The second in a two-semester introduction to Japanese, furthering the basic skills necessary to read and learn in more advanced settings.

This course is intended to provide an introduction to the traditions of Chinese, Japanese and Korean literature, religion, and philosophy through intensive engagement with some of those traditions' core texts. Emphasis will be placed on drawing connections between cultures within East Asia through careful juxtaposition of related works and issues, arranged in roughly chronological order.

This course will teach students to read the complicated relations between sexual difference, gender, sexuality, and desire in a genre - the Japanese court romance - which taught its readers to do just that. A substantial part of the course will be devoted to untangling the rich complexity of these relations in Japan's greatest prose masterpiece, The Tale of the Genji. In addition to primary readings, the course will also introduce students to the variety of perspectives and approaches to these issues provided by current scholarship.