East Asian Languages and Literatures
Humanities Quadrangle, Rm. 110, 203.432.2860
http://eall.yale.edu
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
Aaron Gerow
Director of Graduate Studies
Michael Hunter
Professors Aaron Gerow, Hwansoo Kim, Tina Lu, Jing Tsu
Associate Professors Lucas Bender, Michael Hunter
Assistant Professors Kyunghee Eo, Rosa van Hensbergen, Yoshitaka Yamamoto
Senior Lecturer Pauline Lin
Senior Lectors II Angela Lee-Smith, Rongzhen Li, Ninghui Liang, Hiroyo Nishimura, Peisong Xu
Senior Lectors Hsiu-hsien Chan, Min Chen, Bookyung Jung, Hyunsung Lim, Fan Liu, Jianhua Shen, Wei Su, Chuanmei Sun, Haiwen Wang, Yu-lin Wang Saussy, Mika Yamaguchi, Yongtao Zhang, William Zhou
Lectors Jingjing Ao, Seunghee Back, Hyeseong Kim, Saori Nozaki, Mo Wu, Wen Zhang
Fields of Study
Fields for doctoral study are Chinese literature and Japanese literature. (See also the Combined Ph.D. Program in Film and Media Studies.) Although the primary emphasis is on these East Asian subjects, the department welcomes applicants who are seeking to integrate their interests in Chinese or Japanese literature with interdisciplinary studies in such fields as history, history of art, linguistics, religious studies, comparative literature, film and media studies, theater studies, literary theory and criticism, and the social sciences.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
During the first three years of study, students are required to take at least fourteen term courses. Usually students complete twelve term courses in the first and second years, and then take two tutorials or two seminars in the third year. Students concentrating in Chinese or Japanese literature are encouraged to take at least one term course in Western literature or literary theory. If approved by the director of graduate studies (DGS), graduate courses taken for a grade of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory in other departments or programs in which these courses are counted toward that department/program’s doctoral course or certificate requirements will be counted toward the fourteen-course requirement. To maximize flexibility for students pursuing non-traditional pathways, the department will accept petitions to replace specific program requirements with alternate training. For example, a student might propose to substitute a professionalization experience for a required course. Such decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis by the DGS in conjunction with the primary adviser. Contingent on DGS approval, students might also count up to two courses on languages beyond their primary research language toward the fourteen-course requirement.
By the end of the second year, all students must prove their proficiency in a language other than their primary language of study that is relevant to their course of study and is approved by the DGS. By the end of the third year, students specializing in premodern Japanese literature must pass a reading test in literary Chinese. By the end of the second full academic year, the student must take a written examination in the language of the student’s specialization, including both its modern and premodern forms.
At the end of each academic year, until a student is admitted to candidacy, a faculty committee will review the student’s progress. For the second-year review, the student must submit a revised seminar research paper, on a topic selected in consultation with the adviser, no later than April 1 of the fourth term. No later than the end of the first month of the sixth term the student will take the qualifying oral examination. The exam will cover three fields distinguished by period and/or genre in one or more East Asian national literatures or in other fields closely related to the student’s developing specialization. These fields and accompanying reading lists will be selected in consultation with the examiners and the DGS in order to allow the student to demonstrate knowledge and command of a range of topics. After having successfully passed the qualifying oral examination, students will be required to submit a dissertation prospectus to the department for approval by May 15 of the sixth term in order to complete the process of admission to candidacy for the Ph.D.
Teaching experience is an integral part of the graduate program in East Asian Languages and Literatures. As such, the department requires all students to serve as teaching fellows for four terms, typically in the third and fourth years. With the permission of the DGS, students can substitute a professional development opportunity for a teaching fellowship or, in extraordinary circumstances, reduce their academic teaching requirement by one or more terms. Note that this academic requirement is distinct from the graduate school's financial requirement that students serve as teaching fellows for four terms.
