EAS 101 CC: BEYOND THE ORIENT:LIT/FILM
Why should we study East Asia? How has “East Asia” been invented, represented, misrepresented, and contested by different parties throughout modern history in a global system? As things stand now, still in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid various ongoing global crises, we are uniquely positioned to rethink and challenge some commonly held beliefs that have laid the political, economic, and cultural foundations for an imagined modernity in the East Asian context, while wrestling with the legacies of colonialism, Orientalism, anti-Asian racism, and Western dominance more broadly, and acknowledging their contemporary consequences. We will engage in a series of inquiries: the historical origins of the concept “East Asia”; complex geopolitical and cultural exchanges and negotiations between East and West and among East Asian nations themselves; evolving debates on progress and modernity; the protean nature of historical representation and its impact on the present; polemics of translation and cultural appropriation; and, finally, creative endeavors by East Asian thinkers, authors, artists, and filmmakers to break down boundaries and to seek a constructive and sustainable future. Students will develop critical reading and analytical skills through close engagement with primary and secondary sources in multiple media, including textual, visual, and filmic materials. We will consistently conduct close reading exercises and hold two translation workshops in class. Situating our discussions within comparative and transnational frameworks, we will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on literary studies, anthropology, art history and museum studies, Asian American studies, studies of gender, race and ethnicity, environmental studies, history, media and film studies, philosophy, political science and international relations, and translation studies.
Enrollment Limit
Enrollment limited to 38 students.
Attributes
CC, MOIB, MOIE, SDP, W