Graduate

Annalistic records kept at the courts of the various states of ancient China were among the earliest writing in China, and certainly serve as the beginning of China's long historiographical tradition. In this course, we will first examine the Chunqiu or Spring and Autumn Annals, long since enshrined as oine of the Five Classics, by way of understanding the nature of annals. Then we will move on to examine in detail the Zhushu jinian or Bamboo Annals, discovered in 279 A.D. an ancient tomb located in what is present-day Jixian, Henan. The Bamboo Annals introduced major changes in the understanding of ancient Chinese history during the Six Dynasties through Tang period, but then came to be suspected of being a forgery. We will consider both to what extent these suspicions are valid, and also what the Bamboo Annals can reveal to us regarding ancient history

In this class we will read and analyze the key texts (in English translation) of the two great classical "sinifying" Chinese Buddhist theoretical schools of the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties: Tiantai and Huayan, with special attention to what is arguably their biggest shared innovation: the development of the classical Mahāyāna Buddhist idea of Emptiness (sūnyata) into the "omnicentric" idea that each entity, precisely through its emptiness, is in some sense present in all times and places, is eternal and omnipresent--and the controversies arising from the different justifications and implications advanced by the two schools for this shared doctrine. Readings will include the works of Zhiyi, Zhanran and Zhili from the Tiantai school, and Dushun, Zhiyan, Chengguan and Zongmi. Some basic background in Buddhist thought is recommended. Readings will be in English, but an optional reading group working with the original texts in classical texts will likely also be convened.

The goal of this course is to introduce you to the central themes and texts of classical Confucian and Neo-Confucian traditions, both as philosophical works to be evaluated and digested for their doctrinal content and as literary artifacts from a perhaps unfamiliar cultural sphere. This will call for the development of two distinct but related sets of skills, namely, the ability to think through and comprehend philosophical arguments and ideas, and the equally crucial ability to reflect on one's own assumptions as they come into play in one's reaction to and evaluation of those ideas. Readings will include, from the classical period, the Four Books (Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects of Confucius, Mencius), Xunzi, the Book of Changes, and from Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian writings of Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, the Cheng Brothers, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming.

What happened to Peking Man? Where did rice cultivation begin and who made the first pottery? Why were hoards of bronzes buried and what were they used for? This course will explore themes such as the origins of humans, the beginning of agriculture, early villages and cities, metal technology, ancient writing systems, and the rise of states and civilizations in East Asia. It will also discuss the current state of archaeological research in Asia, and the role of archaeology in nation building and modern geopolitics. The rich resources available in the museums of Chicago will also be explored.

In this course we will read premodern Japanese literature and performance alongside modern works of page, stage, and film by Higuchi Ichiyo, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Enchi Fumiko, Mishima Yukio, Oba Minako, and others, which engage with these classical texts either thematically or formally. We will pay special attention to internal and external dynamics of recollection, evocation, alienation and inheritance, to shifting perceptions of orality in literature, and to explorations of alternative realities and possibilities in the remembrance (and misremembrance) of classical literature and performance.  Readings will be available in English, but those with knowledge of modern Japanese will be strongly encouraged to read in Japanese where possible. Prior knowledge of Classical Japanese is not required. Advanced undergraduates interested in joining must receive prior approval by emailing instructor.

This course explores the intersections between gender, the genre of autobiography, forms of media (written; oral; visual; audiovisual) and historical, cultural, and political contexts of modern Korea. The students read theoretical writings on autobiography and gender as well as selected Korean autobiographical writings while being introduced to Korean historical contexts especially as they relate to practice of publication in a broader sense. The focus of the course is placed on the female gender—on the relationship between Korean women’s life-experience, self-formation, and writing practices in particular while dealing with the gender relationship in general, although some relevant discussions on the male gender proceeds in parallel.

An occupational hazard of the professions of official and scholar in traditional China was banishment (liufang) to a remote province—a punishment that might be handed down for a variety of behaviors. This course will concentrate on writings by noted poets who endured periods of banishment to the empire’s supposedly uncivilized frontiers: Liu Zongyuan, Han Yu, Su Shi, Ji Xiaolan, Lin Zexu, in particular, reading their exile texts together with the older texts that helped them voice their predicament: Qu Yuan, Sima Qian, Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun. Knowledge of classical Chinese is assumed; secondary readings may be in a variety of languages.

The ideal of the amateur author has repeatedly been invoked in different moments and for different purposes throughout the history of modern China. Non-professional writers have often been considered more “authentic”— their perceptions less hindered by conventions and more sensitive to the details of everyday life. In the socialist world, amateur writing and art was one of the strategies to contrast the division between mental and manual labor. And today, we assist to a veritable explosion made possible by digital media which fully reveals the inherent contradictions of amateur creativity. Seen by many as a means to escape oppressive labor regimes, it ends up being the most commodified form of labor of our times.  This class will proceed through a series of case studies to understand the valorization of amateurism in modern Chinese culture in historical and comparative perspective. Special attention will be paid to the media environments that make it possible, and to the ways amateur writing and art depict labor. Our overall goal, in sum, will be to familiarize ourselves with some of the ways in which the relation between creativity, amateurism, and labor has been represented and theorized.

An introduction to the reading and study of manuscripts and epigraphy, mainly from the Tang and Song eras.

Worldwide, women do about 75 percent of the world’s unpaid care and domestic work. They spend up to three hours more per day cooking and cleaning than men do, and anywhere from two to ten hours more per day looking after children and the elderly. Women’s underpaid work at home and in industry subsidized the early stages of industrialization in nineteenth-century Britain, early twentieth-century Japan, and contemporary China, and women’s unpaid contributions to their households enable employers worldwide to keep wages low. We know, at least in outline, how women came to carry double burdens in Europe and North America, but little research has been done so far about this process in East Asia. In this course, we will discuss when and how China, Japan, and Korea developed a division of labor in which most wage work was gendered male and reproductive work was marked female. Are current divisions of labor between men and women rooted in local cultures, or are they the result of industrial capitalist development? How do divisions of labor differ between the three East Asian countries, and how did developments in one East Asian country affect others?