EALC256 - The Tale of Genji

Status
O
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
The Tale of Genji
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC256401
Course number integer
256
Registration notes
Crse Online: Sync & Async Components
Meeting times
TR 06:30 PM-07:30 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Linda H. Chance
Description
"Crowning masterpiece of Japanese literature," "the world's first novel," "fountainhead of Japanese literary and aesthetic culture," "a great soap opera in the vein of Jacqueline Susann." Readers over the centuries have praised the Tale of Genji, the monumental prose tale finished just after the year 1000, in a variety of ways. In this course we will read the latest English translation of Murasaki Shikibu's work. We will watch as Genji loses his mother at a tender age, is cast out of the royal family, and begins a quest to fill the void she left. Along the way, Genji's loyalty to all the women he encounters forges his reputation as the ideal lover. We will consider gender issues in the female author's portrayal of this rake, and question the changing audience, from bored court women to censorious monks, from adoring nationalists to comic book adaptors. Study of the tale requires consideration of poetry, imagery, costume, music, history, religion, theater, political and material culture, all of which will be components of the course. We will also trace the effect of the tale's many motifs, from flora and fauna to murderously jealous spirits, on later literature and conceptions of human emotions. All material is in English translation. There are no prerequisites.
Course number only
256
Cross listings
GSWS256401, EALC656401
Fulfills
Cross Cultural Analysis
Use local description
No

EALC253 - The Politics of Shinto

Status
O
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
The Politics of Shinto
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC253401
Course number integer
253
Registration notes
Crse Online: Sync & Async Components
Meeting times
T 05:30 PM-07:00 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Jolyon Thomas
Description
Shinto-derived images and ideas frequently appear in Japanese anime and film, and journalists and academics frequently mobilize the term Shinto as a way of explaining Japan's past or envisioning its future. The environmentalist left champions a green Shinto while Shinto-derived ideas serve as red meat for politicians pandering to Japan's nationalist right. While the influential position Shinto occupies in Japanese sociopolitical life is therefore clear, the term Shinto itself is actually not. Depending on who one asks, Shinto is either the venerable indigenous religion of the Japanese archipelago, the irreducible core of Japanese culture, a tiny subset of Japanese Buddhism, an environmentalist ethic, or some combination of these. This course investigates the multifarious types of Shinto envisioned by these competing interest groups.
Course number only
253
Cross listings
EALC653401, RELS671401, RELS271401
Use local description
No

EALC251 - Rdgs Classical Japanesei

Status
O
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Rdgs Classical Japanesei
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC251401
Course number integer
251
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Meeting times
TR 03:00 PM-04:30 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Linda H. Chance
Description
Readings in classical texts drawn from the Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo periods. Introduction to the different styles of classical Japanese, and to classical Japanese as a whole.
Course number only
251
Cross listings
EALC651401, JPAN491401
Use local description
No

EALC242 - Medicine/Healng in China

Status
O
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Medicine/Healng in China
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC242401
Course number integer
242
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Meeting times
TR 12:00 PM-01:30 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Hsiao-Wen Cheng
Description
This course explores Chinese medicine and healing culture, its diversity, and its change over time. We will discuss topics including the establishment of canonical medicine, Daoist approaches to healing and longevity, diverse views of the body and disease, the emergence of treatments for women, medical construction of sex difference and imagination of female sexuality, the thriving and decline of female healers, the identity of scholar physicians, the transmission of medical knowledge, domestic and cross-regional drug market, healer-patient relations, and new visions of traditional Chinese medicine in modern China.
Course number only
242
Cross listings
EALC642401
Use local description
No

EALC230 - Gender Religion & China

Status
O
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Gender Religion & China
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC230401
Course number integer
230
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Meeting times
R 04:30 PM-07:30 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Hsiao-Wen Cheng
Description
This course examines the interrelationship among "gender," "religion," and "China" as conceptual and historical categories. We ask, for example, how gender plays critical and constitutive roles in Chinese religious traditions, how religion can be used both to reinforce and to challenge gender norms, how religious women impact Chinese society and culture, and what the construction of "China" as a cultural identity and as a nation-state has to do with women, gender, and religion. We will also think about what assumptions we have when speaking of gender, religion, and China, and the infinite possibilities when we strive to think beyond. We will read three kinds of materials: (1) scholarship on gender and religion in historical and contemporary China as well as the Chinese-speaking world, (2) scholarship concerning theories and methodology of gender and religious studies not necessarily focused on China, and (3) historical record of religious women in English translation.
Course number only
230
Cross listings
EALC630401, RELS237401, RELS630401, GSWS630401, GSWS234401
Use local description
No

