Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course is devoted to a study of selected literary texts set in various regions of Southeast Asia. The readings will include works by foreign authors who lived and traveled in Southeast Asia and translations of works by Southeast Asian writers. These texts will be used to make comparisons and observations with which to characterize coloniality, nationalism, and postcoloniality. This course satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Self, Representation, and Nation: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Not yet offered
In this course, the student will read selections from the large body of scholarly texts that have been written about Southeast Asia. Expository and argumentative essays by premier scholars such as Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Margaret Mead, Clifford Geertz, and Benedict Anderson will be examined. Discussions will cover a broad range of theoretical issues including power, gender, and space. This course satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Under Western Eyes: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Readings, lectures, and discussion of the culture and civilization of Southeast Asia. Mainland Southeast Asia: Covers the modern-day nations of Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, etc., with special emphasis on the impact of Hinduism and Buddhism. (F,SP) Staff
Introduction to the Civilization of Southeast Asia: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Readings, lectures, and discussion of the culture and civilization of Southeast Asia. Insular Southeast Asia: Covers the modern-day nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Special emphasis on the arts and their social and political context, with discussions on the impact of the colonial experience and the question of modernization vs. tradition.
Introduction to the Civilization of Southeast Asia: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2011, Fall 2009
This course will examine the role of contemporary literature in Indonesian/Malaysian society. Emphasis on the socio-political aspects of this literature in historical context. Genres discussed will include poetry, the novel, the short story, and drama.
Introduction to Modern Indonesian and Malaysian Literature in Translation: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
Readings and lectures focus on Thailand, Vietnam and Burma; Cambodian and Laotian materials as available. After brief attention to the influence of oral tradition, classical poetry, and dance drama, emphasis will be on modern novels, short stories, film, and television in their cultural/historical context.
Mainland Southeast Asian Literature: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2014, Fall 2012
This course examines the impact of the history of literacy and literature upon the ways in which perceptions and roles of women are constructed and reinforced in a developing non-Western society. Course material includes literature, oral and manuscript narratives, ritual performance.
Articulations of the Female in Indonesia: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
This undergraduate seminar will be an investigation into key discourses on Islam in Southeast Asia, focusing on history, literature, and culture. We will trace the processes through which Islam entered the Malay world in the 13th century, and explore the European colonial encounters with Islam in Southeast Asia and the ways that Islam interacted with and resisted colonialism. We will discuss the role of mysticism and of reformists and will also explore the struggles of Islam as a minority religion in the Philippines and Thailand. Readings will include primary sources in translation, literary texts, ethnographic works, and writings by colonial and local scholars.
Islam and Society in Southeast Asia: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2008, Fall 2006
This seminar will focus on the late colonial and national periods in Southeast Asia. Through literary and political texts as well as classical anthropological sources, we will explore different approaches to reading and analyzing Southeast Asian source material. There will be extensive readings of works of fiction and primary source material in translation, as well as occasional screenings of films. We will tackle broader themes and theoretical approaches to Southeast Asian sources and literatures and will discuss different approaches to reading modern Southeast Asian texts. The course is open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
Southeast Asian Cultures, Texts, and Politics: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Not yet offered
The course focuses on Philippine history through literature and performance. Among the texts to be discussed are: traditional forms (rituals, poetry, songs, dances) that give insights to belief systems and economic, political, and social life during the indigenous or precolonial period; performance and literary forms that were instruments both of colonial conquest and anti-colonial movements; and theater and literature that participated in discourse on agrarian issues, labor, martial law and militarism, gender rights, academic freedom, and human rights.
Philippines: History, Literature, Performance: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Not yet offered
An introduction to the mythologies of Southeast Asia, providing a comparative overview of key myths. We will focus on indigenous narrative traditions encompassing myths of creation and origin, agricultural and maritime myths and practices, the founding of kingdoms, and indigenous geographies. We will further explore the role of myth in the contemporary world.
Southeast Asian Mythology: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Not yet offered
Can a song inspire a revolution? The course focuses on literary, visual, and performance texts that participated in political discourses in the Philippines. What strategies did the writers and artists employ? How did writers and artists face issues of censorship and persecution? How did social movements influence these texts, and in turn, how did these texts contribute to these social movements?
Philippine Cultural Politics: Read More [+]

Offered through: South and Southeast Asian Studies
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2014, Spring 2010
In postcolonial thought on European claims to cultural supremacy, the case of the "Dutch East-Indies" (the future Indonesia) still arouses questions like: What made the Dutch colonial policy different from that of other European powers? What were the main characteristics of the "Dutch East-Indies"? How did a small country like the Netherlands manage to rule a territory that was fifty-two times its own in scale? And how can we explain that 350 years of Dutch domination left so few traces in contemporary Indonesia?
The Indonesian Connection: Dutch Literature About the Indies in English Translation: Read More [+]