Assignments & Tests

"Assigned Materials Quizzes" (AMQs) [Not used Spring 2013]

During the premodern reading phase of this course, I ask that you complete the full assignments for The Tale of Genji and for Story of the Stone BEFORE we begin our sessions on them. I test to see if you have done the reading in full and with some care towards the themes and goals of this class. I don't ask this before the Korea reading because in that case we read the premodern material in stages, in tandem with screening a film.

Then, before most of the movies I quiz to see if you have read the background material for that film: the film pages "General Statements" "Characters" and "Director". Sometimes I ask specifically for other pre-screening prep.

These are short quizzes that take about 7 minutes.

About missed AMQs

AMQs cannot be made up.

The purpose of the AMQs is to check to see whether you have prepared fully for the day's session.

The reason that is important is that we try to carry out high-level discussions of (now) the films which means we don't want to cover basic material.

You can't contribute to, or even follow, the discussion when uninformed about the text or film. You can hear the words in class, but you have nothing to connect them to and so, in my opinion, have not really heard the words.

Then, all the films are linked to their initial segment (the first day of that film). When students miss the first day, to me, it is as if the entire film is pretty much a wash-out for them. So, missing that session is similar, in terms of grading, to missing all the sessions of that film.

At the end of the term I ask the basic question, "How well prepared for class was the student?"

Therefore, if you have missed an AMQ (or been late and only completed part, or scored poorly -- but I grade these only when I can, they are low priority) but you otherwise participate dynamically in class, in a way that shows you have prepared the material, the missing AMQ can turn out to be not very important. (Prepare ahead of class, then speak up in class in a way that shows you understand the movie on par with students who also prepped, took the AMQ, and say the first segment. Just reading the summary of the scenes is nearly pointless since it is how something is said not what is said that is important for tracking values.) Of course it is better to have taken, and scored well, on an AMQ, but it is possible through other means to convince me that you have prepared thoroughly. As you know, the AMQs are, in the end, not a mathematical score; they simply are one of the best ways for me to answer "How well prepared for class was the student?"

I suggest that if you are missing AMQs that you view that missing segment of the film BEFORE the next segment. This will not be easy but it is possible, with some planning.

"Joint Essay Set" (JES) [not yet updated for Spring 2013]

Details are on a separate set of pages. Use the sidebar on the session pages to get there.

Midterm 01 - Spring 2013

Test coverage

Session 2 - 11, lecture content and assigned readings.

Test structure

The test is closed book for all three parts.

Part A is multiple choice, checking your memory of major characters and major events in all three works, as well as lecture content on the wide variety of ideas we have covered (major points, not subtle points). It will be about 20 questions long. It will NOT key in to a certain text so, for example, I might ask "Woman who killed others due to jealousy" and give choices and the correct answer, the only correct answer would be Rokujo. She represents jealousy, is an icon of it, and thought there are others who might also have killed for jealousy, they are not the BEST answer. I might ask "Which thought system / religion suggests that a married couple can be successful even without romance?" (Confucianism is the best answer.) This part of the test will have a limited amount of time since these are the sorts of answers you should know immediately, in real time, not something you slowly work towards. Perhaps 15 minutes for the 20-25 questions.

Part B will be one essay question based on a short passage that is key to one of the texts. The passage will not have its context given and will be abbreviated. The idea here is that you have read the actual work, not a summary of it, and you have read well enough to understand a major scene when you encounter it. Since it will be from one text only, to prepare you need to read all three works since you will not know which work will be given to you in particular. (There will be at least four passages distributed so that you are not sitting next to someone with the same passage.) ... This part checks whether you have read beyond the simple question of "What happened?" and understand something of the themes, atmosphere, worldview and values of the text.

Part C will require a comparison of all three texts, and will check to see that you handle all three texts will equal vigor, interest and knowledge. (Remember that if you are comparing "A" aspect and it is present in only two of the three texts, there are still things you can say—about its absence. Comparing things that are present is not the only type of comparison.) It will be a very short prompt based on the EA105 Course Basics content (so I will be seeing if your essay pursues, within bounds and following the course rules, the goals and themes of the course). Review the page since you will not have access to it during the exam. I have wanted to rewrite this page, to tailor it better to our class this semester but have not found the time to do so, and probably won't. However, if I do make changes over the weekend, I will announce them. If I have made no changes by Monday 10 PM, I will not make any. ... This part checks whether you are in tune with the goals of the course and are developing the expected skills in the special methods of this course.

What to bring to the test

A pencil for Part A!! I will not accept anything else. An eraser of some sort.

For Parts B & C, since you will be writing a lot (essay) so you can use your favorite writing instruments. Pen / pencil, I don't mind, but please avoid light colors that are hard for me to read.

Paper, time announcements and such will be provided by me.

On test day

Arrive on time. There will be a seating chart.

Make a rest room stop before the exam. If you must leave during the exam, you will need to turn in your test as far as you were able to get and that will become the basis of the test grade.

Midterm 01 - Summer 2012

There is a review session for this midterm before the test is given. I will have an exercise for us to do that will be similar to part of the midterm, but you are also welcome to prepare questions ahead of time.

Test coverage

The three midterms in the class are linked: 1) concepts, 2) premodern texts and application of concepts to premodern texts, then 3) application of concepts to modern films. This first test, therefore, focuses on concepts. However, it does have one part that begins the practice of application of concepts to premodern texts.

You should review the "Course Basics" for this midterm. The grading rubric includes whether you are working within those boundaries, using those interpretive directions, etc.

You should also review all session "Thoughts". (Coverage of material changes from term to term. If the "Thoughts" material is presenting items never even mentioned in the class, it is not important for an upcoming midterm.) This should provide nearly all the concepts introduced. However, you should go through your notes.

List up all concepts, think of their basic meaning, and think how they can be used in interpreting texts. Summer 2012: I have moved the review session ahead of introducing Western concepts and treated Western European concepts more as counter-examples to Confucianism and Buddhism. You do not need to know them in detail. However, they might help you provide the contrast you need to make a point and they definitely are needed later in the course as you interpret your films.

Our final goal in this class is to understand with some subtly and accuracy romantic narratives, premodern and modern, in our three East Asian countries.

Modern narratives (any culture's) cannot be understood with accuracy without good perceptivity related to premodern values. (That is one of the course assumptions stated elsewhere: history is real, past culture has a presence in modern culture.)

When we are confronted with events and facts, we build narratives to house them. We draw on our understanding of the world to do this. When a narrative was constructed in a context where the writer and reader have a different understanding of the world, we can read more accurately be getting as close as we can to how they understood things. It might be possible to make sense of a narrative on our own terms, but we are bending it to our will and obscuring important parts of it. (That is another course assumption: cognitive neuroscience tells us that our cerebral cortex is intent upon, and very good at, finding patterns and attributing meaning but, when confronted with incomplete or fuzzy data, if finished the picture as best it can based on prior knowledge.)

So, some of the concepts introduced in this class are, in a sense, a list of components of how others understood the world in ways that might be different from us. To carry these concepts around is to increase one's chances of reading a narrative more accurately instead of nativizing it, that is, bending it to your personal expectations. Concepts are a way out of the box of turning all narratives into something you already know and they are your best chance at connecting accurately with statements, stories, films, whatever, that are not fully familiar to you.

So, think of most of the concepts presented in this class as tools that sharpen your observation skills.

"Oh, that's a 'low' emotion. We can expect there to be considerable similarity to modern notions."

"Oh, now that's a 'high' (cognitive) reaction and is probably more embedded in specific cultural attitudes. It might be different than expectations. What is is based on?"

Or, "That person certainly gave up on love easily. Why?" You could just use your "common sense" (beware!) to explain: a lukewarm lover. But perhaps there is a cultural context, such as a Buddhist pessimism with regard to romantic love, or other things like this, or a mix of them.

Concepts allow you to extend past your "common sense" which is, in cases, your worst enemy in trying to understand an unfamiliar situation.

So, build a tool box. We have concepts that help make distinctions by giving us a vocabulary (specifics of Confucianism, Buddhism, etc.) and by showing us our own "common sense" assumptions (Christian-born romantic values, etc.). By "distinctions" I mean enabling a more precise articulation of things you might instinctively feel ("I don't know, Japanese films always seems to have sad endings...") or sharpening your observation skills to notice things you skip over because they are unfamiliar or not personally relevant to you ("Wow, she would rather cry in a BMW than have a devoted husband who is poor. Status seems really important to her.")

You should be so familiar with your tool box that you apply these things all the time while we read texts or watch films.

Look at the below four faces. You instinctive know they are different in their basic form. But can you say why? Hover over them and learn the vocabulary. Once you know it, you can apply this fairly widely on others. This is sort of a simplified version of what we are doing.

Test structure

The test is in-class for the full session (for summer it is 50 minutes). It is closed book. There are severe penalties for looking at the work of others during the exam.

The test will be in three parts.

The first part will ask you to work with concepts in a way where your ability to list them quickly and freely in your mind, and think about what they can do for you.

The second part will ask you to explore the ramifications on those concepts. ("Ramifications", of course, means how does this concept affect or shape romantic narratives? — since one of our course rules is "about love all the time".)

The third part will ask you to interpret the pre-assigned story:

Summer 2012: The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu, access via this link — EA105 Midterm 01, it is an eBrary file and you might need to proxy in. The full book is on eBrary; you are to read only "Huo Xiaoyu". The citation information is: Tang Dynasty Tales : A Guided Reader by William H. Nienhauser.

The interpretation will have a specific direction, based on the question(s) asked.

Part One: about 15 minutes, about 40% of the exam grade, graded comparatively (based on the results of others in the room), leans heavily on listing concepts and understanding the functionality of concepts.

Part Two: about 15 minutes, about 40% of the exam grade, graded on your display of understanding how a specific concept might be useful in understanding a romantic narrative with accuracy. (So Part One is more about lists, Part Two is more about one or two specific concepts in their role as helping interpretation.)

Part Three: about 20 minutes, about 20% of the exam grade, graded on your ability to do analysis per the rules and themes of the course (with "average Joe rule" and "all about love" rule very important).

What to bring

VERY IMPORTANT: Part One is to be completed in pen, not pencil, and in a color that is different from whatever you use to write the rest of the test. In other words, you need at least two writing instruments: one must be a pen and the two must be clearly of different colors.

Those writing instruments are the only thing you need to bring. I will announce time from the front of the room, provide the necessary paper, etc.

On test day

Arrive on time. There will be a seating chart.

Make a rest room stop before the exam. If you must leave during the exam, you will need to turn in your test as far as you were able to get and that will become the basis of the test grade.

Midterm 02 — Summer 2012

• Length: 50 minutes (15 minutes for each of three essay questions)
• Closed book
• Essay questions only

We read premodern texts to help clarify in our minds the role thought systems (Buddhism, etc.—those deeply embedded in the cultures we study) provide as context for how love is: anticipated (Phase A), experienced (Phase B) and encountered as an absence (Phase C).

Reading premodern texts allows us to begin to get a more distinct understanding of this.

Further, as we switch to the modern segments of the course, the premodern texts help in exploring cultural differences between countries and consider the viability of tradition values in modern, globalized East Asia.

The premodern texts we read are also a required component of your essay.

We, therefore, need to understand as best we can our premodern texts

• in terms of their social values/norms ("one should ...").
• in terms of their "world views" (the apparent vision of how the world works, derived in large part from thought systems)
• AND have the various stories and sub-stories constantly near at hand (in our mind) so we can compare while we view films, in real time, not later.

This means, then, for the purposes of this exam you need:

a) some clarity of the social values/norms that are relevant to us

b) some ability to draw meaningful relationships between narrative events, "attitudes" towards romance and the world view(s) that seems to be the relevant context

c) a good recall of the basic narratives both as plot, with characters names, and as affective (emotional) objects.

To prepare for the midterm means to attend to these needs. The essay questions will explore either social values/norms or world views but will not ask about both at the same time because of the complexities this would generate. In either case, however, your ability to give specific examples with specific names (accurately recalled) is an important part of the answer. Therefore, in short, you will be tested on a) and/or b) above and c) will be a graded part of the answer in any event.

Remember the basic rules for the course ("Average Joe" etc.) since they remain in effect for this exam.

Please ask if it is not clear to you how I distinguish social values (usually I just say "values") and "worldviews". This is important now and on many future questions in this class and for your essay as well.

We have developed a small vocabulary: names of main characters, some terms for love in Japan and China, and so forth.

• The various terms associated with Confucianism (review that you understand how the English word "loyalty" and the various issues associated with this is used in this class)
• The various terms associated with Buddhism
• qing, koi, amae
• The primary characters in Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise) 24, A Discretionary Tale, The Tale of Genji
• The primary characters in Tale of Hou Xiaoyu, Story of the Stone
• The primary characters in Chunhyang (the premodern prose version, not the film)

These need to be memorized, since if I were to say, "Does this woman remind you of Yugao?" it is a meaningless question unless you remember well who Yugao is.

The test will have three essay questions, one for each premodern book-length text assigned (JCK). You will not have choices among possible essay questions but the questions will be open-ended.

The three questions are of equal grade weight plus this fourth grade: "Did the answers on this test indicate that the student took up with equal energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, etc, the three countries of this course?"— A = definitely, A– = apparently so, B = not quite, C = apparently not at least in terms of what is on paper as the essay answers, D = definitely not in terms of what is on paper as the essay answer, F = one of the three countries was clearly skipped over or nearly skipped over. The three essays will be graded comparatively (in terms of other student performance on the questions) and qualitatively based on what I think is a reasonable expectation for a good answer. The fourth grade will be given after I have read all the essays. The grade, therefore, is in four grade parts, all worth 25% of the total grade. Penmanship is important. The answers on this exam are sometimes muddled and when that is combined with difficult to read hand-writing it is hard for me to develope a fully clear picture in my mind of the answers. I reread to do this but as the writing gets more difficult to read this re-reading itself is muddled and doesn't lead towards greater clarity.

