Course Description:
This course serves as an introduction to the modern literature of Japan, 1868 to present. Emphasis is placed on the historical developments and trends in modern Japanese answers to the question, what does literature do? Specific topics include the Meiji Restoration and Japanese literary encounters with the West, naturalism and the I-novel, literary modernism and postmodernism, the role of literature in politics and the role of politics in literature, a-bomb literature and war memory, and marginalized literatures. All readings and assignments are in English; no Japanese language proficiency is required.
Cindi L. Textor 