Course Descriptions

This course is designed to provide the student with a structural and historical overview of Buddhism through the examination of various schools, doctrines, and religious practices. We will begin our study in India and look at the ways in which the contexts of post-Vedic civilization and orthodox Hinduism made Buddhism possible, and ask the following questions about Buddhism's founder: Who was the "historical Buddha?" What were the factors that led to his enlightenment? What did the Buddha teach, and what didn't he? How was the early Buddhist community structured? We will examine the developments in Theravada (also termed Orthodox or Southern) and Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism and the spread of these two distinctive schools into Southeast and East Asia respectively. We will also study Vajrayana (Diamond Vehicle) Buddhism as it manifested in Tibet. Finally, we will examine the peculiar relationship that Buddhism has had with the West and explore the various ways in which European and American societies have embraced Buddhism and made it their own.

Grading:

Attendance/participation: 20% Three quizzes: 10% ea.Oral presentation: 20%Final exam: 30%

Texts:

C. S. Prebish / D. Keown, Introducing Buddhism (or: Buddhism - the eBook)J. Strong, The Experience of Buddhism, 3rd ed.

This course offers a survey of the major religious traditions of Asia (Hinduism, Buddhism in South and East Asia, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto). It focuses on the historical development of their beliefs, practices, rituals, and customs in social context. The course will combine lectures with class discussions on readings.

Text:Theodore M. Ludwig, The Sacred Paths of the East, 3rd ed. The Mahabharata, retold by R.K. Narayan Zhuangzi: Basic Writings, translated by Burton Watson

Grading:Attendance/participation 20% 2 quizzes 20% (10% each) 2 short essays 20% (10% each) Midterm exam 20% Final exam 20%

Course Description
Geographically, linguistically, ethnically, and economically, China today is a land of diversity, characterized by striking regional variations. Yet underlying this diversity is a shared cultural heritage: a unifying set of historical, literary, and artistic traditions, philosophical and religious ideas, political institutions, and a common writing system. This course introduces the study of Chinese society and culture through an examination of the cultural unities and diversities, continuities and discontinuities that comprise the historical development of Chinese civilization. Topics include philosophy and religion; cosmology and the life cycle; literature and arts; science, technology and medicine; power and authority; gender, ethnicity, and cultural identity. This course provides a foundation for continued study of Chinese history and society for students who plan to go on to more specialized, upper-division courses including Chinese anthropology, history, literature, sociology, economics, law, policy, international business, art history, architecture, environmental science, and philosophy.

Course Goals
The primary learning goal for this course is to acquire a broad understanding of the historical development of civilization in China. This course adopts a "hands on" approach by asking students to consider primary historical evidence of both a textual and visual nature. Therefore, a second goal of this course is to develop one's ability to interpret texts and images as historical evidence by considering such material within its particular cultural, social, and political context. The ultimate goal of the course is to acquire a richer understanding of Chinese civilization and to develop research skills that will facilitate continued study of and coursework on China and East Asia.

This course carries a University Global Cultures Flag. The goal of this flag is to challenge students to explore the beliefs and practices of non-U.S. cultural communities in relation to their own cultural experiences so that they engage in an active process of self-reflection.

Course textbooks and readings
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Cambridge Illustrated History of China,2^nd Edition (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Additional required readings consisting of primary historical sources drawn from a wide variety of archaeological, literary, and archival materials will be distributed electronically via the course website.

Grading
Final grades will be calculated according to the criteria below. Grades of plus/minus will be assigned as appropriate.

Class participation and attendance: 10%
Quiz: 5%
3 Tests: 60% (20% each)
Final exam: 25%

For more information about this course, consult the course website.

This course is organized in three parts: the first two span the period between the third century BCE and the late eighteenth century, the third covers the nineteenth-twentieth centuries. Students will learn about the ways in which a range of destitute people, orphans, debtors and criminals were incorporated into complex and variable social and political institutions in the subcontinent in the past. They will learn about key legal provisions about the treatment of slaves established by ancient governments. They will also read about military and political structures that used male and female slaves in different ways in the medieval period. These structures, associated with the coming of Islam in the subcontinent, enabled slaves to establish relationships with each other as well as with their masters and mistresses. In the third segment, students will understand the ways in which legal, political and commercial processes associated with global histories of European empires, contributed to the large-scale shift in slave-using structures, the meanings of slavery and the privileges and protections that slaves had earlier enjoyed.

