1 - 10 of 80 results for: JAPAN

What do old and young people share in common? With a focus on Japan, a country with a large long-living population, this seminar spotlights older people's lives as a reflectiion of culture and society, history, and current social and personal changes. Through discussion of multidisciplinary studies on age, analysis of narratives, and films, we will gain a closer understanding of Japanese society and the multiple meanings of growing up and older. Students will also create a short video/audio profile of an older individual, and we will explore cross-cultural comparisons. Held in Knight Bldg. Rm. 201.

An Alternative Spring Break (ASB) course through Haas Center. Directed reading course, designed by the students. http://viaprograms.org/expand-your-boundaries/social-innovation-design-thinking/design-thinking-for-social-innovation/

This class is structured around three motifs: love suicide (as a romantic ideal), female desire, and same-sex sexuality. Over the course of the quarter we will look at how these motifs are treated in the art and entertainment from three different moments of Japanese history: the Edo period (1615-1868), the modern period (1920-65), and the contemporary period (1965-present). We will start by focusing on the most traditional representations of these topics. Subsequently, we will consider how later artists and entertainers revisited the conventional treatments of these motifs, informing them with new meanings and social significance. We will devote particular attention to how this material comments upon issues of gender, sexuality, and human relationships in the context of Japan. Informing our perspective will be feminist and queer theories of reading and interpretation.

Translation lies at the heart of all intercultural exchange. This course introduces students to the specific ways in which translation has shaped the image of Japan in the West, the image of the West in Japan, and Japan's self-image in the modern period. What texts and concepts were translated by each side, how, and to what effect? No prior knowledge of Japanese language necessary.

Did you grow up watching Pokémon and Power Rangers? Have you danced along to "Gangnam Style"? As we become increasingly exposed to Asian popular culture and the Internet facilitates instant access to new media, previous localized forms of entertainment--animated cartoons, comics, video games, music videos, film, and soap operas--have become part of a global staple. However, these cultural forms have emerged not only in their original form with mediation of subtitles. Many have undergone various processes of adaptation and translation so that we no longer recognize that these products had ever originated elsewhere. This course will immerse students in a range of Japanese and Korean cultural phenomena to reveal the spectrum of translation practices across national boundaries. We will inquire into why these cultural forms have such compelling and powerful staying power, contextualize them within their frames of production, and explore the strategies, limitations, and potential of translational practices.nnContact instructor for place. dafnazur@stanford.edunKnight 201.

Analysis of representative manga as narratives that combine verbal and visual elements, with attention to historical and cultural background. Representative manga by Tezuka Osamu, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Koike Kazuo, Taniguchi Jiro, Natsume Ono, Kono Fumiyo, and others. All readings in English.nnnClass meets in Knight Bldg, Rm 018. Contact instructor (sdcarter@stanford.edu) for place

Focuses on the intertwined histories of the postwar Japanese television, anime, music, and video game industries, and how their development intersects with wider trends in Japanese society. We will pay particular attention to questions of affect, labor, and environment in media production, consumption, and style.

This class introduces key literary texts from Japan's modern era (1868-present), locating these works in the larger political, social, and cultural trends of the period. Primary texts include: Futabatei Shimei's Floating Clouds, Higuchi Ichiyô's Child's Play, Natsume Sôseki's Kokoro, Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Boat, Ôe Kenzaburô's The Catch, and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchen. Examination of these literary works will be contextualized within larger political trends (e.g., the modernization program of the Meiji regime, the policies of Japan's wartime government, and postwar Japanese responses to the cold war), social developments (e.g., changing notions of social class, the women's rights movement, and the social effects of the postwar economic expansion), and cultural movements (e.g., literary reform movement of the 1890s, modernism of the 1920s and 30s, and postmodernism of the 1980s). The goal of the class is to use literary texts as a point of entry to understand the grand narrative of Japan's journey from its tentative re-entry into the international community in the 1850s, through the cataclysm of the Pacific War, to the remarkable prosperity of the bubble years in the 1980s.

Features of traditional Japanese culture such as temples and shrines, kimono, and cultural practices like the tea ceremony, have played an important role in both domestic and international representations of Japan since the late nineteenth century. In this course students will be introduced to these elements of traditional Japanese culture, while learning to cast a critical eye on the concept of tradition. Themes will include discussion of the gendered nature of tradition in modern Japan and the role played by such traditions in constructing national identity, both in Japan and overseas. We will explore these topics using the theoretical frameworks of invention of tradition and reformatting of tradition. Contact instructor for room. rcorbett@stanford.edu