Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
This course is designed for students who have little or no prior knowledge of the Korean language. Students will learn the Korean alphabet and basic grammar.
Elementary Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This course is designed for students who already have elementary comprehension and speaking skills in Korean and have minimum exposure to reading and/or writing in Korean.
Elementary Korean for Heritage Speakers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
With an emphasis on speaking, listening, reading and writing, students will learn daily life expressions, common colloquialisms, and speech acts. The course is also intended to introduce certain cultural aspects through media sources and various activities.
Elementary Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2020
This course is specially designed for heritage students who have completed K1AX or those whose proficiency level meets the requirements. Through class presentations and projects with individual attention, students will be able to learn their heritage language more efficiently and will be able to communicate in Korean with confidence. Considering the fact that students are heritage learners, this course aims to teach the students to become lifelong learners of their mother tongue beyond the classroom through practices of active learning. In addition, this course will adopt an inquiry-based learning model and a Flipped learning model to provide an intriguing learning opportunity.
Elementary Korean for Heritage Speakers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A survey of pre-modern Korean literature and culture from the seventh century to the 19th century, focusing on the relation between literary texts and various aspects of performance tradition. Topics include literati culture, gender relations, humor, and material culture. Texts to be examined include ritual songs, sijo, kasa, p'ansori, prose narratives, art, and contemporary media representation of performance traditions. All readings are in English.
Introduction to Premodern Korean Literature and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
A survey of modern Korean literature and culture in the 20th century, focusing on the development of nationalist aesthetics in both North and South Korea. Topics include "new woman" narratives, urban culture, colonial modernity, war and trauma, and diaspora. Texts to be examined include works of fiction, poetry, art, and film. All readings are in English.
Introduction to Modern Korean Literature and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
With equal attention given to speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cultural aspects of the language, students will further develop their language skills for handling various everyday situations.
Intermediate Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This is an intermediate course for students whose Korean proficiency level is higher in speaking than in reading or writing due to Korean-heritage background. Students will elaborate their language skills for handling various everyday situations.
Intermediate Korean for Heritage Speakers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Korean 10B is an intermediate Korean course for non-heritage students who have an equivalent level of Korean who took one semester of intermediate Korean course. Equal attention will be given to all four areas of language skills - speaking, listening, reading and writing – with diverse and authentic media materials to further their knowledge on Korean culture and society. This course will consist of three in-class lectures/discussions per week and two asynchronous lab days per week with diverse online activities and assignments that will foster students’ autonomous learning, build a sense of community within the class, and raise their awareness of multimodal digital literacy.
Intermediate Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2020
This is an intermediate course for heritage speakers who have completed K10AX or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. While reinforcing the knowledge students have acquired thus far, this course will meet the linguistic needs of heritage language students to increase accuracy in grammar and develop reading and writing skills.
Intermediate Korean for Heritage Speakers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This is a third-year course in modern Korean with emphasis on acquisition of advanced vocabulary and grammatical structure. Equal attention will be given to all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Advanced Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This is a third-year course in modern Korean with emphasis on acquisition of advanced vocabulary and grammatical structure.
Advanced Korean for Heritage Speakers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2020
As the second semester course of advanced-level Korean for non-heritage learners, this course aims to solidify students’ knowledge from the previous course, K100A, and help further acquire advanced-level language proficiency in spoken and written Korean through various assignments.
Advanced Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2020
Students will be introduced to advanced-level Korean by reading authentic texts and writing short compositions, summaries, essays, and critical reviews. Students will be encouraged to speak using advanced vocabulary and expressions.
Advanced Korean for Heritage Speakers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This is an advanced course of reading and textual literary analysis in Korean. Advanced reading and writing skills and practice in the use of standard reference tools will also be introduced.
Fourth-Year Readings: Korean Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021
This course aims to help students achieve a high-advanced level of proficiency in all aspects of Korean by deepening their knowledge of fast-changing modern Korean society through the lens of current issues. It covers various authentic media materials to facilitate class discussions and promote critical thinking skills. Special attention will be paid to the formal use of the Korean language through practices on advanced expressions and grammar.
Prerequisites: Korean 100B/BX; or consent of instructor.

Fourth-Year Korean: Korean Society through current issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This course is for students wanting to acquire high-advanced and superior level Korean proficiency in Korean business settings through the nuances of job-related communication and cultural expectations. Students master appropriate workplace terminology, expressions, and professional style spoken and written form. They complete job a search, plan a new product, present and negotiate the product status, and finally present the product externally. In addition, this course will cover Korean job culture topics such as work ethics and relationships. Upon completion, students can expect to be able to more confidently navigate a job search, application process, interview, job acceptance, and common situations in a professional Korean setting.
