Global Arc

This course takes a historically and formally rigorous approach to East Asian films that have breached the global visual field. We look at films from a variety of genres and historical moments, ranging from Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Rashomon to Bong Joon-ho's 2007 The Host, and investigate the conditions for their success - critical, commercial, or otherwise. Along the way, we will consider problems of nationalism, race, and globalization, and at the same time think seriously about the function of cinema in society, politics, and culture.

Close reading of classical Chinese poetry through transliteration, word-to-word explication, notes on allusions and background, and literal translation. Discussion of Chinese theories of poetry and the comparison between Chinese and Western poetic traditions. Knowledge of the Chinese language is not required or expected. One three-hour seminar.

Analysis through selected literary and cinematic works of authors' ideas, hopes, and worries about the fate of modern China. Consideration of literary and cinematic technique as well as the larger historical context. Readings in English.

An introduction to major literary works in the early modern period when Japanese literature was attempting to re-establish itself through Western influences. Readings in English translation include works by Ogai, Soseki, Ichiyo, Toson, and Shiga. Topics include the evolution of modern Japanese fiction vis-a-vis the modernization of Japan, representations of self, individualism, and nationalism.

North Korea is the subject of an array of often contradictory political and aesthetic representations, each of which make claims to truth. This course sets out to scrutinize these very real and productive imaginaries. Primary engagements will include official speeches and documents, artistic productions and defector testimonies from North Korea, as well as historical research, policy analysis, journalism, and non-state activities from outside the nation's borders. The task of understanding this most troubled of states will be challenged by visits from journalists, former intelligence or policy consultants, defectors, and religious groups.

This course aims to familiarize students with some of the basic questions and debates surrounding Korean history from its "beginnings" to its modern engagement/encounter with the international community in late nineteenth century. This course explores the relationship between theory and writing of history, and investigates the development of Western historiography of Korea. We will address questions of narrative, representation, truth and accountability. By evaluating how historical narratives participate in the construction of the nation and the state, we seek to facilitate critical reflection about history and the production of history.

A survey of modern Korean history. The main emphasis will be placed on the transformation witnessed in the twentieth century, and will cover the following major themes: modernism, colonialism (1910-1945), war (1950-1953), industrialization, and the politics of gender and class. Course materials include literary works, historical writings, and other cultural forms, such as art and film.

Over the course of history Korean women assumed a variety of roles that reflected the specific cultural, social, and political realities of their lives. While the organization of this course is more topic-oriented and not strictly chronological, we will cover the period that spans from the seventeenth century to the 1930s. Focusing our attention on such aspects of women's lives as family roles, literacy, work, sexuality, and activities in the public space, we will look into the circumstances that allowed women to become queens, courtesans, nuns, modern girls, writers, and workers in different historical contexts.

Knowledge about the world has assumed a variety of forms over history. This course, centered on travel writings by Koreans and about Korea, pursues two interrelated goals. First of all, we will look into the epistemic coordinates that structure travelogue as a genre of perception. Secondly, we will learn about the changing political and cultural contexts around ¿Korea,¿ which defined the modes of mobility and experience of travel in different historical periods. This, in turn, provides us with a concrete historical location, from which we can look out onto the structures of the larger world.

Using family as a lens and a theme that brings together an array of vastly different literary, filmic, and theoretical works, this class will examine key moments in the history of Korea from 2019 to old times. We will look into disenchanted families, violent families, cyborg families, mixed race families, immigrant families, South and North Korean families, royal families, and more. Maintaining the longue-durée historical perspective, we will ponder on the ethical and aesthetic premises of kinship and family as modes of configuring human reciprocity and ways to imagine and live life.