LITR 033J. Tokyo Central: The Metropolis in Modern Japanese Literature and Film

(Cross-listed as JPNS 033)
This course aims to equip students to recognize and contextualize changing concepts of self and individual identity, family, community, and labor as represented in literature and film narratives depicting the urban center of modern Japan: Tokyo. Brief lectures on literary historical and historical contexts will precede guided discussions of literary texts and films. Students will be asked to consider, compare, and contrast representations of Tokyo and its inhabitants over time, using close reading, historicization, and visual critical strategies from film studies. In discussions we will also treat Tokyo’s relationship to the nation of Japan, other Japanese regions, East Asia, and the world. We will further assess how the course texts represent shifting views and experiences of the urban populace regarding family roles, romance, marriage, gender roles, socio-economic class and social status, social responsibility, consumerism, and leisure over the course of Japan’s modern history, from the late 19th century through to the present.
Humanities
1 credit
Eligible for ASIA
Catalog chapter: Modern Languages and Literature: Literatures in Translation
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/modern-languages-literatures

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