This course explores the cinematic conventions and experiments employed by Chinese filmmakers over the past hundred years. Unique Chinese film genres such as left-wing melodrama, martial arts films and model play adaptations, as well as the three "new waves" in China's recent avant-garde cinema, will be examined and discussed. Individual filmic visions and techniques experimented with by important directors such as Fei Mu, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Yimou, and Jia Zhangke will be closely analyzed. Class discussions will aim to help students understand the history, politics, and aesthetics of Chinese cinema. Theoretical aspects of film studies will also be incorporated into class readings and discussions. No prior knowledge of China or film studies is required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 20 3

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course introduces students to the Chinese cultural and literary tradition through the lens of modern reception and cinematic representation. Beginning with Confucius and ending with the last emperor of the imperial period (221 BCE–1911 CE), we will explore key historical turning points, influential philosophical works, and major literary genres. By pairing historical writings (in English translation) with iconic blockbusters and arthouse films, students will analyze in what ways and to what ends film adaptations transform their source materials. We will also delve into the complex and often fraught relationships between the past and present in contemporary Sinophone contexts.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 237

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This seminar guides students to explore the political, cultural, and epistemological changes represented in Chinese science fiction. It contextualizes the genre’s evolution in the intellectual history of modern China, where imagining the future of China is often the focus of contending ideologies and intellectual trends. The course introduces students to three booms of Chinese science fiction, which all happened when China went through drastic changes. The contemporary new wave of science fiction particularly presents a subversive vision of China’s pursuit of power and wealth, a dystopian counterpart to the government-promoted “Chinese dream.” This course examines the cutting-edge literary experiments that characterize the new wave, and studies the transgression of gender, class, and nation in science fiction that evokes sensations ranging from the uncanny to the sublime, from the corporeal to the virtual, and from the apocalyptic to the transcendent.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 382

Prerequisites: One course at the 200 or 300 level on Chinese literature, history or culture, or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This seminar explores linguistic tapestry of East Asia, focusing on the distinct features, structures, and variations that characterize Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Through lively discussions and hands-on projects, we will examine the unique linguistic and cultural heritages of these languages. From their intricate writing systems and complex grammar to the diverse range of sociolinguistic patterns and dialects, we will uncover the layers that make each language unique. Central to our exploration will be the role of Confucian ideology, the vibrant influence of pop culture, and the transformative impact of AI technology on communication. Through this exploration, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of how language profoundly influences and mirrors the rich diversity of life and thought in East Asia.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: LING 123

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit. Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

What does it mean to live life to its fullest capacity - personally, socially and ethically? What does it mean to succeed? To fail? To love? To fight? To dream? In search of answers to these questions, we read the classic foundational texts of China, Japan, and Korea from Confucian and Taoist philosophy to romantic tales, harrowing diaries and exquisitely crafted haiku. Bringing our knowledge as a China and a Japan specialist to bear, we formulate critical perspectives on key works with the goal of understanding East Asian culture as a whole and as different regional expressions. Join us as we explore the complexities of East Asian identity while discovering something about the big questions we all confront today wherever - and whomever - we are.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites:

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: No prior background in the study of East Asia is required; all readings will be in English.

The course begins with a brief introduction to an eleventh-century novel from Japan, Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. This work shows considerable awareness of Chinese culture, but the design is entirely original and the aesthetics typically Japanese. There is no influence at all between Genji and our next subject, Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century masterpiece, Dream of the Red Chamber, also known as The Story of the Stone. However, the similarities point to shared East Asian traditions, and the contrasts can be traced to major differences in the aesthetics of China and Japan. For students who have already studied The Tale of Genjii or Dream of the Red Chamber, alternative reading will be assigned. Later on we will take up three other pieces, two from Korea and one from Vietnam. These two, as well, fit into a larger East Asian syndrome, but exhibit national characteristics at the same time.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken EALC 325.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as EALC 325.

In East Asia, the rise of the girl in literary and popular culture coincides with the appearance of modernity itself. Beginning with the ‘modern girl,' we move chronologically, exploring coming-of-age tropes in East Asian fiction, manga, anime, and film. How does the objectification of the adolescent girl illuminate issues around ethnicity, national identity, sexuality, even globalization? What national anxieties hover around girls' bodies? We read texts in English translation and explore models of female development that might aid us in our exploration of this cultural phenomenon. Secondary readings include works by Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva, Marianne Hirsch, Carol Gilligan, Elizabeth Grosz, among others.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 236

