ASIAN 3388 - Theorizing Gender and Race in Asian Histories and Literatures

(crosslisted) COML 3980, FGSS 3580
(GB) (CA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with ASIAN 6688/COML 6680/FGSS 6580.

N. Sakai.

For a long time area studies have overlooked the over-determined links of gender, race/ethnicity, and social class in fields related to East Asia and the trans-Pacific regions. Little attention has been paid to how to conceptualize gender and race/ethnicity; how to analyze the mutual implication of sexism, racism, and class essentialism (some call it “class racism”), and how to understand the relationships of these topics to the broader contexts of colonialism, imperialism, and nationalism. This course is designed to offer a series of discussions about the following problems: (1) the historically specific modes of sexism and racism in social spaces related to Japan and other places in the trans-Pacific; (2) the mutual implication of sexism, racism, and social class in various contexts including those of colonialism, imperialism, and nationalism; (3) the roles of gender, race, and social class in the United States’ knowledge production about East Asia in general; and (4) the conceptions of gender and race in the social formations particular to East Asia. The assigned readings include both English and Japanese materials. However, those who register in ASIAN 3388 are exempt from reading the materials in Japanese. (SC)