Texts:

1) I. Chatterjee and R.M. Eaton eds Slavery and South Asian History (Indiana University Press, 2006).

2) Arthashastra  Book III, Chapter XIII, Rules Regarding Slaves and Laborers, on www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/

3) Amitava Ghosh, ‘The Slave of Ms. H6’, from Subaltern Studies, Vol. 5.

4) Sunil Kumar, ‘When Slaves Were Nobles’, Indian Economic and Social History Review , 1998.

5) Pushpa Prasad, ‘Female Slavery in Thirteenth Century Documents’, Indian Historical Quarterly, 1985.

6) Excerpts from Ex-Slave’s Memoir, Tahmasnama: The Autobiography of a Slave (Bombay 1967)

7) Marina Carter, ‘Slavery and Unfree labor in the Indian Ocean’ and ‘Indian Slaves in Mauritius’.

8) Legal Documents : Lariviere ed. Contested Ownership of a Slave; Mr. Hunter Stands Trial for Injuring his Slave Documents, Criminal Judicial Consultations of 1799 from the British Library and the U.N. Report on Trafficking and Prostitution from 1956.

9) 2 Visual Sources:, the film Mughal-e-Azam (with English subtitles) and a documentary on YouTube, ‘Sarah Harris Rescues Prostitutes’.

Grading:

1) Posing Daily Question/Comment (on Blackboard): (40%)

2) Home-Written 5-page essay comparing historical readings with interpretation made in film (20%)

3) Home-Written 10-15 page discussion on a single theme (30%).

4) Final Essay in Class on media and politics in the representation of trafficking (10%).

Instructor:  Shingavi, S            Areas:  VI

Unique #:  36010            Flags:  Independent Inquiry; Writing

Semester:  Fall 2013            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  ANS 320            Computer Instruction:  No

E 379R (Topic: Slumdogs and Millionaires: Class and Indian Fiction) and 379S (embedded topic: Slumdogs and Millionaires: class and Indian fiction) may not both be counted.

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: The recent success of /Slumdog Millionaire/ (2008) has reopened discussions about the representation of class and poverty in India. The reactions to the film have been intensely partisan: some of have praised the humanizing of the poor while others have remarked that the fantastic rags-to-riches romance hinders any serious investigation of poverty. At every occasion, though, this discussion of class and poverty has been irrigated by the ideological streams of the middle and upper-classes, especially when it comes to their own solutions to and strategies for dealing with the persistence of poverty. Still, this representation of the poor, the underclass, the peasant, is shrouded in a patina of authenticity: this is how the poor really survive and imagine their life worlds. These aesthetic moves have become even more important in recent years as ruling parties in India have sought to demonstrate the country’s viability as a major world economic power. In the 2009 elections, for instance, the Indian National Congress Party ran television ads touting its economic policy credentials, set to the tune of “Jai Ho!” (the final song-and-dance sequence of the film). At the heart of all discussions of poverty are questions of blame, and this course will interrogate how aesthetic strategies intersect with certain ideological moves in the representation of Indian poverty. We will begin the course with Vikas Swarup’s /Q&A/ (the novel on which /Slumdog Millionaire/ was based) and examine alternative representations of poverty from the banal (/English, August/) to the magical (/God of Small Things/), from the gritty (/Delhi Noir/) to the witty (/White Tiger/), in order to map out the range of strategies used to aestheticize and politicize poverty.

Texts: Adiga, White Tiger; Chatterjee, English, August; Chaudhuri, The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature; Desai, The Inheritance of Loss; Mistry, A Fine Balance; Roy, God of Small Things; Sawhney (ed.), Delhi Noir; Sinha, Animal’s People; Swarup, Q&A.

Requirements & Grading: Paper proposal, 2-3 pages (10%); Rough draft, 8-10 pages (25%); Annotated Bibliography, at least ten sources (15%); Final Paper, 15-20 pages (30%); Blog posts, every week, 250 words (10%); Participation (10%).

* Disability Accommodation: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request apt academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).

