Select a course number from the sidebar.
- EA105: "Romance class" (officially "Core Romantic Values in East Asian Premodern Literature and Contemporary Film")
- EA109: "Tea class" (officially "History of the Culture of Tea in China and Japan")
- J7A: "Introduction to Premodern Japanese Literature and Culture"
- J7B: "Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture"
- J155: "Japanese short stories" (officially "Modern Japanese Literature")
- J159: "Oe class", one of the versions of "Contemporary Japanese Literature"
General comment for all courses
In most cases, students who try to enroll in courses I frequently teach that have limited enrollment opportunities are first placed on a waitlist, even when there is considerable space still in the course.
If you are on the waitlist your best strategy is a) to attend the first sessions of the class and b) to state your interest in the course in an email to me using the keyword "enrollmentissue" (no spaces used—see the sidebar for how to email me). You can also email me and, if I have time, I can give you a sense of my intentions for that particular class (not for you as an individual but the general size of the class and so on.) You can try talking to me after that first class but as a practical matter I do not always remember our conversation since there are quite a few random things going on after class during those first few sessions. Just talking to me is risky; talking with me and following up with an email is much better. Use the keyword, above.
I try to rapidly determine the final enrollment of a class and can probably give you a "sense" of your status after the first two or so sessions of the course. However, since I work with the department on this it can take up to two weeks to settle all issues. In most cases whether or not you are a major, intended major or minor is very important, and when you will be graduating is important. However, beyond this there can be a wide variety of individual factors which I give due consideration. In some of my classes Jan Johnson makes most of the choices, but in communication with me. In other classes I like to take the lead.
Special note for Spring 2012
I will be teaching three classes this spring (time and location is a capture from our schedules web site, times and locations might change):
EA109 "Tea" MWF 1-2 185 Barrows
EA105 "Romance" TTH 9:30-11 385 LeConte (Yea! I am so happy this was added.)
J144 "Narrow Road" TTH 2-3:30 223 Dwinelle
J144 is a second semester premodern Japanese (bungo) class. We will read from Matsuo Basho's Oku no hosomichi. Students who are taking J120 this fall have encountered a few of those sections already. I consider J120 to be heavily weighted toward grammar. I will teach J144 as about 50% grammar and 50% literature or lean still farther into the literature part of the equation.
Please note that, at this point, I also plan to teach EA105/romance this summer. But also note that, beyond summer, there is no definite plan to offer this class again. At this point in time my sense is that the department is more inclined to offer EA109 then, budget permitting EA105, but that even EA109 has no guarantee of being offered again.
I am the one who created both EA105 and EA109. I designed these classes to contrast with each other in terms of approach:
Content. EA109/tea is oriented towards information and is mostly lecture-style requiring copious note-taking; EA105 "romance" is much more conceptual, discussion-oriented and "think this over" in approach. EA109 is a cultural history of tea from early times to around 1600, with the course split more or less evenly between China and Japan. Korea is touched on only lightly. EA105 tries to understand the relationship between romantic love and thought systems Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism (with a few others noted) and works from the premise that romantic love has importantly different culture-specific content that can be made explicit. We then take this differences to modern films produced in China, Japan and Korea and try to take a measure of the status of traditional values in specific films, some meant for domestic release only some meant to be viewed and well-received by international audiences.
EA109/tea can grow beyond the enrollment limit as far as I'm concerned, since it is fairly straight-forward in approach and grading techniques. EA105/romance needs to keep to the enrollment limit, which is relevant since, in the past at least, both EA109 and EA105 have attracted a large number of students wishing to enroll.
EA109/tea has a workload that is more or less even across the term; EA105/romance has a very heavy reading load in the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the course, then is relatively light in terms of outside reading (although there is reading for the term paper).
EA109/tea reading is various (prose, essay, poetry, letters, philosophical tracts) but is not particularly difficult except in one portion of the Japan section. EA105/romance reading is in cultural studies, philosophy, religions and premodern literature (a lot of it), screens 5-6 modern films ("romantic" films) and each student views two more films of his or her choosing. The analysis in this class is the status of traditional values (hopefully well understood) in modern film. It is NOT, however, a film studies class. Film is a way of exploring how views & values related to romance are presented and received.
Stress. EA109/tea has crisp assignments and tests and it is not that difficult to know where one stands in the class. EA105/romance works analytically with ambiguous topics; some students stress that they are not sure whether they are doing well or not. It is not clear to me if one is better liked than the other. When I ask I get about a 50-50 split on which was a favorite. My impression is that most students enjoy these classes but there are a few who find there to be just too much information in EA109/tea or just aren't very interested in the main topic, romance, in EA105/romance.