Courses
EALC course descriptions for Winter 2006 and Spring 2006 are listed here. Please check the university's time schedules for complete details.
Click here for more information about Summer 2006 intensive language courses in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Spring 2006
Intro to East Asian Civilization - 3
EALC 11000 (HIST 15300, SOSC 23700)
May be taken in sequence or individually. This sequence meets the civilization studies requirement in general education. This is a three-quarter sequence on the civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea, with emphasis on major transformation in these cultures and societies from the Middle Ages to the present.
Notes: Open to undergrads only. All students must attend MW lecture section. Register for one discussion section.
Cummings, B. M, W 10:30-11:20
Japan & the West in the 19th-Century
EALC 14405 (HIST 14400)
This course explores the cultural interactions between Japanese and Westerners in the second half of the nineteenth century, the first period of sustained contact and the time in which enduring modes of perception and misperception were formed. We will examine travelogues, memoirs, guidebooks, histories, and other works written about Japan by Americans and Europeans, as well as works by Japanese authored for a Western readership. Requirements: one short midterm paper (5-6 pages) and a longer final paper (15-16 pages.)
Burns, S. M, W 1:30-2:50
Literature and the Environment in 20th Century Japan
EALC 21600/31600
The misleading image of Japan as a "nature loving" culture, which held sway for many decades of the 20th century, has since been replaced with an equally misguided image of Japan as one of the top environmental villians of the industrialized world. In fact, Japan has been both the locus of some of the world's most notorious environmental disasters, as well as the site of some of the 20th century's most original thinkers and visionaries in the field of ecology. This course will address the specificity of this history through an examination of literary, scientific, historical, and theoretical texts.
Note: Japanese reading ability is not required.
Golley, G. T, Th 12:00-1:20
The Narrative Voice in Late Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction
EALC 22240/32240
This course will use Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan’s Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics as the basic theory text and read some of the following novels in English translation: Yu Hua, Chronicle of the Blood Merchant; Mo Yan, The Republic of Wine; Can Xue, Old Floating Cloud; Wang Anyi, Love in a Small Town; Li Ang, The Butcher’s Wife; Zhang Dachun, My Kid Sister; Zhu Tianwen, Note of a Desolate Man; Li Bihua, Farewell My Concubine
Peng, H. M, W 1:30-2:50
The Archeology of China
EALC 22300
This Course will provide a survey of Chinese archeology of the last twenty years, particuarly as it pertains to the period from c 1500 B.C. to the turn of the common era: i.e. the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties. The discoveries of this period, generally deriving from its mortuary cult, include both artifacts and texts; equal attention will be paid to both of these types.
Shaughnessy, E. M, W 1:30-2:50
Assassins, Outlaws, and Swordsmen: Martial Arts Tradition in Chinese Literature and Film
EALC 24300/34300
The martial-arts novel is probably the most popular genre of fiction for today’s Chinese-reading public; through the kung-fu/action film industry this tradition has now been disseminated across the world and become part of global culture. This course will examine the evolution of the martial arts code across a wide range of genres and historical periods. Our objects of study will include biographies from the early histories, classical tales, novels, Peking opera, and film. Issues to be considered will include the representation of violence, the gendering of power, the affect of changes in technology and media, and the relationship between tradition and modernity. All works will be read in translation. It is hoped that a language across the curriculum section will be offered to enable qualified students to read some materials in Chinese.
Zeitlin, J. M, W 3:00-4:20
The Science of the Body in Traditional China
EALC 26200/36200
This course examines ideas and practices related to the human body in three main areas: traditional Chinese medicine, Daoist religion, and popular culture. Topics include: physiological theories, conceptions of health and illness, logevity, meditation and ecstatic states, erotic experience, and body divination.
Harper, D. T, Th 3:00-4:20
Feminist Struggles in Japan II
EALC 26701/36701 (GNDR 26701/36701)
This is a course primarily for graduate students to extend and deepen the work begun in Part I of this course. Students may elect to continue with a contemporary focus, concentrate on historical matters, or pursue a genealogy. In either case, they should choose a body of primary materials for study, including discussion of effective interpretive approaches.
