EALC6371 - New Korean Cinema

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
New Korean Cinema
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC6371401
Course number integer
6371
Meeting times
T 10:15 AM-1:14 PM
Meeting location
PWH 108
Level
graduate
Instructors
So-Rim Lee
Description
In 2019, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. This event marked the apex of South Korean cinematic renaissance, having steadily become a tour de force in the international film festival scene since 1997 onwards. This course explores the major auteurs, styles, themes, and currents of the so-called "New Korean Cinema" that emerged in the mid-to-late 1990s to continue to this day. Drawing from texts on critical film and Korean studies, we will pay particular attention to how the selected works re-present, resist, and interweave the sociopolitical climate they concern and are born out of. Using cinema as a lens with which to see the society, we will touch upon major events of the twentieth century including national division, military dictatorship and democratization movements, IMF economic crisis, youth culture, hallyu (the Korean wave), and damunhwa (multiculturalism initiative). In so doing, we will closely examine how each cinematic medium addresses the societal power structure and the role of the "Other" it represents in terms of class, race, gender, and sexuality in the construction of contemporary Korean society. We will also briefly survey the history of South Korean cinema that has evolved hand-in-hand with the history of modern Korea itself, walking through its five different phases (1945-Korean War era;1955-1972 "Golden Age"; 1973-1979 censorship era; 1980-1996 democratization era; and 1997 onwards). No prior experience of Korean studies courses necessary; all films will be screened with English subtitles.
Course number only
6371
Cross listings
CIMS1371401, CIMS6371401, EALC1371401
Use local description
No

EALC1271 - Labor and Literature in Modern Korea: Remaking Ecologies on the Peninsula

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Labor and Literature in Modern Korea: Remaking Ecologies on the Peninsula
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC1271401
Course number integer
1271
Meeting times
TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM
Meeting location
WILL 307
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Vanessa Baker
Description
Contemporary newspapers are packed with articles about the devastating effects of climate change and industrial pollution. This course explores what short stories and novels written in twentieth century Korea have to say about the changing ecology of the peninsula. More specifically, how do laboring bodies contribute to, and also, resist the creation of unsustainable local ecologies? The fiction we read is primarily concerned with how gendered bodies labor with the land in response to the contemporaneous socio-political climate including colonialcapitalism, national division, industrialization, authoritarianism, democracy, and neoliberalism.
We will read works that capture the everyday experience of laborers, gendered violence, and the ecological repercussions of nation-building projects through the lens of modern Korean literature. Throughout the course, students will develop their critical thinking skills in speaking and writing about the ecological, ethical, and political implications of literature. This course is interdisciplinary and encourages students to incorporate methodologies from their own fields of expertise and apply them to the class assignments. Materials are all in English and no prerequisite is necessary to enroll.
Course number only
1271
Cross listings
COML1271401
Use local description
No

EALC1702 - East Asian Environments

Status
X
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
East Asian Environments
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC1702401
Course number integer
1702
Meeting times
CANCELED
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Wenjiao Cai
Description
Home to vibrant economies and societies, East Asia is undergoing profound environmental transformations. These developments, crucial for understanding the crises of our time, have deep roots in the past. This seminar course investigates key topics in East Asian environmental history over the last three millennia as we think about the region’s role in the global ecological future.
Focusing on China, Korea, and Japan, we will explore not only how East Asian societies shaped and were shaped by the natural world they inhabited, but also how an environmental perspective helps us view issues such as economic development, ethnicity, state-building, urbanization, and colonialism in a new light. In examining narratives of ecological change in East Asia, we will gain a deeper understanding of the region and the role of the environment in history and historiography.
Course number only
1702
Cross listings
HIST0852401
Use local description
No

EALC1411 - Queer Chinas: Sexuality and Politics in the Sinophone World

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Queer Chinas: Sexuality and Politics in the Sinophone World
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC1411401
Course number integer
1411
Meeting times
T 3:30 PM-6:29 PM
Meeting location
WILL 216
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Teemu Ruskola
Description
This class examines queer phenomena in and around China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the queer Sinophone world more generally. Beyond seeking to understand sexual subcultures and sites of queer intimacies on their own terms, the course examines their relationship to political economy and geopolitics. In addition to filmic and literary texts, the course includes readings that are theoretical, anthropological, sociological, and comparative. While the focus is largely on modern China, the class also attends to historical reference points both inside and outside the Sinophone world. From a macro perspective, this course examines China’s place in discourses of development, focusing on the role of desire in constituting the sexual and political subject of modernity. The overall goal of this class is to develop alternative frameworks for understanding the relationship between sexuality and politics. The course does not require specialized knowledge of China.
Course number only
1411
Cross listings
GSWS1411401
Use local description
No

