Peoples and Cultures of Island Southeast Asia

Peoples and Cultures of Island Southeast Asia

This course is an introduction to the cultures, histories, and literatures of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and East Timor, nations that comprise an area known traditionally as the Malay World. Grounding ourselves in the classical kingdoms of Southeast Asia through the coming of Islam and the early modern era, we will pay particular attention to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the entrenchment of European and American imperialism, the rise of Southeast Asian nationalism, and developments in modern Southeast Asia up through the aftermath of the fall of Marcos, Soeharto, and Mahathir.