OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

OSAKA IN MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE

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

Objective
   Tokyo is the "center" of Japan in ways that capital cities like Washington D.C. or Canberra are not. The literary world was also, until recently, centered in Tokyo. What does it mean for a writer to be from Osaka or to set a novel there? In this course, we will investigate the possibility of an "Osaka Tradition" of modern literature (perhaps an alternative to the Tokyo-centered literary mainstream) by reading:

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
       Brief explanation of historical and geographical background of Tokyo and the Kansai, the literary world in modern Japan, and the canon of modern Japanese literature.
  2. Osaka and the Classical Tradition
       Ihara Saikaku, excerpts from Five Women Who Loved Love (1686) and This Scheming World (1692)
  3. The Beginning of the "Osaka Tradition" in Modern Literature
       Chikamatsu Monzaemon, "The Love Suicides at Amijima"(1720)
       Kamitsukasa Shoken, "The Skin of the Pike Conger" (1914)
  4. "I-Novelists" of Osaka
       Kajii Motojiro, "Lemon" (1924) and "A Winter Fly" (1928)
  5. "I-Novelists" of Osaka
       Uno Koji, "Ten-House Alley" (1925) and "Landscape with Withered Tree" (1933)
  6. A Proletarian Writer of Osaka
       Takeda Rintaro, "Kamagasaki" (1933) and "The First Day of the Fair" (1935)
       Cultural Criticism: Essays on Osaka
       Koide Narashige, "Drowsing in Spring" (1930) and "Too-Upbeat Osaka" (1936)
       Tanizaki Junichiro, "My Views on Osaka and Osakans" (1932)
       Oda Sakunosuke, "Osaka Rises" (1945) and "The Eternal Rookie" (1945)
  7. Modernist Poetry
       Ono Tozaburo, "Tennoji Park" and "A Scene in the South of Osaka" (1934); "The Shore at North Port," "Bonfires," "Country of Reeds," and "Scenery" (1939) (poems)
  8. A Tokyo Native's Osaka
       Tanizaki Junichiro, "A Portrait of Shunkin" (1933) and excerpt from The Makioka Sisters (1948)
  9. Osaka's Greatest Native Son
       Oda Sakunosuke, "Hurray for Marriage, or Sweet Beans for Two" (1940), "City of Trees" (1944), and "Nerves" (1946)
  10. Postwar Osaka Writers
       Shono Junzo, "Still Life" (1960)
       Kono Taeko, "Bone Meat" (1971)
  11. Postwar Osaka Woman Poet and Novelist
       Tomioka Taeko, "between" (1957) and "Still Life" (1957) (poems)
       Tomioka Taeko, "Facing the Hills They Stand" (1971) and "Funeral of a Giraffe" (1976)
  12. Is Murakami Haruki really from the Kansai?
       "The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema" (1983)
       "Afternoon in the Islets of Langerhans" (1986)
       "The Elephant Vanishes" (1987)
       "The Second Bakery Attack" (1985)
  13. New Osaka Writers
       Excerpt from Nakaba Riichi, Kaoru-chan of Kishiwada (2002)
       Kawakami Mieko, "You People's Love is on its Deathbed" (2008)
  14. Osaka in Manga
       Aoki Yuji, "Yodogawa Embankment" (1996)
       Koda Mamora, "A Can of Coffee" (2003)
       Morishita Hiromi, "Cattleya Morning" (2005)

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:

OUSSEP _
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