Asian Studies

This course explores contemporary Korean literature. The course looks at the social and cultural environment in which the texts were produced and to which they respond. Students gain a critical point of view concerning the past, present and the future narratives. Analyzing contemporary Korean literature and sharing your opinions and feelings with other students through various activities, they experience the immense power of Korean literature.

A literary and philosophical inquiry into such themes as selfhood, nothingness, name, namelessness, reality, Karma, yin-yang, and so forth through examination of great literary and philosophical writings in the East Asian tradition. All works are read in English translation. Topics covered include: Taoist thought and literature, Confucian thought and literature, Buddhist literature, the origins of East Asian thought, search for cultural archetypes, Confucian ideology in crisis, and modernity in modern Korean and Chinese fiction.

This course introduces Korean literature in English translation and explores the relationship between Korean literature and world literature. The first half of the semester is devoted to pre-modern texts, including prose fiction, essays, and poems with an emphasis on Buddhism and Confucianism. The second half of the course examines short stories and poems of the 1920's through the 1980's against the backdrop of the Japanese colonization and the Korean War.

This course provides a broad introduction to the major themes and trends in Korean and English-language historiography of Korean history from antiquity to the modern era. Students examine various issues, events, and individuals in Korea's political, social, economic and diplomatic history.