Topical Seminar in Asian Humanities (492-0-21)
Topic
Approaches to Asia
Instructors
Patrick James Noonan
847/467-0283
Kresge Hall - Office 4-550
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.
Meeting Info
Kresge 4438 Asian LC Sem Rm: Wed 1:00PM - 3:50PM
Overview of class
AY22-23
This seminar considers methods of cultural analysis that have shaped the field of Asian Studies and questioned its status as an academic discipline and institutional formation. We begin with a brief history of the field, examining its roots in the philological practices and colonial knowledge production of its various subfields, before moving through the critique of area studies and into contemporary developments. While attending to the epistemological and political stakes of producing scholarship about literature, media, theory, and other forms of cultural production in Asia, we will explore the efficacy of particular practices of interpretation: from modes of theorization and historicization to close reading and translation. In terms of praxis, we will consider how we position ourselves within and between fields through the methods we use in our research. We will ask, for example: how can we make our work legible to scholars in overlapping disciplines and areas while remaining focused on a specific project? How and why might we put our work into dialogue with scholarship from academic fields outside of the Euro-American context? What role does translation play in the interpretive and writing process? How do we identify our audiences and how do we speak to them? Designed for students whose research involves studying aesthetic media and cultural practices in Asia, this seminar will approach these issues by examining the methods employed in recent and past scholarship in the fields that constitute Asian studies.
Registration Requirements
Open to graduate students; undergraduate students with permission of the instructor
Teaching Method
Seminar discussion, student presentations
Evaluation Method
Attendance and participation, in-class presentations, final assessment
Class Materials (Required)
All materials will be available on Canvas for download