College: College of Letters and Science
Designation: Department
Majors and degrees offered: M.A., Ph.D. in Chinese; M.A., Ph.D. in Japanese
Other: Ph.D. Minors in Chinese, and in Japanese
Faculty: Professors Cheng, McGloin, Nienhauser; Associate Professors Csikszentmihalyi (Chair), Huang, Mori, Zhang; Assistant Professors Clark, D'Etcheverry, Geyer, Zhu
The Department of East Asian Languages and Literature is one of only 16 departments in the U.S. which offer comprehensive graduate programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. in the languages, linguistics, and literatures of China and Japan.
The mission of the department is to advance and disseminate knowledge and understanding of the languages and literatures of East Asia and the civilizations to which they belong. The department offers both undergraduate and graduate training structured to accomplish its mission and to meet the needs of the university's students. Department faculty actively participate through research, publication, and scholarly gatherings in the international community of East Asianists in order to contribute to the development and spread of new knowledge concerning Asia in Wisconsin and around the world. They also engage in service to their fields and to the people of Wisconsin.
Graduate major and minor programs are offered in Chinese language and literature and in Japanese language and literature. Specific educational goals include: (1) teaching modern and classical Chinese and Japanese (and modern Korean) and training prospective teachers of language and literature; (2) teaching Chinese and Japanese literary and linguistic history from earliest times to the present; (3) facilitating familiarity with and understanding of the Chinese and Japanese literary, historical, and philosophical canons, important new works in those languages, and scholarship in the field; and (4) training prospective scholars in the art of research.
The East Asian Collection at Memorial Library is strong. In addition, the library has all major scholarly journals and comprehensive holdings of related works in Western languages.
In addition to the faculty in East Asian languages and literature, approximately 40 faculty members are associated with the department in fields such as anthropology, archaeology, art history, comparative literature, economics, geography, history, history of science, linguistics, political science, sociology, and theatre.
The master's program in Chinese consists of three tracks: literature, linguistics, and thought.
Admission to the Chinese master's program normally requires the equivalent of a B.A. in Chinese from UW-Madison. Especially promising students with preparation in other areas, such as another foreign language and literature, Asian studies, comparative literature, linguistics, English, philosophy, or history, may be admitted conditionally to the M.A. program and allowed to make up their deficiencies during the first year of study.
Applicants to the Chinese Ph.D. program who do not have an M.A. degree from this department will be expected to fulfill the M.A. requirements and take a qualifying examination at the end of the second semester in the program. The qualifying examination is equivalent to the M.A. examination.
The Ph.D. student is required to develop two fields of concentration which the student shall investigate in some depth, becoming familiar with both the original texts and the secondary literature pertaining to them. Examples of fields of concentration are:
1. Classical literature and criticism (e.g., Shih ching, Ch'u tz'u , Han fu, Wen-hsin tiao-lung, T'ang shih, T'ang ch'uan-ch'i , Sung tz'u, etc.).
2. Vernacular literature and criticism (e.g., traditional drama, fiction, folk poetry, modern poetry or prose, etc.).
3. Linguistics (e.g., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, stylistics, etymology, lexicography, dialectology, etc.).
4. Thought (e.g., Buddhism, Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Moism, Yijing, etc.).
5. History and philology (e.g., paleography; orthography; textual criticism--chiao-k'an-hsueh--folklore; mythology; religion; bibliography--mu-lu-hsueh, pan-pen-hsueh, etc.).
Graduate students in the Japanese program can choose to concentrate in either literature or linguistics. The program develops students' expertise in both modern and classical Japanese language and literature, comparative applications of contemporary Western literary theory, Japanese linguistics, history of Japanese language and literature, and language pedagogy. A student who passes the M.A. at an appropriately high level will be eligible to enter the Ph.D. program.
To be considered for admission to the Japanese master's program, the student should have the equivalent of a B.A. major in Japanese from the UW-Madison. Applicants lacking this qualification but of superior caliber will be admitted conditionally.
Only those students whose achievement in the M.A. program is considered superior (as determined by the faculty committee on the basis of the course record and M.A. examination results) are eligible to enter the Japanese Ph.D. program. Applicants with an M.A. in Japanese from another institution will be given a qualifying examination during their first year to determine eligibility for the Ph.D. program.
Students from other departments intending to take a Ph.D. minor in Chinese or Japanese should choose a minor professor from the department or consult the department chair. For the minor, at least 12 credits in graduate-level courses are required (400 level or above; certain 300 courses are allowable with the prior consent of the department). The department also offers internal minors. Transfer students may offer up to 6 credits from other institutions. However, they may be required to undergo a special examination.
Applications for both programs will be judged on the basis of previous academic record, letters of recommendation, and personal statement. Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores are required for admission to the Japanese program.
For more information: Admissions Assistant, Department of East Asian Languages and Literature, 1212 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706; 608/262-2291; fax 608/265-5731; eall@mailplus.wisc.edu; polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/easian.