Korea and the Arts

With the founding of Choson dynasty in 1392 Korea embarked on one of the most intense social and political reforms in East Asian history, to emerge in the eighteenth century not only as what Wm. T. de Bary has called "the most Neo-Confucian state in world history," but also having transformed the social, political, and intellectual understanding of Neo-Confucianism itself in distinct and influential ways. The creative energies unleashed by this inculturation process moreover helped produce new artistic genres and a unique philosophy of aesthetics that continue to define what it means for something to be "Korean" even today. This course examines what is Neo-Confucian about the music, visual arts, ritual, and drama of later Choson dynasty, and conversely what is Korean about the Neo-Confucian vision and values expressed in the arts of the period.

"Korea and the Arts" syllabus (pdf)

This class will meet on the following Tuesdays at 5:30pm: 9/23, 10/7, 10/21, 11/11, 11/25, 12/9. (Make-up, if needed: 12/16).

Instructor: Rachel Chung is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Columbia's Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Associate Director of the University Committee for Asia & the Middle East. Last year, she taught a Friends colloquium on the intellectual and political past of Korea. This semester she will continue with an examination of the Korean arts.

Russian Novellas and Short Stories Before 1850

This course explores the development of Russian prose in the early 19th Century. The great Russian novels of the middle of that century evolved from many sources: early European novelists like Cervantes; Eighteenth Century novelists like Sterne, Goethe, Rousseau, and in Russia, Emin; non-fictional memoirs, histories, and collections of real letters; Western contemporaries, like Dickens, Balzac, and Hugo; but the novel is a genre that gets reinvented from time to time, and in the years this course covers, (1792-1852,) the greatest Russian writers were investigating techniques for assembling short stories into novels that would fit their literary and other purposes. They all read their predecessors, and this course will discuss the ways some of the most famous short stories coalesced into a new kind of novel.

"Russian Short Fiction" syllabus (pdf)

This class will meet on the following Thursdays at 5:30pm: 9/25, 10/16, 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 12/4. (Make-up, if needed: 12/11)

Instructor: Robert L. Belknap is Professor Emeritus of Russian at Columbia and Director of the University Seminars. He was educated at Princeton University, The University of Paris, Columbia University, and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) State University. He is the author of The Structure of The Brothers Karamazov, The Genesis of The Brothers Karamazov, and other studies of Russian literature and of university education. He teaches courses in Russian and comparative literature and literary theory. He has taught the Humanities course in major texts of the Western tradition for fifty years, and recently a sequel to it that involves major Asian classics. He has chaired the Humanities course and the Slavic Department, been Director of the Russian (now Harriman) Institute, and served as Dean of Students and Dean of the College.

Asian Topics: TBA

Instructor: TBA

Western Topics: TBA

Instructor: Kathy Eden, Chavkin Family Professor of English Literature and Professor of Classics