PQ: Reading Knowledge of Japanese Required. Undergraduate should seek instructor consent
Field, N. W 1:30-4:20
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Beyond
EALC 27605 (HMRT 25400)
In this course, we will consider the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki through literature, film, photo essays and nonfiction writing. We will grapple with the shifting understanding of the bomb and continued nuclear testing both within and without Japan during the Cold War and beyond. We will also study what many consider the current and ongoing form of nuclear war in the deployment of depleted uranium.
Note: Undergraduates only. No Knowledge of Japanese Required
Field, N. T, Th, 1:30-2:50
The Problem and Practice of Modern Translation in Japanese
EALC 46650
This course is designed to address translation as a theoretical and historical problem, but also to provide students with an opportunity to practice translating literary and scholarly materials from modern Japanese into English. In addition to reading essays in both English and Japanese on the subject of translation, students will undertake their own weekly translation assignments, the results of which will be discussed in class. Weekly translation assignments will include literary texts, cultural criticism and history.
PQ: Fourth Year Japanese or its equivalent
Golley, G. Th 3:00-5:50
Modern China
EALC 44500 (HIST 56300)
This course includes reading, written analysis, and discussion of secondary literature dealing with major topics in the history of modern China. The emphasis is on historiographic analysis.
Alitto, G., T 1:30-4:20
Meiji Culture
EALC 46601 (HIST 56601)
This graduate colloquium will focus on the cultural and intellectual history of Japan's Meiji era (1868-1912). In addition to reading and discussing recent monographs, we will also be reading primary source materials together. Reading knowledge of Japanese is required.
Burns, S., Th 12-2:50
The Modern Girl and the Male Gaze: 1930s Shanghai Neo-Sensationalism and its Japanese and French Counterparts
EALC 48000
Chinese materials will be mainly used in this course, while some Japanese and French materials will be added to widen the students’ perspectives, with a view to understanding the traveling of texts and concepts in a Euro-Asian context. The course will concentrate on major figures such as Liu Na’ou, Mu Shiying, Shi Zhicun, and Guo Jianying. Topics to be discussed will include the Beijing School and Shanghai School debate, the blurring of elite literature and popular literature, and the construction of the image of the modern girl and the male imagination. Both visual and written texts will be used in class. A reader will be provided.
PQ: Reading Knowledge of Chinese or Japanese Required
Peng Hsiao-yen, T 12-2:50
Winter 2006
Intro to East Asian Civilization - 2
EALC 10900 (HIST 15200, SOSC 23600)
May be taken in sequence or individually. This sequence meets the civilization studies requirement in general education. This is a three-quarter sequence on the civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea, with emphasis on major transformation in these cultures and societies from the Middle Ages to the present.
Notes: Open to undergrads only. All students must attend MW lecture section. Register for one discussion section.
Burns, S. M, W 10:30-11:20
Art of Asia: China
EALC 16100 (ARTH 16100)
This course is an introduction to the arts of China focusing on the bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese appropriation of the Buddha image, and the evolution of landscape and figure painting traditions. We consider objects in contexts (from the archaeological sites from which they were unearthed to the material culture that surrounded them) to reconstruct the functions and the meanings of objects, and to better understand Chinese culture through the objects it produced.
Wu, H. M, W 1:30PM-2:50
Arts of the Tea Ceremony
EALC 23905 (ARTH 23905)
A critical examination of the tea ceremony constitutes a key element in understanding the modern reception of Japanese art and culture. This course will examine the key development of the greatly influential ceremony over time, from the introduction of tea to Japan and through its development through key figures such as Sen Rikyu, Furuta Oribe, and Kobori Enshu. The texts and the objects of the tea ceremony will be examined, and we will view actual tea-related objects in local collections. Issues discussed will include: political uses of the tea ceremony, the spread of competing forms of orthodoxy, the influence on the pictorial arts, the iemoto patronage system, the incorporation of foreign art objects into the ceremony, and present uses of the tea ceremony.
Notes: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor.
