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Introductory and Intermediate
Seminars
MONTSERRAT - The Asia Pacific: Whose History? Fall: Discovering the Asia Pacific The history of the Asia Pacific region belies the notion that “globalization” is a new phenomenon. Premodern states in the region traded goods, exchanged people and ideas, and occasionally fought with one another long before the “Age of Discovery,” when Europeans arrived on the scene to claim, rename and eventually colonize these territories and peoples between the 15th and 18th centuries. How did this notion of “discovery” influence European attitudes toward the peoples and cultures they encountered during this period? Equally important, how did it influence European approaches to the study and writing of history, as generations of European explorers, missionaries, travelers, colonial administrators and scholars sought to document their own discoveries of the Asia Pacific and its past? Spring: Creating the Asia Pacific During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the earlier “Age of Discovery” gave rise to the “Age of Empire” in the Asia Pacific region, as Western colonial powers harnessed modern science, technology and industry to compete with one another for global dominance. The notion of “discovery,” in turn, gave way to “invention.” How did their modern conviction that humans can alter and determine their own futures influence Western attitudes toward the peoples of the Asia Pacific, over whom they exercised varying degrees of control? What responses did their attitudes provoke among Asian Pacific peoples themselves? How are these developments reflected in the historical record, which is still subject to competing interpretations from Western and non-Western historians alike?
HIST 101 Manifest Destiny: The U.S. in the Pacific The phrase "Manifest Destiny" was coined by John O'Sullivan in 1845 to proclaim the mission of the United States "to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying masses." But this drive to expand did not stop at the continent's Western shore. Instead, it gave new meaning and a new sense of urgency to Americans' contacts with, and perceptions of, the Asian Pacific region dating back to the 18th century. It enticed new generations of Americans from many walks of life--merchants, missionaries, scholars, teachers, journalists, novelists, diplomats, soldiers--into the Asia Pacific region drom the second half of the 19th century until the end of the 20th. These Americans reshaped the histories of places like the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. In turn, these encounters reshaped American history, as well.
This course offers a thematic introduction to early Asian history and civilization. Much of our time is spent reading and discussing seminal works of philosophy and fictionthat continue to enjoy wide popularity and influence today. Typical selections include the Analects of Confucius, the Tao te Ching, excerpts from the Ramayana and/or Mahabarata, Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, and The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du. This allows us to consider how these products of "traditional" Asian culture have been interpreted by later generations of readers in "modern" Asia (and beyond).
HIST 105 Asia in Western Fiction and Film This course examines and compares descriptions of Asia and portrayals of Asian societies found in Western novels and short stories published since the late nineteenth century. It also considers selected twentieth-century cinematic portrayals of Asia , including films based on those same works of fiction. Novels, short stories and films can be valuable resources for the study of history. Since they often enjoy a wide audience, these works are influential in shaping popular perceptions. At the same time, they reflect the author's/director’s particular perceptions of her/his own society, of foreign societies, and of the times in which she/he lives. This course combines a study of fiction and films set in South, Southeast, and East Asia with a look at the particular historical contexts in which they were produced. The course assumes no prior study of Asia. It has four goals: (1) To introduce students to the study of Asian history and to the modern history of Western encounters with Asia; (2) To identify the major features of Western fictional and cinematic portrayals of Asia produced since the late nineteenth century. Do these descriptions change over time? Do they vary depending upon the country being described? Do individual authors/directors emphasize certain characteristics over others? (3) To seek historical explanations for these portrayals. What prompted these writers/directors to feature Asia so prominently in their work? How did they perceive the relationship between Asia and the West at the time they wrote, and why? What was the source of their knowledge of Asia (e.g., travel, employment in colonial administration, military duty, missionary work, etc.), and how did their particular experiences there shape their opinions of Asia? (4) To assess the accuracy of these fictional portrayals of Asia and their potential value for the study of history. How much should historians, or the casual reader, rely on fiction and film for insights into non-Western cultures? Or do they really tell us more about Western authors/directors and their own societies?
HIST 106 Origins of Japanese Culture Objectives Schedule Part Two JAPAN IN THE PREHISTORIC AND PROTOHISTORICPERIODS (circa 4,500 B.C. - 550 A.D.) Part Three CONTINENTAL INFLUENCES IN EARLY AND CLASSICALJAPAN (circa 550 - 1185 A.D.) Part Four "DECLINE OF THE BUDDHIST LAW" AND RISE OFTHE SAMURAI IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN (1185 - 1600) Samurai rise to power EPILOGUE
HIST 200 The Historian's Craft: Atomic Objectives HIST 285 The Warrior Tradition in Japan Objectives Schedule Part Two THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD Part Three TRANSITION TO THE EARLYMODERN PERIOD Part Four THE EARLY MODERNPERIOD Part Five THE MODERN PERIOD HIST 286 Modern Japan Objectives Accordingly, this courseis divided into two parts. Part One provides a chronological overviewof Japan's transition from an early modern, to a modern, to a "postmodern"state and society. As will be seen, this approach tends to emphasize evidence of continuity and gradual change in its attempt to interpret the modernization process. With this historical background,Part Two adopts a narrower focus to reexamine, in greater detail, the major economic, political, social, and cultural developments that took placein Japan between the 1860s and the 1930s. This approach will be used to probe some of the underlying discontinuities and resulting dilemmas of Japan's modernization that tend to be overlooked in standard, chronological surveys. The course will conclude with a brief discussion of the respective strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, and what each has contributed to present-day perspectives on modern Japan. Schedule Part Two DISCONTINUITY ANDTHE DILEMMAS OF MODERNIZATION Epilogue BETWEEN "TRADITION"AND "MODERNITY": CONTINUITY OR DISCONTINUITY?
