East Asian Masculinities

4 credits · Undergraduate

What is masculinity and how does it function? What does it mean to treat men and manhood as “texts” to be analyzed from the perspective of gender? This course explores these questions in the context of East Asia and considers how, across time and space, masculinity has functioned as gender role, expression, and sexuality. We will pay attention to how maleness and masculine sociability have been represented and enacted in cultural forms such as novels, poetry, short stories, pictorial art, drama, treatises, and film in East Asia. More broadly, students will learn how feminist-informed perspectives can enrich the comparative analysis of East Asian cultures. All readings are in English.