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. 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. |
"The Myth of the Samurai." (PDF)