This course will explore the issues of nationalism and cultural identity as
manifest in East Asia in modern times.  We will begin with an examination of
nationalism theory-it its political, sociological, and cultural
guises-paying particular attention to how Western bias within this theory
shaped, until recently, our understanding of national and cultural identity
in East Asia.  The course will use nationalism theory to grapple with
complex issues within the modern history of East Asia: cultural identity
formation, the rule of traditional culture and social structure on political
movements, demographic and economic change, anti-colonial movements, class
versus national identifications, creation and meaning of national symbols,
and ethnic stratification with national collectives.  Our goal is to better
appreciate the scope and relative utility of nationalism theory in scholarly
writing about East Asia while acquainting ourselves with and rethinking some
of the general themes in our understanding of East Asian culture.