East Asian Studies (EAST)
EAST 105 - Buddhism (4 Credit Hours)
A historical and thematic survey of the Buddhist tradition from the time of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, until the present. Emphasis upon the way in which Buddhist teachings and practices have interacted with and been changed by various cultures in Asia, and more recently in North America.
Crosslisting: REL 105.
EAST 129 - Japanese Stories: Retelling Culture in Film, Drama, and Fiction (4 Credit Hours)
This course introduces students to 1000 years of Japanese storytelling tradition in diverse mediums: epic tales, drama (bunraku/kabuki, and noh), fiction, and film. Students will engage with such representations of Japanese culture as: - Imperial court life of the 10th century, the role of spirit possession as women's "weapon," and a 20th-century novel that builds on these traditions. - A war between two clans in the 12th century that is the setting for a key duel between unevenly matched opponents retold over the centuries in three different mediums: epic tale, bunraku/kabuki theater, and noh drama. - In the same war, the tragic defeat of one of the clans is reimagined as the source of a famous ghost story written in the 19th century...by a European with connections to Cincinnati! - Postwar short stories that retell Japanese fairy tales to situate them in a Japan struggling to cope with the devastation of the Pacific War. - A mystery novel about government corruption, and a master director’s film from the same period that treats the same subject - The possibilities – and horrors – of dreams as depicted by a 20th-century novelist, a master director, and an animator.
Crosslisting: JAPN 129.
EAST 131 - Asian Art and Visual Culture (4 Credit Hours)
An introduction to the art and visual culture of India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, focusing on historical, religious, and social issues and the function of both art and visual culture.
Crosslisting: AHVC 131.
EAST 141 - Traditional East Asian Civilization (4 Credit Hours)
A survey of 1,800 years of premodern East Asian history, beginning with the rise and fall of the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) in China and ending with the devastating Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592–1598 CE, a conflict recently dubbed “the first Great East Asian War. Topics include: Buddhism’s spread in East Asia and its influence on politics and culture; the origins of Japan’s samurai warrior class; the rise of the Mongol world empire and its impact on East Asia; and the beginnings of European commercial and missionary activity in East Asia.
Crosslisting: HIST 111.
EAST 142 - Modern East Asian Civilization (4 Credit Hours)
A survey of the history of China, Korea, and Japan from 1600 to the early twenty-first century. We begin with the last two centuries of the early modern era, during which East Asian states managed relations with the rest of the world on terms of their own choosing. We then move on to East Asia’s traumatic nineteenth-century confrontation with the newly industrialized and seemingly invincible Western powers, who now insisted on dictating new, “modern” terms of interaction. The sweeping political, cultural, social, and economic changes that sprang from that encounter have dramatically shaped East Asia’s fortunes in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Topics covered will include early modern and modern empire-building; nationalist and Communist revolutions; the Sino-Japanese, Pacific, and Korean wars; globalization and economic miracles; and movements for democracy and human rights.
Crosslisting: HIST 112.
EAST 199 - Elementary Topics in East Asian Studies (1-4 Credit Hours)
A general category used only in the evaluation of transfer credit.
EAST 205 - Spontaneity: Taoism and Chinese Literature (4 Credit Hours)
This course examines a special group of Chinese texts that will not only enlighten, but also delight modern readers: ancient Taoist text written in fascinating literary style, and a variety of literary works informed with Taoist spirit. No knowledge of Chinese is required.
Crosslisting: CHIN 205.
EAST 206 - Dream and Fantasy in East Asian Literature (4 Credit Hours)
Through close analysis of some of the most important recurrent themes, this course will examine how the Chinese and Japanese literary traditions reinvent and revitalize themselves in their development. Students will also study the distinctive features of the major genres in the two traditions.
Crosslisting: CHIN 206.
EAST 211 - Modern East Asia at War (4 Credit Hours)
This seminar covers in depth the history of East Asia in 1937–1953, a period characterized by violence, upheaval, suffering, and death on an almost unimaginable scale. The Japanese empire’s cataclysmic clash with the Republic of China and (eventually) the United States left Japan in ruins and under American occupation, China on the verge of a Communist revolution, and Korea divided between American and Soviet spheres of influence. The consequences of these events led to America’s war in Vietnam and still define and bedevil East Asia’s geopolitics today. Our readings will include some of the most significant recent scholarship on four conflicts: the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. Although we will read much about politics, diplomacy, and military campaigns, our focus will just as often be on the experiences and stories of ordinary people caught in extraordinarily harrowing times.
Crosslisting: HIST 211.
