Literary and Cultural Discourse in Modern Japan

Literary and Cultural Discourse in Modern Japan will introduce students to seminal texts (in English translation) that defined literary and cultural discourse from the Meiji period to present-day Japan. Specifically, the course has three central aims. Firstly, the course seeks to help students attain a strong degree of familiarity with key Japanese literary texts and to understand how they relate to their various literary, cultural, political and historical contexts. Through this it is hoped that students will not only gain a deeper understanding of specific texts and writers but will also better understand the range of issues and competing and contradictory narratives that shape modern Japanese culture. Secondly, through reading and discussion, the course seeks to develop students' understanding of critical theory and its practical application in textual analysis. Finally, the course seeks to help students develop and refine their research, analytical and critical writing skills, culminating in a research essay drawing on primary and secondary sources and compliant with relevant academic conventions. This research project will be broken into a number of subcomponents to be completed at various stages throughout the semester.