EALC227 - Chinese Painting

Status
O
Activity
REC
Section number integer
403
Title (text only)
Chinese Painting
Term
2021A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
403
Section ID
EALC227403
Course number integer
227
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Registration also required for Lecture (see below)
Meeting times
F 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Bryce Douglas Heatherly
Description
Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial representation through the late twentieth century. Painting styles are analyzed, but themes such as landscape and narrative are considered with regard to larger social, cultural, and historical issues. The class will pay particular attention to the construction of the concepts of the "artist" and "art criticism" and their impact on the field into the present. Visits to study paintings at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Course number only
227
Cross listings
EALC627403, ARTH217403
Use local description
No

EALC227 - Chinese Painting

Status
O
Activity
REC
Section number integer
402
Title (text only)
Chinese Painting
Term
2021A
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
402
Section ID
EALC227402
Course number integer
227
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Registration also required for Lecture (see below)
Meeting times
F 10:00 AM-11:00 AM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Bryce Douglas Heatherly
Description
Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial representation through the late twentieth century. Painting styles are analyzed, but themes such as landscape and narrative are considered with regard to larger social, cultural, and historical issues. The class will pay particular attention to the construction of the concepts of the "artist" and "art criticism" and their impact on the field into the present. Visits to study paintings at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Course number only
227
Cross listings
EALC627402, ARTH217402
Use local description
No

EALC227 - Chinese Painting

Status
O
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Chinese Painting
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC227401
Course number integer
227
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
Meeting times
MW 10:00 AM-11:00 AM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Nancy R S Steinhardt
Description
Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial representation through the late twentieth century. Painting styles are analyzed, but themes such as landscape and narrative are considered with regard to larger social, cultural, and historical issues. The class will pay particular attention to the construction of the concepts of the "artist" and "art criticism" and their impact on the field into the present. Visits to study paintings at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Course number only
227
Cross listings
ARTH217401, EALC627401
Use local description
No

EALC222 - 1st Yr Classical Chin II

Status
O
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
1st Yr Classical Chin II
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC222401
Course number integer
222
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Meeting times
TR 01:30 PM-03:00 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Victor H Mair
Description
Continuation of CHIN491 EALC221/621, which is the only prerequisite for this course. Upon completion of Shadick, readings in a wide selection of texts with Chinese commentaries may be taken up. These readings are in part chosen to reflect student interest. This is the second half of a year-long course. Those who enroll must take both semesters.
Course number only
222
Cross listings
CHIN492401, EALC622401
Use local description
No

EALC220 - Tang China & Nara Japan

Status
O
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Tang China & Nara Japan
Term
2021A
Syllabus URL
Subject area
EALC
Section number only
401
Section ID
EALC220401
Course number integer
220
Registration notes
Course Online: Synchronous Format
Meeting times
T 07:00 PM-10:00 PM
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Nancy R S Steinhardt
Description
This is a seminar about Tang China and Nara Japan, and Early Heian Japan, Unified Silla Korea, Northeast Asia under Parhae, and Uyghur Inner Asia through their cities, palaces, monasteries, Buddhist art, and painting. We begin by studying material remains of the two best-documented civilizations of East Asian in the seventh-ninth centuries. Using painting, sculpture, ceramics, and architecture of Tang China and Nara Japan, we investigate the validity of the frequent assessment of an international Tang through material remains in China and Japan. We then move to Korea, Mongolia, and Central Asia. Students will have a wide range of topics to work on. They will be encouraged to find comparative topics. This seminar is an opportunity for students to use Chinese, Japanese, or Korean in research papers. There are no exams. Readings will be assigned to the whole group and to individual students for short presentations every week. Undergraduates will write one short and write and present one long paper.
Course number only
220
Cross listings
EALC620401
Use local description
No