EALC 114: Aesthetics of Trauma: Ghosts, Memory, and the Afterlives of War in East Asia

Course Description

This course explores the aesthetic traces of trauma in contemporary East Asia through the investigation of cultural spaces of war, ruins, and memorials as sites of critical inquiry. Taking an anthropological approach to understanding both the enactment of war and its cultural consequences, this course focuses on the legacies of the 20th century historical trauma in the present by questioning the symbolic significance of historical space, aesthetics, and memory in human societies. How does historical trauma take shape through a form of contemporary aesthetic? How is it felt within the lived experiences of contemporary Asia? What does it mean to live in the aftermath of the Cold War in Asia, or similarly, in anticipations of future war? By delving into various case studies from China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, this course aspires to begin to understand how aesthetic environments, objects, and interpretations become fundamental modes of existing with and within history.