LIT 223 - Seminar in Japanese Literature in Translation

FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall

Prerequisite: Completion of FW FDR requirement and permission of the instructor.Selected topics in Japanese literature, varying from year to year. Possible topics include the development of poetic forms, Heian court literature and art, diaries, epics, Buddhist literature, the culture of food and tea, and Noh drama.

Topic in Fall 2010:

LIT 223: Seminar in Japanese Literature in Translation: Representing Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Literature (3). In this seminar, we read works by and about women from classical times to the present to explore representations of gender in Japan. Gender is not limited to women, of course, so we also read fiction by men in which sexuality, femininity, or masculinity gets problematized or dramatized in intriguing ways. The long tradition in Japan of nanshoku, or male love, is taken up with the works of Saikaku in particular, a writer as associated with his representations of lustful women as of men. Most of what we read in this course is modern or contemporary so as to be as accessible as possible to students; indeed, by the end we will look at popular culture in Japan where gender ambivalence plays a central role. (HL) Knighton.