Language, Script, and Power in East Asia

Harvard FAS

In this graduate seminar, students will explore the ways in which debates and negotiations about languages, writing systems, and linguistic and script diversity in East Asia matter in the formation and dispersal of imagined communities, establishment of and challenge to political power, social reproduction, and more. The course’s wide-ranging readings are culled from diverse fields and disciplines including the history of writing, reading, and the book in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea,…