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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
After years of fierce fighting in the Pacific, the victorious Allies occupied Japan from August 1945 until 1952. The "Basic Initial Post-Surrender Directive"charged military occupiers and their civilian auxiliaries with democratizing the former enemy empire. This course examines three aspects of this effort, namely the political, economic, and cultural restructuring of Japan. We will explore the goals, methods, and mix-ups of the (mostly) American attempt to recast Japanese society in a democratic mold and the Japanese response. The Big Question -- one that we will return to again and again in our discussions -- is what is democracy and how is it created and sustained?
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3.00 Credits
This course provides a historical, cultural, and aesthetic appraisal of South Korean cinema as it evolved from a Korean-centric film industry to a globally engaged film industry as evidenced by the current hallyu (Korea fever) phenomenon. Aspects of cultural continuity as well as cultural transformations and the forces that are involved in this dynamic cultural arena will be addressed. Some of tilm under analysis will include Obaltan: Aimless Bullet, Sopyonje, Peppermint Candy, Shiri, Bungee Jumping of Their Own, My Sassy Girl, and JSA. No knowledge of Korean is required.
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3.00 Credits
This course was designed for students who wish to fulfill their University or College literature requirement with a survey of Japanese poetry, fiction, and drama from the earliest times through the mid-18th century. All texts are in English; no special knowledge of Japan or the Japanese language is required. The content of this course is the same as "Masterpieces of Classical Japanese Literature" (LLEA 30412) but students who enroll in this course will be assigned additional readings and be required to submit a 12-15 page paper at the end of the semester on a topic approved by the instructor. Possible topics include love, masculinity/femininity, death, and nature.
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3.00 Credits
From Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, The Mikado, to the cherry blossom poems of kamikaze suicide pilots in World War II, the nation of Japan has been presented as obsessed with the arts. But is this aesthetic image simply ornamental? What are the political ramifications of a national identity intimately intertwined with ideas of traditional high culture? When was this association between nation and art made and why? This course traces the intersection between high art and national identity in Japan from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century (with a brief post-war postscript.) During this century, Japanese government officials and intellectuals carefully crafted a national image that went through at least three stages in relation to high culture. In the early Meiji period (1868-90), the Japanese leadership had little use for Japan's traditional arts and fervently pursued a policy of Westernization in culture as well as politics and economics. After 1890, Japanese arts were revived as a basis for Japanese nationalism, partly because of interest from Europeans and Americans who were intrigued by Japanese handicrafts, painting, sculpture, and ceremonies. During the Taisho (1912-26) and early Showa (1926-60) eras, culture was developed as a bulwark of ultranationalism. The main focus of this course will be the ideological and political uses of high culture. Readings for this course will include primary documents (in translation) as well as secondary works. No background knowledge of Japanese history is required.
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3.00 Credits
The course will provide a general survey of Chinese history from 1644 (the establishment of the Qing dynasty) to the present. It will highlight China's evolution from a period of strength and unity during the last dynasty to a period of disunity and weakness during the revolutionary period 1911-49, back to a period of strength under the Communist government from 1949 to the present. Special attention will be given to the problems of economic modernization, the role that foreigners have played in this process, and the relationship of both to cultural development.
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3.00 Credits
The purpose of this course is to explore Japanese concepts of nature in comparison with those of the West and then to ask how these concepts effect modern Japan's understanding of environmental protection. In other words, this course combines intellectual history and environmental history in Japan and Europe. We discuss the relationship among nature, divinity, and human beings in the Bible and Shinto and Confucian texts. We read radical agrarianist Ando Shoeki and see how his vision of the natural state compares with that of his French counterpart, Rousseau. We consider how nature shapes political history in Hegel and Maruyama. Finally, we try to figure out what the claim that the Japanese love nature means both in terms of aesthetics and nationalism and in terms of environmental protection.
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3.00 Credits
The course will provide a general survey of Chinese history from the Shang Dynasty (1550-1045 BCE) to 1600 CE. Besides highlighting the major developments of each dynasty, the course will devote special attention to the Confucian and Legalist underpinnings of the Chinese empire, the influence of Buddhism on Chinese society, the emergence of gentry culture and the civil service examination system, and the phenomenon of "barbarian" conquest and cultural interaction.
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3.00 Credits
In light of the contemporary currency of certain Chinese practices in the field of alternative medicine, this course will explore the phenomenon of Chinese traditional medicine in both its historical and contemporary settings. The first unit, Medicine in Ancient China, will explore the earliest medical ideas of the Chinese and will demonstrate how the state's political unification gave rise to a correlative cosmology that not only included Heaven and Earth, but also human beings as integral elements of an organic cosmos. The second unit will explore the influences and contributions of Taoism (Daoism) and Buddhism to Chinese medicine and will explore what it meant to be both physicians and patients in late imperial China. The third unit will focus on medicine in contemporary China and will feature the experiences of Elisabeth Hsu, a student of Chinese medical anthropology who as a part of her doctoral research enrolled as a student in Yunnan Traditional Chinese Medical College between September 1988 and December 1989. We will conclude the course with a brief examination of the influence of Chinese medicine on the contemporary world.
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3.00 Credits
This course addresses the global significance of the gong fu vague [kung fu new wave] that hit world cinema in the early 1970s and its ripple effects up to the present. As the signature genre of the Hong Kong film industry, it does not stand in global isolation but is rather a product of careful market research in developing a distinctive genre that could have global popularity outside of its traditional regionalized domestic market (HK and Southeast Asia) and its overseas ethnic Chinese enclaves in numerous Chinatowns across the world. Some of the key issues that we will cover include: How does a small non-national population sustain a commercially viable film industry? How can a film industry create a version of action cinema that supercedes Hollywood's dominance in the genre? Is this purely a "Chinese" phenomenon or one that is inherently dependent on non-Chinese participation? Do these films have ideological, aesthetic & economic significance within a larger framework or must they be critically dismissed outright? What does it mean that "everybody was kung fu fighting" and continuing to do so? Taught in English. No knowledge of Mandarin or Cantonese is required. Whenever possible, we will view the films in their original language with English subtitles. A few films will be dubbed in English.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores the latest developments in the anthropology of Asian societies and cultures. The course may include the study of nationalism and transnationalism; colonialism and post-colonialism; political-economy; gender; religion; ethnicity; language; and medicine and the body. Emphasis will be on social and cultural transformations of Asian societies in specific historical contexts.
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