Business Korean: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course is uniquely designed for students who are interested in enhancing their proficiency level up to high-advanced or superior level through the lens of Korean popular media. By analyzing various media such as movies, documentary, TV shows, K-Pop songs, and news articles, students will broaden their knowledge and understanding about Korean society and culture in a deeper level, which is vital in advancing proficiency. Class discussions, presentations, article readings, and essay writings will help students learn and practice how to express their own opinion on various topics from aspects of Korean history to current social issues. Additionally, four-letter idioms, advanced grammars, and vocabularies will be introduced.
Korean Language in Popular Media: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This course is designed to help advanced Korean students understand the influence of history and politics on contemporary Korean culture. Students will analyze contrastive views on historical events reflected in writings and media. Structured as a seminar format, students will take active roles in a class by sharing their inquiries and findings on course materials. A superior level of speaking and writing competence will be promoted based on advanced reading and listening competence. Prerequisites: Korean 101 or Korean 102; or consent of instructor.
Fifth-Year Korean: Korean Culture and History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021
This course aims to prepare students for research or employment in a Korea-related field. Authentic materials will be used to discuss various issues in Korea and some may be selected by students to explore their specific interests/needs. Students will conduct research projects in their own fields of study.
Fifth-Year Readings: Korean for Research and Professional Use: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2006
This course will examine traditional and poetry, and consider the performative and cultural contexts of compositional practice before the 20th century. The course is intended to introduce key verse forms as well as basic reading knowledge of premodern Korean texts. Topics will vary.
Genre and Occasion in Traditional Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2013, Fall 2011
This course is a critical exploration of the broad range of prose literature before the 20th century, including vernacular fiction, memoirs, travel accounts, and essays. Particular attention will be given to narrative styles, issues of personal identity, and a link between literary text and material culture in the development of prose literature before the 20th century. The course is intended as a close reading of key prose narrative works, while functioning simultaneously as an introduction to basic reading knowledge of premodern Korean texts. Topics will vary.
Narrating Persons and Objects in Traditional Korean Prose: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
This course will examine the works of major poets in the first half of the 20th century and will consider the formation of modern Korean poetry. Particular attention will be given to the ideas of lyricism, modernism, and the identity of a poet in the context of the colonial occupation of Korea.
Modern Korean Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
This course aims to facilitate critical understanding of persistent themes and diverse styles of modern Korean literature through close readings of canonical works from the colonial period (1910-1945). It encourages students to develop broad comprehension of “post-colonial” characteristics of Korean literature. Concurrently, it explores how Korean literature aspired to the expression of the universal aesthetic values and judgment against the particularistic historical condition of colonialism.
Readings in Modern Korean Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course surveys modern Korean fiction in the first half of the 20th century. Readings include major works of the novel, short fiction, and literary criticism. The course examines the development of modern fiction in the context of nationalist movements, colonialism, and the Korean War.
Modern Korean Fiction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course surveys contemporary Korean literature, focusing on the separate development of language, literary aesthetics, and nationalism in North and South Korea from the end of the Korean War to the present. The course examines an assortment of works of fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and visual media. Emphasis is on close readings of the texts, while considering various issues involving post colonial cultural production: war and trauma, gender and labor, political violence, modernization and dislocation, and diaspora. Topics will vary.
Contemporary Korean Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course aims to provide a high-fidelity musical history of Korea’s long 20th century. Starting at the tail end of the Chosŏn Dynasty in the late 19th century with Korean folksongs, we will proceed to catalogue the changing dynamics of Korean popular music as it encountered and remixed Western forms, and examine these different musical genres in their socio-historical context. No musical background or Korean language proficiency is required. All readings will be in English, although students will acquire some familiarity with Korean language through abundant listening selections and lyric analysis.
K-POP: A History of Korean Popular Music: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Fall 2019, Fall 2015
This course will explore the moments of intercultural encounters captured in Korean literature. Encounters with foreign cultures and literary reflections on them have emerged as prominent at critical moments of Korean history, such as periods of great social transition or international conflict. In this course, we will be addressing questions concerning how experiences of the encounters of foreign cultures have been represented in Korean literature from the sixteenth through the twentieth century; what their domestic ramifications were, especially in terms of literary genres; and how the transformation of Korean national identity have been imagined and articulated in literary works.