This course examines the principal themes of traditional Hinduism, the dominant religion of the Indian subcontinent.  It gives special attention to the historical development of the tradition and its relation to social and cultural life in India.  To the extent possible, the course will examine different forms of religious expression created within India.  These include written texts which have been significant in the Hindu tradition, but they also comprise rituals that have been central to religious life, patterns of social action that embody Hindu values, and images and architecture that display the form and powers of the world.

This course is about the age of discovery and the overall effects of East-West contacts in the early modern period.  After a discussion of trade and cultural relations on the eve of the age of discovery, we will look at the expansion into South and Southeast Asia of the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French from approximately 1400 to 1800, the period when European explorers, freebooters, merchants, missionaries, and administrators went to “the Indies” in search of adventure, riches, spices, souls, and power.  We will examine the backgrounds to that expansion, the technology that made it possible, the cultures that the Europeans came into contact with, the scientific and cultural repercussions of expansion, and the trade between Europe and Asia, not only of goods, but also of ideas.

Texts:

J. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony

J.H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance

K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade & Civilization in the Indian Ocean

Metcalf & Metcalf, A Concise History of India

D.R. Sardesai, Southeast Asia: Past & Present

Grading:

Requirements for the course include the assigned readings, two map assignments, two book reports, a mid-term and a final.  Percentages for the grade:  25% for each paper, 25% for each exam.

This course begins by examining the transition from defeat and military occupation to the economic miracle of the 1960s.  Japan’s epoch-making high-speed growth then established the model for a new kind of accelerated development that has since unfolded across Asia.  This political and economic transformation was also a social and personal one, encompassing the remaking of family structures and ideologies.  The greatest lessons may lie in the aftermath of high-speed growth, especially in the transformations that accompanied the deflation of the economic bubble after 1990.  The semester concludes with a consideration of present trajectories and possible futures.

Texts:

1. Jean-Marie BOUISSOU, Japan: The Burden of Success (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002).

2. John W. DOWER, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II (W.W. Norton/New Press, 1999).

3. R. Taggart MURPHY, The Weight of the Yen (W. W. Norton, 1997).

4. OCHIAI Emiko, The Japanese Family System in Transition (Tokyo: LTCB International Library Foundation, 1996 [orig. 1994]).

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004).

5. Handouts, online, and electronic reserve readings as specified over the course of the semester

Grading:

• two midterm exams (worth 22.5% each; the first midterm exam is divided into two equal

parts)

• two essays on class readings (15% each)

• final essay(s) (20%)

• active class participation (5%)

This course examines the different historical experiences of mainland China and Taiwan in the context of the East Asian model of development.  Owing to a shared cultural heritage and historical links, both China and Taiwan have displayed some features in their postwar developments that are identified as characteristic of the East Asian region.  But striking contrasts across the strait existed in political systems, economic development strategies, and cultural attitudes.  To what extent these differences explain the different economic performances between the two sides of the strait in the postwar years?  How has the Taiwan experience influenced the patterns of economic growth in China during the reform era?  Will Taiwan's democratization play a role in the future political development in mainland China?  These will be among the major topics to be explored in this course.

Texts:

K. Lieberthal, Governing China: From Revolution through Reform

J. F. Copper, Taiwan: Nation-State or Province?

J. T. Roberts and A. Hite, eds, From Modernization to Globalization: Perspectives on Development and Social Change

Grading:

Class participation: 10%

Mid-term: 25%

Final exam: 25%

Short essay: 10%

Research paper: 30%

This course is organized in three parts: the first two span the period between the third century BCE and the late eighteenth century, the third covers the nineteenth-twentieth centuries. Students will learn about the ways in which a range of destitute people, orphans, debtors and criminals were incorporated into complex and variable social and political institutions in the subcontinent in the past. They will learn about key legal provisions about the treatment of slaves established by ancient governments. They will also read about military and political structures that used male and female slaves in different ways in the medieval period. These structures, associated with the coming of Islam in the subcontinent, enabled slaves to establish relationships with each other as well as with their masters and mistresses. In the third segment, students will understand the ways in which legal, political and commercial processes associated with global histories of European empires, contributed to the large-scale shift in slave-using structures, the meanings of slavery and the privileges and protections that slaves had earlier enjoyed.

Texts:

1) I. Chatterjee and R.M. Eaton eds Slavery and South Asian History (Indiana University Press, 2006).

