INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE CULTURE AND LITERATURE

The aim of this course is to provide students with a general knowledge of Japanese literature and visual culture from prehistory through the 21st century. The course will track the evolution of literary forms, visual aesthetics, and cultural values, focusing particularly on how tradition and innovation interact across key historical periods. Students will also explore Japan’s modern transformation, its postwar cultural shifts, and its global cultural presence today.

Students will gain comprehensive insight into Japanese literary and artistic traditions from their origins to the present.
They will develop a general knowledge of:
Literary genres, worldviews, and forms that shaped Japanese cultural identity;
Key writers, texts, and cultural artifacts spanning ancient to contemporary periods;
Intersections between literature, performance, and visual culture;
Major social and political contexts influencing artistic production;
How modern Japanese authors and creators reinterpret classical forms.
Students will build the critical tools to interpret, contextualize, and compare works across time, with special attention to how cultural continuity and rupture shape Japan’s evolving narratives.

None, though students are encouraged to explore key episodes in Japanese history. Introductory resources will be provided at the start of the course, and supplementary materials will be available weekly through Moodle.

Part I: Classical and Medieval Period
1. Introduction
2. Origin Myths and State Formation: Kojiki and Nihon shoki
3. Lyric Traditions: From Manyōshū to Shinkokinshū
4. Aesthetics of Refinement: The Pillow Book
5. Court Fiction: From Bamboo Cutter’s Tale to The Tale of Genji
6. Zen and the Arts of the Middle Ages: Renga and Nō Drama

Part II: Early Modern to Modernisation
7. Edo-Period Popular Culture: Fiction and Ukiyo-e
8. Poetic Travelogues: Haikai and Narrow Road to the Deep North
9. Edo Theatre: Kabuki and Jōruri
10. Meiji Literature: Realist and Naturalist Fiction
11. Modern Poetry: From Shintaishi to free verse
12. Early Cinema: From silent jidaigeki to sound gendaigeki
13. Modernism to Tradition: Kawabata Yasunari, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō

Part III: Postwar and Contemporary Currents
14. Classical Cinema: Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa
15. Reckoning and Reinvention: Postwar generations, Mishima Yukio
16. New Wave Cinema: Suzuki Seijun, Imamura Shōhei, Ōshima Nagisa
17. Japanese/Global Literature: From Murakami Haruki to Yū Miri
18. Manga as Narrative Literature: Tezuka Osamu, Mizuki Shigeru, shōnen/shōjo manga
19. Anime and National Identity: From war propaganda to Studio Ghibli
20. Conclusion

Keene, D., 1999. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century.
Keene, D., 1978. World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-modern Era, 1600-1867.
Keene, D., 1984. Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era.
Shirane, H. (Ed.), 2008. Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Columbia University Press.
Shirane, H. (Ed.), 2004. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900. Columbia University Press.
Rimer, J.T. (Ed.), 2005. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, 1868-1945. Columbia University Press.
Richie, D. (2001) A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History.
All core readings and supplementary materials will be provided on Moodle.

A written exam, comprising a fact quiz and a short essay on a selected subject-matter. Students with disabilities should contact the teacher of the course beforehand in order to discuss alternative examination methods, in agreement with the competent Office.

written

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

The student passes the exam with an evaluation spanning between 18 and 30.

Interactive lectures with visual materials, in-class textual analysis, group discussions. Selected film screenings and digital archive explorations may supplement specific modules.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development