EAST 219 - Voices from the Dark Valley: East Asians Under Japanese Fascism (1910-1945) (4 Credit Hours)
This course provides students an introduction to the written cultural products (available in translation) from Japan, and two countries – China and Korea – occupied by Japan during the Pacific War (1931-1945). Although Japan’s occupation of Korea began in 1910, this course will begin its consideration of this topic in 1890 because the Japanese political and social mechanisms that led to fascist militarist control in the 1930s have their origins at least as far back as 1890. This course fulfills the Modern Core requirement for the East Asian Studies major/minor.
Crosslisting: JAPN 219.
EAST 221 - Contemporary Japan (4 Credit Hours)
Japan often conjures images steeped in tradition such as samurai warriors, sumo wrestlers, and geisha clad in kimono. At the same time, however, contemporary Japan is just as easily associated with businessmen, anime, automobiles, and high technology. How have "tradition" and "change" fueled competing visions of Japan what it means to be "Japanese"? How does one go about reconciling these conflicting views? How have these debates evolved over time? How have variously situated individuals and groups in society negotiated shifting circumstances? These questions will be at the heart of this seminar as we consider case studies from different segments of Japanese society. A range of material will be treated as "texts" for analysis and discussion including anime, manga, literary works, and films as well as ethnographic scholarship on Japanese society.
Crosslisting: ANTH 221.
EAST 231 - Art of Japan (4 Credit Hours)
An introduction to Japanese architecture, sculpture, painting, and the decorative arts from prehistoric times to the 20th century, with an emphasis on the works in their cultural and religious context.
EAST 232 - Art of China (4 Credit Hours)
This course is an introduction to Chinese visual culture from prehistoric times through the Mao era. Organized around a selection of key objects and images, this course explores a variety of art forms from China through diverse contexts such a ritual, gender, imperial patronage, literati ideals, and political icons.
EAST 235 - Introduction to Modern Chinese and Japanese Literature (4 Credit Hours)
This course is designed to provide an introduction to modern Chinese and Japanese fiction for the student who has little or no background in the language, history, or culture of these countries.
Crosslisting: JAPN 235.
EAST 239 - Introduction to Japanese Genre Fiction (4 Credit Hours)
Genre fiction (sometimes called “commercial fiction”) around the world has been broadly categorized as less-refined, or less literary. Postmodern thinkers have demonstrated, however, that popular fiction can serve as a fascinating lens through which to read place (society, race, gender, etc.) and time (historical period). This class will serve as an introduction to Japan’s long, rich tradition of genre fiction. In addition to reading recent criticism of the genres discussed, we will consider representative works, primarily by twentieth-century authors, in three genres: historical/period fiction, mystery/detective fiction, and horror fiction. This course is taught in English. No Japanese language required.
Crosslisting: JAPN 239.
EAST 263 - World Views: Spatial Imagination in East Asia (4 Credit Hours)
This course engages the question: ‘How are images used to imagine our place in the world?’ Students are invited to study fascinating practices of spatial image-making in East Asia from the inside out, by exploring these world-views from the perspective of their makers. You will be asked to pay special attention to how social and economic power structures inflect these representations: to envision and decode spatial imagery as a site of imagination, control, and resistance. Artists and patrons in China, Japan, and Korea have for centuries produced elaborate maps and landscape imagery, photographs, and film to imagine the world in a variety of ways. This course invites you to approach modern and contemporary representations of space in East Asia both in theoretically and historically informed ways. In the first part of the course, students build a frame of reference for their analysis of post-war case studies, by reading core texts in spatial theory and exploring important visual representations of space from pre-modern East Asia. In the second part of the course, students apply these theoretical and historical approaches to select cases that exemplify more recent struggles over space and its imagination in East Asia.
EAST 273 - Modern Japan in Film and Literature (4 Credit Hours)
This course uses film and modern literature to consider responses to political, economic, and sociological changes in Japanese society over the course of the twentieth century. This course is taught in English.
Crosslisting: JAPN 273.
EAST 280 - Yoga, Magic, & Meditation (4 Credit Hours)
This course explores both historical and contemporary traditions of Tantric Buddhism, focusing on the theories and practices of yoga, meditation, and magic. We will examine how these interconnected practices operate within the social, political, and cultural landscapes of India, Tibet, and Japan. Our captivating journey will involve the study of religious manuscripts, esoteric artwork, and modern films. As we delve into the worlds of yoga, magic, and meditation, we will explore how these traditions have transformed across time and cultures.
Crosslisting: REL 380.
