Korea is often portrayed as a nation whose history is determined by others, and this tendency, together with the 1950-53 Korean War, deeply influences the public's image of Korea. The objective of this unit is to dispel these poster images of traditional sources of the Korean nation. The unit spans a period from roughly 100 BC to the end of the eighteenth century, with focus placed on the relation between historical events and such major themes as state formation, culture and social structure, gender, science and art, and Korea's interaction with its East Asian neighbours.

A feature of the unit is the use of literature as a means of understanding the religious, philosophical and social make-up of Korean civilisation. Literary sources will range from the earliest extant Korean writings (by the Confucian Kim Pusik and the Buddhist monk Iryon), to the eighteenth-century diary of a Korean queen and Kim Manjung's famous novel, Cloud Dream of the Nine.