JAPANESE LITERATURE, MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY

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

Objective
   This course is a survey of Japanese fiction since 1868, focusing on the following seven writers:

• Higuchi Ichiyo: living in the poor neighborhoods outside the pleasure quarters, she continued an aristocratic literary tradition extending back to the Heian period 1,000 years before.
• Izumi Kyoka: his spooky, romantic works have been called "Japanese gothic."
• Nagai Kafu: after a two-year stay in the US and France, returned to chronicle Tokyo's pleasure quarters as a flaneur urban stroller and observer.
• Okamoto Kanoko: a proponent of "free love," she died in 1939 after a literary career of only three years.
• Hayashi Fumiko: wrote of her childhood as a peddler and days as a struggling writer and bar girl, then became the first successful female writer of the postwar period.
• Kawabata Yasunari: known as a Modernist in the 1920s and 30s, he was later awarded the Nobel Prize for literature as a traditionally Japanese writer.
• Nakagami Kenji: his works treat both the Japanese "ghetto" or discriminated neighborhoods where he grew up and the history and legends of the dark, mountainous Kumano region.
  We will also read some works by other writers for comparison and context, including some classical (pre-modern) works that influenced these writers.
  A paper, which may be based on the presentation, will be due two weeks after your presentation. Guidance on writing academic papers in English will be provided.

Course Content
   Students will be expected to answer discussion questions about each story and to discuss them in small groups in class. Beginning in the middle part of the semester, groups of students will make presentations analyzing the stories and stimulating class discussion. Students who do not take part in a group presentation will take an essay examination at the end of the semester. In addition, every student will submit a paper about five pages in length. Guidance on writing academic papers in English will be provided.

Course Schedule

1. Introduction: Reading Modern Japanese Literature in context.
2. Higuchi Ichiyo From Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book (996) Ichiyo, "Fall Wardrobe" (1896)
3. Higuchi Ichiyo
      Ihara Saikaku, from This Scheming World (1692)
      Ichiyo, "Growing Up" (1896)
4. Izumi Kyoka
      Ueda Akinari, from Tales of Rain and Moonlight (1776)
      Kyoka, "The Holy Man of Mt. Koya" (1900)
5. Izumi Kyoka
      Jippensha Ikku, from Travels on the Eastern Seaboard (1802-22)
      Kyoka, "A Song by Lantern Light" (1910)
6. Nagai Kafu
      A story by Guy de Maupassant (TBA)
      Kafu, from American Stories (1908)
      Kafu, "The Mediterranean in Twilight" (from Tales of France, 1909)
7. Nagai Kafu
      Tamenaga Shunsui, from Spring-Color Plum Calendar (1832)
      Kafu, "A Strange Tale from East of the River" (1937)
8. Okamoto Kanoko
      Okamoto, "The Old Geisha" (1938)
      Okamoto, "The House Spirit" (1939)
9. Okamoto Kanoko
      Okamoto, "The River" (1937)
      Okamoto, "The Food Demon" (1941)
10. Hayashi Fumiko
       Hayashi, "The Accordion and the Fish Town" (1931)
       Hayashi, from Diary of a Vagabond (1930)
11. Hayashi Fumiko
       Kojima Nobuo, "The American School" (1954)
       Hayashi, "The Old Part of Town" (1949)
12. Kawabata Yasunari
       Yokomitsu Riichi, "Machine" (1930)
       Kawabata, from The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (1930)
13. Kawabata Yasunari
       Kawabata, "The Izu Dancer" (1925)
       Kawabata, "One Arm" (1963)
14. Nakagami Kenji
       Sato Haruo, "The House of a Spanish Dog" (1917)
       Nakagami, "The Cape" (1975)
15. Nakagami Kenji
       Inoue Yasushi, "Passage to Fudaraku" (1961)
       Nakagami, "The Immortal" (1984)

Textbook
   There will be no textbook assigned for this course. The stories to be read, and all other course materials, will be uploaded to the WebCT system, which students can access online from computers on and off campus. (Students unable to access WebCT will be provided with hard copies of course materials.)

Grading
   Your grade in this class will be based on the following:

• Attendance, preparation, and participation: (1/3)
• Presentation - OR - Final Essay Exam: (1/3)
• Paper: (1/3)