Academics
Major Program in Asian Studies
Major Program in Japanese Language and Culture
Chinese Language Program
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New Courses for Spring 2010
ASIA 294-01 T/R 1:20-2:50, H 111
Metropolis As Muse
Writing Shanghai in 20th Century China
Frederik Green
This course explores Shanghai’s importance in China’s turbulent literary and political trajectory from the last days of the Qing Empire until the present. At the same time, it attempts to place China’s first cosmopolitan metropolis into the context of global modernism and world history. With its focus on literary texts and movies by Chinese, Japanese and European artists that range from the late 19th until the early 21st centuries, the course explores a variety of topics that are all intricately connected to China’s encounter with modernity and the ways Shanghai was and is imagined outside China. No knowledge of China or Chinese Required.
ASIA 494-01 T/R 9:40-11:10, H 111
Translating Chinese: Theory & Practice
Frederik Green
How and why did the first translators who began to translate English into Chinese and Chinese into English, choose the texts they translated? What problems, both linguistically and culturally, did (and do) they encounter? Did the same issues arise when translating into Chinese and English, and how were
they respectively addressed? Who did the translating? This course approaches the topic of Chinese translation simultaneously from a socio-historical, empirical, & theoretical perspective. At the same time, we will study and back-translate existing translations, and attempt our own translations.
Prerequisite: 2 Years of Chinese
JAPA194-01<{invalid_tag_id}> MWF 2:20-3:20, H 402
Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature
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As Japan underwent political, economic, and social changes in the second half of the 19th century, fiction writers were at the forefront of capturing and representing new developments in style, thought, and social mores. In this course, we will examine those exemplary fictional works that helped to usher in the sense of the modern era while self-consciously questioning ideas of
tradition, nation, race, sexuality, and the new social structure. Readings will consist of 19th- and 20th-century novels, short stories, and secondary sources that provide historical and cultural background. No knowledge of Japanese or experience with Japanese culture is required.
JAPA 294-02/WGSS 294-02 W 7-10 p.m. H 110 (Films M 7-10 p.m.)
Masculinity in Japanese Film & Fiction
Jason Herlands
Macho or pansy? Boyish or manly? In this course, we will consider representations of masculine gender and sexuality in works of modern Japanese fiction and film, covering a variety of materials from canonical novels to experimental cinema. We will consider historical and cultural constructions of masculinity in various guises, whether normative, transgressive, or gratuitously extreme. Topics will include adolescence, romance, success, masochism, incest, prostitution, violence, class background, homosociality, and repression, among others. No knowledge of Japanese is required.
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