ASIAN 6690

Understanding Korean History

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

This upper level/ graduate seminar explores the field of Korean History through an examination of major scholarship.  It is meant to complement courses like "Approaches to Modern Chinese History" (HIST 6640/ASIAN 6641) in the China field, and is designed primarily for graduate students preparing for their A examinations, for general East Asia scholars who might be asked to teach Korea in the future, and for undergraduates with prior background in Korean Studies.   We will move through the major issues in Korean historiography, using the most important recent English language scholarship on Korea.  Topics will include but not be limited to Neo-Confucianism, social movements, modernity, nationalism, colonialism, economic development, gender, history of science, and regionalism.  We will place particular emphasis on mapping out the field in terms of key controversies and debates in the field of Korean Studies, such as premodern slavery, Koryŏ-Chosŏn dynastic change, foundation myths, nascent capitalism, modernization theory, colonial modernity, collaboration, revisionist history of the Korean War, the Park Chung Hee Era, minjung ideology, and contemporary politics.   Students will be expected to work together as the reading list is significant. 

When Offered Spring.

Course Subfield (SC)

Comments Co-meets with ASIAN 4490.

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