New York University
	Department of East Asian Studies
	Civilization Courses & Descriptions

The list below do not comprise of all the courses but include the courses most frequently taught.

Major Themes and World History: Colonialism and Imperialism
V33.0031 Identical to V57.0031. 4 points.
Introduces the students to key texts in and critical methodologies for teh study of modern world history from the perspective of two of its dominant themes: imperialism and colonialism. Helps students theorize and historicize these seemingly well-known and self-explanatory concepts by introducing them as historically specific theories for understanding the very notion of "modern world history". The broad theoretical consideration is accompanied by a consideration of specific texts from Asia and the United States, although not confined to such a bilateral view of the "world".

History of East Asia to 1840
V33.0052 Identical to V57.0052. 4 points.
Survey of developments in 19th- and early 20th-century East Asia, modernization, Westernization, and war, with emphasis on the different responses of China and/or Japan to Western ecnomic encroachment and ideological change.

Introduction to Chinese Painting
V33.0084 Identical to V43.0084. 4 points.
Chinese painting represents one of the world's great pictorial traditions. This chronological survey of major schools and genres traces its long history from the earliest vestiges revealed by archaeology up to the present day. Examines such topics as Chinese concepts of space, form, and color; the functions of painting in Chinese society; and individual works' social and personal meanings.

Asian Art I: China, Korea, Japan
V33.0091 Identical to V43.0091. 4 points.
An introduction to the art - and culture - of the Far East. The materials are presented in a chronological and thematic approach corresponding to the major dynastic and cultural changes of China, Korea, and Japan. The course teaches how to "read" works of art in order to interpret a culture or a historical period; it aims at a better understanding of the similarities and the differences among the cultures of the Far East.

Topics in Asian History
V33.0095 Identical to V57.0095. 4 points.

Narrative Texts in Classical Chinese
V33.0224. Identical to G33.1224. 4 points.
This course intends to develop the ability of graduate students and upper level undergraduate students to read texts in classical Chinese. Proficiency in classical Chinese is necessary for those students to conduct qualified research in their advanced studies of Chinese. It is a companion course to V33.0223 Chinese Philosophy in Chinese.

Arts of War in China
V33.0244 Identical to V57.0544. Waley-Cohen. 4 points.
Explores representations of warfare in Chinese literature and history from the preimperial age to the 20th century. Readings consist of Chinese literary and historical texts in translation, including military classics, histories, novels, poetry, and short stories. Aims to give students a sense of the centrality of military themes in Chinese cultural life and of the deep-rooted origins of the modern militarized state in China.

Cinema of Asia America: Moving the Image
V33.8134 Identical to V15.0314. 4 points.
The image of the Asian has, at various points in the 20th Century, served several purposes in teh national imagination of "white" American Hollywood, from the silent era through the recent spate of politically correct Vietnam movies; in the Joy Luck clubs, Ninja Turtles, and Japanimation; or even in the interface between Hong Kong action movies and Hollywood. This course looks critically at this history fraught with discrimination and misrepresentation, but at the same time one that also documents stories of dogged resistance and gradually rising presence. "Other" encounters of different kinds bbetween Asia and the West - namely, the colonial and neocolonial, along with brief examinations of some proto-Hollywood movie industries in Asia - also serve as reference points.

Asian and Asian American Contemporary Art
V33.0319 Identical to V15.0319. 4 points.
Exposes students to wide-ranging issues of contemporary Asian and Asian American identities in teh visual arts, emphasizing the need for greater transcultural awareness and understanding in the fluid environment of the post-cold war world, where people, ideas and images swiftly traverse ever more porous national boundaries. It examines how Asian artists of different ethnic and generational backgrounds articulate questions of self, community, cultural, and national identification through the visual arts. Themes related to conceptions of Asian modernity and the legacy of interaction between Asia and the West, as well as the experience of traversing cultures and situating oneself in America, are explored.

