East Asian Studies (EAST-GA)

This course is an introductory seminar offered to first-year graduate students in East Asian studies. The seminar provides a critical overview of the social, political, intellectual, and institutional history of the field of East Asian studies.

In this course, we will read and discuss major works on modern Korea and theories of modernity that can facilitate our understanding of Korea and the modern world. In the course, we will read both exemplary monographs on Korea that use theory effectively and a survey of classical theories of modernity, including the theory of capitalist structures, social forms, and culture. The course is designed to combine theory and practice and culminates in individual research projects on Korea or comparative projects that include Korea with somewhere else and its comparative contexts. Students will be encouraged to share their ongoing research interests and their analysis of primary texts (from various languages and cultures) in light of our theoretical discussions. Students Graduate students of any disciplinary background are welcome.

Scholarly reading and research in modern Japanese. With varied content, approaches, and organization, this course exposes students to modern literary and expository works, and particularly to academic prose. Texts are selected to reflect circuits of knowledge and the development of disciplinarScholarly reading and research in modern Japanese. With varied content, approaches, and organization, this course exposes students to modern literary and expository works, and particularly to academic prose. Texts are selected to reflect circuits of knowledge and the development of disciplinary characteristics in style. Some emphasis is paid to the choice of text in order to facilitate familiarization of critical terminology. Particular attention is given to the role of translation as a means of considering the circulation of academic and intellectual terminology (and concepts) and the development of language by which academic discourse is conducted. The course also introduces students to some of the key reference work and methodology for solving problems of reading and interpretation at an advanced level.

An Independent Study course provides students with the opportunity to work one-on-one with an instructor on a particular topic or creative project. Registration for this course requires approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. You will be asked to submit a proposal, that must include a project abstract (200-250 words) and a bibliography, approved by the professor supervising the course.

An in-depth study of the major epics of China, Japan, and Vietnam, from the historical-military and the social-romantic. The Chinese historical epic Three Kingdoms is read against the Japanese epic Tale of the Heike. Emphasis is placed on the political nature of the dynastic state form, the types of legitimacy and the forms of rebellion, the process of breakdown and reintegration of an imperial house, the empire as dynasty and as territory, and the range of characterology. In the second half of the course, the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber is read against the Japanese The Tale of Genji. In addition to the above-mentioned topics, attention is given to the role of women and marriage in a governing elite, the modalities of social criticism in a novel of manners. The Vietnamese national classic Tale of Kieu is used as an introduction to the course because it combines all of the key topics. Particular attention is given to the ways in which Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian doctrines function in each work.

This seminar addresses the biopolitics of Japanese empire through literary, historical, and philosophical texts that touch upon the areas of Ezo (Hokkaido), the Ryukyus (Okinawa), Taiwan, and the Korean peninsula, in addition to mainland Japan. Paying close attention to the economic crises from the 1920s, we will examine how intellectuals and literary figures in both the metropole and colonies started to envision a new world history that could surmount the limitations of European imperialisms through a regionalism that would come under the official heading of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Integral to this regionalism was a new conception of life itself in relation to sovereignty, the reproduction of labor power, and language. Using translation theory, we will explore the compulsion to render life intelligible, how it was translated into an intelligibility, and what became of unintelligible life amidst the cataclysms of Japanese fascism and its postwar/postcolonial reincarnations in Japanese democracy. We will read literary texts from Chiri Yukie, Kim Saryang, Zhuoliu Wu, Abe Kōbō, Medoruma Shun, and Sakiyama Tami, and theoretical texts from Nishida Kitarō, Uno Kōzō, Tanabe Hajime, Tosaka Jun, Naoki Sakai, and Harry Harootunian, among others. All readings are in English and no prior knowledge of Japan is required.

The course is designed to help students learn to teach East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean at the college-level. A wide range of issues related to the teaching of a foreign language will be discussed, including 1) historical overview of language teaching methods and approaches and their application to the classroom teaching; 2) curriculum design and lesson planning; 3) textbooks and supplementary teaching materials; 4) different strategies and skills in language teaching; 5) testing and assessment; and 6) use of technology.

