MDNLNG 265L Icons of East Asia: Stereotypes, gender, and cultural history from geisha girls to martial masters

3 Credit(s)

The purpose of this class is to explore, critically and comparatively, various discourses about popular cultural icons of East Asia. We will focus on two specific well-known examples - women entertainers and male figures adapt at martial arts- with the following aims: 1) to focus on specific historical contexts, which suggest how and why these categories were formed and became important; 2) to understand how dynamic and motivated these seemingly unchanging and timeless icons actually are; and 3) to investigate how gendered identities are constructed and manipulated for particular goals. ASIAN 265L and MDNLNG 265L are the same course.

Distribution Area: World Cultures | Diversity Area: International