May be taken for credit if topic is different. Three topics are offered Spring 2019. Section A1: From Temples to Television: Popular Culture and Religious Practice in China: explores the impact of Buddhism, Daoism, and local cults on various aspects of Chinese culture, from art and entertainment to architecture and politics. Materials include religious tracts, novels, dramas, television shows, comic books, and art works. Section B1: Melodrama in Japanese Cinema and Literature: Uses Japan as case study to examine melodrama in world film/literature. Considers how genre helps us to better understand a work of art, how cultural differences challenge that understanding, and how melodramatic works explore gender, cultural identity, morality, and sexuality. Section C1: Conceptualizations of the Imagination. What constitutes the "imagination" in literature? How does it manifest in literary forms and media? Examines works from the English, Chinese, and Japanese traditions, and explores how language grants readers access to literary consciousness.