Belief and Social Life in China
V33.0351 Identical to V90.0351. 4 points.
The Chinese word for "religion" means "teaching". "Teaching" immediately implies someone else besides the self. Belief in China has always been theorized and practiced as mediated by the presence of others, miraculous and mundane. The class explores what Chinese people "taught" themselves about the person, society, and the natural world and thus how social life was constructed and maintained. Examines in historical perspective the classic texts of the Taoist and Confucian canon and their synthesis; Buddhist, especially Ch'an (Zen) practices in China; issues of gender in past and present practice; and religion's relation to the state.

Arts of China
V33.0506 Identical to V43.0506. 4 points.
Explores the diversity of artistic expression in China, including architecture and gardens, painting and sculpture, and ceramics and textiles. Concentrates on teh function of artworks, their physical and sociological context, and the meanings they convey. To give the course a solid historical grounding, the time period covered is limited to around five hundred years (period covered varies from semester to semester).

Asian Art in New York Museums
V33.0507 Identical to V43.0507. 4 points.
A hands-on fieldwork course that meets at museum storerooms and exhibitions, private collections, and commercial galleries. The material sutdied varies according to the museum exhibitions available at the time the course is offered. Emphasizes visual analysis and requires active discussion of the works of art. Particularly suitable for students interested in a museum or gallery career.

Buddhist Art
V33.0508 Identical to V43.0508. 4 points.
Surveys some of the major historical, cultural, and artistic aspects of Buddhism as it developed in India, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. Particular attention both to major monuments selected from these regions and to related works of art, such as sculpture, painting, and decorative arts. Considered within the cultural framework of each culture, these monuments illustrate the changes that occurred in these regions after the adoption of Buddhism.

Gender and Radicalism in Modern China
V33.0536 Identical to V57.0536 and V97.0536. Karl. 4 points.
Examines the interrelated rise of political, ideological, and cultural radicalisms and of gender issues as a major subject and object of transformative social activity in 19th and 20th-century China. Introduces approaches to gender theory and historical analysis through the use of primary and secondary sources on China, as well as through films and other visuals. Emphasis is on synthesizing contradictory material and on historical analytical issues. Heavy writing and class discussion component.

History of Modern Japan
V33.0537 Identical to V57.0537. 4 points.
Emphasizes historical problems in Japan's economic development, their challenge to political and social institutions, and their role in shaping foreign policty. Focuses on Japan's transition from an agrarian economy to commercial capitalism, from hierarchical social organization to constitutional authority, and from isolation from the rest of the world to involvement with Western culture and diplomatic relations. Traces Japan's development into an industrial giant fully engaged in world affairs.

Chinese Society and Culture, 1550-1950
V33.0539 Identical to V57.0539. Prerequisite: V57.0052 or V57.0053 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Waley-Cohen. 4 points.
Examines social and cultural life in early modern China through the Republican era; focuses on causes and effects of change and continuity. Covers scholarly elites, workers, peasants, bandits, women and others. Topics include family life, religion and ritual, law and order, urbanization and city life, religion and secret societies, militarization, and the role of intellectuals. Emphasis on contemporaneous materials with attention to discrepancies between Chinese and Western sources.

Chinese Film and Society
V33.0540 4 points.
An examination of Chinese films in broad social, political, and cultural contexts. The specific topic varies from filmic representation of revolution and socialism to the avant-garde experimentation in post-Mao China. The approach is comparative and analytical, with a focus on the particular experiences of Chinese modernity as refracted by the visual images and cultural politics. The course is not limited to film productions of the People’s Republic of China but covers Chinese films made during the Republican period (1911-1949) and films from Taiwan and Hong Kong as well. It is also designed to inform students of the intellectual and social environment that conditions the film production and of the critical, theoretical development in Chinese film studies.

Topics in Chinese History
V33.0551 Identical to V57.0551. 4 points.
Specific topics vary from time to time and may include Women and Gender in Chinese History; Rebellion and Revolution in China, 1683-1864; The Manchus in China; Urban China; American Wars in Asia; China in Revolution, 1949-Present; China after Mao; Maoism and China.