2) Arthashastra  Book III, Chapter XIII, Rules Regarding Slaves and Laborers, on www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/

3) Amitava Ghosh, ‘The Slave of Ms. H6’, from Subaltern Studies, Vol. 5.

4) Sunil Kumar, ‘When Slaves Were Nobles’, Indian Economic and Social History Review , 1998.

5) Pushpa Prasad, ‘Female Slavery in Thirteenth Century Documents’, Indian Historical Quarterly, 1985.

6) Excerpts from Ex-Slave’s Memoir, Tahmasnama: The Autobiography of a Slave (Bombay 1967)

7) Marina Carter, ‘Slavery and Unfree labor in the Indian Ocean’ and ‘Indian Slaves in Mauritius’.

8) Legal Documents : Lariviere ed. Contested Ownership of a Slave; Mr. Hunter Stands Trial for Injuring his Slave Documents, Criminal Judicial Consultations of 1799 from the British Library and the U.N. Report on Trafficking and Prostitution from 1956.

9) 2 Visual Sources:, the film Mughal-e-Azam (with English subtitles) and a documentary on YouTube, ‘Sarah Harris Rescues Prostitutes’.

Grading:

1) Posing Daily Question/Comment (on Blackboard): (40%)

2) Home-Written 5-page essay comparing historical readings with interpretation made in film (20%)

3) Home-Written 10-15 page discussion on a single theme (30%).

4) Final Essay in Class on media and politics in the representation of trafficking (10%).

This course focuses on various contemporary ethnographies in the field of South Asian Islam. For almost a decade, there has been a consistent growth in the number of ethnographies being conducted in South Asia, most importantly, in India, Pakistan and Bangla Desh. Throughout this course, we focus on various manifestations of practising and living Islam and discuss two major questions: 1. What makes living Islam different than textual Islam? 2. What do we learn from ethnographies of contemporary Islam or Muslim societies?

Texts

1.      Metcalf, Barbara. Islam in South Asia in Practice, Princeton University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0691044200
2.      Frank J.Korom, Hosay Trinidad, University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN-13: 978-0812218251
3.      Flueckiger, Joyce. In Amma’s Healing Room: Gender and Vernacular Islam in South India, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0253218377
4.      Marsdebn, Magnus. Living Islam: Muslim Religious Experience in Pakistan's North-West Frontier, Cambridge University Press  ISBN-13: 978-0521727495

5.      Bigelow, Anna. Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India, Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN-10: 0195368231.

Grading

Weekly responses (500 words) 10%

Book review (800 words) 15%

Midterm paper (2500 words) 15%

Peer-review of the mid-term papers 10%

Final paper (2500 words) 25%

Class presentation: 15 minutes (plus 10 minutes Q&A) 25%

This course aims to introduce students to the problems faced in historical research via the scrutiny of the sources and historical writings on one of the most contentious episodes in the history of the British in India. The year 1857 saw the most violent and widespread attempt ever made to destroy the British empire in South Asia. It was ferociously suppressed after a war of re-conquest lasting over a year. Various episodes in this struggle entered British imperial folklore and legend, while Indian nationalists gave them radically different meanings. Students will be required to critically examine texts and images (including video-film) generated by these controversies and confront them, in turn, with the primary sources. The readings/viewings are designed with this end in view.  The crafting of coherent prose narratives from primary sources is a major focus of this course.

Texts:

There is no required textbook; all the readings and notes will be available on the course website.

Grading:

quiz on background knowledge = 5%

participation & presentations = 15%

reading response papers = 25%

analyses of primary sources = 25%

final long paper = 30%

WAR AND PEACE IN EAST ASIA: CHINA, JAPAN, TAIWAN

Prerequisites

Upper-division standing and 6 semester hours of lower-division coursework in government or Asian studies

Course description

This course uses cutting-edge political science research on the causes of war and peace to analyze recent, current, and future security issues in East Asia, with a particular focus on how events like World War II, the Korean War, and unipolarity shape current and potential military powers such as China, Japan, and Taiwan.

Grading policy

Students will be graded on three exams (60%), short writing assignments (25%), and a number of in-class quizzes (15%).