HIST 287 The Pacific War Objectives The task of understanding the Pacific War has grown more, not less, challenging over time as new information comes to light, and continues to generate new, often conflicting, interpretations and reinterpretations. By studying and comparing the views of others--participants and non-participants, Japanese and non-Japanese--through historical documents, films, and recent scholarship, we can not only learn more about the war itself, but the intervening half-century which stands between the war and the present, and which links the two more closely than we may realize. Schedule Part Two PACIFIC WAR CHRONICLE: THE BATTLEFRONT Part Three PACIFIC WAR CHRONICLE: THE HOMEFRONT Part Four IMAGES FROM THE WAR Part Five The "PACIFIC WAR" IN THE POSTWAR ERA Objectives Schedule Part Two POLITICS, LAW, AND THEDYNAMICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE Part Three ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES Part Four CULTURE AND HISTORY
Modern Southeast Asia Objectives Schedule Part Two PRECOLONIAL HERITAGE
Part Three ERA OF WESTERN COLONIALISM Part Four STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE Part Five BUILDING MODERN NATION-STATES Part Six GLOBALIZATION: MOVING BEYOND THE NATION-STATE?
Modernization and Education in Asia If there is one thing thatadvanced industrial societies have in common with the so-called newly industrializedcountries (NICs) and late developing countries (LDCs), it is the convictionthat education is an indispensable component of modernity. Educationhas never been a monopoly of modern societies, but modernity has alwaysbeen a monopoly of educated societies. Political leaders value itsrole in forging a cohesive soeicty through its promotion of a common nationalidentity and culture. Business leaders value its role in forgingan efficient, prosperous industrial economy through its dissemination ofscientific knowledge and technical skills. Workers value its rolein forging more comfortable, prosperous lives for themselves and theirfamilies through increased social mobility based on merit. While this sanguine view of the relationship between modernization and education is supported by empirical evidence, it overlooks or ignores other evidence that reveals a far more complex and unpredictable relationship between the two. It tends to assume, for example, that both the process of educational development and its specific contributions to modernization can be carefully controlled, and that the outcome will be the same regardless of when and where it takes place. As such, it ignores the influence that history, culture, and politics exert upon education and modernization alike. Hence, one of the objectives of this course is to challenge and supplement this view, by problematizing the relationship between education and modernization that it takes for granted. We begin by examining how people's views of education and its relationship to social change have evolved and changed over time. We will discover that this view has not gone unchallenged, and that there are other theoretical perspectives--each with its own strengths and limitations--from which to examine this problematic relationship. A second objective is to reintroduce history, culture, and politics into the equation, by focusing on educational development and modernization in Asia since the nineteenth century. To do this, we first turn to our primary "case study": Japan. Japan has been singled out for emphasis because it is routinely praised as the first Asian country to modernize successfully, and is seen by many as a suitable model for other developing nations to follow. After gauging the historical and contemporary accuracy of the "Japanese model," we will then be in a position to compare Japan's experience with other Asian countries. Along the way, we will pursue a third objective: to gain new insights into the modern history of these Asian countries.
This seminar examines the development of “race” and “culture” as categories of difference, and as bases of political power and social control in the Asia-Pacific region, from the advent of European colonialism in the 16 th century up to the present. Special attention is paid to: (1) the applications of racial and cultural categories in the management of portions of the British Empire (the Malay Peninsula, Australia); (2) comparisons between rival American and Japanese racial and cultural discourses, within the context of American and Japanese competition for territory, wealth, and power in the “Far East” during the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, which culminated in the Pacific War; (3) the legacy of these discourses in America and Japan in the decades since World War Two; (4) the legacy of British racialist discourse and colonial policies in three of its former colonies (Australia, Malaysia, Singapore). We also discuss recent debates among scholars regarding theoretical and methodical alternatives employed to study constructions of race and culture in colonial and postcolonial Asia , and their often contentious interpretations. Pacific Paradox: Conquest and Community Beginning in the late 1970s, a variety of prognosticators—ranging from journalists, politicians and government bureaucrats to scholars and business consultants—in countries like the United States, Australia and Japan confidently predicted that 2001 would mark not only a New Millennium, but also the dawn of a “Pacific Century” that would challenge Western political, economic and cultural hegemony in the world. Many also speculated that this historical development would be accompanied by another: the evolution of a dynamic, but peaceful, multinational regional community variously dubbed the “Pacific Basin,” the “Pacific Rim,” and the “Asia-Pacific.” This future vision stood in stark contrast to other images of the Pacific that seemed just as real earlier in the twentieth century: Australians worried that their country would be overrun by hordes of Asians seeking to escape poverty and overcrowding in their own lands; Australians and Americans teamed up to do bloody battle against Japanese expansion (and to protect their economic and strategic interests in the region) during World War Two; and all three countries were drawn into an alliance against a perceived communist threat, in places like Korea and Vietnam, during the Cold War. In fact, however, this paradoxical split—between benign views of the Pacific as a peaceful community, marked by harmonious relations between peoples, and between Man and Nature, and sinister views of the Pacific as contested territory marked by competition and occasional violence—have a much longer recorded history, dating back to the great Age of Exploration between the 16th and 18th centuries. In this course we will examine selected chapters in this long history, in order to chart the changing contours of this imagined Pacific, just as Magellan, Cook, and other Western explorers sought to map its physical contours. Our goal is not only to understand how successive generations imagined and understood the Pacific, but also the factors that influenced their views at different times. To insure a comparative approach to this subject, we will pay special attention to the views and attitudes emanating from the United States, Australia and Japan: the three countries most often credited with (or criticized for) inventing today’s discourse on the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Century. |