EALC7531 - Chinese Law and Society

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Chinese Law and Society
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC7531401
Course number integer
7531
Meeting times
W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM
Meeting location
WILL 28
Level
graduate
Instructors
Teemu Ruskola
Description
This course is an introduction to the study of law and society in China in a comparative and global context. We will begin by considering the tradition of imperial Chinese law and its social and philosophical foundations. We will then turn to the confrontation between the Qing empire and Euro-American imperial powers in the nineteenth century and the attendant collision between European and Chinese notions of sovereignty. Next, we will consider early twentieth-century law reforms as the Qing empire was transformed into the constitutional form of a modern republic, followed by the introduction of socialist law and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The course will conclude with post-Mao reforms and their implications for the future of Chinese law and society. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to the use of historical and comparative methods. What are the potentials and liabilities of using law as an analytical category in cross-cultural study? What happens when “Eastern” and “Western” legal cultures come in contact with each other? How is law related to capitalism and socialism? How does law structure political and socio-economic relations globally? How does law produce as well as constrain subjects and identities? What is the relationship between law, gender, and sexuality?
Course number only
7531
Cross listings
EALC3531401
Use local description
No

EALC3531 - Chinese Law and Society

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Chinese Law and Society
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC3531401
Course number integer
3531
Meeting times
W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM
Meeting location
WILL 28
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Teemu Ruskola
Description
This course is an introduction to the study of law and society in China in a comparative and global context. We will begin by considering the tradition of imperial Chinese law and its social and philosophical foundations. We will then turn to the confrontation between the Qing empire and Euro-American imperial powers in the nineteenth century and the attendant collision between European and Chinese notions of sovereignty. Next, we will consider early twentieth-century law reforms as the Qing empire was transformed into the constitutional form of a modern republic, followed by the introduction of socialist law and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The course will conclude with post-Mao reforms and their implications for the future of Chinese law and society. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to the use of historical and comparative methods. What are the potentials and liabilities of using law as an analytical category in cross-cultural study? What happens when “Eastern” and “Western” legal cultures come in contact with each other? How is law related to capitalism and socialism? How does law structure political and socio-economic relations globally? How does law produce as well as constrain subjects and identities? What is the relationship between law, gender, and sexuality?
Course number only
3531
Cross listings
EALC7531401
Use local description
No

EALC6771 - Korea Through Ethnography

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Korea Through Ethnography
Term
2023A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC6771401
Course number integer
6771
Meeting times
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM
Meeting location
WILL 633
Level
graduate
Instructors
Yoonjung Kang
Description
Over the last few decades, a substantial volume of the ethnographic studies of South Korea has produced. Providing critical insight into South Korea’s quite particular and transforming history and cultures of modernization, industrialization, and globalization, these ethnographic works help us understand many of the historical, political, and economic issues that have both defined and complicated modern Korean society and nationhood. In this course, we will explore the contemporary social and cultural life in South Korea through ethnographies. Major themes include modernization, capitalism, class, gender, family, religion, globalization, and popular culture. This class will be held as part lecture and part seminar format.
Course number only
6771
Cross listings
ANTH1771401, ANTH6771401, EALC2771401
Use local description
No

EALC1759 - Current Issues in Contemporary Japan

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Current Issues in Contemporary Japan
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC1759401
Course number integer
1759
Meeting times
T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM
Meeting location
MCNB 395
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Kenji Ishida
Description
In this course, we aim to understand what social issues in Japanese society exist and how
they occur. Japan had experienced rapid industrial and economic developments until the 1980s. The Japanese systems of education, labor markets, and social security, which have continued until today, were established by this period approximately. Although people at that time were suffered from problems like harsh entrance examinations for secondary and higher educations, long working hours after they started a job, and gender inequality, they accepted these problems in exchange for their economic flourishment.
Course number only
1759
Cross listings
SOCI2700401, SOCI5690401
Use local description
No

EALC1251 - Tokyo Stories in Contemporary Japanese Fiction

Status
A
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
1
Title (text only)
Tokyo Stories in Contemporary Japanese Fiction
Term
2023A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
001
Section ID
EALC1251001
Course number integer
1251
Meeting times
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM
Meeting location
WILL 304
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Kathryn Hemmann
Description
Tokyo is one of the largest and most vibrant cities in the world. It's also one of the most storied, laying claim to centuries of history and countless colorful districts and neighborhoods. In this class we will explore Tokyo by delving into a collection of stories set in and around the great metropolis. We will work our way forward in time, beginning from the city's roots as the samurai capital of Edo. Along the way, we will investigate contemporary themes such as demographic crisis, social stratification, gender trouble, and the ruins of neoliberal capitalism. By the end of the semester, students will have been exposed to a diverse range of representative authors and cultural concerns that will help them develop a nuanced understanding of Japanese history and society.
Course number only
1251
Fulfills
Cross Cultural Analysis
Use local description
No

EALC3532 - Constitutionalism and Democracy in China: 1900-present

Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Constitutionalism and Democracy in China: 1900-present
Term
2023A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC3532401
Course number integer
3532
Meeting times
T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM
Meeting location
PWH 108
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Arthur Waldron
Description
Research on constitutional thought in China from the late Qing to the present, as well as the political and practical aspects of attempts at implementation. A presentation and a research paper of moderate length are expected. Chinese language is not necessary, though if you have it, that will be useful.
Course number only
3532
Cross listings
HIST3552401
Use local description
No