Texts

Keohane, Robert. 1984. After Hegemony Princeton University Press Stueck, William. 2004. Rethinking the Korean War Princeton University Press Paine, S.C.M. 2012. The Wars for Asia 1911-1949 Cambridge University Press

Selected topics in south and east Asian anthropology, economics, history, geography, government, art, music, and philosophy.  Specific offerings are listed in the Course Schedule.  Asian Studies 320 and 361 may not both be counted unless the topics vary.  Prerequisite: Varies with the topic and is given in the Course Schedule.

Prerequisite

Six semester hours of lower-division Government courses.  Graduate students may take this course for graduate credit.

Course Description

This course introduces upper level undergraduates to the foreign and domestic determinants of Japanese foreign policy-making and international relations from the beginning of the modern era (1868) to the present.  We will address a wide range of topics, including the causes and consequences of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, Japanese colonialism and actions during World War II, the U.S. Occupation of Japan (1945-52), and the history and significance of the U.S.-Japan military alliance. Particular attention will be paid to issues affecting the contemporary balance-of-power in East Asia: the rise of Japanese nationalism, ongoing tensions with China and North Korea, and Japan’s gradual movement toward a more robust military posture.

Grading Policy

        Quizzes: 10%

         2 midterms: 40%

         Short research paper or book review (5 pgs): 15%

         Final exam: 35%

Texts

Kenneth B. Pyle, Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose (2008).

Additional readings will be made available to students at the beginning of the semester.

Prerequisite

6 semester hours of lower-division Government courses.  Graduate students may take this course for graduate credit.

Course Description

Toward the end of the 20th century, pundits looked to the spectacular economic growth of East and Southeast Asia and predicted that the 21st century would be the “Pacific Century”.  Although analysts have been far less optimistic about the economic and political future of the region following the 1997 financial crisis, most nevertheless agree that the region has the most growth potential compared to any other region in the world.  It is also home to some of the globe’s most dangerous “hot spots”: North Korea’s ongoing nuclear threat, tensions in the Taiwan Straits, and escalating tensions between Japan and China over islands in the East China Sea.       

This upper division undergraduate course introduces students to some of the basic themes of the post-Cold War international relations of East and Southeast Asia.  In addition to tracking current events in the region, we explore basic theoretical approaches to international relations, “Great Power” (China, Japan and the United States) contributions and challenges to the military and economic security of the region, the objectives and processes of economic globalization and institutional integration in the Asia-Pacific, and the nature of and potential solutions to the North Korean security threat.      

Grading Policy

         1.    Quizzes on readings: 15%

         2.    First mid-term exam: 20%

         3.    Second mid-term exam or short research paper:  25%

         4.    Final exam: 40%

Texts

         1.    Susan L. Shirk, China: Fragile Superpower (2008)

         2.    Victor Cha, The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (2012)

 Additional readings will be made available at the beginning of the semester.   

Selected topics in south and east Asian anthropology, economics, history, geography, government, art, music, and philosophy.  Specific offerings are listed in the Course Schedule.  Asian Studies 320 and 361 may not both be counted unless the topics vary.  Prerequisite: Varies with the topic and is given in the Course Schedule.

Selected topics in south and east Asian anthropology, economics, history, geography, government, art, music, and philosophy.  Specific offerings are listed in the Course Schedule.  Asian Studies 320 and 361 may not both be counted unless the topics vary.  Prerequisite: Varies with the topic and is given in the Course Schedule.

Individual instruction for Asian studies majors and nonmajors. Discussion, research, and the writing of papers about various general and specialized Asian subjects.  Prerequisite: Six semester hours of coursework in Asian studies and
written consent of instructor on form obtained from the undergraduate adviser.

May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.  Some topics partially fulfill legislative requirement for American history.  Prerequisite: Varies with the topic and is given in the Course Schedule.

This course examines the visual culture in Taiwan during the colonial period under Japan (1895-1945).  When China's concession of the island resulted from its defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Taiwan became Japan's colony and experienced the changes from a culturally marginalized region in China to the epicenter of colonial modernity envisioned by Japanese colonialists.  During this period, infrastructures in the island were built with industrial technology and social order was maintained based on the ideology of pan-Asian nation-states.  Art in this historical context took on new social and cultural meanings as an effective instrument for understanding these changes as well as for formulating identities for various groups in the island under the new regime.

Through analyzing painting, sculpture, architecture, and other visual forms produced during this period, this course will explore the following topics:(1) Images and their meanings about Taiwan and its social and cultural components.(2) Transformation and development of artistic themes and genres inthe process of colonization.(3) Ways in which artistic expressions inform and/or challenge social and cultural identities for different groups in the society.