Seminar in Chinese History
V33.0552 Identical to V57.0552. 4 points.
Specific topics include China and the Global Economy, 1492-1842; China and Christianity; Culture and Politics in 18th Century China; Republican Shanghai; Modern Chinese Intellectual History; Frontiers of China; Politics and Culture of the 1950s; Nationalism in Asia; The Cultural Revolution.

Coming of Age: Narratives of Development, Time, and Colonialism
V33.0607 4 points.
This course examines the relationship between literature and colonialism through a study of the novel form. It focuses on new understandings of time brought about with modernity that produce the notion of self-development and enable the narrative form of the novel. It explores how such notions of self-development relate to the powerful modern ideas of national and colonial development, and how the novel form both instantiates and works to reinforce or subvert colonialism. Classes will proceed with a close reading of several novels alongside theoretical essays on colonialism, literary form, and time. The novels will be selected from a variety of colonial locations, including China, Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Seminar: Japanese Modern in Film and Literature
V33.0612 Identical to V57.0712. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. 4 points.
Explores categories and meanings of "the modern" as they emerge in the film and literature of early 20th-century Japan, when the central apparatuses of Japanese modernity - the modernizing reforms of the national-state and the formations of industrial capitalism - took root. A series of war booms stimulated rapid urban growth nationwide and the emergence of a new mass culture and mass society in Japan's burgeoning cities. These developments and their significance for modern life became a central preoccupation of writers, critics, and artists. Course examines how these intellectuals understood the changes happening around them.

Arts of Japan
V33.0509 Identical to V43.0509. 4 points.
This course is intended to be an introduction to the arts of Japan. The lectures concentrate on a number of buildings, sculptures, paintings, and decorative objects in teh development of Japanese art and society from ca. 10,000 B.C. into the modern era. Proceeds chronologically and investigates such themes as teh relation between past and present, artists and patrons, imported and indigenous, and "high and low." The chronological focus of the course is subject to change depending on the semester.

Korean Modernism
V33.0610. 4 points.
This course considers the problem of colonial modernism through a close reading of literary and other cultural texts from early 20th century Korea. It asks what it means to enter modernity under colonial rule, and questions the relationship between imperialism, writing and subjectivity in particular. Topics covered include the role of literature in elaborating new concepts of subjectivity, literature and art as assimilatory practices, the emergence of urban space and consequent reconfiguration of notions of the rural, and changing notions of time and space in the cultural products of nativism. Readings of literary works will be accompanied by showings of paintings and photographs from the period, as well as discussion of theoretical essays on modernism.

20th-Century Korean Literature in Translation
V33.0611 4 points.
Provides an overview of 20th-century Korean literature, tracing its development under the competing influences of tradition, history, and the West. Readings include drama, poetry, and fiction from modern and contemporary periods. Includes occasional lectures on classical forms of Korean literature and drama.

Japanese Cinema
V33.0613 4 points.
This course examines key theoretical and methodological issues in the study of Japanese cinema such as the connections between Japanese films and cultural traditions, the effect of Americanization and modernization, the formation of national identity and specificity, and the “otherness” of Japanese cinematic form.

Japanese Cinema in the International Context
V33.0614 4 points.
This course examines Japanese cinema from a comparative perspective. We will closely study the rich interactions between the works of representative Japanese and non-Japanese film authors. Directors to be examined include Kurosawa/Ford/Spielberg, Mizoguchi/Angelopoulos, Ozu/Jarmusch/Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kitano/Tarantino, Oshii/Wachowski Brothers, etc.

Aesthetics and Politics of Vision in Premodern Japan
V33.0615 4 points.
This course offers a broad cultural history of Japan, roughly from the eighth through the mid nineteenth centuries. The focus is on visual regimes - differing conventions and practices of seeing - and on changing roles for what is now thought of as aesthetics; these visual regimes are then taken as a means of understanding fundamental transformations in structures of power, community and subjectivity. The course draws on a range of materials, from literature to landscape gardens, visual arts, architecture and technologies, and on a diversity of disciplinary perspectives.

