Modern East Asian Literature

Description

For your term paper, please consider the novels we have read. You may compare multiple texts, or you may concentrate on one novel.  If you need ideas for your essay, consider the themes we have touched on this semester: individual vis-a-vis society; women and society; notions of good and evil; definition of social morality, etc. OR, you may want to research on something more literary, for example, the idea of psychopathy, or someone who is socially maladjusted has a long literary history. You can do some research on how this image is usually used in literature, and this idea is similar or different in the novel you have selected. You might also want to think about something that you are interested in; or something that really speaks to you when you read these works. The paper should contain a little bit of research. The research can be on different aspects–perhaps you would like to research on the meaning of specific words: madness, nurture, justice, social alienation…. Always remember that all writings have specific historical contexts, that is, they are written in a particular historical environment. Pay attention to the specific societies you are studying. Try to analyze the particularities of the society that produced the novel you plan to work on. Paper Proposal: Your proposal should contain the following: 1. What are the titles and authors of the works you are going to work on? From which country? 2. In very general terms, what is the background of these works?  E.g.–the kind of genre, the kind of society, the writing style… 3. What are you going to discuss in this essay? 4. If possible, think of a main question you are going to ask in this essay. 5. Describe the research you are going to do. List TWO possible sources you are going to use. [Academic articles should be accessed through JSTOR or Project MUSE through the library’s electronic resources.] Please give the authors and titles of the articles. Use the MLA citation format for Bibliography. Novels: A Yi. A Perfect Crime. Oneworld Publications. Jeong You-Jeong. The Good Son. Penguin Books. Cho Nam-Joo, Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982. Liveright. Kanae Minato. Confessions. Mulholland Books. Sayaka Murata, Convenient Store Woman. Grove Press Hao Jingfang, Folding Beijing.