The Supernatural in East Asian Culture
East Asian Languages & Culture · 3 hrs Lecture
Offered: Fall Or Winter
No prerequisites listed, you can take this course without prior coursework.
Where EALC-2740 counts
Counts toward 2 more as one option among several, not as a course you must take:
Read from the departments' own calendar pages, where 50 of 208 programs are only partly machine-readable, so treat these as a minimum rather than the full list. Confirm with an academic advisor.
Description
This course introduces students to East Asian culture through depictions of supernatural phenomena. By transgressing the boundaries of life and death, human and animal, real and unreal, supernatural beings shed light on socio-culturally constructed boundaries, such as status and gender. Through the lens of traditional supernatural literature, a framework of social structures in traditional East Asia emerges to show how characters confront and transgress the bounds of normative behaviour. Topics may include gender, purity and contamination, Five Elements Theory, Buddhism, Daoism, Neo-Confucianism, popular religion, cultural taboos, and changing views toward the supernatural in the age of scientific inquiry.
Restrictions
Students may not hold credit for this course and REL-2740.
Cross-listed
REL-2740(3).
From the 2026-27 undergraduate calendar. Always verify details on WebAdvisor or with an academic advisor before registering.