This course looks at the various elements that make up and structure the contemporary urban subject in Asia. This includes architecture, art, technology and new media, and economic (and political economic) conditions. Attention is paid to the ways in which each of these factors create and organize life—but the aim is also to examine how these elements are being recombined in ways that point to new orders of social life in general. The boundaries of crime, and of subculture, play an integral role in this view. While sociological analysis is part of the approach, the course also draws heavily on the ways in which conditions are formulated and expressed in fiction, film, animation, and fine art. The course entails some historical overview and comparison with earlier moments (especially the early 20th century), but the emphasis is on the situation now. It is also meant to provide a comparative view between major Asian cities, but will focus on particular cities. The conditions being discussed are also global, and so inevitably the topics expand beyond Asia as well, even while they have specificity in different regions. At stake overall is the changing conditions of life, of mass culture, and of the social community in Asia and the world.

Investigates aspects of the historical interpretation of China in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the genesis and development of one of the most debated and enduring tropes of the historiography of China: the Asiatic mode of production.

An exploration into the cultural and intellectual history of modernism in East Asia. Particular attention is given to the relationship between modernism and various East Asian social formations of colonialism. Concepts such as colonial modernity, semicolonialism, and postcolonialism are interrogated through intensive reading both of theoretical work on modernism and colonialism and modernist cultural texts. Although a major emphasis is placed on literary modernism, it is understood as part of a broader historical phenomenon that encompassed artists, philosophers, and other intellectuals. Contemporary essays are juxtaposed with novels and short stories, and, where possible, other media. TheAn exploration into the cultural and intellectual history of modernism in East Asia. Particular attention is given to the relationship between modernism and various East Asian social formations of colonialism. Concepts such as colonial modernity, semicolonialism, and postcolonialism are interrogated through intensive reading both of theoretical work on modernism and colonialism and modernist cultural texts. Although a major emphasis is placed on literary modernism, it is understood as part of a broader historical phenomenon that encompassed artists, philosophers, and other intellectuals. Contemporary essays are juxtaposed with novels and short stories, and, where possible, other media. The course also builds on the recent proliferation of research on modernism in East Asia. Where possible, emphasis is placed on the interconnected nature of modernism in East Asia.

Special Topics in Theory courses encompass a wide range of specialized topics in theoretical frameworks. The objective of these courses is to assist students in obtaining an in-depth understanding of past and current developments in specific areas of theory related to East Asia.

This course starts with?and aims to rethink?the basic theoretical terms and practical conditions of mass culture and everyday life as definitive of modernity. In part, the course is framed by claims made in new media theory (especially with regard to the advent of digital electronic technologies) and the ways in which new media supposedly are placing us within new world horizons. Modernity, however, is made up of multiple moments of ?new media?; this course provides historical perspective on these moments. Nor does the course assume a technological determinism; in addition to changing relations between ?new? media (including theatre, film, and animation), it examines the changing structuring of experience in terms of narrative form; architecture; art; and urbanism. One of the unifying concerns, however, is history itself and the ways in which differing material conditions create new visions of, and positions within, history. History, therefore, is one of the means through which new media conditions claim to allow the rethinking of, and critique of, the grounds of modern experience. Emphasis is placed on Japan, but comparative material is drawn from elsewhere in Asia and the West; the context is for the most part global.

Topics courses encompass a wide range of topics related to histories, cultures, societies, politics, and economies of East Asia. These courses are designed to provide students with comprehensive understanding of the diverse and complex realties of East Asia, and they may cover topics such as traditional arts, religions, literature, language, modernization, globalization, and international relations.

Literary Theory courses encompass a wide range of topics that revolve around examining and understanding literary works from East Asia through critical analysis and interpretation. The objective of these courses is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of literary traditions, cultures, and histories of East Asia, and how they are interpreted through critical theories.