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Courses

Courses with no explicit focus on East Asia may also apply to the major if the final paper in the course is on East Asia.  Permission of the DUS is required before the course can be applied. Please contact the DUS or Registrar if you have any questions.

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Chinese for Global Enterprises
CHNS 168

Advanced language course with a focus on Chinese business terminology and discourse. Discussion of China’s economic and management reforms, marketing, economic laws, business culture and customs, and economic relations with other countries. Case studies from international enterprises that have successfully entered the Chinese market.

After CHNS 153, CHNS 157, CHNS 159 or equivalent.
Lecture
Fall 2024
M,W 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Chinese for Global Enterprises
CHNS 169

Advanced language course with a focus on Chinese business terminology and discourse. Discussion of China’s economic and management reforms, marketing, economic laws, business culture and customs, and economic relations with other countries. Case studies from international enterprises that have successfully entered the Chinese market.

After CHNS 153, CHNS 157, CHNS 159 or equivalent.
Lecture
Spring
M,W 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Introduction to Literary Chinese I
CHNS 170

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

Course conducted in English. After CHNS 151, CHNS 153, CHNS 157 or equivalent.
Lecture
Fall 2024
MW 11:35 AM - 12:50 PM
Introduction to Literary Chinese II
CHNS 171

Continuation of CHNS 170.

After CHNS 170 or equivalent
Lecture
Spring
MW 11:35 AM - 12:50 PM
Chinese for Scholarly Conversation
CHNS 172

This course aims to prepare students for the language requirements of advanced research or employment in a variety of China-related fields. Materials include readings on contemporary social, cultural, and political issues, which are written by prominent scholars in related fields. This level is suitable for students who have had four years of college Chinese or who have taken three years of an accelerated program for heritage speakers.

After CHNS 153, CHNS 157, CHNS 159 or equivalent, or permission of instructor.
Lecture
Fall 2024
M,W 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Introduction to Literary Chinese I
CHNS 570

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

After CHNS 151, 153 or equivalent. Instructor permission required.
Lecture
Fall 2024
MW 11:35 AM - 12:50 PM
Introduction to Literary Chinese II
CHNS 571

Continuation of CHNS 570.

After CHNS 570 or equivalent. Instructor permission required.
Lecture
Spring
MW 11:35 AM - 12:50 PM
Socialist '80s: Aesthetics of Reform in China and the Soviet Union
CPLT 612, EALL 588, EAST 616, RSEE 605, RUSS 605

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of the complex cultural and political paradigms of late socialism from a transnational perspective by focusing on the literature, cinema, and popular culture of the Soviet Union and China in 1980s. How were intellectual and everyday life in the Soviet Union and China distinct from and similar to that of the West of the same era? How do we parse “the cultural logic of late socialism?” What can today’s America learn from it? Examining two major socialist cultures together in a global context, this course queries the ethnographic, ideological, and socio-economic constituents of late socialism. Students analyze cultural materials in the context of Soviet and Chinese history. Along the way, we explore themes of identity, nationalism, globalization, capitalism, and the Cold War. 

Students with knowledge of Russian and Chinese are encouraged to read in original. All readings are available in English.
Seminar
Fall 2024
Th 1:30 PM - 3:20 PM
Russian and Chinese Science Fiction
EALL 025, RUSS 025

What can we learn about Russian and Chinese cultures through their fantasies? How do Russian and Chinese writers and filmmakers respond to the global issues of animal ethics, artificial intelligence, space immigration, surveillance, gender and sexuality? How are Russian and Chinese visions of the future different from and similar to the western ones? This course explores these questions by examining 20th-21st century Russian and Chinese science fictions in their cultural, historical, and philosophical contexts. All readings and discussion in English. Sci-fi authors and translators will be invited to give guest lectures.

Enrollment limited to first-year students. Permission of instructor required.
Seminar
Fall 2024
Th 3:30 PM - 5:20 PM
Writing Philosophy: Weakness of Will in Ancient China, Greece, and Today
EALL 150, CLCV 121, EAST 307, PHIL 100

“Grant me chastity and strength of will—but not yet!” In this infamous prayer, Augustine wrestles with a perennial problem for human agency: the apparent gap between knowing that we should do something and actually wanting to do it. How wide is the gap? How can we bridge it? How pervasive is the problem? This course introduces first-year students to writing in the discipline of philosophy by tracing the contours of these questions and exploring their answers in ancient China, ancient Greece, and modern analytic philosophy. We begin by considering the traditional account of weakness of will as akrasia (i.e., doing what one knows one shouldn’t do) and explaining how such a gap in our agency is or isn’t possible. Next, we consider an alternative account, that of acedia (i.e., not doing what one knows one should do), and assess strategies for helping an agent bridge this kind of gap. Finally, we reassess the phenomenon of weakness of will in light of arguments that position it in a broader context, approach it from a new perspective, or try to rewrite our understanding of the phenomenon altogether.

Seminar
Fall 2024
T,Th 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
The Chinese Tradition
EALL 200, CHNS 200, EAST 240, HUMS 270

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.

Students enrolled in CHNS 200 join a weekly Mandarin-language discussion section. No knowledge of Chinese required for students enrolled in EALL 200. Students enrolled in CHNS 200 must have L5 proficiency in Mandarin or permission of the course instructor.
Lecture
Fall 2024
M,W 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM
The Tale of Genji
EALL 203, HUMS 284, LITR 198

A reading of the central work of prose fiction in the Japanese classical tradition in its entirety (in English translation) along with some examples of predecessors, parodies, and adaptations (the latter include Noh plays and twentieth-century short stories). Topics of discussion include narrative form, poetics, gendered authorship and readership, and the processes and premises that have given The Tale of Genji its place in “world literature.” Attention will also be given to the text’s special relationship to visual culture.

No knowledge of Japanese required. A previous college-level course in the study of literary texts is recommended but not required.
Lecture
Fall 2024
MW 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM

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