HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA 2

The course falls within the characterizing subjects that are part of the curricula China, Corea, Japan and South-East Asia, which are integral parts of the undergraduate degree course on Languages, Cultures and Societies of Asia and North Africa. Its formative scope is to continue the task of providing students with historical, cultural and humanistic competences concerning the geographical and cultural area under scrutiny, i.e. South-East Asia.

Knowledge and understanding:
- know and understand the main stages and phenomena of the political, cultural and social history of Southeast Asia from its origins to the contemporary
- acquire awareness of the methodology of historical research
- acquire the tools to deepen the historical contexts analyzed in the course also in other courses of the CdS from other points of view (e.g. linguistic)

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Knowing how to deal with historiographic issues independently, using critical and historiographic concepts and tools
- know how to critically apply the historical research methodology to the period under consideration

A willingness to read and discuss difficult, complex texts and ideas--and to be rewarded intellectually by so doing.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to some of the most influential works of Southeast Asian scholarship. These are works that have left an indelible mark in the academy and are considered by some critics as "classics." In addition to garnering a historical grounding in Southeast Asia, students will also sharpen their critical thinking skills.

1)Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso, 1983/2006)
Italian version: Comunità immaginate. Origini e diffusione dei nazionalismi (M. Vignale, traduttore) (Editore Laterza, 2018)

2)James C. Scott’s Domination and the Arts of Resistance (Yale University Press, 1992)
Italian version: Il dominio e l’arte della resistenza: i “verbali segreti” dietro la storia ufficiale (Milano : Eleuthera, 2006)

3)James C. Scott’s The Moral Economy of the Peasant (Yale University Press, 1977)
Italian version: L'economia morale dei contadini : rivolta e sussistenza nel Sud-Est asiatico / James C. Scott ; introduzione di Pasquale Villani
Napoli : Liguori, 1981

4)Barbara Watson Andaya’s The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia (Hawaii University Press, 2006)

Quizzes and written final

Frontal lessons, presentations and class discussions

English