New Courses for Spring 2024!
The Japanese Studies program will be offering three new courses for the Spring 2024 semester.
Professor Johnson will be teaching a version of JAPN 150 (COLL 150) called "Crime Fiction in Japan." The course description is as follows:
"This course will offer an introduction to the topic of crime in Japan. We will read works of literature and watch films that depict the lives of criminals, victims of crime, and narratives of investigation. In analyzing these materials we will ask how narratives of crime challenge popular stereotypes of Japan as a quasi-uniform culture, and why said narratives have been so popular in Japan throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries."
A second new course being taught by Professor Johnson is being offered at the 300 level, as JAPN 308, "Growing up with Japanese Television." Here is the course description:
"The emergence of television in Japan in the 1950s coincided with the arrival of a burgeoning youth culture interested in the new social configurations of the nation’s post-war identity. Over the decades the connection between television and young people has only grown, with television acting not only as an engine for popular culture, but also providing a virtual witness to reflect transformations in social, economic, and political life back to its audience. This course will offer an introduction to the history of television in Japan as experienced through the eyes of young people."
Professor Sasaki will also be offering a new version of the major capstone, entitled "Imagining Japanese Culture: Issues and Methods." This class will be listed as JAPN 330 and JAPN 450. Here is the course description:
"This course examines the wide range of representations within the realm of modern Japanese culture. These representations include novels, films, anime, and manga. Instead of viewing “culture” as a discrete object of analysis, we understand it as a historically constituted and inherently political category and consider how the study of culture enables us to deepen our understanding of Japanese society. Students develop their own research projects and complete research papers. This class will be conducted in a seminar style. Taught in English."
Information on meeting times and locations can be found on the Open Courses website.
