Courses

This course is designed for students with L5 Chinese (or equivalent) who wish to engage deeply and directly with the late imperial Chinese narrative fiction canon (ca. 16th–20th centuries). It combines linguistic training in so-called “vernacular Chinese”—more accurately understood as a hybrid of literary and spoken registers—with critical inquiry into the concept itself. In particular, we examine how “vernacular Chinese” has been deployed as a retrospective category in shaping the Chinese novel tradition. Through the course, students develop the skills and confidence to read late imperial fiction in the original, gain familiarity with the media contexts that produced these works, and approach their literary “genealogy” from a critical, Sinological perspective.

Reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of literary Chinese (wenyan), with attention to basic problems of syntax and literary style.

Continuation of CHNS 5700. Reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of literary Chinese (wenyan), with attention to basic problems of syntax and literary style.

This seminar explores artistic, architectural, and material responses to environmental transformations, such as floods, droughts, volcanic events, and periods of exceptional abundance, across the premodern world. Foregrounding the indivisibility of natural worlds and human creativity, we examine how ancient peoples conceived of, and responded to, the disruptions and affordances of their environment. Through a comparative framework that puts cultures across the ancient world into conversation—from Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica and beyond—we trace the entanglements of art, politics, and climate, asking: how, if at all, did environmental change materialize in the things people made? 

This seminar explores artistic, architectural, and material responses to environmental transformations, such as floods, droughts, volcanic events, and periods of exceptional abundance, across the premodern world. Foregrounding the indivisibility of natural worlds and human creativity, we examine how ancient peoples conceived of, and responded to, the disruptions and affordances of their environment. Through a comparative framework that puts cultures across the ancient world into conversation—from Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica and beyond—we trace the entanglements of art, politics, and climate, asking: how, if at all, did environmental change materialize in the things people made? 

This is an introductory seminar to Japanese literature and culture through the lens of things that have been considered traditionally Japanese. We explore these things—tea bowls, kimono, haiku, animation, fans, etc.—from both premodern and modern perspectives. We ask how they came to be regarded as Japanese and trace how they have subsequently circulated around the world as markers of Japaneseness. As part of the course, students have the chance to visit archives and museums to view objects and handle original materials. 

An introduction to the literature, culture, and thought of premodern China, from the beginnings of the written record to the turn of the twentieth century. Close study of textual and visual primary sources, with attention to their historical and cultural backdrops.

An introduction to Chinese philosophical, poetic, and visual explorations of landscape and the changing relationship between human beings and nature. Through texts, archaeological materials, visual and material culture, and garden designs from the 2nd c. BCE to modern times, we learn about the Chinese conception of the world, relationship to and experiences in nature, and shaping of the land through agriculture, imperial parks, and garden designs. We conclude with contemporary environmental issues confronting China, and how contemporary parks can help regenerate our ecosystem.

This course represents an introduction to the most important philosophical thinkers and texts in Chinese history, ranging from roughly 500 BC–1500 AD. Topics include ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, and ontology. We discuss the basic works of Confucian and Daoist philosophers during the Warring States and early imperial eras, the continuation of these traditions in early medieval “dark learning,” Buddhist philosophy (in its original Indian context, the early period of its spread to China, and in mature Chinese Buddhist schools such as Chan/Zen), and Neo-Confucian philosophy. The course emphasizes readings in the original texts of the thinkers and traditions in question (all in English translation).

This course is an introduction to Japanese literature written in the last fifty years, with a focus on women writers. Since the 1970s, Japanese women writers have increasingly appeared on the shelves of international bookshops and on the lists of international prizes. These authors have experimented with multiple genres, from romance to horror, and depicted diverse worlds, from the daily grind of working women to the simple pleasures of eating and cooking. Over the course of a semester, students encounter a new novel each week that introduces them to the world of contemporary Japanese literature. Novels are selected around a different theme each year. This year, the focus will be on novels that address loss––losing loved ones, losing memories, losing minds, losing composure, losing a sense of reality––and recovery from that loss. Original-language versions of texts can be made available.

Students read key works of Korean literature in English translation from the early twentieth century to the present day. The specific course topic varies by semester. Primary sources include long-form novels, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction writing by representative authors, as well as literary scholarship on themes and historical context relevant to the materials. The readings in this course are arranged in roughly chronological order, requiring us to examine Korea’s colonial modernization process in the first half of the twentieth century, the authoritarian regimes of South Korea from 1948 to 87, and South Korea’s integration into the neoliberal world order after democratization. Supplementary audio-visual materials such as artwork, video clips and music may be presented to students in class. 

This course explores how sex and sexuality have been discussed, regulated, and represented across East Asia and its diaspora, with particular focus on non-normative sexualities and gender variance. Course materials are organized in roughly chronological order, moving from scholarship on homoerotic practices in premodern East Asia; the introduction of modern sexological discourse in the early twentieth century; literary expressions of sexual deviance from the Cold War era (1945-1987); and LGBTQ subjectivities, cultures, and social movements since the 1990s.