OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

Osaka in Modern Japanese Literature

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

Course 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 several weeks into 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 term paper about five pages in length. Guidance on writing academic papers in English will be provided.

Class Plan

  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 Eel" (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. 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. Poetry
    Selections from pre-modern waka, linked verse, and haiku
    Yosano Akiko, poems
    Ono Tozaburo, poems
  8. A Proletarian Writer of Osaka
    Takeda Rintaro, "Kamagasaki" (1933) and "The First Day of the Fair" (1935)
  9. A Tokyo Native's Osaka
    Tanizaki Junichiro, "A Portrait of Shunkin" (1933) and excerpt from The Makioka Sisters (1948)
  10. Osaka's Greatest Native Son
    Oda Sakunosuke, "Hurray for Marriage, or Sweet Beans for Two" (1940), "City of Trees" (1944), and "Nerves" (1946)
  11. The "Third Wave" of Postwar Writers
    Shono Junzo, "Evenings at the Pool" (1954) and "Still Life" (1960)
  12. Postwar Osaka Woman Poet and Novelist
    Tomioka Taeko, poems
    Tomioka Taeko, "Facing the Hills They Stand" (1971) and "Funeral of a Giraffe" (1976)
  13. Is Murakami Haruki Really from the Kansai?
    Murakami, "The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema" (1983)
    Murakami, "Firefly" (1983)
    Murakami, "Afternoon in the Islets of Langerhans" (1986)
    Murakami, "The Elephant Vanishes" (1987)
  14. New Osaka Writers
    Nakaba Riichi, excerpt from Kaoru-chan of Kishiwada (2002)
    Shimamura Yoko, excerpt from Confessions of Lust (2001)
    Miura Shion, excerpt from Unable to Attain Buddahood (2007)
  15. Osaka in Manga
    Aoki Yuji, "Yodogawa Embankment" (1996)
    Koda Mamora, "A Can of Coffee" (2003)
    Morishita Hiromi, "Cattleya Morning" (2005)

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

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

OUSSEP _
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