| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EAS 15C | INTRO CHNS STORIES | HUANG, M. | This course will focus on Chinese 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 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 presentations on assigned topics and to serve as a discussant to comment on the presentations by other classmates (each student is expected to present twice and be a discussant twice for the quarter) There will be mid-term and final exams (both in class). |
| EAS 15K | KOREA ON SCREEN | KIM, S. | This undergraduate seminar examines modern South Korea through its contemporary cinema and literature. We will explore a variety of film and literary genres, such as thriller, action, and horror, in order to understand the nation’s political, societal, and historical shifts within the past few decades. In direct contrast to Hollywood, many modern Korean narratives abandon the stereotypical hero figures, such as the savior, the mother, the police, and the patriot. Through the examination of such anti-heroes and their unhappy endings, students will be encouraged to re-evaluate their understanding of identity, narrative, and memory. At the end of the course, students will be equipped to critically engage with films, literatures, and other texts to produce a personalized and analytical perspective on the current representative culture of South Korea. The course will be divided into two parts. The first will explore themes of modern history and memory, while the second will move away from remembrance to focus on the films’ moral and emotional implications. The main goal of the course is to critically engage with films and works of literature. It is not necessary for students to have prior knowledge of South Korean history. All texts and films will be provided in English. |
| EAS 55 | USES OF TRADITION | HU, Y. | How do we, in the twenty-first century, relate to a cultural tradition of three thousand years old? How did generations of Chinese in the past relate to it? How did they form, reform and transform this cultural tradition over time? In what ways did it supply resources for responding to perennial concerns of humanity? And in what ways is it relevant to our contemporary challenges? In this course, we will study texts from ancient to modern times; our material includes fiction, biography, poetry and film. All readings are in English. Grades are based on participation, two short papers and two examinations. |
| EAS 110 | LU XUN | HU, Y. | This course focuses on Lu Xun (1881-1936), a complex and controversial modern Chinese writer. Although lionized in Mao’s China as the patron saint of revolutionary literature, Lu Xun’s works are full of ambiguity and uncertainty that refuse to conform to literary conventions or party-line narrative. His works reveal a sharp and critical intellect, full of curiosity and fiercely independent, with devastating satirical wit. Rather than following authoritative interpretations, our chief task in this class is to read closely Lu Xun’s own words, analyze his fiction, prose and poetry, and join him on a challenging journey of searches, reflection and critique. Except for the few scholarly articles on our syllabus, consultation of secondary Lu Xun scholarship in any language, in print or online, are strongly discouraged. |
| 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 31200 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 B) |
| EAS 130 | ETHICS, INTERNET,KR | STAFF | The Internet, an extremely distributed communication network, allows each individual to speak to and obtain information from the entire globe or any part of it. Such character generates a debate between the school of “the Internet as dangerous space” and another school of “the Internet as an equalizer-liberator.” This debate creates various ethical conflicts in freedom of speech, hate speech, disinformation, surveillance, privacy, anonymity, pornography, copyright, network neutrality, platform accountability, etc., and those conflicts are becoming more and more difficult to handle as new technologies such as targeted advertising, artificial intelligence, metaverse, deepfakes, blockchain, NFTs, etc., are emerging. In these debates, what is the role of law? Are the laws helping resolve or aggravating the disputes? We will examine these issues using as the laboratory South Korea the so-called most advanced country in the use of the Internet, attempting to identify a globally consistent set of theories and arguments that can address the issues in the rest of the world. |
| EAS 150 | PREMODERN CHN HUMOR | RAO, X. | Humor—communication that evokes amusement, laughter, or other kinds of positive emotional response in its audience—is universal, but its literary forms, the games it plays with language, and its functions—social, political, literary, psychological—differ dramatically between cultures. Through studying humor, analyzing the cultural, linguistic, and historical contexts upon which jokes are constructed, we can better understand the values, life experiences, and belief systems of a particular society. This course explores China's rich comic past by examining translations of key authors and works of humor literature from China’s Sui (581–618), Tang (618–907), and Song (960–1279) dynasties. The selected readings cover a wide range of writings, from jokes, satires, and witty poetry to humorous anecdotes, anthropomorphic biographies, and comedy theatre. Readings are original Sinitic texts with English translations. |
| EAS 155 | PREMODERN KOREA | KIM, S. | This course is an introduction to the society and culture of premodern Korea covering from the neolithic period to the Choson dynasty (1392-1910). It focuses on the history of visual culture discussing architecture, sculpture, ceramics, metal crafts, painting, printing, and textiles in diverse archaeological and historical contexts. |
| EAS 155 | GENDER & PREMOD JPN | GHANBARPOUR, C. | This course focuses on the experiences of women and men from roughly the end of the Heian period (794-1185) to the end of the 16th century. How did the roles and positions of women and men change in this time period, what were their problems, and how did they interact with each other and with the institutions and traditions that changed so markedly in the tradition from imperial to warrior rule? We will study women's and men's economic, social, political, and cultural roles, looking particularly at changes in women’s status, the spread of Buddhism, political movements and upheavals, warfare, entertainment, art, literature, and poetry. |
| EAS 155 | GERMANY & ASIA | BROADBENT, P. | This upper division course looks at Germany’s storied engagements with China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea since the founding of the German Empire in 1871 through to Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative at the onset of the twenty-first century. We will explore Germany’s colonial settlement in China and its role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, the influence of German culture, broadly understood, during the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the economic ties with South Korea during the Cold War and East and West Germany’s varied approaches to Vietnamese immigration. Through a study of historical documents as well as cultural artifacts Beyond Europe and Beyond Trade traces the evolution of Germany’s economic, territorial, political, and cultural ambitions in Asia from the late nineteenth-century to the global present and asks how and why Germany’s ties with Asia have evolved from colonial settler policies to soft power economics and cultural exchange in the present time. We will conclude the course by looking at the reversal of power dynamics between Germany and Asia and the impact of global Asia’s economic might in Germany and in the European Union more broadly. (same as 25741 German 150, Lec B; 26111 GlblClt 103A, Lec B; and 26915 History 183, Lec B) |
| EAS 190 | BOTANICAL EAST ASIA | PITT, J. | What happens when plants do not stay silent? Are humans more like plants than we care to admit? With these questions in mind, this colloquium pairs theoretical readings from the field of Critical Plant Studies with novels, short stories, poetry, and films from Japan, China, and South Korea in which plants likes trees and moss are prominently featured. Through seminar-style discussion and student presentations, we will consider various depictions of plants, including plants as spiritual beings and at times as horrific monsters. How can cultural media from East Asia, including modern literary and cinematic works of drama, horror, and sci-fi teach us to see the botanical world in a new way? |