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course explores the circulation of genre across popular media forms in 20th and 21st century East Asia as part of the legacy of Japanese colonialism. We will look at primary texts/media objects—fiction, films, animation, tv shows, pop music, and video games—from Japan, Korea, and the broader Sinosphere that embody popular genres including action, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, crime, and romantic comedy. While thinking about definitions of "genre" in a popular context, we will also trace how different genres and forms of media resonate with each other across different national and cultural contexts, with a particular focus on how genre conventions are employed to grapple with imperial or colonial pasts.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The course begins with a brief introduction to an eleventh-century novel from Japan, Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. This work shows considerable awareness of Chinese culture, but the design is entirely original and the aesthetics typically Japanese. There is no influence at all between Genji and our next subject, Cao Xueqin's eighteenth-century masterpiece, Dream of the Red Chamber, also known as The Story of the Stone. However, the similarities point to shared East Asian traditions, and the contrasts can be traced to major differences in the aesthetics of China and Japan. For students who have already studied The Tale of Genjii or Dream of the Red Chamber, alternative readings will be assigned. Later on we will take up three other pieces, two from Korea and one from Vietnam. These two, as well, fit into a larger East Asian syndrome, but exhibit national characteristics at the same time.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: One 200-level course in either Chinese or Japanese language and culture required. Not open to students who have taken EALC 225.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as EALC 225.

The posthuman points to a deep crisis of humanism. Its most powerful critique targets the fundamental malfunction of the existing social order, epistemological paradigm, and modes of governance, production, trade, and culture that have menaced the human conditions and harmed the planetary ecological system. The posthuman thinking in an East Asian context motivates a reevaluation of various modernity projects and reconsiders the position and potentials of humanity in terms of planetary consciousness. In contemporary East Asian culture, posthuman images are particularly applied to reflections concerning the deteriorating ecological system, evolution or devolution enabled by mutations of the political economy, and above all, an awareness of multiplicity that replaces the human-centric singular form of globalization. This seminar guides students to rethink about concepts like gender, sex, class, race, and species in the emerging cultural contexts of the Chthulucene, the Neo-Baroque, virtual reality, digital consciousness, and the metaverse. The course integrates theoretical studies to case analyses of literary works, films, TV dramas, video games, and digital artworks from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the Asian diaspora across the Pacific.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 328

Prerequisites: One course at the 200 or 300 level on East Asian literature, history, or culture, or CPLT 180 or another CPLT course at the 200 or 300 level.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Language constitutes an important marker of social identity at many levels, such as the individual, subcultures, ethnic groups, and nations. Language has contributed to establishing unity, socio-cultural diversity, and nationalism in East Asian Society. This course explores the function of language in forming national, ethnic, and cultural identity and nationalism throughout the modernization process for China, Korea, and Japan. The seminar will discuss how language has been interconnected with the shaping of intra-East Asian literary/cultural practices, modern identity, and globalization. Students will acquire fundamental knowledge of the dynamics of language and socio-cultural changes as well as comparative perspectives on nationalism/colonialism and national identity in East Asian communities. Basic knowledge of and familiarity with a particular language/region (China, Korea, or Japan) and its historical, socio-linguistic backgrounds are required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: One 200-level course in either Chinese, Japanese, or Korean language and culture required.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course narrates three thousand years of writing practices, with the Chinese script—the shared writing system in premodern East Asian—as a through line. We will focus on the social implications of writing, investigating questions such as how writing transformed political systems and interacted with ordinary people. Units and topics of this course include: mechanics of writing systems, empire formation and writing standardization, reading and writing practices in East Asia, evolving relationships between writings and (local, vernacular, and national) languages, writing as a technology, cross-cultural interactions and receptions, and finally, writing and gender. For the past two millennia, East Asia has been a source of media innovation. As we migrate with the Chinese script from bamboo slips onto paper, from printed books onto computer screens, we will tackle the theoretical toolkit and historical precedents for examining our current age of media disruption.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 346

Prerequisites: One course at the 200 or 300 level on East Asian literature, history or culture; or in Comparative Literature; or by permission of the instructor.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course explores Japanese literature from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries––including myths, poetry, narrative romances, diaries, essays, military tales, Noh drama, haiku, puppet plays, kabuki, and ghost stories––then traces its modern afterlife to film, television, and manga. Students will develop a critical and historically grounded appreciation of Japan's rich and varied literary tradition by analyzing it in light of such topics as religious practice, aesthetic ideals, dreams, desire, subjectivity, Chinese influence, the supernatural, war, gender, and sexuality.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 30

Crosslisted Courses: JPN 251

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Postwar modernization and industrialization have brought dramatic changes in Korean society. In spite of remarkable economic growth and rapid social progress, Korean women still struggle with gender inequality. This course explores the relationship between language use and cultural views of womanhood in modern Korea, using phonetics, semantics, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics. By examining actual language use in myths, movies, ads, and popular culture, we explore how sociolinguistic factors shape gender dichotomies, notions of individual identity, and ethnicity. Substantial evidence of linguistic data will be used to clarify the connection between language and gender as we address the challenges faced by women of East Asia.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Crosslisted Courses: LING 256

Prerequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements: EC - Epistemology and Cognition

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: