Wallace Welcome Page / Announcements / EA105 Summer 2013

 

LEGEND

❖ Testable topics and materials
◊ Other topics and materials
✓ To be completed by class time

text

Daoism (Taoism, ancient Chinese cosmology)

Topics

❖ Daoism (Taoism, ancient Chinese cosmology)

Vocabulary notes

  • yin-yang (阴阳・陰陽)
  • change
  • the five elements (五行, wuxing: wood 木, fire 火, earth 土, metal 金, water 水)
  • non-action (无为・無為, wuwei)

About the topics of this session*

I have put my summary comments about Daoism on the Course Basics page.

Required or suggested to be completed for today's session

✓ REQUIRED: Course page sidebar tab: "Course Basics > Daoism".

✓ STRONGLY SUGGESTED (skim for the basic points, you don't need to evaluate the thesis of the article): The chapter titled "Naïve Dialecticism and the Tao of Chinese Thought" in Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding People in Context. This is an electronic resource accessible through Oskicat. (If you are not clear how to locate electronic resources through Oskicat, the details should be on the Announcements Page sidebar via the research start points tab.)

PPT presented today

Chinese cosmology diagrams (bSpace, PPT)

*UNDER CONSTRUCTION: If this red font phrase underneath the session title has not been erased it means something on this page is incomplete. Perhaps I want to recheck information or perhaps I haven't converted the page from the version of the previous class. It is available but should be taken dubiously.

*ABOUT THIS SESSION: My hope is that you look at this portion BEFORE a session. If there is content here it might help you focus on the main points of the day. However, I add various things here at various times. When I feel I haven't succeeded in class stating something clearly, I might restate it here. Of if it is a difficult concept in might be given in written form here. I will assume that you have read and rechecked for changes this session in preparation for any midterm or test.

Schedule:

M, June 17
Tu, June 18
W, June 19
Th, June 20

M, June 24
Tu, June 25
W, June 26
Th, June 27

M, July 1
Tu, July 2
W, July 3
Th, no class


Course theme: The interpretation of East Asian narrated romance (premodern and modern) through awareness of worldviews and select core values as context.

Course goals:

1) Deeper and more accurate interpretations of East Asian romantic narratives premodern and modern.

2) Vertical analysis (contemporary narratives compared to historical traditions) — As a necessary activity in working towards Goal #1, we try to take a measure of the place of premodern values (relevant to romance) in instances of modern East Asian cinema (with speculation of what this might suggest of society).

3) Horizontal analysis (comparison to one another of values in film and beyond of China, Korea and Japan) — As a derivative of #2, a comparison of China, Korea and Japan, finding differences and similarities worth noting.

Primary means to the goal: Disciplined interpretation & analysis constrained to specific method and rules that consider narratives within cultural context. Analysis is carried out through individual, team, and classwide exercises, reports, presentations & discussions. The class, therefore, is part lecture, part discussion and part workshop.

Course rules:

"all about love" "equal interest in the three countries" "beat average Joe" "subtle differences" "contribution to the class" "tolerance of others" "team cooperation" "narratives are not reality" "subtitles are the official language"