Colorado College Asian Studies
Home | Curriculum | News and Events | People | Related Sites
Literature Courses
211 Masterpieces of Chinese Literature in Translation. This course will acquaint students with major forms of Chinese fiction: pi-chi, ch'uan-ch'i, ppien-wen, hua-pen, kung-an, and the novel, as well as modern Chinese vernacular literature. (Also listed as Chinese 212.) (Meets the Alternative Perspectives: B requirement.) 1 unit - Jiang
212 Japanese Literature in Translation. This course examines the way in which post-war Japanese literature reflects the transformation and enduring tensions within Japanese society. Topics include gender roles, the family, individuality, and dissension. Of central concern is the capacity of literature to reflect massive social and economic changes within contemporary Japan and to assess the assumptions of continuity, consensus, and conformity. Works by the following writers will be included: Ibuse Masuji, Yasuoka Shotaro, Hayashi Fumiko, Kawabata Yasunari, Abe Kobo, Enchi Fumiko, and Oe Kenzaburo. Novels and short stories will be supplemented with film and readings. Discussion, reading, and writing will be in English. (Also listed as Japanese 212.) (Not offered 2001-02.) (Meets the Alternative Perspectives: B requirement.) 1 unit - Department
224 Chinese Women Writers and Their Works. This course will focus on a comparative study of the voice of Chinese women writers in the 1920s and 1980s, examine women writers' works in a social-historical context, and discuss the difference of women's places and problems in traditional Chinese culture and modern Chinese society. The course will also try to define the similar and different expressions of "feminism" as a term in the West and the East. (Also listed as Chinese 221 and Women's Studies 224.) (Meets the Alternative Perspectives: B requirement.) (Not offered 2001-02.) 1 unit - Jiang
PA 250, Block 1-2: Topics on Asian Literature & Culture. Language opens the door to culture. This course will pay attention to the relationship between Chinese language and culture, and word and image. The course begins with the study of Chinese language with emphasis on basic grammar, speaking, and listening comprehension as well as mastery of some 250 Chinese characters for reading and writing (mainly in Block 1), and then introduces students to how Chinese language and philosophical thinking transformed ways of life for the East and to the major forms of Chinese literature and art such as poetry, painting, calligraphy and traditional Chinese garden (mainly in Block 2). This is an introductory course, which attempts to spark an interest in Chinese language and art and to lead students to study Chinese language and art in a broader social and cultural context. 1 unit- Jiang
251 Japanese Women Writers. Japanese women writers wrote the most heralded and poetic diaries in the classical literary canon; this celebration of women's literary contributions is an anomaly among world literatures. Yet for over five hundred years, women's literary voices were silenced before reemerging in the modern era, when a renaissance of "women's literature" (joryu bungaku) captured popular imagination, even as it confronted critical disparagement. This course traces the rise, fall, and return of writing by women and the influence of attitudes toward gender on what was written and read through a wide array of literary texts, historical documents, and cultural artifacts. (Also listed as Women's Studies 251.) (Not offered 2001-02.) 1 unit - Ericson