OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

03s-05
A COMPARATIVE INTRODUCTION TO WESTERN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE

Takao KASHIWAGI, et al. (Graduate School of Letters)

Objective
In this course students are encouraged to understand how Western literature and Linguistics have been absorbed in the Japanese cultural background. Topics to be discussed will include: the influence of European novels on Japanese literature, Japanese interpretation of Shakespeare, the reception of European culture, and contrastive study between Japanese and English.

Textbooks
No particular textbook is used.

Lecture Outline
Topics are:
1. French modern novels in Japanese literature
2. Reception of German culture in modern Japan
3. Drinking and literature
4. Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood
5. Akira Kurosawa's Ran
6. Kabuki Hamlet
7. Ninagawa Shakespeare
8. Kyogen and Shakespeare
9. Bunraku and Shakespeare
10.Contrasitive linguistics between Japanese and English

(Lectures will not necessarily follow this order.)

Grading
Grading is based on class participation and the term paper assigned at the end of the term.