The literature courses typically consist of two to six sessions, each two hours in length. Recent subjects include Journey to the West, Chinese poet Qu Yuan, Ottoman Empire history and culture, the Old Testament, Japanese poetry, Chinese classical literature Jin Ping Mei, the Ramayana, Tale of Genji, and Hindu mythology.
This course will introduce three key works by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693), widely acclaimed as early-Tokugawa Japan’s greatest writer of fiction. The first lecture will outline the historical and cultural context of Saikaku’s stories and novels: the status-group system imposed by the Tokugawa regime; the rapid growth of cities in 17th-century Japan, the expansion of a […]
A lustful proposition accompanied by a gruesome threat. A violent, humiliating rejection. A retaliatory—and lascivious—kidnapping. A long search for the one kidnapped. A war of recovery. Slaughter. Victory. Glorification of the heroes. “Happily ever after”—or not. Such an encapsulation bears something like the relation to the great seven-volume epic Ramayana as the AI-generated teaser “Mad […]