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Readings

Required Texts

There are three (3) required texts. The texts will also be available on reserve at Hayden Library, so if cost is an issue, please be aware that you can read them there.

  1. Craig, Timothy, ed. Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Cultur. M. E. Sharpe, 2000.
  2. Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
  3. Treat, John Whittier, ed. Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.

Background Reading

Ian Condry "Introduction" to Japanese Hip-Hop book manuscript: It proposes thinking about transnational popular culture not in terms of "global/local" dynamics, but rather by analyzing how these forms are a part of cultural economies and cultural politics. (PDF)

Asahi Newspaper (English): Online version of one of Japan's leading newspapers offers articles on current events. Of particular interest to us may be the "culture" section.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
Week 1: Introduction
1 Introduction to the Course
Week 2: Analyzing Japan / Analyzing Popular Culture
2 Film Segment: "The Japanese Version"

Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer. "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception." In The Cultural Studies Reader. 2nd ed. Edited by S. During. London: Routledge, 1999. Pp. 31-41.

Treat, John Whittier. "Introduction: Japanese Studies into Cultural Studies." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996a. Pp. 1-14.
3 The History of Popular Music in Japan "Can Japanese Sing the Blues? "Japanese Jazz" and the Problem of Authenticity." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 27-59.
Week 3: Racial Boundaries and Representation in Popular Culture
4 Film Segment: "Doubles" Russell, John G. "Race and Reflexivity: The Black Other in Contemporary Japanese Mass Culture." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Pp. 17-40.
5 Race in Japanese Hip-Hop Condry, Ian (To be Available Online) "Introduction: Cultural Politics of Japanese Hip-Hop." In Japanese Hip-Hop: Locating the Power of Transnational Popular Culture. Durham, NC: Duke Univerity Press. (Working Draft).
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).
7 Special Event: "Comfort Women of Korea visit MIT."

If you cannot attend, an additional assignment can be done instead.		 Allison, Anne. "Sailor Moon: Japanese Superheroes for Global Girls." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 259-278.

Tsurumi, Maia. "Gender Roles and Girls' Comics in Japan: The Girls and Guys of Yûkan Club." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 171-185.

Izawa, Eri. "The Romantic, Passionate Japanese in Anime: A Look at the Hidden Japanese Soul." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 138-153.
Week 5: Identity, Resistance, and Popular Culture: Borders and Crossings
8 Japanese Identity: Homogeneity or Difference? Kelly, William W. "Finding a Place in Metropolitan Japan: Ideologies, Institutions, and Everyday Life." In Postwar Japan as History. Edited by A. Gordon. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Pp. 189-216.
9 Methods and Approaches to the Study of Popular Culture Readings from Kinsella. Adult Manga.
Week 6: Manga and Cultural Production
10 Harvard Talk
11 A Sociology of Cultural Production of Manga Kinsella. Adult Manga (Selections).

Kawada, Yuka. "Beauty Fighter "Sailor Chemist"." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 279-286.

"Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Vol. 8. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 17-31, 154-170.
Week 7: Manga and Power
12 Metropolis: Fritz Lang to Tezuka to Otomo
13 Manga and Social Commentary Kinsella. Adult Manga. (Selections)

MacWilliams, Mark Wheeler. "Japanese Comic Books and Religion: Osamu Tezuka's Story of the Buddha." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 109-137.

Mizuki, Shigeru. "Little TV Guy." Translated by Ian Condry. (Manga Short Story) - On Reserve.
Week 8: Manga and Anime
14 Harvard Talk
15 Who are the Otaku? Napier, Susan. "Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster from Godzilla to Akira." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. Pp. 235-262.

Lee, William. "From Sazae-san to Crayon Shin-chan: Family Anime, Social Change, and Nostalgia in Japan." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 186-203.
Week 9: Assessing Manga as Cultural Form
16 In Class Discussion of Manga Issues Re: Essay 2
17 Shiraishi, Saya S. "Doraemon Goes Abroad." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 287-308.
Week 10: Re-Imagining Japan
18 Tradition and Transnationalism
19 Flow or Appropriation - Whose Culture is it? (2)

Tansman, Alan M. "Mournful Tears and Sake: The Postwar Myth of Misora Hibari." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J.W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Pp. 103-133.

Yano, Christine R. "The Marketing of Tears: Consuming Emotions in Japanese Popular Song." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 60-74.

Iwabuchi, Koichi. "Localizing Japan in the Booming Asian Media Markets." Chapter 3. (On Reserve).

Condry, Ian. [Forthcoming] Selection from Japanese Hip-Hop. (On Reserve).
Week 11: Japanese Television
20 Student Presentations 1
21 Japanese Television Gossmann, Hilaria M. "New Role Models for Men and Women? Gender in Japanese TV Dramas." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 207-221.

Painter, Andrew. "Japanese Daytime Television, Popular Culture and Ideology." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Pp. 197-234.

Chun, Jayson. "A New Kind of Royalty: The Imperial Family and the Media in Postwar Japan." In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by T. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. Pp. 222-244.

Yoshimoto, Banana. "Dreaming of Kimshee." In The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Theodore Goossen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 432-443.

Murakami, Haruki. "The Elephant Vanishes Source." In The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Theodore Goossen. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 400 - 416.
Week 12: Japanese Popular Literature
22 Student Presentations 2
23 Japanese Popular Literature Tamotsu, Aoki. "Murakami Haruki and Japan Today." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Pp. 265-274.

Treat, John Whittier. "Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home: The Shôjo in Japanese Popular Culture." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J.W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996b. Pp. 275-308.

Murakami, Haruki. "The Elephant Vanishes." (Short Story, On Reserve).

Yoshimoto, Banana. "Dreaming of Kimchee." (Short Story, On Reserve).
Week 13: Crisis and Restructuring
Condry. Selection from Japanese Hip-Hop (Available Online or On Reserve).

Iida, Yumiko. "Between the Technique of Living an Endless Routine and the Madness of Absolute Degree Zero: Japanese Identity and the Crisis of Modernity in the 1990s." Positions 8(2): 423-464. (Available Online through MIT library).
Week 14: Popular Culture and Japan's Future
Ching, Leo. "Imaginings in the Empires of the Sun: Japanese Mass Culture in Asia." In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996. Pp. 169-194.

Iwabuchi, Koichi. "Localizing Japan in the booming Asian media markets." In Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Chapter 3. Pp. 121-157. (E-Reserves or on reserve at Hayden).