SES # | TOPICS |
---|---|
Week 1: Introduction | |
1 | Introduction to the Course (PDF) |
Week 2: Analyzing Japan / Analyzing Popular Culture | |
2 | Film Segment: "The Japanese Version" (PDF) |
3 | The History of Popular Music in Japan (PDF) |
Week 3: Racial Boundaries and Representation in Popular Culture | |
4 | Film Segment: "Doubles" (PDF) |
5 | Race in Japanese Hip-Hop (PDF) |
Week 4: Gender, Sexuality, and Popular Culture | |
6 | Seminar on "Gender Roles and Anime." If unable to attend the Seminar, then your Assignment is to Write a 2-page Commentary Contrasting Two of the Assigned Readings (Due by Ses #8) (PDF) |
7 | Special Event: "Comfort Women of Korea visit MIT." If you cannot attend, an additional assignment can be done instead (PDF) |
Week 5: Identity, Resistance, and Popular Culture: Borders and Crossings | |
8 | Japanese Identity: Homogeneity or Difference? (PDF) |
9 | Methods and Approaches to the Study of Popular Culture (PDF) |
Week 6: Manga and Cultural Production | |
10 | Harvard Talk (PDF) |
11 | A Sociology of Cultural Production of Manga (PDF) |
Week 7: Manga and Power | |
12 | Metropolis: Fritz Lang to Tezuka to Otomo |
13 | Manga and Social Commentary |
Week 8: Manga and Anime | |
14 | Harvard Talk |
15 | Who are the Otaku? |
Week 9: Assessing Manga as Cultural Form | |
16 | In Class Discussion of Manga Issues Re: Essay 2 |
Week 10: Re-Imagining Japan | |
18 | Tradition and Transnationalism |
19 | Flow or Appropriation - Whose Culture is it? (2) |
Week 11: Japanese Television | |
20 | Student Presentations 1 |
21 | Japanese Television |
Week 12: Japanese Popular Literature | |
22 | Student Presentations 2 |
23 | Japanese Popular Literature |
Week 13: Crisis and Restructuring | |
Week 14: Popular Culture and Japan's Future |