension between the two Koreas, and discrimination against non-Koreans, just to name a few, stand out as problems. In order to unpack the deeply-layered social ills of Korea, the course will focus on several topics such as the creation of Han’gul, the Manchu Invasion of the Joseon in the 17th Century, Annexation of Korea by Japan in the early 20th Century, Korean War in the 1950s, and several of the contemporary disasters that took place in the recent years—including the so-called IMF crisis of the 1997 and the Sewol Ferry. This class is not intended to fuel an anti-Korean sentiment, but, on the contrary, will hopefully encourage a sentiment of affect and empathic identification of Korea that envision a better integrated, prosperous, and peaceful future for it. |
| EAS 110 | TRAVEL EAST/WEST | HU, Y. | How does travel writing shape our perception of the world? How do the powerful metaphors of voyaging, homecoming, and wandering play out in actual and imaginative travels? Through close engagement with travel tales ancient and modern, we journey together to distant places and engage each other in discussions of what it means to be “at home” versus “abroad.” The course is comprised of three units. Unit 1 begins with Marco Polo’s picture of a distant and exotic China and traces his influence on real travelers like George Kates and J.K. Fairbank. We then read Invisible Cities by the Italian author Calvino in which a fictional Marco Polo describes fantastic sights to an old and feeble Kublai Khan. In dialogue with Calvino is the Chinese writer Xue Yiwei, who infuses the old fantasy with musings on contemporary China. Unit 2 takes us to Tibet, an imaginary Shangri-la, a faraway hideaway of idyllic beauty and tranquility in western fiction and film, while the travelogues of our writers give us a far more complex picture of its religion, history, and people. Unit 3 presents two of the best, Pico Iyer and Orhan Pamuk, one a world traveler, the other stays home, both writing at the cross-road of East and West. As they closely observe cross-cultural encounters at home and abroad, they reveal to us how knowledge about others and knowledge of ourselves are closely intertwined. |
| EAS 116 | PREMOD JPN GHOSTS | KLEIN, S. | This course will examine the 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. (same as 31230 Rel Std 120, Lec A) |
| 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. 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 65475 LSCI 169, Lec A) |
| 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 crushing 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 consumption of Korean culture. These topics will be examined through a wide range of sources (including films, memoirs, diaries, art, 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 155 | BUDDHIST ART OF JPN | TINSLEY, E. | This course is on the Buddhist arts and visual cultures of Japan. Students begin with sculptures from the early seventh century onward, and work through the primarily courtly works of the eighth to twelfth 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 early caricature. Students learn how sculpture and painting developed under a new military rule between the twelfth to sixteenth 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 eighteenth century with its woodblock-print boom brought some 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 new ways. This course is designed to help students build a broad understanding of how Buddhism, which originated in India, was (and is) represented visually in the specific culture of Japan. Students will acquire knowledge of the key works of Buddhist art in the history of art of Japan, the techniques with which they were created, and how they are expressive of the times and places in which – and for which – they were made. (same as 26130 GlblClt 103B, Lec A; and 31235 Rel Std 120, Lec B) |
| EAS 155 | TYRANNY OF UTILITY | SUH, S. | This course examines 1970s and 80s South Korean literature and culture with a focus on the problem of utility. South Korean society underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization in the 1970s and 80s. During this period, many believed that if they worked hard and spent little, they would be prosperous. As a matter of fact, to mobilize people for state-led economic development, the South Korean state constantly emphasized the values of usefulness, productivity, and efficiency. However, quite a few literary texts and movies from the period reveal how much oppressive and exploitative a society driven toward economic expansion can be. In order to understand the historical context and comprehend the complexity of the problem of utility and such related issues as labor, violence, and democracy, students will read excerpts from a Korean history textbook and works in critical theory as well as literary texts. All readings are in English. |
| EAS 170 | FMNSM MOD J NOVEL | LONG, M. | The main goals of this course are reading novels, thinking intensely about love, feminism and Japan, writing well, and making two audiobooks collectively. A main theme is “voice.” We focus on eight women authors, reading more than one work by each to explore their distinctive writerly tone. Authors include one radical liberal (middle-class, non-marxist) feminist from the 1910s (Tamura Toshiko), one anarchist-socialist feminist from the same period (Ito Noe), one labor activist from the 1930s (Miyamoto Yuriko), her best friend (Sata Ineko), one Japanese settler-colonist in Viet Nam / Indonesia / Tokyo (Hayashi Fumiko), one single-mother feminist from the 1970s (Tsushima Yuko), one decolonial Okinawan feminist from the 1990s (Sakiyama Tami) and one contemporary (2000s) runaway best-seller brilliant body-feminist (Kawakami Mieko). (same as 25390 Gen&Sex 189, Lec A) |
| EAS 190 | HIST&FANASTIC OTHER | HU, Y. | This is a junior-senior seminar that examines issues related to the Chinese historical tradition. We study three clusters of “historical” writing ranging from the Grand Historian Sima Qian (First Century BCE), to Pu Songling and his Strange Stories from a Make-do Studio (the 18th century), to contemporary experimental writers. Our sources cover official and non-official history, fantasy and SF fiction. Questions we discuss include the following: How does a writer establish his/her claims to the writing of history? How do historical and fictional narratives differ or are similar in representing reality? In what ways does utopian or dystopian allegory critique history? All readings are in English. |