Intercultural Encounters in Korean Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015
This course examines Korean literature from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries through the perspectives of gender. Although the modern discourse of enlightenment in Korea, beginning in the early twentieth century, has been sharply critical of gender inequality in premodern Korea, the gender relations represented in premodern Korean literature are much more complex and dynamic than we might expect. To revise our understanding of gender in premodern Korea, this course seeks to examine how gender is imagined particularly in terms of the body, bodily practice, and theatrical performance.
Gender and Korean Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course surveys modern Korean fiction of the 20th century in literary and visual media. Topics will vary.
Modern Korean Fiction in Translation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
This course introduces various critical approaches to modern Korean literature through a set of texts in English translation. Readings will include an assortment of works of fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and visual media. Emphasis is on close reading of texts and literary approaches to them.
Critical Approaches to Modern Korean Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024
This undergraduate course offers a broad understanding of the non-mainstream independent cinema of South Korea, from its early formative years in the 1980s under the authoritarian regime through to the present renaissance. It traces the indie cinema’s historical origins and transformation, socio-political context and institutional practices, and modes of production, distribution, and exhibition. The course also stresses exploring the changing subject matters, aesthetics, and sensibilities. The questions of identities and affiliations (class, gender, sexuality, national division), affect and ethics, style, genre, and taste form the thematic pillars of the course.
Korean Independent Cinema: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2012, Spring 2008
This course explores the role of modern visual media in shaping geopolitical, cultural, and historical imaginations of Korea during the last hundred years. Drawing examples from photographs, films, and literature, produced in and outside Korea, the course aims to consider the idea of "Korea" primarily via images constructed through transnational cultural networks. Consideration will be given to the relationship between visual media and cultural memory. We will think in particular about the ways in which globally accessible visual media such as photography and film narrate the key local sites of contested memories of colonization, war, and political violence.
Picturing Korea: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
This course offers a historical overview of Korean cinema from its colonial development to its present renaissance. It covers Korean film aesthetics, major directors, film movements, genre, censorship issues, and industrial transformation as well as global circulation and transnational reception. In an effort to read film as sociocultural texts, various topics will be discussed. All readings are in English.
Introduction to Korean Cinema: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2018, Spring 2017
This course examines representations of history and memory in contemporary Korean cinema. Korean films have displayed a thematic preoccupation with the nation's tumultuous past by presenting diverse stories of past events and experiences. The course pays close attention to the ways in which popular narrative films render history and memory meaningful and pertinent to contemporary film viewers. All readings are in English.
History and Memory in Korean Cinema: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2016
This course examines the formation and transformation of global Cold War culture in South Korean literature and film of the 20th century. It pays close attention to representations of the Korean War and its aftermath in literature and cinema, but opens up the field of inquiry to encompass larger sociocultural issues related to the Cold War system manifest in literature and cinema. All readings are in English.
Cold War Culture in Korea: Literature and Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2016
This undergraduate course examines aesthetic features and thematic preoccupation of major Korean film authors. It begins with the brief survey of historical development and theoretical underpinnings of the concept of “auteur” and advances an inquiry into the application of such theoretical tool in the area of film criticism and culture in Korea. In addition to analyzing signature style, generic orientation, and thematic consistency, the course also situates and explores the unique film authorship in relation to larger contexts that constitute the dynamics of Korean cinema: industrial structure, government censorship, social changes and cultural phenomena, intellectual development, technological shifts and discourse of national cinema.
Korean Film Authors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2005, Spring 2005, Fall 2004
Small group instruction in topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2004, Fall 2003
Independent study in topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses.
Independent Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2007, Fall 2004
This seminar provides in-depth discussions on a topic germane to Korean and other East Asian literary and cultural studies. Students in the Group in Asian Studies with research interests in Korean literature, intellectual history, and popular culture are particularly recommended to take this course. Students in Chinese and Japanese may take this course for the purpose of comparative examination with the student's main area of research. The course is open to graduate students in all fields, but students should consult with the instructor to determine the viability of this course for the student's overall program of studies. Topics will vary.
Special Topics in Korean Literature for Graduate Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Special tutorial or seminar on selected topics not covered by available courses or seminars.
Directed Study for Graduate Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015

Thesis Preparation and Related Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Individual study for the comprehensive or language requirements in consultation with the graduate adviser. Units may not be used to meet either unit or residence requirements for a master's degree.
Individual Study for Master's Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare for various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D.
Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]