The ultimate goal of this course is to offer contextualized understanding abou the art and culture of Taiwan during the colonial period.

The Moon in Chinese Poetry

This course will provide an introduction to the classical Chinese poetic tradition and is open to all students.  No previous background in Chinese language, culture or literature is required.  Readings in English translation will encompass a selective sampling of poetry from as early as the seventh century B.C.E. through the 9^th century C.E.  Lectures and discussions will focus on the literary, cultural, historical, social, political, philosophical, and religious background against which these representative works in poetry arose.  While background reading will be assigned, the focus of lectures and discussion will be on the primary works of poetry.  Course emphasis will be given to poetry of the medieval period of the Tang dynasty (618-907) which is commonly referred to as the “golden age” of Chinese poetry.  Intensive focus and close readings will be given to poetry by four of pre-modern China’s greatest and most beloved poets:  Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (or Tao Qian 陶潛) (365-427), Wang Wei 王維 (701-761), Li Bo 李白 (or Li Bai) (701-762), and Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770). 

The poet’s response to the human condition will form the framework within which we will consider our role as readers and our interpretation of the poetic treatment of the human response.  Lectures, readings and class discussion will examine these ideas and concepts in the context of the moon in Chinese literary memory.  Through this methodical process, we will begin to decode the literary language of classical Chinese poetry and poetic craft.  It is through this process of deciphering what can be puzzling or mysterious that the reader may emerge with yet another response to the human condition.  Herein lies the allure of classical Chinese poetry – we can still find our way to the Chinese poet’s world today. 

[All lectures, discussion and readings in English.]

Required Texts:

John Minford and Joseph S.M. Lau, eds. Classical Chinese Literature – An Anthology of Translations, Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty (Columbia, 2002)                     

Please purchase the following required texts (custom printed) at Paradigm Books (NOT at the Co-op):

• David Hawkes, A Little Primer of Tu Fu (Rpt. Renditions, 1995)
• Michael Sullivan, The Three Perfections: Chinese Painting, Poetry and Calligraphy (Revised edition: George Braziller, 1999) [out of print]

The final grade for this course will be based on the following:

• This course will be graded on the Plus/Minus system.
• There is no written final exam for this course.  No assignments will be accepted after last day of classes.
• There is a class attendance policy for this course.
• 15%     Class and online discussion, participation and “preparedness” -- Weekly Informal Writing and Lead Discussant work
• 50%     Discussion Questions/ Expanded Written Responses
• 25%     Critical Writing (Response Essay, Independent Project Paper)
• 5%       Oral Presentation and leading discussion on independent project
• 5%       Creative Writing: imitation and matching poems (evaluated CR/NC)

This upper-division seminar provides a forum for exploring some spiritual and intellectual encounters of “East” and “West,” with a focus on ideas of mind, spirit, and consciousness. “East” and “West” are relative and relational terms, directions rather than places. They are relative, mutual, and shape-shifting. As metaphors they are generative and multivalent; when one starts to look, one finds many Easts and Wests at play, as various as the “Oriental philosophy” of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Xuanzang’s “journey to the West” to discover the Heart Sutra, and the Zen journeys of the West Coast beatniks. In this exploration of comparisons and connections, we will encounter a full house of canonical figures including Zhuangzi, Zhu Xi, Avicenna, Ibn ‘Arabi, Hume, Swedenborg, Blake, Nietzsche, Tagore, and Jung, along with some brilliant but less well known thinkers. We will spend much of our time in the open spaces between civilizational control systems. Many of the texts are dense and difficult, reflections of deep and often distant traditions. They need to be read slowly and with care. They also repay sincere inquiry with new vistas and unexpected bounties.

Texts:

Readings include Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory; Jonathan Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci; and many online readings TBA.

