06f-06
JAPANESE LITERATURE, MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY

Andrew MURAKAMI-SMITH (Graduate School of Language and Culture)

Objective
  This course is a survey of Japanese short fiction since 1868. Readings will allow students to sample a wide variety of authors, from the Meiji period (like Higuchi Ichiyo, whose face is on the \5,000 bill) up to the present day (the last two works we will read are comics, or manga). Lectures will provide background information on Japanese history, language and literature before 1868, on each writer, and on the various schools of modern Japanese literature. Students will make group presentations on the works and authors read, also referring to relevant literary criticism. Group presentations will stimulate discussions in class. A final paper, the contents of which may be based on your group presentation, will be due at the end of the semester.

Lecture Outline
Week 1: Explanation of course. Overview of Japanese history, language and literature before 1868. Excerpts from Tales of Ise (961) and Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book (996).
Week 2: Ihara Saikaku, Five Women Who Loved Love (1686)
Week 3: Higuchi Ichiyo, “Fall Wardrobe” and “Growing Up” (1895-96)
Kunikida Doppo, “The Bonfire” (1896)
Week 4: Nagai Kafu, “The Peony Garden” (1909)
Kamitsukasa Shoken, “The Skin of the Pike Conger” (1914)
Week 5: Shiga Naoya, “Night Fires” (1920)
Kajii Motojiro, “Lemon” (1925) and “Mire” (1925)
*Group Presentation: “The I-Novel”
Week 6: Kawabata Yasunari, “The Izu Dancer” (1925), “Kid Ume, the Silver Cat” (an excerpt from The Crimson Gang of Asakusa (1930)) and “One Arm” (1963)
*Group Presentation: “Kawabata Yasunari”
Week 7: Hayashi Fumiko, “The Accordion and the Fish Town” (1931) and Vagabond’s Song (1930; 1947-48) (excerpt)
*Group Presentation: “Hayashi Fumiko”
Week 8: Tanizaki Junichiro, “Aguri” (1922) and The Makioka Sisters (1948) (excerpt)
*Group Presentation: “Tanizaki Junichiro”
Week 9: Oda Sakunosuke, “Hurray for Marriage, or Sweet Beans for Two” (1940) and “The State of the Times” (1946)
*Group Presentation: “Oda Sakunosuke”
Week 10: Hayashi Fumiko, “The Old Part of Town” (1949)
Kojima Nobuo, “The American School” (1954)
*Group Presentation: “Postwar”
Week 11: Inoue Yasushi, “Passage to Fudaraku” (1961)
Tomioka Taeko, “Facing the Hills They Stand” (1971)
*Group Presentation: “Osaka Literature”
Week 12: Nakagami Kenji, “The Cape” (1975)
*Group Presentation: “The Kumano Region”
Week 13: Oba Minako, “The Smile of a Mountain Witch” (1976)
Tsushima Yuko, “The Chrysanthemum Beetle” (1983)
*Group Presentation: “Women Writers”
Week 14: Murakami Haruki, “The Elephant Vanishes” (1987)
Yoshimoto Banana, “Dreaming of Kimchee” (1992)
*Group Presentation: “The Entertainers (Murakami, Yoshimoto, etc.)”
Week 15: Aoki Yuji, “Yodogawa Embankment” (1996)
Matsumoto Taiyo, “The End of a Day in Which Nothing Began” (1994-95)
*Group Presentation: “Manga as Literature”
*Final paper due.

Textbook
  No textbook will be assigned. Students may purchase a packet of materials from the teacher, or the teacher can provide the originals to students so they can make their own copies.

Grading
  Evaluation will be based on attendance, preparation for class, the group presentation, participation in class discussions, and the final paper.