Courses
Chinese 190/570 - Advanced Readings in Modern Chinese Literature
| A rigorous introduction to literary criticism and analysis using texts in the original language. Focus on the contemporary period, drawing from fiction written in Chinese in different parts of the world, from mainland China to Taiwan and from Malaysia to Hong Kong. Texts in both simplified and traditional characters. |
Curiosity and Spectacle in Early Modern Japan
Cultural and intellectual movements of early modern (Edo) Japan explored through themes of curiosity and spectacle. Travel, material culture, print media, popular fiction and theater, sideshows and street performers, natural history, the supernatural, study of foreign cultures and of the past.
Japanese Literature after 1970
Study of Japanese literature published between 1970 and the present. Writers may include Murakami Ryu, Maruya Saiichi, Shimada Masahiko, Nakagami Kenji, Yoshimoto Banana, Yamada Eimi, Murakami Haruki, and Medoruma Shun.
Japanese Popular Culture
Contemporary Japanese popular culture and its historical antecedents, with particular focus on film, anime, manga, literature, television, and music.
Readings in Literary Japanese
Close analytical reading of a selection of texts from the Nara through the Tokugawa periods: prose, poetry, and various genres. Introduction to kanbun.
Text and Author in Ancient China
Survey of the major literary traditions from ancient China. Focus on the problems of why ancient Chinese authors were more reticent than authors in other traditions and why the rise of the author coincided with empire. Secondary readings explore authorship from both theoretical and comparative perspectives.
Japanese 705 - The Lotus Sutra in Heian Period Narratives
A study of representations of faith, ritual, and practice focused on the Hokekyo in Hokke genki, Genji monogatari, Eiga monogatari, and other texts.
The Five Classics
This seminar is an introduction to the texts that comprise the early Chinese canon: the Changes, Documents, Odes, Rituals, and Annals. After exploring the establishment of the Five Classics under the Han, we devote the rest of the term to reading lengthy selections from these traditions, each of which presents a unique set of interpretive challenges. Discussion topics include the development of early textual culture, processes of textual formation, the Five Classics in excavated manuscripts, and the use of database tools for the study of early Chinese texts.