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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.

Japanese sociocultural dynamics in industrial and corporate structures, negotiating styles, decision making, and crisis management. Practicum on Japan market strategies.

"The Nature of Knowledge" explores the intersections of science and humanities East Asia. It covers a broad geographic area (China, Japan, and Korea) along a long temporal space (14th century - present) to investigate how historical notions about the natural world, the human body, and social order defied, informed, and constructed our current categories of science and humanities. The course will make use of medical, geographic, and cosmological treatises from premodern East Asia, portrayals and uses of science in modern literature, film, and media, as well as theoretical and historical essays on the relationships between literature, science, and society.nnAs part of its exploration of science and the humanities in conjunction, the course addresses how understandings of nature are mediated through techniques of narrative, rhetoric, visualization, and demonstration. In the meantime, it also examines how the emergence of modern disciplinary "science" influenced the development of literary language, tropes, and techniques of subject development. This class will expose the ways that science has been mobilized for various ideological projects and to serve different interests, and will produce insights into contemporary debates about the sciences and humanities.

This course presents a broad survey of classical Japanese literature in English translation, with particular emphasis on prose fiction and poetry. We will make use of multiple, complementary modes of literary criticism, beginning with historicism and formalism, which reflect different assumptions and interpretive priorities. The approach is integrative, with attention paid throughout to the intersections between literature, social and institutional history, and religion. Key questions to be explored include the following: How were the major works of classical Japanese literature understood by readers during the medieval and early-modern periods? How did the current canon of classical Japanese literature arise, and what historical forces shaped its development? How might modern modes of literary criticism help us better approach premodern Japanese literature, and what are their limitations?

Readings from Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, and early Edo periods with focus on grammar and reading comprehension. Prerequisite: JAPANLNG 129B or 103, or equivalent.

Edo and Meiji periods with focus on grammar and reading comprehension. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 246 or equivalent.

This proseminar introduces Japanese linguistics research to graduate students and advanced undergraduate students. Through readings and discussions, students will familiarize themselves with materials and references in both English and Japanese in preparation for conducting research effectively in their own areas of interest in Japanese linguistics. They learn the organization and presentation of research projects and conduct a pilot project in their selected area of interest. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: JAPANLNG 103 or consent of instructor.

A mixture of lecture and discussion, this course presents a chronological introduction to some of the defining monuments in the history of Japanese visual culture from prehistory to the mid-19th century. This introductory class presumes no prior knowledge of art history or of Japan. We will emphasize certain overarching themes like religious life; notions of decorum appropriate to various classes (court, warrior, and commoner); the relationship between and among the arts, such as the visual and the verbal, or the symphonic assemblage arts as seen in the tea ceremony; pervasive cultural tropes like nostalgia, seasonality, or the sense of place; and broader issues such as censorship, patronage, gender issues, and the encounters between Japanese and foreign cultures.

Printed objects produced during the Edo period (1600-1868), including the Ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) and lesser-studied genres such as printed books (ehon) and popular broadsheets (kawaraban). How a society constructs itself through images. The borders of the acceptable and censorship; theatricality, spectacle, and slippage; the construction of play, set in conflict against the dominant neo-Confucian ideology of fixed social roles.