Combined Ph.D. Program
The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures also offers, in conjunction with the Film and Media Studies Program, a combined Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures and Film and Media Studies. For further details, see Film and Media Studies. Applicants to the combined program must indicate on their application that they are applying both to Film and Media Studies and to East Asian Languages and Literatures. All documentation within the application should include this information.
Master’s Degrees
M.Phil. The successful completion of all predissertation requirements, including the qualifying examination and the dissertation prospectus, will make a student eligible for an M.Phil. degree.
M.A. Students who withdraw from the Ph.D. program may be eligible to receive the M.A. degree provided they have met the requirements and have not already received the M.Phil. For the M.A., students must successfully complete twelve term courses and satisfy the language requirement. Candidates in combined programs will be awarded the M.A. only when the master’s degree requirements for both programs have been met.
Additional program materials are available on the department website, http://eall.yale.edu.
Courses
Courses in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels are listed in Yale College Programs of Study. See also https://courses.yale.edu.
CHNS 5700a, Introduction to Literary Chinese I Pauline Lin
Reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of literary Chinese (wenyan), with attention to basic problems of syntax and literary style. Prerequisite: CHNS 1510, CHNS 1530, CHNS 1570 or equivalent.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm
CHNS 5710b, Introduction to Literary Chinese II Pauline Lin
Continuation of CHNS 5700. Reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of literary Chinese (wenyan), with attention to basic problems of syntax and literary style. Prerequisite: CHNS 1510, CHNS 1530, CHNS 1570, CHNS 1700/CHNS 5700 or equivalent.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm
EALL 5690a, Topics in Modern Korean Literature Kyunghee Eo
In this course, students read key works of Korean literature in English translation from the early twentieth century to the present day. The specific course topic varies by term. Primary sources include long-form novels, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction writing by representative authors, as well as literary scholarship on themes and historical context relevant to the materials. The readings in this course are arranged in roughly chronological order, requiring us to examine Korea’s colonial modernization process in the first half of the twentieth century, the authoritarian regimes of South Korea from 1948 to 1987, and South Korea’s integration into the neoliberal world order after democratization. Supplementary audio-visual materials such as artwork, video clips and music may be presented to students in class. All class materials are in English translation, and no previous knowledge of Korean language is required.
T 1:30pm-3:25pm
EALL 5808a / WGSS 5808a, Sexual Cultures in East Asia Kyunghee Eo
This course explores how sex and sexuality have been discussed, regulated, and represented across East Asia and its diaspora, with particular focus on non-normative sexualities and gender variance. Course materials are organized in roughly chronological order, moving from scholarship on homoerotic practices in premodern East Asia; the introduction of modern sexological discourse in the early twentieth century; literary expressions of sexual deviance from the Cold War era (1945–1987); and LGBTQ subjectivities, cultures, and social movements since the 1990s. All class materials will be in English translation, and no previous knowledge of East Asian languages is required.
W 1:30pm-3:25pm
EALL 5810b / FILM 873 / FILM 8730b, Japanese Cinema and Its Others Aaron Gerow
Critical inquiry into the myth of a homogeneous Japan through analysis of how Japanese film and media historically represent “others” of different races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and sexualities, including women, black residents, ethnic Koreans, Okinawans, Ainu, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ minorities, the disabled, youth, and monstrous others such as ghosts.
MW 11:35am-12:50pm
EALL 6000a / EAST 6222a, Sinological Methods Pauline Lin
A research course in Chinese studies, designed for students with background in modern and literary Chinese. Students explore and evaluate the wealth of primary sources and research tools available in China and in the West. For native speakers of Chinese, introduction to the secondary literature in English and instruction in writing professionally in English on topics about China. Topics include Chinese bibliographies; bibliophiles’ notes; specialized dictionaries; maps and geographical gazetteers; textual editions, variations, and reliability of texts; genealogies and biographical sources; archaeological and visual materials; and major Chinese encyclopedias, compendia, and databases.
