This course provides an overview of the history of Shinto in Japan. Recent scholarship has problematized the simplistic characterization of Shinto as the "indigenous religion of Japan." The course introduces students to the on-going scholarly debate over the category of "Shinto" and dissects from a historical perspective modern appropriations of Shinto discourses in relation to modernization, nationalism, and Japan's "self-image" in the world.

This course explores the prominent tradition of monsters, wrathful gods, and ghostly phenomena related to religious beliefs, politics, wars, and environmental disasters in Japanese visual culture, literature, and historical records from the eighth century to the present. Using critical historical and theoretical perspectives, we will analyze a wide variety of literature, wood-block prints, present-day films, anime, and manga, to explore wrathful gods, terrifying monsters, vengeful spirits, and comical yokai, as well more recent cultural icons such as Godzilla, Princess Mononoke, and Sadako from the J-horror film Ringu. We will learn how these monstrous figures serve as literary and visual tropes that embody various social and cultural fears and fixations while deepening our understanding of how such figures often embody various marginalized populations. Our themes deal with relationships between monsters and politics, gender dynamics, and traumatic disasters. In addition, we will also read seminal theoretical and historical scholarship on horror, monsters, gender studies, postcolonialism, and Japanese ghostly culture in order to acquire the methods and vocabulary necessary for forming our own arguments about haunting figures and the monstrous.

Everyone dies. Because death and the afterlife are unknowable, people have attempted to imagine, visualize, and write about what comes after life in order to understand or overcome fear of the unknowable and inescapable. Since the beginning of recorded time, therefore, death has found its way into religion, art, and literary expression to demystify its meaning. This course surveys the literary discourse of death and dying in Japanese literature from the 8th to the 19th centuries. It is both a chronological introduction to the literary tradition and an exploration of the concept of death in premodern Japan. Our readings include mythologies, narratives, Buddhist didactic tales, poetry, diaries, and other theatrical works, all in English translation. We will learn and practice the skills of close reading, interpretation, and literary analysis through class discussions and critical writing about representations of death. We will study important works concerned with the rhetoric and topos of death within their historical, political, religious, social, and cultural contexts, aiming to establish connections across time and between writers and readers. The most important, yet paradoxical, lesson of this course is that focusing on death leads to reconsidering and celebrating the value of life.

Experiences of Japanese men and women in the second world war as portrayed in short stories, novels, and poetry written in Japan since the end of the war. All readings done in English translation.

This course provides an overview of the history of Buddhism in Japan. Major themes covered in the course include an integration of indigenous "kami veneration" (Shinto) into a Buddhist theological framework; a doctrinal emphasis placed on the notion of Buddha nature or "original enlightenment" (hongaku); the rise of the so-called Kamakura schools of Buddhism; bureaucratic roles imparted to Buddhist temples during the Tokugawa period; and challenges Buddhism faces in contemporary Japanese society.

Sounds, words, grammar, change, writing, variation, and use of the Japanese language; provides basis for further study in the field.

Advanced conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese.

Advanced conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work.