Faculty, Sec. 000, MTWTF 10:40-11:30, MAX: 15, WRT: NO
Faculty, Sec. 001, MTWTF 11:45-12:35, MAX: 15, WRT: NO
Content: This course is designed to enable students to reach the point where they can communicate effectively in Hindi and can read, write and converse on a range of topics. It is also intended for speakers of other Indian languages who may or may not know Hindi already, but who wish to be able to speak and write India's national language accurately. Students will begin by learning the alphabet, sound system, basic sentence structures, and basic greetings and expressions.
Text: Beginning Hindi-Urdu, Margaret Robinson and Virendra Singh.
Particulars: Short weekly quizzes, two hour-long tests and a final examination.
Students who have some knowledge of spoken Hindi but wish to learn to read and write the language should wait and register for ASIA 375: Hindi for Heritage Speakers. This course will be offered in the Spring '00 semester.
Faculty, MTuWF 12:50-1:40, MAX:15, WRT: NO
Content: Students continue to develop skills in reading, writing and speaking Hindi with emphasis on initiating and sustaining conversations on a broad range of topics. Students will also become familiar with many aspects of Indian culture, including social customs and traditions, family life, education, and literature. Differences in formal and spoken Hindi will also be covered.
Texts: Spoken Hindi (book and tape), Surendra K. Gambhir
Intermediate Hindi, Yamuna Kachru and Rajeshwan Pandharipande
Particulars: Hindi 101 and 102 are prerequisites.
von Wurttemberg, MWF 12:50-1:40, MAX: 15, WRT:NO
Content: The Sanskrit language, the sacred language of the Hindu and aspects of the Buddhist traditions of India, is one of the oldest human languages, with textual and oral traditions dating back to the twelfth century BCE. It has a rich and complex literature of poetic, epic, narrative, medical, legal, political, and philosophical and ritual texts. The course will introduce students to the script, pronunciation, grammar, and syntax of the Sanskrit language. By the end of the two-semester course, students should be able to read selections from major texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, Rig Veda, Ramayana, Upanishads, and the Hitopadesha. There will also be Sanskrit sloka recitation. The student will be able to develop an appreciation for Hindu and Indian Buddhist thought and literature. The course will be valuable for students with interests in South Asian studies, linguistics, especially Indo-European etymology, religion, philosophy, classics, comparative literature, and theology.
Text: Sanskrit: My First Book, by Vishnu Shastri von Wurttemberg
Particulars: Chapter tests, mid-term and final examination. Optional weekend field trip to witness an Indian puja.
von Wurttemberg, TT 1:00-2:15, MAX: 15, WRT: NO
Content: Students continue developing skills in writing, pronouncing and reading the Sanskrit language. Readings include selections from major Sanskrit classics.
Text: Coulsen, Teach Yourself Sanskrit
Particulars: Sanskrit 101 and 102 are prerequisites.
Nickerson, TT 10:00-11:15, MAX: 15 (ASIA 5, IDS 10)
Content: This seminar will explore fictional and non-fictional accounts of the experience of Asian and Asian-descended people in North America. The emphasis of the discussions and paper assignments will be on the interpretation of these texts in their artistic peculiarity and in their historical and political contexts. Major issues for the seminar will include: the interplay of tradition and innovation within and across generations of writers; how cultural and personal narratives are shaped by the social context of racism; the role of gender in storytelling; the audience for and reception of ethnic literature and film. The approach is interdisciplinary; (prospective) majors from all fields are welcome.
Texts: Materials will include autobiography, family history, fiction, poetry, journalism, and film by and about Asian Americans, including Maxine Hong Kingston, Carlos Bulosan, Ronald Takaki, Trinh Minh-ha, Arthur Dong, and others.
Particulars: Three short papers; one longer research project; participation in electronic and classroom discussion, groups and individual presentations to the seminar.
Faculty, TT 4:00-5:15, MAX: 25
Content: A course to introduce students to the literatures and literary traditions of the Indian Subcontinent--ritual texts, epics, drama, devotional poetry and song, stories, and novels--from the earliest period up to modern times, but with an emphasis on earlier texts. Readings to be selected from classical texts and from works by modern and contemporary authors.
Texts: TBA
Particulars: No prior background in literature or the literatures of the Indian Subcontinent is required.
Everett, TT 11:30-12:45, MAX: 60 (ASIA 20, MUS 40)
Content: This course will examine the development of musical traditions in the Asian cultures of India, China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. The influence of philosophy and aesthetics from India, China and the West on the development of music, theater and dance in Asia will be examined as well.
Texts: TBA
Particulars: No prerequisites.
Faculty, MWF 3:00-3:50, MAX: 25 (ASIA 5, CHN 20), WRT: Yes
Content: This course is designed to introduce Chinese literature to students who have had little or no exposure to the Chinese literary tradition. It comprises part one of a two-semester course, however enrollment in the Fall '99 course is not a prerequisite for the spring semester. We will consider the function of history, memory, and transnationalism in the modern Chinese literary context from a broad range of literary styles and genres. In exploring how history and nostalgia define the role China plays in a multi-cultural Twentieth Century, topics to be examined are: the change, growth or disappearance of traditional social values in modern China; the presentation of personal diary as historical document; and responses to Western culture. Furthermore, this class will observe aspects of behavior in the literary characters, such as madness, sexuality, loneliness, desperation, disappointment, conformity, and so on to discuss reactions to social change.
Texts: TBA
Particulars: No prerequisites. No knowledge of Chinese required.