Sexuality & Subjectivity in Modern Japanese Literature
V33.0621. 4 points.
The course explores how and why a linkage between subjectivity and sexuality coincided with the emergence of modern literature in Japan. The course will include theoretical readings to introduce students to basic concepts in sexuality and gender studies, as well as the theory of modernity. Students will also read literary texts from the 17th century onward to examine issues including the commodification and aestheticization of sex, the invention of the love marriage, homosocial triangles, love of country, and masochism.

Anime
V33.0709 4 points
Introduces students to the rich world of Japanese animation or anime, its form and style, history, popular genres and themes, major authors, and fan culture. Explores the popularity of anime in relation to the cultural conditions of contemporary Japan and that of the world.

Seminar: Japan and World War II in Asia
V33.0710 Identical to V57.0710. 4 points.
Takes up a watershed event in Japanese history, the greatest single preoccupation of Japanese historians. The war is dealt with in two senses; its meaning for Japan's international history and its impact on the domestic landscape. Readings are drawn from both primary and secondary sources so that interpretive controversies as well as texts may be discussed. Thematically, the course divides into sections: (1) the great debates over Japanese fascism and ultranationalism; (2) the China War; (3) the Pacific War; (4) the Co-Prosperity Sphere; (5) the atom bomb, surrender, and occupation; and (6) issues of public memory and war responsibility.

Topics in Japanese Literature
V33.0719. 4 points.
This course will introduce students to the study of Japanese lierature either through the work of a single author or through the lens of a specific problematic. Readings will include both literary and theoretical texts. The course will contribute to students' understanding both of issues specific to Japanese literature and of more general literary theoretical concerns including such topics as narrative theory, the history of the novel genre, the meaning of modernity in a literary context and the role of categories such as gender, race, sexuality, and class in textural studies.

The Invention of Modern Japanese Literature
V33.0720 Vincent. 4 points.
This course focuses on the part played by “literature” in the establishment of national and individual subjectivity in prewar Japan (1868-1945). It is one of the great ironies of modernity that the emergence of national community is marked by an ever-greater isolation of the individual subject. Readings of literary texts in combination with critical essays help students to examine this paradox in relation to changes in the practice of reading, the construction of the “reader” and the “author,” the practice and effects of translation and travel, the privileging of the spoken voice, and the solidification of the “novel” as a genre. We pay as much attention to formal questions such as point of view and narrative strategy as to “content” and are ever wary of the fact that we are reading in translation.

Modern Japanese Literature in Translation II
V33.0721 Vincent. 4 points.
This course exposes students to some of the most provocative and entertaining novels written in Japanese since the end of the Second World War. Students see how the collapse of totalizing ideologies brought by Japan’s defeat led to an extremely fertile and yet somewhat atomized literary landscape. In this new postwar terrain, it became increasingly difficult to think of literature in terms of “schools” or “influences,” as questions of cultural and individual identity became harder and harder to answer in a world of material prosperity and cultural hybridization.

Readings in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
V33.0722 Formerly called Intro to the Civilization of Imperial China. Roberts. 4 points.
This course introduces undergraduate students to the thought of seven major philosophers, beginning with an intensive study of the Confucian Analects. Following this, we read the works of Confucius' followers (Mo Tzu, Mencius, and Hsun Tzu) and their Daoist and Legalist adversaries (Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. These thinkers from the pre-imperial period (ca. 500BC to the unification of China in 221BC) form the foundation upon which much of the subsequent culture rests. The course concludes with one dynastic history and one historical novel, both concerning the first imperial era, the Han.

Historical Epics of China and Japan
V33.0726. Formerly called Narrative Arts of Asia. No knowledge of Chinese required. 4 points.
Reading of classic Chinese masterpieces to understand the art of storytelling in traditional China. Study the narrative styles of literature as well as the intellectual and political history of the masterpieces. Curriculum includes the following: Three Kingdoms, by Lo Guan-zhong (ca. 1330-1400); The Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh; Journey to the West/Monkey; The Golden Lotus; Six Chapters of a Floating Life; The Scholars; and Dream of the Red Chamber/ Story of the Stone.