Thomsen, H. T, Th 10:30-11:50
Postsocialist Filmmaking in China since 1990
EALC 24602/34602 (CMST 24602, CMST 34602)
This class deals with postsocialist filmmaking in China after 1990, a 15-year period marked by profound ideological, socioeconomic, and cultural changes. Different modes of filmmaking have competed with each other and have generated a wide spectrum of representations and practices, and a new generation has emerged to claim critical attention at home and abroad. After a brief survey of competing modes and agencies, we will move from the "fifth generation" to the "sixth generation" and beyond (e.g., the "new urban generation"). Directors to be studied in depth include Chen Kaige, Zhang Yuan, Guan Hu, Jiang Wen, Feng Xiaogang, Lou Ye, Dai Sijie, Li Yang, Jia Zhangke, and Zhang Yimou. Students are required to view all primary films, complete all required readings, make presentations in class, write five short papers and one term paper, and take a midterm and a final exam. All films carry English subtitles; all readings are in English. No knowledge of Chinese is required.
Zhang, Y. T, Th 1:30-2:50
Early Modern Japan
EALC 24703/34703 (HIST 24703/34703)
This course focuses on the history of Japan's early modern period (1600-1868), also known as the Edo or Tokugawa period. Topics to be examined include the nature of the early modern polity, village and urban life, popular culture, and intellectual developments.
Burns, S. M, W 1:30-2:50
Histories in Japan
EALC 24803/34803 (HIST 24803/34803)
An examination of the discipline of history as practiced in Japan from ancient times to the modern. Readings in translation of works such as the Kojiki, Okagami, Taiheiki, and others will be used to explore both the Japanese past and the manner of interpretation of that past.
Ketelaar, J. T 3:00-5:50
Colonialism and Korea, 1910-1945
EALC 25650 (HIST 14301)
Using various texts and films, this class first looks at political, economic and cultural theories on colonialism and post-colonialism. In particular, this class examines the reasons behind Japanese imperialism and its move to colonize Korea. The class then examines major events and changes that fundamentally affected and transformed Korean people and society during and after the colonial period, including: Japan’s involvement in Korean politics before 1910, the birth of a Korean national consciousness and the rise of nationalist movements after the March 1st Movement in 1919, the peasant economy and the rise of agrarian conflicts between tenants and landlords, colonial industrialization, urbanization and everyday life, the rise of ideological cleavages, changing gender relations, Comfort Women, the birth of a new print culture and the arrival of modern literature and music and the on-going discussions about Koreans who collaborated with the colonial government.
Park, A. T, Th 1:30-2:50
Modern Korean Poetry in Translation
EALC 26500/36500
Modern Korean poetry has taken the lead in the articulation of Korean vernacular in response to the changing realities of modern Korea. This course reads selected poems (translated into English) of major Korean poets of the twentieth century with a view to offering an overview of the main currents in modern Korean poetry, as well as to exploring some of its rhetorical and thematic conventions that have served to make sense of Korea’s experience of modernity. An emphasis will be placed on close reading of poetic texts with regard to their historical and cultural contexts. Topics covered include the emergence of romantic subjectivity, the lyrical elaboration on feminine voices, cityscapes of colonial and post-colonial modernity, the invention of Korean and “Oriental” aesthetics, and the politically charged reconfiguration of people.
Notes: No knowledge of Korean is required.
Hwang, J. T 3:00-5:50
Feminist Struggles in Japan I
EALC 26700/36700
Is feminism dead in Japan, as so many have wished or declared? Or, as with so many instances of sustained and courageous protest, are we simply ignorant of the endeavors pursued by women (and men) around the country? In this course we will examine recent and continuing examples of feminist activism in Japan, addressing issues ranging from reproduction to labor to sexuality to constitutional rights. We will use film, fiction, artwork, and other documents (including web sources) generated by the movements. Our focus will extend outward from contemporary Japan both historically and geographically. This course is primarily for undergraduates, but graduate students are also welcome to take the course; they will be expected to produce research incorporating materials from their specialization in E. Asia or other regions.
Field, N. T, Th 1:30-2:50
EALC Concentrators' Seminar: War and Disaster in East Asia
EALC 27105
In this seminar, we will examine the ways in which the civilizations of East Asia have confronted—that is, expressed and interpreted--war and disaster. We will look at historical, religious, literary, and visual approaches, ranging from the ancient to the contemporary. The course will draw on the expertise of EALC facultly.
