Survey of modern Japanese literature with readings in English translation: Postwar and Contemporary Literature.

This discussion-centered, research seminar examines strange and ambiguous bodies prominently featured in premodern Japanese literature. Reading literary works in translation from the 8th to the 19th century, we will engage with a variety of rich depictions of ambiguous and mysterious bodies, including mythical creatures, vengeful spirits, shape-shifting foxes, strange apparitions, and incorporeal or invisible figures. Our topics of investigation include how ambiguous bodies challenge and reinforce social boundaries; the significance of gender dynamics in premodern sexuality; how the trauma of war is inscribed onto bodies; political authority over corporeal and incorporeal bodies; and the transformation of sacred spirits into the everyday grotesque. We will read a wide range of primary materials in translation, including mythologies, official historical records, literary tales, Buddhist didactic stories, women's diaries, and war-tales. We will also engage with scholarship on the cultural history of the body, religious beliefs, and theories of the monstrous, in addition to various theoretical frameworks related to post-colonial thought and gender studies.

Survey of pre-modern Japanese literature, with readings in English Translation: 14th to 19th centuries.

Survey of pre-modern Japanese literature, with readings in English translation: Court literature, to 1330.

Survey of modern Japanese literature with readings in English translation: Meiji to World War Two.

Introduction to Japanese sociolinguistics: questionnaire studies, variation analysis, ethnography of communication, conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and language and social interaction.

This course focuses on the work of Haruki Murakami (1949-), the most popular and widely read novelist working in Japan today, and a major literary figure worldwide. We will read a substantial amount of Murakami's writings, all in English translation, beginning with his short stories, and covering his major novels. We will explore the major themes of Murakami's writings and develop a comprehensive view of his development as a writer. At the same time we will locate Murakami in the context of modern Japanese and world literature, and discuss his relationship with modern American literature, and his work as a translator and writer of non-fiction.

This course explores Japanese society employing anthropological methods. Topics include politics, social structure, gender, sociolinguistics, education, religion, and popular culture. The main theme of this course is to learn how to distinguish between images and realities.

This course provides an introduction to the phonetics and phonology of Japanese. Some related topics in morphology are also covered. Students develop a sophisticated understanding of some of the problems encountered by non-native speakers learning Japanese.

Reading and discussion in Japanese of a variety of advanced-level materials, including newspaper articles, short stories, and poetry.