Module JPNS1041: Introduction to Japanese Culture

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures (Japanese)

JPNS1041: Introduction to Japanese Culture

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

Aims

• To ensure that students have the knowledge and understanding of key aspects of Japanese culture and society to enable them to engage critically with scholarly discourse on the nature of culture in a comparative perspective.
• To enable students to internalise specifically Japanese aesthetic and cultural values in order to evaluate Japanese culture on its own terms, rather than by Western values.
• To enable students to appreciate the contribution of Japanese aesthetic and cultural values to world culture in areas such as impressionist painting, architecture, pottery, visual arts and popular culture.
• To enable students to familiarise themselves with theoretical constructs of Japanese culture reflected in Western scholarship on Japan and Japanese scholarship in translation, and more generalised theories on orientalism as a preparation for essay and dissertation work later in the course.
• To develop skills in the use of academic theory and methodology, enabling students to assemble data and construct arguments based on current research on the topic and present their material orally and in writing according to standard academic conventions.

Content

• The broad approach is chronological, focussing on representative features of Japanese culture with continued significance as they have developed historically.
• The first term primarily deals with traditional Japanese culture from the earliest Jōmon period (12,000BCE – 300 BCE) to the end of the Shōgunate (mid-19th century) and the second term with the Meiji period through to the late 20th century. It begins with an introduction to the origins of the Japanese people and their relationship with mainland Korean and Chinese cultures in the Jōmon and Yayoi periods through the early and later Kofun periods to medieval and modern Japanese society and culture. It will include a study of early literature and the role of mythology in generating a sense of national identity, Chinese influence on male elite written culture, nativist female culture exemplified in the great early modern novels, animism and the role of Shinto, the influence of Buddhism on Japanese thought and art, the development of Japanese art and Japanese aesthetic theories, and how these have influenced the West.
• The modern period will concentrate on the impact of Western literature on Japan from the late 19th century, trends in modern literature in the 20th century and manifestations of Japanese values in new Western formats, modern and contemporary art and popular culture including film, manga and anime. Here attention will be drawn to interactions between Japanese and Western culture: samurai films being transformed by Hollywood into cowboy films and Kurosawa’s adaptations into film of Shakespearean plays.
• The art lectures will be given in the Oriental Museum and draw on the expertise of staff there and allow students to see objects at close quarters and handle them under Museum staff supervision.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will:
• have received a firm grounding in the literature and culture of Japan from the earliest times to the contemporary period
• be able to engage critically with a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to analysis

• By the end of the module students will:
• have developed their ability to engage with the aesthetic terminology of Japanese literature and art through primary texts in translation and secondary studies in Englis
• have gained the ability to evaluate critically and to contextualise samples of Japanese literary and cultural production
• have enhanced their powers of comprehension and critical analysis, and will be able to articulate theoretically-informed approaches to analysis orally and in writing

• By the end of this module students will:
• be able to engage with primary sources in translation and evaluate them with reference to broader theoretical ideas
• have gained skills in the acquisition and interpretation of information through reading and research, as well as in general written and oral communication skills
• have gained the ability to work independently in order to complete summative assessments to deadlines, providing research-led interpretations and solutions to questions and problems posed by the module topics and in-class discussions

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• A weekly lecture will deliver key information on the module.
• A fortnightly seminar with smaller groups will allow for active discussion.
• The summative essays are based on topics covered during the Michaelmas Term and early part of the Epiphany Term; the examination covers work carried out throughout the year.
• This assessment format responds to the need for students to articulate and structure their thoughts in writing as preparation for the final-year dissertation, as well as preparing them for assessment by examination at levels II and III.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Oral feedback on seminar presentations; the commentary is rated at only 15% of the total module mark and is used formatively to evaluate and develop writing skills: students are given extensive guidance before writing the commentary and detailed feedback is provided afterwards.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University