This December the Department will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary with a banquet to be held at the Renissance Hotel downtown, join us for a night of more...
Each year the department offers a variety of topics under the course numbed 360B. This year we are offering courses in Modern Japanese Literature, Cultures of Manga and Anime More...
Japan
ASIA 522 A (111) - Readings in kanbun kundoku [3.0 credits]
Course description
Not offered in 2011-2012
This course aims to help students gain familiarity in reading the variety of Japanese written styles subsumed under the term kanbun. No prior experience with classical Japanese is required; however, students should have a basic understanding of modern, written Japanese.
- ASIA 525A (007) - Topics in the Social History of Japanese Religions [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Nam-lin Hur
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
This seminar mainly involves reading Edo-period temple documents, particularly Sojiji documents, in handwritten form that address issues related to bakufu regulations, fundraising, head-branch temple relationships, and day-by-day temple operation and administration. At the same time, a recently published book on Sojiji, Sojiji soin komonjo o yomitoku (Tamamuro Fumio, 2008), will be discussed in conjunction with the komonjo reading practice. - ASIA 528 A (019) - Problems of Japanese Intellectual History [ 3 credits] Instructor: Dr. Peter Nosco
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
The course will discuss seven paradigmatic or representative works of scholarship, available in both English and Japanese, on Edo-period intellectual and social history. Each work is discussed for two weeks with the intent to develop an appreciation for the range of scholarship available in Japanese and English on the intellectual and social history of Japan during the Edo period (1600-1868), and especially interpretations of (early) modernity. The seven works are:
I. Maruyama’s theory
A. Maruyama Masao, Nihon seiji shisōshi kenkyū (Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai) or
B. Maruyama, Masao, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (Princteon Univ. Press)
II. Tokugawa Ideology
A. Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570-1680 (Princeton Univ. Press) or
B. Heruman Ōmusu, Tokugawa Ideorogii (Perikansha)
III. Edo Period and (Early) Modernity
A. Bitō Masahide, Edo jidai to wa nanika (Iwanami Shoten) or
B. Bitō, Masahide, The Edo Period: Early Modern and Modern in Japanese History
IV. Ishida Baigan and Bellah’s Theory of Modernity
A. Robert N. Bellah, Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Inductrial Religion (Beacon Press) or
B. Nihon kindaika to shūkyō rinri: Nihon kinsei shūkyōron (Miraisha)
V. Tokugawa Nativism
A. Peter Nosco, Remembering Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in Eighteenth-century Japan (Harvard) or
B. Pii-taa Nosuko, Edo shakai to kokugaku: Gengō e no kaiki (Perikansha)
VI. Motoori Norinaga and Biography
A. Matsumoto Shigeru, Motoori Norinaga no shisō to shinri (Tokyo Daigaiku Shuppankai) or
B. Matsumoto, Shigeru, Motoori Norinaga (Harvard)
VII. First contact
A. Miyoshi, Masao, As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860 (Univ. of California Press) or
B. Warera mishi mamani: Man’en Gannen kenbei shisetsu no tabiji (Heibonsha)
- ASIA 532 B (009) - Readings in Classical Japanese Texts [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Joshua Mostow
2011-2012 term 2
Course Description
Classical Japanese texts from a variety of genres and periods are read, typically from manuscript or early modern editions. - ASIA 532A(021) - Topics in Traditional Japanese Literature [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Christina Laffin
Course Description
This course takes up specific genres, works, and approaches within the field of premodern Japanese literature. It aims to familiarize students with literature of the Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) periods and improve proficiency in reading primary texts in classical Japanese. The course is designed to be useful to those who are pursuing topics in premodern Japanese literature and history, are interested in improving or practicing reading classical Japanese texts, and would like to gain a better grasp of Japanese premodern literary history. Classes will be discussion-based and conducted in English. Students will be required to read, parse, and translate passages from the primary sources and to provide synopses of secondary sources. Proficiency in reading modern Japanese and some experience in classical Japanese is required. Past topics have included travel literature, gender and genre in diaries, and the status of ancient and medieval court women. - ASIA 532B (024) - Readings in Classical Japanese Texts [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Stefania Burk
Not offered in 2011-2012
Graduate Seminar on Japanese Court Poetry (waka)
Course Description
The aim of this course is to introduce students to Japanese court poetry (waka) in the original and to familiarize ourselves with Japanese and western scholarship on the topic. The course content will be modified to suit the needs and backgrounds of the enrolled students.
The course will begin by looking at Kokinshû (905). The imperial anthologies and the waka found therein informed the development of many literary and dramatic arts well into the modern period. Some knowledge and engagement with these texts can benefit almost anyone in the field of Japanese literary studies.
Texts are read in the original Japanese with modern annotations where available; one aim is to improve proficiency in reading poetry and about poetry. These readings will be supplemented with relevant readings in criticism, in a mix of English and Japanese. Classes will be discussion-based and conducted in English. Students will be required to read, parse, and translate passages from the primary sources and to provide synopses of or presentations on secondary sources. Proficiency in reading modern Japanese and some experience in classical Japanese is required. ASIA 533B (111) - Topics in Modern Japanese Literature [3.0 credits]
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
This course focuses on literature from the early Meiji period of bunmei kaika (civilization and enlightenment), when Westernization brought rapid change to nearly every aspect of Japanese society. In addition to expanding their knowledge and understanding of this fascinating period in history, students will improve their Japanese reading and research skills through preparation of weekly assignments.
Readings will examine the shifting nature of cultural boundaries, including the adaptations required by written discourse to meet the changing communicative needs of early Meiji society. Weekly assignments will consist of narrative texts in Japanese, with accompanying readings on criticism or theory in English.
- ASIA 533B (011) - Topics in Modern Japanese Literature [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh
Not Offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
In this course we read/view selections from Japanese modern narrative: fiction, film, manga, anime, etc. All narrative texts are in Japanese. These readings/viewings are matched each week with relevant readings in criticism or theory, in a mix of English and Japanese. Prospective students should be capable of reading 50-100 pages of Japanese per week. This course features a different topic each time it is taught. The topics for this course (as opposed to Asia 533 A) tend to deal with less-canonical, non-canonical, or specialized streams of narrative production. Recent topics have included: sexualities in modern fiction and popular culture; masculinities in modern cultural production; fiction of the Occupation period, 1945-1952. - ASIA 570 A (009) - Genji: Seminar in Classical Japanese Literature [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Joshua Mostow
Not Offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
The Tale of Genji
Topics change each year. - ASIA 570 B (009) - Genji: Seminar in Classical Japanese Literature [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Joshua Mostow
Not Offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
Edo Sexuality
Topics change each year.