Grading:

1. Participation in class discussion:  one overall grade, worth 20% of the course grade.

2. Eight papers of 1.5 pages each on weekly readings (altogether, 40% of the course grade).

3. Midterm essay (20% of course grade).

4. Final essay (partial revision of midterm essay; 20%).

This undergraduate seminar focuses on India's classical epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.  Emphasis will be placed on understanding the epic characters in relation to the heroic traditions of premodern India, as well as on the role of the epics in contemporary Indian political and religious culture.  Although the ancient Sanskrit epics will be treated at greatest length, we will also explore regional-language versions of the narratives from the middle ages.  In the first ten weeks of the course, the class format will vary between lectures by the instructor and group discussion. During the final five weeks, students will be engaged largely in thinking and writing on a topic of their choice.  By the end of the semester student will have become familiar with India's epic traditions, gained greater appreciation of the humanistic value of epic literature worldwide, and improved their ability to express themselves in writing.

Texts:

1)  Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, The Mahabharata (Columbia University. Press, 1997)

2)  Gurcharan Das, The Difficulty of Being Good (Oxford University Press, 2010)

3)  R. K. Narayan, The Ramayana (Penguin Classics, 2006)

4) Numerous articles and essays provided on Blackboard.

Grading:

5 reading responses     25%

2 drafts of analytical paper   25%

research paper proposal      5%

2 drafts of research paper   25%

attendance & participation  20%

Flag: Cultural Diversity in the U.S.

This course examines the South Asian diaspora in United States. We will focus on Americans who trace their descent to India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. While studying the history and culture of South Asian America, we will discuss globalization, transnationalism, migration, assimilation, formation of a diaspora, discrimination, and gender and sexuality, all major themes in Asian American Studies. The course is arranged chronologically and thematically. We will start in the early twentieth century following the journey of the first South Asian migrants to arrive in California. The second part of the course will focus on the effects of the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. Topics covered include economic and social reasons for immigration, adaptation to American life, cultural and religious assimilation, changing family structures, and discrimination and exclusion. We will end the semester by discussing South Asian American life in the twenty-first century.

Since inception China, Taiwan and Hong Kong film industries have separate paths of development and emerged onto the world stage with their respective new cinema movements.  Today, auteurs from the new cinema generation continue to play influential roles in Chinese language cinema co-productions, a formidable force with the rise of China market.  Taiwan cinema has a strong tradition of art cinema and close tie with the literature field. Its production system enables both unity without and heterogeneity within.  This seminar will cover the films and career path of four leading auteur directors (Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang and Ang Lee) as well as international award-winning professionals who are auteurs in their own right.  We will see how these Taiwan auteurs work inside the systems of Taiwan cinema, film festival network, Japanese studio, French cinema or Hollywood conglomerate but develop personal style and exhibit distinctive Taiwan cultural sensibility.

May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.  Some topics partially fulfill legislative requirement for American history.  Prerequisite: Varies with the topic and is given in the Course Schedule.

This course will consider Tibetan art and the ways in which it has been studied andexhibited. We will look at practices that first emerged in India in order to understand the ways in which they were further developed in the Himalayan world. We will look at subject and style in Tibetan art and consider how they are significant for shaping Tibetan culture and society. We will also focus on specific monastic sites to consider what is significant about their form and organization. And of course we will consider the function and meaning of Tibetan art and architecture when they were created and now.

Grading:

3 exams worth 20% eachpresentations & writing assignments: 30%participation 10%

Texts:

The books available for purchase at UT COOP are Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Penguin edition 2011 ed. By Harish Trevedi (this edition only please); Tibetan Art, Tracing the Development of Spiritual Ideals by Amy Heller, Jaca Books, 1999 and Early Himalayan Art by Amy Heller, Ashmolean Museum, 2008 The library will have copies on reserve as well as a copy of the course reader with articles to be read for this class. Topics to be covered are given in course schedule which also lists readings and dates for exams, etc.

A critical and historical introduction to Indian philosophies and speculative religious thought.  Topics include: the psychology of yoga and Indian mysticism along with the ``enlightenment'' theories and metaphysical positions that are thought to underpin yogic endeavors.  These topics are associated with Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism) as well as some of the philosophic schools.  We shall also survey, within a properly philosophic sphere, the development of logic (briefly) and theory of knowledge (at greater length).  Metaphysical arguments for momentariness, ``mind-only,'' and ``no-self'' (on the Buddhist side) and counterarguments for realism and theism (on the side of Nyaya and Vedanta) will occupy us, in particular the debate about self and personal identity.  The Tantric philosophy of the eleventh-century Kashmiri Shaivite Abhinava Gupta along with his contributions to classical aesthetics as well as his suggestions of a new "yoga of art and beauty" will occupy us later in the term.  No previous background in philosophy or in Indian thought is required.

