I. The myth of objectivity
A. periodization as bias
political history
intellectual history
economic history
social history
art history
B. revisionist history: it's not what Rush says it is
new facts
revisiting the past with new questions
history and the social sciences
ordinary people
gender and queer studies
minority studies
judging the past
how valid is it to do this?
whose standards do you use?
watching out for earlier judgements
the myth of the objective source
unreliable sources, six times removed
II. Orientalism and Asian history
A. Edward Said and the Middle East
the 19th century and "Oriental Studies"
racism as theory
the rhetoric of imperialism
exoticism and inscrutability
eroticism and the female Orient
eroticism and the female Oriental
slavery and other evils
B. 19th century assumptions about East Asia
Missionaries and non-Christian cultures
wrong and in need of salvation
from superior religion to superior culture
human rights and universal mores
amoral/immoral and irrational
non-exclusive beliefs
amorality: Shinto and folk Taoism
Zen and the non-rational mind
Salvationist Buddhism
Confucianism
fanaticism and superstition
the Japanese Emperor as a kami
the Taipings and the Boxers
stage history and "backward" cultures
Japan and China: "extended feudal stages"
the development of nationalism and capitalism
backward is better than racially inferior
the evils of patriarchy
look who's talking?
focus on specific practices
samurai women and commoners
the anti-footbinding campaign
arranged marriages
Asia as a woman to be possessed and protected
Japan: small, emotional and sensitive
China: irrational and hysterical
BREAK
III. Discussion groups