21G.065 | Fall 2013 | Undergraduate

Japanese Literature and Cinema

Readings

Required Texts

[Kirino] = Kirino, Natsuo. Out. Vintage, 2005. ISBN: 9781400078370.

[Abe] = Abe, Kobo. The Woman in the Dunes. Vintage, 1991. ISBN: 9780679733782.

WEEKS # TOPICS READINGS
Part I: Form & Content in Storytelling: Live Action Film, Anime, Rakugo
1 Paradoxes of Perspective: Rashomon in Prose and Film

Keene, Donald. “Japanese Aesthetics.” In The Pleasures of Japanese Literature. Columbia University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780231067379.

Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. “In a Grove.” In Rashomon and Other Stories. Liveright, 1999. ISBN: 9780871401731.

 ———. “Rashomon.” In Rashomon and Other Stories. Liveright, 1999. ISBN: 9780871401731.

J. Geiger, R. L. Rutsky, ed. “A Search for a National Community.” In Film Analysis: A Norton Reader. W. W. Nortan & Company, 2005, pp. 495-508. ISBN: 9780393979831.

2 Film Studies: Collaborative Creativity, Transmedia, and the Social

Condry, Ian. Chapters 1–2 in The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Duke University Press Books, 2013. ISBN: 9780822353942. 

Jenkins, Henry. “Seven Core Principles of Transmedia Storytelling.” (2009)

3 Rakugo: The Art of Storytelling Brau, Lorie. “Rakugo: The Comic Storytelling Art.” In Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo. Lexington Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780739122464. [Preview with Google Books]
4 Discuss Readings and Films

Lee, Soo-Im. “Koreans—A Mistreated Minority in Japan: Hopes and Challenges for Japan’s True Internationalization.” In Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity. Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 9780415368902. [Preview with Google Books]

[Kirino] Ongoing

Part II: Social Pressures and Social Rewards – Modern Day
5 Small Group Projects [Kirino] Ongoing
6 Small Group Projects and Film Viewing [Kirino] Ongoing
7 Out No readings.
8 Discuss Readings and Films No readings.
Part III: Social Pressures and Social Rewards – Other Examples
9 Discuss Readings and Films

Bolitho, Harold. “The Myth of the Samurai.” (PDF) 1984.

Tsunetomo, Yamamoto. Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai. Shambhala, 2012. ISBN: 9781590309858.

Chikamatsu, Monzaemon. The Love Suicides at Amajima. The University of Michigan Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780939512515.

[Abe] Ongoing

10 Discuss Readings and Films

[Abe] Ongoing

 Tanizaki, Junichiro. Shadows on the Screen: Tanizaki Jun’ichiro on Cinema “Oriental” Aesthetics. University of Michigan Centre for, 2005. ISBN: 9781929280339.

Kawabata, Yasunari. The Izu Dancer and Other Stories. Tuttle Publishing, 2001. ISBN: 9780804811415.

Condry, Ian. “Post-3/11 Japan and the Radical Recontextualization of Value: Music, Social Media, and End-Around Strategies for Cultural Action.” International Journal of Japanese Sociology 20, no. 1 (2011): 4–17.

 Murakami, Haruki. “UFO in Kushiro.” In After the Quake. Vintage, 2003. ISBN: 9780375713279.

Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Penguin Classics, 2006. ISBN: 9780143039495.

U, Mel. “’Onnagata” by Yukio Mishima." The Reading Life. August 30, 2011.

11 Discuss Readings and Films No readings.

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