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Traditional Romances of East Asia ALIT226 FA

This course explores major romances of four East Asian cultures: Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam. The first three to be considered are leading works of prose fiction from the premodern East Asian literary corpus: Murasaki's TALE OF GENJI, Kim's NINE-CLOUD DREAM and Cao's THE STORY OF THE STONE (Dream of the Red Chamber). Although these works show no mutual influence, they follow similar patterns that lead us to posit certain common origins in East Asian storytelling and a common heritage of Buddhist views of heaven and predestination, beliefs about gender relationships, five-element theory and garden architecture. At the same time, all three works partake of some of the characteristics of Western romance. The last two works, Vietnam's THE TALE OF KIEU and Korea's TALE OF CHUNHYANG, represent a different strain of East Asian romance. Both are poetic narratives, and both come to symbolize national aspirations even as they focus on the virtuous woman in difficult times. Overall, the course seeks to establish a comparative view of four East Asian civilizations by concentrating on the single issue of the romantic tradition and to look for differences and similarities with Western examples of the form.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA AL&L

Prerequisites: None

Last Updated on MAR-22-1999