History 282

The Invention of Asia

Oberlin College Fall 2006

WF 2:30-3:45 AJLC 201

 

David E. Kelley

Rice 312 x58646

Hours: WF 11-12, and by appointment

E-mail: David.E.Kelley@oberlin.edu

 

By asking the questions “What is Asia? and What has Asia/Asian meant? to whom?” this course will explore a number of issues including: stereotypes and knowledges and their implication in cultural, imperial, and other politics; the problem of moving from the specific to the general; and how we “know” about experiences alien to our own. We will be focusing on the question of how the modern world order arose and the various ways it has been and can be conceived. Problems of how to fashion a global history de-centered from a Euro-American perspective will be fundamental to our inquiry.

 

Requirements:

 

The course will include a few lectures but will emphasize reading and discussion of reading and lecture material. Attendance at class sessions and participation in discussions are expected of each student. Nearly all class sessions will include discussion. All assignments must be completed to receive credit for the course. Please submit assignments electronically, which can be done through the Digital Dropbox feature of Blackboard or through e-mail enclosures.

 

The following assignments are required of each student.

 

1. Prompts will be posted on Blackboard’s Discussion Board for topics for discussion. Each student should post a short informal response to the Discussion Board questions or follow up on another student’s comments. Comments should be thoughtful and around 300-500 words.
   
   

2.     A short analytical review of one of the readings for the class is due by the last day before break. A handout on how to write the review will be distributed in advance and discussed.

3.     Collaborative research: The class will be divided into groups for cooperative projects and mini-discussions. The cooperative project is a panel or other presentation with a short written discussion for submission to me. Topics will be discussed in class midway through the first half of the course. Group members will present the results of their work to the class and moderate a discussion after the presentation. Members of the previous group will submit short written critiques of the current panel to me and to the panel participants. The group scheduled for the last presentation will critique the first presentation. We will discuss the principles and practices of collaborative research and constructive critique in advance. As well as how to complete the final project.

4.     Final Project: Based on her or his part in the collaborative research project, each student will provide a write-up in a final essay as an annotated research report. Due by 4:00 pm, Monday December 18.

 

All work in the course is governed by the Honor Code. See http://www.oberlin.edu/students/links-life/rules-regs.html - honor

 

 

Course Meetings

 

Sept. 6 & 8: Introductions:

The Problem of “Asia,” Meta-Geographies and Knowledge

 

Reading:          Martin Lewis and Karen Wigen, The Myth of Continents, pp. i- 46

 

Sept. 13 & 15: Asia through the Mists:

 

From Gold-Digging Ants to the Quest for Prester John

 

Reading:          Selection Sir John Mandeville, from Mandeville’s Travels

The Myth of Continents, 47-103

 

Sept. 20 &22: Eurasian Divisions and Connections (ca. 600-1300)

 

Islam, the Mongols and the (Re-)Construction of (Eur)asia

 

Reading           Richard M. Eaton, “Islamic History as Global History” in Michael Adas, ed. Islamic and European Expansion, 1-36

Judith Tucker, “Gender and Islamic History,” Ibid., 37-74

           Selections from John Pian del Carpini and Marco Polo

 

Sept. 27 &29: Asia Emergent from the Mist (1450-1600)

 

Reading:          Spence, The Chan’s Great Continent, 1-121

Discussion of Collaborative Research Project

 

Oct. 4 & 6: Asia in Early Modern Europe (1570's-1790's)

 

Reading:          Spence, The Chan’s Great Continent, complete for discussion

 

Oct. 11 & 13 The Question of Orientalism

 

Reading:          Selections of Edward Said, Orientalism,

                        Bernard Lewis, “The Question of Orientalism,” in Islam and the West, 99-118

                        "Orientalism: A Symposium," Journal of Asian Studies 39 (May 1980)

 

Oct. 14-22: Fall Recess:

 

Oct. 25 & 27: America’s Asia I

 

Reading:          Colleen Lye, America's Asia: Racial Form and American Literature, 1893-1945, 1-140

 

Nov. 1 & 3: America’s Asia II

 

Reading:          Colleen Lye, America's Asia: Racial Form and American Literature, 1893-1945, 141-254

 

Nov. 8 & 10: Contesting the Construction of the World Order

 

Area Studies and The National Security State

 

Reading:          Bruce Comings, “Boundary Displacement: Area Studies and International Studies during and after the Cold War”

James K. Boyce, “Area Studies and the National Security State”

Chalmers Johnson, “The CIA and Me”

Tani Barlow, “The Virtue of Clairty and Bruce Comings’s Concern over Boundaries”

 

Toward a Global Vision

 

Reading:          Marshall G.S. Hodgson, Rethinking World History, chaps 1-2: “The Interrelations of Societies in History” and “In the Center of the Map”

Andre Gundar Frank, Re-Orient, introduction: chapter 1

            Gyan Prakash, “Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World,” in Nicholas B. Dirks, ed., Colonialism and Culture, 353-38

 

Nov. 15 & 17: Panels

Nov. 22: Panel

[No Friday Class: Thanksgiving]

 

Nov.29 & Dec. 1 Panels

 

Dec. 6 & 8: Panels

 

Dec 13: Conclusions and Prospects: Final discussion