Why do many of us feel miserable at work? Why do we often feel more alive when doing economically worthless things such as hanging out with friends and indulging in expensive hobbies? What is useful about it? What is usefulness? Why should we be productive members of society? This course attempts to answer these questions by examining 1970s and 80s South Korean literature and film. South Korean society underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization during the period. Many believed that if they worked hard and spent little, they would be prosperous. As a matter of fact, to mobilize people for state-led economic development, the South Korean state constantly invoked the utilitarian ideology that emphasized the values of usefulness, productivity, and efficiency. However, quite a few literary texts and movies from 1970s and 80s South Korea show how much oppressive and exploitative such a society dominated by utilitarian ideology could be. In order to critically comprehend the problem of utility and such related issues as labor, violence, and democracy, and understand the historical context, students are required to read works in critical theory and excerpts from a Korean history textbook as well as literary texts. All readings are in English.

Cross-listed: (same as 64530 Intl St 179, Lec H)
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

Why do we read literature? What do we want from reading novels and poems? What does it mean to read literature in the age of the internet and interactive media? What is literature for? To answer these questions, the course traces the history of modern Korean literature from its emergence to its current state by examining a number of critical essays that address the value of literature and reading a diverse range of literary texts that reflect the different views of literature’s value.
Days: WE  03:00-05:50 PM

This course investigates postwar to contemporary popular culture in Japan and the world with interdisciplinary tools to understand the ways social and global dynamics and popular culture trends influence each other. The course helps students analyze and recognize broader themes and agendas not only in animations but also in the fields of art, film, music and beyond in the context of globalization. Discussion topics include gender and infantilization, religion and spirituality, art and aesthetics, robots and technology, otaku and other types of consumers, music, nostalgia and environmental issues. This course is taught seminar style and students are expected to actively contribute in class.

Note: Course deals with Modern Japanese Literature and Culture

Days:   12:00-12:00 AM

Focusing on several works of fiction and drama produced during the late imperial period to explore how the concept of desire is represented and negotiated in these literary texts. Emphasis on close reading.
Pop quizzes, mid-term and final exams.
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

This class is designed for students with native or near native fluency in Chinese. It is taught in Chinese and written assignment is in Chinese. It focuses on the famous sixteenth-century erotic novel Jin Ping Mei (known in English as The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus). Emphasis on close reading. Pop quizzes, mid-term and final exams.
Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

History 171D surveys the development of Chinese civilization from high antiquity through the eighteenth century.  Lectures will focus on political, intellectual, economic, and socio-cultural changes.  They will be organized chronologically, but emphasize certain important topics and large patterns in traditional Chinese history, including the emergence of a distinctive form of bureaucratic absolutism, the development of Confucian ideology and other classical age philosophies, the introduction and spread of Buddhism, the evolution of a hierarchical but fluid social structure, the great commercial booms in the tenth and sixteenth centuries, the growth of autocracy in the later imperial era, the rise of neo-Confucian orthodoxy, civil service examination culture and the rise of the gentry, the elaboration of the Confucian gender system, the development of folk religion, and the interaction between elite and popular cultures.

This course fullfills the pre-1800 History major requirement.
Days: MO WE  12:00-12:50 PM

Christianity has made a significant contribution to the shaping of modern Korean society and culture. In this class, we will first explore the impact of Christianity on modern Korean culture and society that include social relationship, education, gender relationship, nationalism, and politics.  We will further examine some of the central themes of Christianity that are explored in Korean films vis-à-vis Korea’s historical trauma such as war and national division as well as rapid industrialization and the resultant class conflicts that Koreans have experienced in the course of tumultuous modern history.  We will discuss films by Park Chan-wook, Kim Ki-duk, and Lee Chang-dong among others focusing on the themes of good and evil, grace and forgiveness, atonement and sacrifice, reconciliation and community of love, etc. 
Additional materials may be drawn from non-Korean art house films for a comparative purpose.
Days: MO WE  11:00-11:50 AM

This course examines the changing representations of women in Korean film and literature in the post-Korean War period (1950s to present).  During this period Koreans have experienced a devastating war, national division, industrialization, authoritarian rule and intense democracy movement. In tandem, the societal roles and perspectives of Korean women have undergone a remarkable transformation. In this class, we are going to examine topics including war and sexuality, fashion and popular culture, femme fatale, love and romance, maternity and wifehood, work and family, and nation and diaspora.  Films ranging from Madam Freedom (1956), Youngja’s Heyday (1975), Gilsotteum (1985), Happy End (1999) and Mother (2010) will be discussed.  We will also read stories by writers such as Hwang Sok-young, Kang Shin-jae, O Chong-hui, Shin Kyung-sook, Han Kang, and Kwon Yeo-sun among others.
Days: MO WE  12:00-12:50 PM

Emphasis/Category: Hispanic, US Latino/a and Luso-Brazilian Cultures, Locating Europes and European Colonies, Pacific Rim, Inter-Area Studies, Locating Asias (Nation, Culture, and Diaspora), Atlantic Rim, Locating Africas, Global Middle East
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