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Women wrote Japan’s most significant fiction and poetry, from the classical The Tale of Genji & Pillow Book, through 1920s proletarian literature, feminist manifestos of the 1960s, and manga of today. The course focuses on close readings of literary texts and criticism, informed by key concepts of gender, power, sexuality, and voice, and histories of women in literary spheres of society. We interrogate how cultural forms (linked verse, the confession, graphic novels) co-mingle with writing personas (narrator, author, reader).

Taught by

Ann Sherif

Ritual has always played a central role in the religions of East Asia. In this course, we conduct case studies of ritual practices representative of each major tradition (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Shinto), as well as several that defy neat categorization. We will study ritual as compelling practices through which religious actors have sought to transform self, society, and cosmos. Orthopraxy, performance, affect, and the body are some the key themes we’ll consider in our engagements with textual primary sources as well as video and audio recordings of rituals as performed and recreated in contemporary settings.

Taught by

Andrew Macomber

Does Chinese popular cinema function as public intellectualism? This course examines the history, genre, aesthetic, and politics of the post-reform Chinese fiction films and documentaries from 1982 to 2014. Studying the works of Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke, Wu Wenguang, Wong Kar-wai, Ann Hui, He Zhaoti, Wei Desheng and others, we examine the extent to which influential directors have become a new class or organic intellectuals who raise political questions to propel social change.

Taught by

Hsiu-Chuang Deppman

The Korean peninsula was at the center of the most dramatic upheavals of the late 19th century and early 20th century East Asia. This was a period that witnessed the rise of Japan and the decline of China and the Sinocentric world order that had dominated the region for over a millennia. Imperial Russia was also making inroads into Asia. This seminar is focused on the diplomatic, political and military history of these years, concentrating on Korean, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, European and American history.

Taught by

Sheila Miyoshi Jager