CMLT 320 - Great Books of East Asia

In this course we will probe both the term “great books” and “Asia” or more specifically “East Asia.” During the first week of class, we will discuss the politics of canonization. Questions we will consider are: What makes a work of literature great? And who gets to decide? Then we will specifically look at famous literary texts from China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The term “Asia” is a complicated one. Sixty percent of the earth’s population lives on the Asian continent and some of the oldest civilizations of the world are part of Asia. Yet, people unfamiliar with the vastly different cultures of the numerous countries that fall under the heading of “Asia” often view it as a single cultural entity. We will consider issues of race, gender, nationalism, militarism, and recent postmodern trends in East Asia. Texts we will read may include: The Analects of Confucius, The Tao Te Ching, The Tale of the Heike, Shi Nai’an’s The Water Margin, Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman, Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro, Kawabata Yasunari’s Snow Country, Yi Kwang-su’s Mujong, Gao Xingjian’s Soul Mountain, and Wu Zhouliu’s Orphan of Asia. (Group III) (Diversity, Writing Option)