Courses

Courses

Fall 2007 Courses

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017. Shanghai Imagined
Belinda Kong T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 Mass-McKeen Study
Examines literary and filmic representations of Shanghai of the 1930s and 1940s. Explores how Shanghai imagined itself through its own writers at the time as well as how it has been imagined retrospectively by contemporary writers and filmmakers, both within China and in the diaspora. Topics include conceptions of cosmopolitanism, the Second World War and the Japanese occupation, the International Settlement and colonialism, the figure of the Eurasian, the Jewish ghetto, and hybrid cultural forms such as Shanghai jazz.

029. The Jewish Diaspora: Unity and Diversity
Mitchell Numark T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 Searles-115
What makes someone or something Jewish? How does one characterize or define something as “Jewish?” To what extent are/were definitions of “Jewishness” culturally, historically, and geographically contingent? Explores comparatively how the meaning of being Jewish changed over time and varied by place and circumstance. Examines how Jewish definitions of Jewishness in various Jewish communities (in the United States, England, Germany, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, China, and Ethiopia ) were informed by the ways in which non-Jews treated and perceived Jews.

211. Arts of China
De-nin Lee T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 VAC-Beam Classroom
A chronological survey of ritual objects, sculpture, architecture, painting, and decorative arts in China from the Neolithic to the modern period. Topics include ritual practices and mortuary art, technologies of art and the role of trade, the impact of Buddhism, courtly and scholarly modes of painting, and popular and avant-garde art.

216. Asian Diaspora Literature of WWII
Belinda Kong T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25 Sills-117
Focuses on War World War II as a global moment when modernity’s two sides, its dreams and nightmares, collided. Emphasis on contemporary Asian diaspora fiction that probes the exclusions and failures of nation and empire—foundational categories of modernity—from both Western and Asian perspectives. On the one hand, World War II marks prominently the plurality of modernities in our world: as certain nations and imperial powers entered into their twilight years, others were just emerging. At the same time, World War II reveals how such grand projects of modernity as national consolidation, ethnic unification, and imperial expansion have led to consequences that include internment camps, the atom bomb, sexual slavery, genocide, and the widespread displacement of peoples that inaugurates diasporas. Diaspora literature thus constitutes one significant focal point where modernity may be critically interrogated. Part of the Other Modernities course cluster in the Asian Studies Program.

220. Modern and Contemporary Art in China
De-nin Lee T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 VAC-Picture Study
Examines the multitude of visual expressions Chinese artists adopted, re-fashioned, and rejected during the political struggles of the twentieth century, from the May Fourth Movement of 1919 through the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and (almost) to the present day. Major themes include the tension between identity and modernity, the relationship between art and politics, and the impact of globalization and an international art market. Part of the Other Modernities course cluster in the Asian Studies Program.

226. Religion and Political Violence in South Asia
Sunil Goonasekera T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25 Searles-126
Religion is a universal phenomenon that touches, if not dominates, daily life and is a force that can compel people to be both perpetrators and victims of violence. Sociological and anthropological studies point to social, political, economic, cultural, legal and psychological facts that propel individuals and groups to use violence and justify its use by bringing violence into a religious context. Seeks to understand the relationship between religion and violence and the causes and effects of that relationship. Specifically addresses these issues in South Asian cultural systems.

227. Contemporary Chinese Politics
Lance Guo T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55 CT-16 Harrison McCann
Examines Chinese politics in the context of a prolonged revolution. After a survey of the political system as established in the 1950s and patterns of politics emerging from it, the analytic focus turns to political change in the reform era (since 1979) and the forces driving it. Topics include the political impact of decentralization and marketization, the reintegration into the capitalist world economy, and the development of the legal system. The adaptation by the Communist Party to these changes and the prospects of democratization are also examined.

229. Politics and Societies in Southeast Asia
Lance Guo T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 Searles-313
A survey of the political landscape and trends of change in tropical Southeast Asia and an investigation of the fundamental driving forces of changes in this region of rich diversity in culture, religion, ethnicity, mystic beliefs, and political traditions. Topics include nation building and the role of colonial history in it; regime legitimacy; political protests (often spearheaded by college students); armed insurgence and nationalism; the different responses to modernization; the causes and consequences of rapid economic growth; the clash between human rights, democracy, and indigenous traditions.

246. The Fantastic and Demonic in Japanese Literature
Vyjayanthi Selinger M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25 Searles-115
From possessing spirits and serpentine creatures to hungry ghosts and spectral visions, Japanese literary history is alive with supernatural beings. The focus of study ranges from the earliest times to modernity, examining these motifs in both historical and theoretical contexts. Readings pose the following broad questions: How do representations of the supernatural function in both creation myths of the ancient past and the rational narratives of the modern nation? What is the relationship between liminal beings and a society’s notion of purity? How may we understand the uncanny return of dead spirits in medieval Japanese drama? How does the construction of demonic female sexuality vary between medieval and modern Japan? Draws on various genres of representation, from legends and novels to drama, paintings, and cinema. Students gain an understanding of the different representations of these fantastic beings in Japanese literature, and develop an appreciation of the hold that these creatures from the “other” side maintain over our cultural and social imagination.

249. Perspectives on Modern China
Shuqin Cui T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 Hubbard-22
Explores the changing nature of modern China from interdisciplinary perspectives: history, literature, documentary films, and cultural studies. Investigates the process of nation-building and destruction throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by using history as the primary framework and written/visual representations as analytical texts.A required course for majors in Asian studies specializing in China. Part of the Other Modernities course cluster.

256. Modern South Asia
Mitchell Numark T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 Searles-115
Chronological and thematic introduction to the history of South Asia from the rise of British imperial power in the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Topics include the formation of a colonial economy and society; religious and social reform; the emergence of anti-colonial nationalism; the road to independence and partition; and issues of secularism, religious fundamentalisms, democracy, and inequality that have shaped post-colonial South Asian societies.

270. Chinese Thought in the Classical Period
Kidder Smith M 8:00 - 9:25, W 8:00 - 9:25 Sills-117
An introduction to the competing schools of Chinese thought in the time of Confucius and his successors.

289. Construction of the Goddess and Deification of Women in Hindu Religious Tradition
Sree Holt T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 38 College-Conference Room
Focuses include: (1) an examination of the manner in which the power of the feminine has been expressed mythologically and theologically in Hinduism; (2) how various categories of goddesses can be seen or not as the forms of the “great goddess”; and (3) how Hindu women have been deified, a process that implicates the relationship between the goddess and women. Students read a range of works, primary sources such as Devi Mahatmya, biographies and myths of deified women, and recent scholarship on goddesses and deified women. One-half credit.

319. Religion and Fiction in Modern South Asia
John Holt M 6:30 - 9:25 Ashby House-3
A study of the Hindu and Buddhist religious cultures of modern South Asia as they have been imagined, represented, interpreted, and critiqued in the literary works of contemporary and modern South Asian writers of fiction and historical novels, including Salman Rushdie (Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses), V.S. Naipaul (An Area of Darkness, India: A Million Mutinies Now?), Gita Mehta (A River Sutra), etc. Part of the Other Modernities course cluster in the Asian Studies program.

370. Problems in Chinese History
Kidder Smith T 8:30 - 11:25 Sills-Peucinian Room
Reviews the whole of Chinese history. Students develop their research skills and write a substantial research paper. Primarily for seniors.

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