Midterm 01 asked you to consider concepts. Midterm 02 asks you to apply those concepts to premodern texts, yes, but the emphasis is on the substantive basic understanding of the texts as outlined above, not clever or impressive analysis. Your best pretest strategy is to review materials accordingly and show that you have an equal and fairly solid memory recall of stories and characters, some good sense of values and some ideas as to the relationship between story and worldview, in that order of priority.

Please do not forget to review the Course Basics page for this class! Those rules and concepts represent the edges of the grading cliff. Failing to keep them in mind is your greatest risk for a reduced grade, greater than some factual error regarding the stories.

During the test your greatest grade risk is looking at any other student's answer sheet, even briefly. The next greatest risk is leaving a question blank. Try something, anything; I'll try to be understanding. I understand that it is a lot of material to work with. I also understand, and support, that this class is very diverse in areas of intended majors and linguistic abilities. I will reward effort and I won't take the top, literature- or humanities students as the upper level standard but mark the "A" as something a little more generous than that in order to include students less comfortable with reading and analysis but clearly making a very strong effort to anyway do their best.

What to do on test day:

• Arrive on time—early if possible (since there is a seating chart).
• You should make a rest stop ahead of class. Once you leave the room you cannot return.
• You need only bring your favorite writing instrument (and a backup!) and an eraser if you usually use one.
• I will manage time from the front of the room.
• There will be a seating chart.

Midterm 03 — Summer 2012

• Length: full session
• Closed book
• Essay questions only
• This test cannot be made up

This is the third of three midterms. We covered basic concepts in the first midterm and premodern texts in the second. Here we look at I screen between one and three contemporary short East Asian films or film-like objects. (Remember "Clean Up" at the beginning of the term?) You then write analyses about them. You might have a choice as to which to write about; you might not. You might know the question before the film screening but you might not. (This depends on the questions I end up writing. My preference is not to let you know ahead of time.) The films take about 30 minutes to screen, so the writing time is about 20-30 minutes. That means I will ask targeted, specific questions (to manage the size of your answer) OR make it totally open, asking you to select ONE thing to discuss. The module questions that you have become familiar with are designed for discussion, not testing. The test questions would only resemble those sorts of questions if I felt they could become effective short essay answers. However, whatever the questions are, they will be within the themes and goals of the course and you will be expected, of course, to stay within the "all about love" and "avereage Joe" boundaries. The questions will almost surely ask you to compare or relate something to something. You should review my course-specific definitions of these two terms. (Summer 2012 students: access to these definitions is via the gray sidebar on the JES pages.)

(Added Sunday, June 24) Here are the questions I think I will ask

However, I might make a shift in some or all of them and might switch the order around. I will not, however, drop any of these components: ren or xin or The Tale of Genji.

1. Discuss ren ("human-ness", 仁) in <a short film just screened>, <in this slot is the title of one of the films screened already in class> and <in this slot is the title of another one of the films already screened in class>, finding differences where possible. (10 minutes)

2. Relate xin ("faithfulness", 信) as presented in The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu with xin as presented in <a short film just screened>. (10 minutes)

3. Compare the romantic narratives: <a short film just screened> and The Tale of Genji. (10 minutes)

EC: Select any ONE of the above questions and discuss what role the medium of film might have had in your answer. (5 minutes)

See above, Midterm 01 details (here), for access to The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu.

Notice that both "relate" and "compare" are on this test and that I have course-specific definitions of these two terms and you will be graded in part based on whether your answer works within the boundaries of those terms as defined. "Discuss" (first question" is open-ended. You are free to do what you think is interesting, credible and within the themes and goals of the course.

It is definitely helpful to you to familiarize yourself with the questions now. The midterm goes from a short film screening directly into the ten minutes allotted for the answer (process repeated three times). There is no extra time for just reading the question.

I will give you four blank index cards at the beginning of the test and I will pick up each question as we go along so that you cannot go back to any prior question. That includes the EC. In this pattern the test will probably take about one hour or just beyond that. Arrive on time. The explanation of the test will begin at 10:10 and the screening of the first film will probably begin at 10:12. Many of you have been arriving a couple of minutes after class begins. You will miss the test instructions if you do so.

What to do on test day:

• Arrive on time—early if possible (since there is a seating chart).
• You should make a rest stop ahead of class. Once you leave the room you cannot return.
• You need only bring your favorite writing instrument (and a backup!) and an eraser if you usually use one.
• I will manage time from the front of the room.
• There will be a seating chart.