Notes: Required of EALC concentrators
Field, N. W 3:00-5:50
History of Modern China
EALC 29100 (HIST 24300)
This lecture course presents the main intellectual, political, economic, and social trends in modern China. The course covers the ideological and organization structures, and the social movements that define a process variously described in Western literature as modernization, reform, and revolution, or as political development. Emphasis is on institutional and intellectual developments during this period, especially in the twentieth century. Some attention is paid to historiographic analysis and criticism. Readings are in the secondary literature and in English.
Alitto, G. TTh 9:00-10:20
Readings in Literary Chinese
CHIN 40800 (HIST 44800)
Reading and discussion of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historical political documents, including such forms as memorials, decrees, local gazetteers, diplomatic communications, essays, and the like.
Notes: Open to undergrads with consent of instructor.
Alitto, G. T, Th 3:00-4:20
Sem: Modern Korean History 2
EALC 42100 (HIST 75602)
Students present the subject, method, and rationale for a significant research paper. Papers should be about forty pages and based in primary materials; ideally this means Korean materials, but ability to read scholarly materials in Korean, Japanese, or Chinese is not a requirement for taking the seminar. Students may also choose a comparative and theoretical approach, examining some problems in modern Korean history in the light of similar problems elsewhere, or through the vision of a body of theory.
Cummings, B. M 5:00-7:50
Grad Sem: Issues and Methods in the Study of Korean Literature: Orientalism in Modern Korean Literature and Culture
EALC 42500
This course deals with the issue of Orientalism as it was developed in Korean literary and aesthetic culture in the colonial period. The notion of Korea as part of the Orient or Asia was central to the self-identification of Korean intellectuals and artists, and their exposure to the influence of Japanese Orientalist discourses, ranging from academic history of Asia (tōyōshi) to the philosophical doctrine of Asian cooperativism, prompted new ways of constructing a cultural identity of Korean people. We will examine some instances of Korean adaptation of, and confrontation with Japanese Orientalism through reading of a variety of texts from fiction and painting as well as from history and criticism, consider their close relations with such main strands of modern Korean literature and art as Marxism and modernism, and attempt to understand their implication for Korean struggle for self-determination under the hegemony of imperial Japan. Readings also include some works on the issue by present-day Korean scholars as well as writings by American and Japanese historians and critics.
PQ: Knowledge of Korean is required.
Hwang, J. Th 3:00-5:50
Graduate seminar: Dunhuang Manuscript Studies
EALC 43100
An introduction to Dunhuang manuscripts, focusing on manuscripts related to medieval Chinese culture.
Notes: Consent of Instructor
Harper, D. Th 1:30-4:20
Graduate Seminar: Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions
EALC 45400
After a brief introduction to Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, we will focus on Western Zhou bronze inscriptions. The choice of inscriptions to study will depend on the interests of the students in the class.
PQ: CHIN 21000
Shaughnessy, E. W 1:30-4:20
Graduate seminar: Courtesan Culture and the Arts in China from Late Imperial to Modern
EALC 46500
It is well-known that skill in the arts (particularly song, poetry, painting, and games), was a prerequisite for successful courtesans in China, and that interactions between courtesans and their clients played an important role in generating the literary and musical forms that lay at the heart of entertainment culture. Courtesans, in turn, were a perennially favorite topic for literary and visual representation, and books and magazines related to the pleasure quarter constitute a significant branch in the history of publishing. This year we will compare two crucial and well-documented eras: 1) late Ming through early Qing; and 2) late Qing through the prewar Republican period. We will study a wide range of primary sources, including fiction, poetry, plays, popular song, and memoirs, tracing changes and continuities in the relation of courtesan culture to the arts between the two eras.
Notes: Reading knowledge of modern Chinese and some exposure to Classical Chinese
Zeitlin, J. T 3:00-5:50
Seminar: Empire and Nation in East Asia 2
EALC 52001 (HIST 76402)
In the second quarter, we focus on research topics for students writing the seminar paper.
Duara, P.
