Spring

Ever since the introduction of the modern/Western concept of "literature" to the early twentieth century Korea, literary production, consumption, and reproduction have gone hand in hand with the reception of the trends of  "criticism" and "theory" propagated elsewhere, in the West in particular. This course examines the relationship between the ideas of "indigenous" and "foreign" as embodied by Korean writers in the fields of creative writings, journalism, and academia with a view to engaging and interrogating the idea of "national literature" and its institutional manifestations. It further examines artistic and theoretical endeavors by Korean writers and intellectuals to critically reflect upon and move beyond the unquestioned linguistic, ideological, and ethno-national boundaries.

This course will address significant issues in teaching and learning an East Asian language through identification and analysis of specific sociolinguisitic and linguistic characteristics of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. The course will begin with the introduction of linguistic structures of the three East Asian languages to begin discussing the interaction between language acquisition and society. Then, we will explore sociolinguistic issues common to the three languages that underlie the linguistic diversity (and similarities) of East Asia, such as the following topic: (i) the use of Chinese characters, the history of writing reform, and its relation to literacy in East Asian languages; (ii) loan words in East Asian languages, in particular, the use of Chinese characters in modern Japanese and Korean in age of colonialism; (iii) the development and use of honorifics in China, Japan, and Korea, etc. For a comparative approach and perspective to these topics, students will read academic papers for each language on a given topic and discuss the unique sociolinguistic features of each language. Such an approach will allow us to analyze the language influence and interaction among the three languages and how that shapes the culture, society, and language acquisition. Finally, this course will also introduce the field of second language acquisition focusing on how social factors influence L2 learning and acquisition.

This class will explore three sets of paired authors from ancient China and Greece: Herodotus/Sima Qian; Plato/Confucius; Homer/Book of Songs. Topics will include genre, authorship, style, cultural identity, and translation, as well as the historical practice of Greece/China comparative work.

After a general survey of local and oral history studies in 20th century Chinese history, students will examine secondary scholarly literature and primary documents from three ongoing local rural history research projects (a country history, a regional history and a village history). Documents including transcripts of oral interviews and individual life histories, local gazetteers, memorials, edicts, biographies, social surveys, household registrations, essays, and recent county histories. Some of these Chinese documents have English language translations appended. Students will examine two oral history cases studies in detail.

Peking opera (jingju) is the one nationally prominent form of traditional performing arts in China. This course will introduce concepts and methods that can be applied to the study of Peking opera. Emphasis will be put on understanding artistic elements essential to the living tradition of performance - the visual aspects including stylized stage gesture and movement, sets and costumes, and colors; the music and oral transmission. Topics for discussion include "realism", alienation, time and space, connoisseurship, and film. Students will not only engage with scholarly literature that cuts across different disciplines, but also be introduced to a rich body of sources ranging from gramophone recordings, to photographs, opera films and documentaries. Motivated students will also learn some basics of singing and moves. Field trips to Chinese community Peking opera troupes may be arranged. Mandarin a plus but not a prerequisite.

This course surveys major areas of study in the Chinese landscape painting tradition, focusing on the history of its pictorial representation during pre-modern eras. Format will be primarily class discussion following a series of lectures. Areas for consideration may include: first emergence and subsequent developments of the genre in court and literati arenas; landscape aesthetics and theoretical foundations; major attributed works in relation to archaeological evidence. Emphasis is on artistic options and the exercise of choice within the context of social, political, religious, and economic forces. Students are expected to gain skills in formal analysis through looking with reading, and a critical perspective on the processes of art historical placement and interpretation based on assigned readings in secondary literature.

This course is part of a three-quarter sequence on the civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea or Viet Nam, with emphasis on major transformation in these cultures and societies from the Middle Ages to the present. Taking these courses in sequence is not required. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.

This course examines the politics, society, and culture of East Asia from ancient times until c. 1600.  Our focus will be on examining key historical moments and intellectual, social, and cultural trends with an emphasis on the region as a whole. Students will read and discuss culturally significant texts, and be introduced to various approaches to analyzing them.

This quarter we will focus on reading selected tales from Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋誌異, Pu Songling’s 蒲松齡seventeenth-century masterpiece, using Zhang Youhe’s 張友鶴variorum edition Liaozhai zhiyi huijiao huizhu huiping ben 聊齋誌異會校會注會評本alongside the nineteenth-century glossaries and pingdian 評點commentaries included. Problems to be addressed include how to deal with allusions (diangu) and engage with period/ individual style in literary Chinese.  We will work on not only understanding the meaning of the text but also on producing stage by stage polished English translations. This will culminate in a class anthology of our final translations. The course meets remotely Mon/Wed 11:30-12:50 PM.

E-versions of tales we select for translation in class will be available on canvas.

The Aynu indigenous peoples of Japan have an extensive collection of oral tales that have been collected over the past century. In this course we will read and translate (from Japanese and Aynu originals) into English, various examples of Aynu oral literature. The selections range from everyday tales in the Uwepeker(Talking Tales) genre to the sacred songs of the Aynu Yukar.  Reading ability in Japanese is required.