New Course listed! JAPN-238/LACS-238 Japanese Animation Films and Short Stories (Japanese Culture)

TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM
Professor Katsuya Izumi

In this course, students will engage critically with the Japanese culture. Through animation films directed by Miyazaki Hayao, Kon Satoshi, and others, and modern Japanese short stories, we will examine the ideas of “basic” and perhaps “typical” Japanese cultural aspects and elements, as defined in Roger J. Davies and Osamu Ikeno’s The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture. Students are expected to think about these aspects and elements, watching animation films and reading short stories. Most importantly, however, students are required to analyze the Japanese works from a critical perspective and to write “argumentative essays” on them. By close-reading the texts (both films and literary works), students will develop sensitivities toward what flows underneath cultural representations The coursework includes multiple drafts of term papers.