EAST 288 - Ancient Chinese Philosophy (4 Credit Hours)
This course surveys the philosophical texts at the foundation of two millennia of Chinese thought and of East Asia as a global region. The core concern of these texts is the ‘way’ (dao): the way to live, the way to rule, the way to know, and the way for words to guide us. We will read the books of Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi (among others), and critically assess their most unique and groundbreaking ideas.
Crosslisting: PHIL 288.
EAST 309 - Japan's Modern Canon (4 Credit Hours)
In this course we will read extensively from the works of the four twentieth-century Japanese authors who have been elevated to the status of canonized writers, that is, whose works are regarded both in and out of Japan as essential in the history of Japanese letters. Note that readings will vary from semester to semester. This course is taught in English.
Crosslisting: JAPN 309.
EAST 316 - Religion in Contemporary China (4 Credit Hours)
In this course, we will together examine the beliefs, practices, and discourse that consist of the Chinese religious landscape from the early 20th century to the present day. Our journey starts with a review of the religious heritage in pre-modern China, and moves on to the twentieth century, a formative age where a new country tries to establish itself on a long history of a religiously pluralistic society, by carefully negotiating the ways of its ancient civilization and the challenges presented by a new age of global conversation and conflicts. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between the many religious institutions and traditions, between religious institutions and the state, and between the ideologies, practices, and traditions past and present.
Crosslisting: REL 316.
EAST 333 - Art and Revolution in 20th Century China (4 Credit Hours)
This course explores how art has engaged social transformation in China. You will be guided to take an inside look at how the notion of revolution stands front and center in art making during China’s long 20th century. We think deeply about two interrelated questions: how can art have social and critical agency, and how has it been related to social change in China? We approach these questions historically to become sensitive to the different contexts and experiences of the artists we study but also to how their struggles and creative interventions connect across time. In the process, you will build a framework of reference for understanding social and creative life in 20th century China, and its enduring connections to the global world.
Crosslisting: AHVC 333.
EAST 342 - China's Golden Age? The Tang Dynasty (4 Credit Hours)
This course is an in-depth introduction to the history and culture of the Tang empire (618–907), widely regarded as China’s “golden age.” Modern Chinese historical memory idealizes the Tang as an age of great military conquests, exotically “cosmopolitan” tastes in art and music, religious tolerance and cultural diversity, brilliant poets, and free-spirited, polo-playing women. A primary goal of the class is to enable students to take an informed and critical perspective on this romanticized popular image by studying a wide range of historical scholarship and translated primary sources, which they will use to write a major research paper on a topic of their choice.
Crosslisting: HIST 312.
EAST 361 - Directed Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
A student in good standing may work intensively in areas of special interest under the Directed Study plan. A Directed Study is appropriate when, under the guidance of a faculty member, a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. A Directed Study should not normally duplicate a course that is regularly offered. Directed Studies are normally taken for 3 or 4 credits. A one-semester Directed Study is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Directed Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
EAST 362 - Directed Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
A student in good standing may work intensively in areas of special interest under the Directed Study plan. A Directed Study is appropriate when, under the guidance of a faculty member, a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. A Directed Study should not normally duplicate a course that is regularly offered. Directed Studies are normally taken for 3 or 4 credits. A one-semester Directed Study is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Directed Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
EAST 363 - Independent Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
Independent Study engages a student in the pursuit of clearly defined goals. In this effort, a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. A proposal for an Independent Study project must be approved in advance by the faculty member who agrees to serve as the project advisor. Note: Independent Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
EAST 364 - Independent Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
Independent Study engages a student in the pursuit of clearly defined goals. In this effort, a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. A proposal for an Independent Study project must be approved in advance by the faculty member who agrees to serve as the project advisor. Note: Independent Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
EAST 451 - Senior Research (4 Credit Hours)
Students may enroll in Senior Research in their final year at Denison. Normally, Senior Research requires a major thesis, report, or project in the student's field of concentration and carries eight semester-hours of credit for the year. Typically, a final grade for a year-long Senior Research will not be assigned until the completion of the year-long Senior Research at the end of the second semester. In which case, the first semester Senior Research grade will remain "in progress" (PR) until the completion of the second semester Senior Research. Each semester of Senior Research is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Senior Research may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
EAST 452 - Senior Research (4 Credit Hours)
Students may enroll in Senior Research in their final year at Denison. Normally, Senior Research requires a major thesis, report, or project in the student's field of concentration and carries eight semester-hours of credit for the year. Typically, a final grade for a year-long Senior Research will not be assigned until the completion of the year-long Senior Research at the end of the second semester. In which case, the first semester Senior Research grade will remain "in progress" (PR) until the completion of the second semester Senior Research. Each semester of Senior Research is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Senior Research may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.