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Modern East Asia was almost continuously convulsed by war and revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. But the everyday experience of modernity was structured more profoundly by the widening gulf between the country and the city, economically, politically, and culturally. This course examines literary and cinematic works from China and Japan that respond to and reflect on the city/country divide, framing it against issues of class, gender, national identity, and ethnicity. It also explores changing ideas about home/hometown, native soil, the folk, roots, migration, enlightenment, civilization, progress, modernization, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and sustainability. All materials are in English. This course is part of the Humanities Core: https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/

An exploration of the visual arts of East and South Asia from ancient to modern times, in their social, religious, literary and political contexts. Analysis of major monuments of painting, sculpture and architecture will be organized around themes that include ritual and funerary arts, Buddhist art and architecture across Asia, landscape and narrative painting, culture and authority in court arts, and urban arts in the early modern world.

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.

This course does not teach students how to translate, but rather how to incorporate translation into their critical thinking. Critical translation studies comprises wide-ranging ruminations on the complex interplay between languages, cultures, power, and identity. How can we integrate translation into our thinking about the processes that shape literary, political, ethical, and aesthetic sensibilities, and what do we stand to gain by doing so? Course readings introduce key works from inter-lingual perspectives that range across English, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Tagalog, Bengali, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Québécois. (Students need only have some knowledge of a language other than Standard American English to productively engage with the readings.) Class discussions and workshop assignments are designed to prepare students to integrate critical thinking about translation into their own research and intellectual interests.

From the culturally distinct urban centers of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka to the sharp contrasts between the southernmost and northernmost parts of Japan, modern Japanese literature and film present rich characterizations of place that have shaped Japanese identities at the national, regional, and local levels. This course focuses attention on how these settings operate in key works of literature and film, with an eye toward developing students' understanding of diversity within modern Japan. FOR UNDERGRADS: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit

This course focuses on the creation of objects at the boundary between the aesthetic allure of fine art and the utilitarian practicality of everyday life. It is also about how we value the objects with which we surround ourselves, connected to issues that go from sustainability to the intimacy of the handmade - of the little but precise tool marks that evoke the skilled expertise of years spent at the workbench.n nTraditionally in Japan the distinction between a work of art and a utilitarian object was inessential. An aesthetic object acquired its cultural identity and social value precisely because it could be used. Famous examples of this duality can be found in tea ceremony ceramics, complex architectural joinery, lavish fabric design, and fine temple-inspired cuisine. This is true even for painting and calligraphy: illustrated paper-covered architectural partitions were as useful in keeping a room warm as in serving as the highlight of a social gathering; hanging scrolls and flower arrangements displayed in a purpose-built alcove (tokonoma) conveyed delicate political and cultural messages.n nAt a modern museum, as soon as an object is acquired and accessioned into the collection, it ceases to be available to be touched, smelled, or weighed in one's hands. The only contact with warm bodies comes now through the gloved hands of a few trained professionals. A tokonoma alcove, by contrast, has no glass. What is more, a mere hint by the guest will prompt the host to retrieve the object displayed and offer it for close examination, or, as was often the case, actual use by the guests.n nThe sense of closeness between object and body in premodern Japan was intensified by the fact that users were often makers themselves. Socialized utilization became the perfect venue for the assessment, evaluation, and explication of both the techniques of fabrication and the decisions inherent to artistic creation.n nFor these reasons, the ideal way to study Japanese functional objects is to immerse oneself in the tradition by trying one's hand at the fundamental tools and techniques.n nThis course will combine readings, lectures, and practical hands-on training in two core traditional disciplines: woodworking and ceramics. Traditional hand tools will be provided for students to customize and keep. This dimension of the course is made possible by the generous support of the Halpern Family Foundation.n nAttempts to broker a place for traditional craftsmanship in a context of mass production are at the core of modern movements such as William Morris's Arts and Crafts, Walter Gropius's Bauhaus, and Yanagi Soetsu's Mingei. This course is designed for students with interests in making, art history, engineering, anthropology, studio, intellectual history, and the material culture of East Asia more generally.n nNo previous technical expertise required. Course taught in English. Venue: PRL

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. 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, the remarkable prosperity of the bubble years in the 1980s until most recent, post-3/11 catastrophe-evoked Zeitgeist.
We will examine a variety of primary texts by such authors as Futabatei Shimei, Higuchi Ichiyô, Natsume Sôseki, Tanizaki Jun'ichir, Miyamoto Yuriko, Kawabata Yasunari, Ôe Kenzaburô, Yoshimoto Banana, Tawada Yko, and Yu Miri among others. Each text will be discussed in detail paying attention to its specific character and 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, the social effects of the postwar economic expansion, ecocriticism), and cultural movements (e.g., literary reform movement of the 1890s, modernism of the 1920s and 30s, postmodernism of the 1980s, and exophony). Students will also be encouraged to think about the ways these texts relate to each other and a variety of issues beyond the Japanese socio-cultural and historical context.
No prior knowledge of Japanese is required for this course, although students with sufficient proficiency are welcome to refer to original sources.
Prerequisites: None

This is an English-language course about Japanese group dynamics in industrial and corporate systems, negotiating styles, decision making, and crisis management, as well as about strategies for managing intercultural differences. Includes team project to develop strategy and pitch to take an early-stage U.S. firm to the Japan market. Taught by Professor Richard Dasher, Director of the US-Asia Technology Management Center.

Is it okay to feel pleasure? Should humans choose beauty or renunciation? This is the main controversy of medieval Japan. This course introduces students to the famous literary works that created a world of taste, subtlety, and sensuality. We also read essays that warn against the risks of leading a life of gratification, both in this life and in the afterlife. And we discover together the ways in which these two positions can be not that far from each other. Does love always lead to heartbreak? Is the appreciation of nature compatible with the truths of Buddhism? Is it good to have a family? What kind of house should we build for ourselves? Can fictional stories make us better persons? Each week, during the first class meeting, we will focus on these issues in Japan. During the second class meeting, we will participate in a collaborative conversation with the other students and faculty in Humanities Core classes, about other regions and issues. This course is taught in English. This course is part of the Humanities Core, a collaborative set of global humanities seminars that brings all of its students and faculty into conversation. On Mondays you meet in your own course, and on Wednesdays all the HumCore seminars (in session that quarter) meet together: https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/.