Modernism and the Formation of National Culture in Japan, 1900-1980
V33.0730 Identical to V57.0530. Harootunian. 4 points.
Examines the process of capitalist modernization and the formation of the nation-state in modern Japan. Particularly concerned with the relationship between political economy and the formation of national culture after World War I as it was articulated in a discourse on modernism, how Japan became a modern society, and what the experience meant.

20th Century Chinese Literature in Translation
V33.0731 Identical to V29.0731. Zhang. 4 points.
Explores the changing trends of literary writing as it relates to the social and historical contexts of the period. Students study the literature to reflect upon the culture and self-understanding of modern China.

Modern Chinese Literature
V33.0732 2 points.
Introduction to Chinese fiction of the 20th century. All English translations. Studies the language of fiction in relation to its sociopolitical background and explores female portrayals and perspectives.

Modern Japanese Literature
V33.0733 No knowledge of Japanese required. Roberts. 2 points.
Major literary styles of Japan from the turn of the century to the present. Examines examples of naturalism, realism, and romanticism. Explores through literature the intellectual, sociological, and economic changes in Japan during the turbulent period following Japan’s emergence as a world power.

Japan Through Its Literature
V33.0734 No knowledge of Japanese required. Roberts. 4 points.
Explores the origins of the Japanese people and language in view of recent research in linguistics, anthropology, and archaeology. Traces the early cultural intercourse between China and Japan, especially the Chinese cultural pattern having lasting effects on the social and political structure of Japan. Compares the religions of Japan (Shintoism, Buddhism, and Christianity) as they relate to Japanese civilization and ideas.

The Modern Korea and the Korean Diaspora
V33.0735 4 points.
Broad survey of the foundations of Korean civilization and the adaptation of these forms in modern Korea. Analyzes both tradition and mass culture, including the roles of Confucianism and Buddhism as they interact with popular traditions in religion, art, literature, and politics. Includes study of women, education, and folklore.

Issues and Debates on Contemporary Korea
V33.0736 4 points.
This course investigates contested interpretations of key events during the vortex process of the modern transformation of Korea from the mid-19th century to the present, ranging from Japanese colonization, the post-liberation struggle, the Korean cold war, to the forms of unification. It attends to both different interpretations and social and historical conditions under which such past has been re-remembered and reconstructed. This is an advanced undergraduate seminar that requires readings of some theoretically grounded and interdisciplinary works on Asia and beyond, as well as on Korea.

Vietnam: Its History, Its Culture, and Its Wars
V33.0737 Identical to V57.0737. Roberts, M. Young. 4 points.
The first half of the course deals with the culture and history of Vietnam in three contexts: Chinese, Indochinese, and Indian history; Western (particularly French and American) history; and the period of Japanese control during World War II. The second half explores the American role in Vietnam and the historical and cultural impact of the war on Vietnam and the United States.

International Relations of Asia
V33.0770 Identical to V53.0770. 4 points.
The relations of and between the principal Asian national actors (e.g., China, Japan, India) and the relationship of the Asian "subsystem" to the international system. Covers the traditional Asian concepts of transnational order, the impact of external interventions, the modern ideological conflict and technological revolution, the emergent multilateral balance beyond Vietnam, the changing patterns of relations in the Asian subsystem traced to the international evolution from bipolarity to multicentrism, and the U.S. role in Asia.

Buddhism
V33.0832 Identical to V90.0832. 4 points.
An introduction to this complex religion, emphasizing its history, teachings, and practices. Discusses its doctrinal development in India, then emphasizes certain local practices: Buddhism and the family in China; Buddhism, language, and hierarchy in Japan; the politics of Buddhist Tibet; and Buddhist art. Finally the course touches on Buddhism in the United States.

Topics in Asian Studies
V33.0950 4 points.
Topics vary from semester to semester. A recent topic was postwar Japanese literature.

Internship
V33.0980, 0981 Harootunian. 2 or 4 points per term.

Independent Study
V33.0997, 0998 Harootunian. 2 or 4 points per term.

© 2003 NYU Department of East Asian Studies