Course requirements: best 3 out of 4 glossary tests (15%); 2 two-page papers (topics to be handed out; 30%); mid-term exam (15%) final exam (35%); attendance (5%).

Reading: J. N. Mohanty, CLASSICAL INDIAN PHILOSOPHY The UPANISADS (tr. Roebuck) The BHAGAVAD GITA (tr. Edgerton) a packet of photocopies

Please note that this course will meet W 5-8pm (time change form in process).

This seminar examines autobiographies written by prominent artists and intellectuals in Japan from the tenth century to the present to consider how they negotiated their lives and their legacies through the act of self-portraiture. We will look at how these works are informed by both the historical and cultural contexts in which they were written and by the genre itself. Examples will include works by highborn ladies-in-waiting and imperial consorts in the premodern era; samurai men who found their class on the verge of extinction in the mid-late 19th century; and avant-garde artists, filmmakers, and authors in the 20th and 21st centuries. To consider how cultural context and generic form inform self-writing, we will also look at classic autobiographies in the West, such as the 1660 Diary of Samuel Pepys, in other Asian nations, such as the first autobiography in Hindi, Banarasidas’ Ardha-Kathanak (1601), and also autobiographies written by Westerners living in Japan. In order to consider in depth how the form or medium guides the content of these self-portraits, our objects of study will encompass a wide variety of mediums that go beyond the traditional book form to include paintings, lyric verse, songs, films, and comic books.

Proposed Readings

Books to Purchase:

**Kusama Yayoi, Infinity Net (2011)

**Murasaki Shikibu, The Diary of Lady Murasaki (1010)

**Jun’ichi Saga, Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan’s Underworld (1989)

**Lady Kagerō, The Gossamer Years: the Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan (ca. 935)

**Lady Nijō, The Confessions of Lady Nijō (1307)

**Katsu Kokichi, Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (1843)

Course Reader with excerpts from:

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, “Cogwheels,” “A Note to an Old Friend,” “A Fool’s Life” (1927)

Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes (1977)

Fukuzawa Yūkichi, The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi (1897)

Baroness Shidzue Ishimoto, Facing Two Ways: The story of my life (1936)

Fumiko Kaneko, The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman (1926)

Hara Kazuo (dir.), Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (1974)

Kurosawa Akira, Something Like an Autobiography (1981) and Dreams (1990)

Philippe Lejeune, On Autobiography (1989)

Nakano Makiko. Makiko's Diary: A Merchant Wife in 1910 Kyoto

Paul de Man, “Autobiography as De-facement” (1979)

John Nathan, Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir (2008)

Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader (1998)

Yamada Hanako, manga excerpts

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home, A Family Tragicomic (2006)

Mishima Yukio, Confessions of a Mask (1949)

John Treat, “AIDS Panic in Japan, or How to Have a Sabbatical in an Epidemic” (1994)

May be repeated for credit when topics vary.  Asian Studies 378 and 379 may not both be counted.  Prerequisite: For Asian studies and Asian cultures and languages majors, twelve semester hours of upper-division coursework in Asian studies or Asian languages; for others, upper-division standing.

Asceticism, as a concept and a way of life, exists in many religious traditions. Ascetics commit to bodily restraints that can be manifold and are practiced at various levels of intensity. From specific food restraints (for example, vegetarianism) to fasting to death; from celibacy to self-castration; from wearing simple robes to going naked; from shaving one’s head to severe self-mutilation; from living in a monastic community to locking one-self in a cell to constant wandering. Using case studies from various religions, this course discusses the concepts, practices, and goals associated with this radical way of life. It also introduces students to scholarly approaches to asceticism, which includes theories of the body and of culture more generally. Other topics discussed in class are the social status of the ascetic; asceticism and gender; asceticism and devotion; and asceticism and violence. Historical examples will be taken primarily from India (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism) and Mediterranean late antiquity (Greek/Roman religions, Christianity, Judaism).

Texts:

TBD

Grading:

TBD

May be repeated for credit when topics vary.  Asian Studies 378 and 379 may not both be counted.  Prerequisite: For Asian studies and Asian cultures and languages majors, twelve semester hours of upper-division coursework in Asian studies or Asian languages; for others, upper-division standing.