This seminar is designed to provide English majors with intensive and closely supervised work in critical reading and writing. Although sections of the course may address any literary question, period, or genre, they all provide an introduction to critical and methodological problems in literary studies.

The premise of this upper-level seminar is that Asian Americans have long had to navigate the
often violent constraints of competing transpacific empires: from imperial Japan in the early
twentieth century, to a United States intent on containing Asian communism after World War II,
to an ascendant People’s Republic of China in the Cold War’s wake. How does literary form
provide insights into such historical transitions—for instance, by revealing continuities between
empires, as well as by interrogating the very meaning of “empire”? How do—and do
not—cultural texts help us to grapple with the traumas borne from war, sexual exploitation, and
other forms of state-sanctioned violence? Finally, how might contemporary writing, films, and
other creative expression provide a handle on what it means to be American as global hegemony
shifts across the Pacific, in a 21 st century increasingly framed as an “Asian Century”?



Enrollment Note:
If you are having trouble enrolling into the course due to being enrolled in English 90 during Spring 2025 please fill out our English Enrollment Issues Form: https://forms.gle/TvQvWf1atdEs1mij8

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills