Topic: Nationalism and Cultural Identity

This seminar will explore the issues of nationalism and cultural identity
in East Asia during modern times.  We will be interested in how the West
has represented nation and cultural identity of East Asia and how that
representation has affected the way the East Asians see and represent
themselves.  We will begin by discussing nationalism theory in its
political, sociological and cultural guises.  This examination leads us
directly to a critical appraisal of how the Western biases within this
theory shaped (until recently) and skewed our understanding of East Asia in
general.  Complex issues--identity formation, the role of
traditional culture and social structure in political movements,
demographic and economic change, anti-colonial movements, class versus
national identifications, the creation and meaning of national symbolism,
as well as our understanding for ethnic and class diversity in East
Asia--all have been affected by the metaphor of nation and the narrative
strategies it produces.

In short, the goal is to learn about the uses and abuses of nationalist
narratives as they are applied to the study of East Asia.

Course Structure: This is a reading seminar.  We will examine several texts
a week and
prepare short critical essays that both summarize and critique the texts in
question. Eight short assignments of this type and seminar performance will
be the basis for evaluating performance.

Possible Readings:  The following list is suggestive only.  There have been
a number of new (and very exciting) books on the issues of nationalism and
cultural identity in East Asia.  We will probably have to limit ourselves
to 10-12 works or the equivalent in journal articles.

Harumi Befu, Cultural Nationalism in East Asia
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities
Ernst Gellner, Nations and Nationalism
Emily Honig, Creating Chinese Ethnicity
Michael Robinson, Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Korea
Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World
Nancy Ablemann, Echoes of the Past, Epics of Dissent
Sharon Minichiello Ed. Alternate Modernities in Taisho Japan
Tak Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy
Andrew Parker, Ed., Nationalism and Sexualities
Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Minds
Kenneth Wells, South Korea's Minjung Movement

For further information please contact me at 227 Goodbody Hall;
mrobinso@indiana.edu; or 855-3635.