David Lurie

JUST TAKE HIS CLASS I WISH HE IS MY DAD, HE IS GODSENT

Professor Lurie is and will continue to be amazing. He was one of the best professors that I had the pleasure of taking at Columbia. His knowledge of everything Japanese was vast and very impressive. I had the opportunity to take both his survey course on Japan and a seminar on myths of East Asia. Honestly, both classes did not feel like work, especially in the seminar. Lurie's personality made me feel quite at ease and the lectures and discussions were enjoyable, entertaining, and very educational. I would recommend to go to his office hours and just talk story with the guy, he is very friendly and a blast to get to know, as well as truly wanting all of his students to succeed both inside and outside the classroom. I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone to take a class with David Lurie, I promise you will not regret it.

Since I'm probably one of the only undergraduates to have gone through the modern Japanese - Bungo - Kanbun series, I thought I might as well give a review of how to get here if you're not a graduate student. Kanbun is the logical follow-up to Bungo after you've done two semesters of the latter. Prof. Lurie teaches this exclusively, I believe, even though you're likely to get bounced around different professors for Bungo (as of 2013, that'd be Shirane-Suzuki-Lurie in order of likelihood).** Pre-requisites: You can find this on the department website, but if you're jumping in as opposed to plodding up through the courses, I'd suggest going in to see him. He's wonderful and will give you a good idea of whether you're ready. Personally, I found that an ability to remember kanji relatively well with the help of an electronic dictionary, strong grammatical recall, and a willingness to spend about 2-4 hours pouring through dictionaries for every class is what you need most. The class is taught in English, with a huge number of dedicated graduate students, and (at least in my case) a general sense of doomed camaraderie on days when you get hard readings. Everyone's in it together and willing to probe deeper (or stall infinitely). Class structure and textbooks: Kanbun is a dead-zone for current textbooks. You get two major PDF versions of out of print editions, one in English and the…

Where I do I begin about Professor Lurie? Though this was apparently his first experience teaching introduction to Classical Japanese, I couldn't have asked for a better prepared or more enthusiastic professor. Lurie manages to be hyper-intelligent *and* comprehensible *and* funny at the same time where most only manage one out of the three at best. He's incredibly responsive via emails, wonderful in office hours and very approachable. The material is not the most exciting in the world; Professor Shirane's Grammar is methodical but slightly soul-crushing. Lurie knows the material inside-out and is eloquent about it. Is also unashamed about making pop culture references when doing semi-ridiculous readings. Class usually operates as an introductory lecture before turning into a round-robin translation circle. You prepare beforehand; Lurie requests that you do not rely on a crib sheet but isn't particularly strict about enforcement.

I wish I had had Prof. Lurie's version of Intro to Japan in my freshman year. I have taken a number of courses in Japanese civilization and culture and I find now that I've had Lurie's course, I have a MUCH better understanding of the historical context than I had before. His version is a very good survey course of Japanese history from prehistory to the present day, without the dumbing down you sometimes encounter in big sweep surveys. (I'm a history major, so I know whereof I speak.) He introduces major events, issues and personalities, and tries to keep an eye on continuities between periods as well as the distinctive characteristics. The readings are appealing, although as always the value of the weekly discussion sections depends on which TA you get. This is not one of those mickey mouse "get rid of an area requirement" courses, which you forget the minute you've finished the final exam. It's a legitimate Ivy League course which should increase your interest in and understanding of things Japanese.

Literature majors (or even non-lit ones who love to read) who don't take Colloquium on Major Texts (aka Asian Hum) with Lurie to fulfill the MC requirement are shooting themselves in the foot. An assistant professor with possibly the most immaculate goatee known to man, Lurie is phenomenal. True, he doesn't talk much in class and tries to give as little context as possible so that students can discuss their most visceral reactions, but he's funny (he once tried to count the number of orifices in the human body out loud), incredibly smart, and very helpful in office hours. The class is a lot of work - it's 4 points and meets once a week, so expect readings on the level of an English or History Department seminar - but there are only two short 5-7 papers and the Famous Asian Hum Oral Final (which is, as everyone says, easier than you think - for half of mine we talked about things totally unrelated to the class). The readings are interesting, for the most part (you read everything from the Tale of Genji to Confucius) and while a lot of them are dense and difficult to relate to, Lurie knows enough to help you through the rough spots. One of the few classes at Columbia that truly is a discussion (even more than Lit Hum or CC). Come having done the reading and you'll be rewarded by a fairly stimulating two-hour discussion (provided you get good classmates)

I engaged with a wide variety of texts that I would not have read otherwise. I gained an understanding of the evolution of literature in the context of East Asia. This helped to complement the understanding of literature I gained from Lit Hum!

How to grapple with various objects, including scholarly texts, images, and videos.

We covered a great deal of ground, and I feel like I walked away with a more developed sense of broad developments in history as a discipline within the last few decades + a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives that I was previously unfamiliar with.

This course is not easy, but it is interesting and worth taking. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2022 Course: ASCEUN1361_001_2022_1-INTROEASTASIANCIV:JPN : ASCEUN1361_001_2022_1 - INTRO EAST ASIAN CIV: JPN Instructor: Gregory Pflugfelder