Axel, TT 11:30-12:45, MAX: 40 (ASIA 5, ANTH 35)
Content: This course will examine basic questions about the South Asian Diaspora through special reference to Punjabis and Sikhs living in India, England, and North America. We will aim to adress four fundamental issues of interest to students of not only South Asia, but also anthropology and history more generally: 1) What is historiography? 2) What is culture? 3) What is social structure? 4) What are the ethics and politics of doing anthropology and history? Looking at South Asian Diasporas, the course as a whole will consider how cultural practices are historically emergent, socially constructed, continually challenged, and often inflected through formations of race and gender.
Texts: Selections by Harjot S. Oberoi, Richard Fox, Parminder Bhachu, Karen Leonard, and Cynthia Mahmood.
Particulars: Requirements include class participation, occasional short papers, a mid-term exam, and a final exam/paper.
If the final paper is selected, this course will fulfill writing requirements.
Reinders, MWF 11:45-12:35, MAX: 30 (ASIA 5, REL 25), WRT: YES
Content: An introduction to religious life in East Asia (mainly China and Japan). We will deal with the major religious traditions, (Cofucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shinto and Christianity), considering beliefs, ritual practices, values, and texts in their sociohistorical contexts. Our themes will include the unseen forces of the religious universe, cosmology, self-cultivation, ritual practice, the body, salvation, death and the afterlife.
Texts: Readings may include: Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese
Religion: An Introduction; Kristofer Schipper, The
Taoist Body; Robert E. Buswell, Jr., The Zen Monastic Experience;
Robert S. Ellwood & Richard Pilgrim, Japanese Religion: A Cultural
Perspective; John K. Nelson, A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine.
Particulars: TBA
Axel, TT 4:00-5:15, MAX: 18 (ASIA 3, ANTH 15), WRT: Yes
Content: This course will introduce students to the anthropological and historical study of colonialism and its many "posts." We will use South Asia as our case study, but make forays into Africa and Southeast Asia. Readings will be of two sorts. One set of readings will focus on texts written just prior to and just after "Indian Independence" in 1947, a time which witnessed the formation of several nation-states and the territorial transformation of the South Asian Subcontinent. A second set of readings will consist of studies produced more recently that outline different theories of colonialism, nationalism, postcolonialism, and globalization.
Texts: Selections by Jinnah, Nehru, Sadhu Swarap Singh, Edward Said, Benedict Anderson, Gayatri Sivak and Homi Bhabha.
Particulars: Requirements will include several short class presentations, short papers throughout the semester, and a final paper.
Reinders, MWF 9:35-10:25, MAX: 30 (ASIA 5, REL 25), WRT: YES
Content: An introductory exploration of Buddhism in Asia, from the life of the Buddha to the present, with focus on: biographies of Buddha, the philosophical foundations, the Lotus Sutra and early Mahayana thought, the monastic community, and the development of Chan and Zen.
Texts: Readings may include: Bradley Hawkins, Buddhism; The Lotus Sutra and other scriptures; Donald Lopez, ed., Buddhism in Practice; Chen Hua, In Search of the Dharma; and readings on reserve.
Particulars: TBA
Faculty, TT 11:30-12:45, MAX: 30 (ASIA 5, REL 25)
Content: The purpose of this course is to provide an historical overview of the origins of the religious movements in India we now call "Hinduism."
Texts: TBA
Particulars: TBA
Faculty, TT 11:30-12:45, MAX: 20 (ASIA 5, JPN 15)
Content: This course is an introduction to Japanese Literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The primary focus is on the literary value of the works, but attention is also given to cultural, historical and social issues reflected in the works.
Texts: TBA
Particulars: No knowledge of Japanese required.
Finn, M, 2:00-4:00, MAX: 12 (3 ASIA, 9 HIST)
Content: This course explores Anglo-Indian perceptions and relations from the later eighteenth through the early twentieth century. It begins by examining three main schools of argument generated by twentieth-century scholars to explain the creation and character of the Raj: Orientalism, British pragmaticism, and Subaltern Studies. The remainder of the course uses a series of case studies to assess the utility of these three schools of argument in analyzing the Raj. The topics examined in detail focus on issues of religion, gender, social conflict, power and the state. They include the infamous "Black Hole of Calcutta," the practice of sati or widow burning, the incidence of thaqi or ritualized robbery and murder by strangling, the Rebellion of 1857, and the use of British medicine and law to control the Indian population.
Texts: Texts include Edward Said, Orientalism; Bart Moore-Gilbert (ed.), Writing India 1757-1900; Gavin Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism; David Arnold, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India; Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century; and Rudyard Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills and Kim.
Particulars: Students will submit a number of short paragraph responses to the weekly readings and write one 5-6 page analytical essay and one 12-17 page research paper. Class participation, which includes the short written responses to the readings, constitutes 40% of the final grade; the shorter essay represents 10% of the final grade and the research paper 50%.
Faculty (Permission of Instructor Required)
Content: Readings on special topics in Asian Studies as arranged between the individual student and a specific faculty member associated with the Asian Studies Program who agrees to guide the student in his or her study. Requirements to be arranged.
For more information on courses in other departments that may be taken for credit toward an Asian Studies Major, contact the Asian Studies Program at (404) 727-6280, or see website at www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/AS/majors/majors.html
Preliminary Course Listing for Spring '00
HNDI 102: Introduction to Hindi--Second Semester
HNDI 202: Intermediate Hindi--Second Semester
SNSK 102: Introduction to Sanskrit--Second Semester
SNSK 202: Intermediate Sanskrit--Second Semester
ASIA 370R: Seminar in Asian Studies
ASIA 371R: Seminar on Asian America
ASIA 375R: Special Topics in Asian Studies
ASIA 376R: Special Topics on Asian America
ASIA 490R: Seminar in Asia/Asian America
ASIA 497R: Directed Study