Two New Courses Offered in Spring 2017

January 24, 2017
Two New Courses Offered in Spring 2017

Introducing two new Korea-related courses offered in the Spring 2017 semester:

stiller_buddhist_art_final
(Image of EASTD 151 Buddhist Art of Korea: Faith, Power and Paradise course poster, 2017)
“Buddhist Art of Korea: Faith, Power and Paradise” 
Instructor: Professor Maya Stiller

Sever Hall 105, Wednesdays, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
This conference course is an introduction to the Buddhist art of Korea and its relationship to the history, doctrines and practices of East Asian Buddhism. Course topics include stupa and relic worship, paintings of hells and paradise, sacred pilgrimage sites and Zen (K. Sŏn) painting. A hands-on approach to the examination of Buddhist art objects in the collections of the Harvard Art Museums will complement classroom studies. By the end of this class, students will have mastered methods of visual culture analysis that can be applied to any other visual and material culture field for a deeper multidimensional understanding of the history and culture of a society. Students will have also gained an understanding of the basic doctrines of Buddhism and specific features of the Korean Buddhist tradition.


Gender in Korean Lit course poster
(Image of Gender in Korean Literature and Film course poster, 2017)

“Gender in Korean Literature and Film” 
Instructor: Professor Ji-Eun Lee

Yenching Library 213, Fridays, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
This course looks in depth at issues regarding women and gender in Korean literature and film. While we explore literary and cinematic representations of gender, the main goal of the class is to examine literature and film as sites for the very construction of gender. Readings include contemporary literary and theoretical works, as well as historical texts from the Colonial period (1910-1945) and the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910), in order to understand women’s issues in the context of historical development. Through textual criticism and theoretical readings, some of the questions we will discuss are: What is "feminine" and "masculine" in Korean culture and how do they change (if they do)? How do these formations and changes relate to literary and cinematic portraits of gender on one hand, and to gendered conceptions of literature and cinema on the other? How do socio-historical circumstances affect representations of gender?