F 9:25am-11:20am
EALL 6010b, Ancient and Medieval Chinese Poetry Lucas Bender
Readings in ancient and middle-period Chinese poetry, from the beginnings of the tradition through the Song dynasty. Prerequisite: one year of classical/literary Chinese or equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Th 1:30pm-3:25pm
EALL 7400a, Topics in Early Chinese Literature Mick Hunter
An examination of key texts and problems in the study of early Chinese literature. Primary sources vary from year to year but could include the Shijing, Chuci, Shiji, early sources of anecdotal literature, and the fu. Discussions and papers are in English. This course may be repeated for credit.
F 1:30pm-3:25pm
EALL 7730a / ANTH 5331a / CLSS 7000a / HIST 6000a / HSAR 6564a / JDST 6553a / NELC 5330a / RLST 8030a, Archaia Seminar: Art, Architecture, and Climate Change in the Premodern World Avary Taylor
This seminar explores artistic, architectural, and material responses to environmental transformations, such as floods, droughts, volcanic events, and periods of exceptional abundance, across the premodern world. Foregrounding the indivisibility of natural worlds and human creativity, we examine how ancient peoples conceived of, and responded to, the disruptions and affordances of their environment. Through a comparative framework that puts cultures across the ancient world into conversation—from Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica and beyond—we trace the entanglements of art, politics, and climate, asking: how, if at all, did environmental change materialize in the things people made? This course serves as an Archaia Core Seminar. It is connected with Archaia’s Ancient Societies Workshop (ASW), which runs a series of events throughout the academic year related to the theme of the seminar. Students enrolled in the seminar must attend all ASW events during the semester in which the seminar is offered.
M 9:25am-11:20am
EALL 7731b / ANTH 5332b / CLSS 7001b / HIST 6010b / HSAR 6574b / JDST 6554b / NELC 5331b / RLST 8031b, Archaia Seminar: Literacy, Books, and the Materiality of Writing in the Premodern World Victoria Almansa-Villatoro and Joe Glynias
What is literacy? What is reading? This course takes a longue durée approach to how premodern individuals produced and engaged with texts. From hieroglyphs to alphabets (and everything in between), this course considers ways of writing and the intersection between orality, aurality, and textuality in the premodern world, focusing on (but not limited to) the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. Due to its focus on the physical media of writing and the preservation and study of premodern writing materials by modern scholars, roughly half of the meetings of this course take place in Yale Collections. Topics covered by the course include pseudoscripts and pseudepigrapha, scribes and scholars, and the ideological and ritual uses of writing across premodern cultures. This course serves as an Archaia Core Seminar. It is connected with Archaia’s Ancient Societies Workshop (ASW), which runs a series of events throughout the academic year related to the theme of the seminar. Students enrolled in the seminar must attend all ASW events during the semester in which the seminar is offered.
W 9:25am-11:20am
EALL 8060a / EAST 8221a / FILM 9210a, Research in Japanese Film History Aaron Gerow
This seminar covers the methods and problems of researching and writing Japanese film history. We review the theoretical issues involved in historiography in general and film historiography in particular, and then consider how these are pertinent to the study of Japanese cinema history. Our approach is critical, as we examine several recent examples of Japanese film historiography, as well as practical, as we explore various methods and strategies for researching Japanese film history. We particularly focus on the Japanese cinema’s historical relation to the nation, especially in terms of how cinema may help us historicize the nation, and vice versa. Students develop their own research project using the unique collections at Yale. Knowledge of Japanese is helpful but not essential.
Th 1:30pm-3:25pm
EALL 9000a or b, Directed Readings Staff
Offered by permission of instructor and DGS to meet special needs not met by regular courses.
HTBA
EALL 9900a or b, Directed Research Mick Hunter
Offered as needed with permission of instructor and DGS for student preparation of dissertation prospectus.
HTBA
JAPN 5700a / EMST 5700, Introduction to Literary Japanese Yoshitaka Yamamoto
Introduction to the grammar and style of the premodern literary language (bungotai). We read Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, ca. 909), the oldest surviving work of prose fiction in Japanese, with a view toward understanding how literary texts were created, preserved, and disseminated in premodern Japan and East Asia. Prerequisite: JAPN 1510 or equivalent.
TTh 9am-10:15am