JAPANESE LITERATURE 3

This course is an introduction to the major artistic and literary phenomena in Japan from the end of the IIWW to the present.
"Japanese Literature 3" is one of the core educational activities within the "Japan" curriculum of the Bachelor's Degree Programme in Language, Culture and Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa. The course contributes to the attainment of the teaching goals of the Bachelor's Degree Programme in the area of language skills, but it also invests the cultural and humanities areas. The study of novels and essays will enhance the skills in textual analysis and in the understanding of historical and cultural contexts.
The skills concerning the macroscopic development of modern and contemporary Japanese literature constitute the foundations to proceed in the literary-cultural studies.

The course will introduce students to the main literary artistic and cultural movements in contemporary Japan.
Knowledge and understanding:
- to know and understand the main aspects (authors, movements, works, etc.) in the history of Japanese literature from 1945 to the present.
- to know and understand concepts and tools from the fields of literary criticism and historiography
- to deepen the knowledge and understanding of historical contexts through the analysis of literary texts. The historical context may have already been studied in other teachings from different points of view (e.g. historical, artistic ...)

Applying knowledge and understanding:
- to analyze and interpret literary texts by using concepts and tools from the fields of literary criticism and historiography
- to critically apply concepts from literary historiography to the historical period studied in the course

Making judgements:
- to produce critical judgments on the textual and historical-literary phenomena that are part of the program by using arguments that are critically and historically sound
- to subject various types of sources to critical examination
- to perfect one's capacity to criticize essentialist and stereotypical discourses on "Japanese culture"

Communication:
- to express and re-elaborate the contents of the program in written form, in a synthetic and effective way, without resorting to automatisms and schematisms resulting from a mnemonic study

Lifelong learning skills:
- to know how to critically integrate the study of different materials (notes, slides, manuals, creative texts, academic articles)
- to be able to independently study materials and topics not covered during the lectures
- to refine one's ability to study materials in English
- to refine one's ability to use the online teaching platform

A good knowledge of classical and modern Japanese literature, acquired through attending the "Japanese Literature 2" class.

The course will map contemporary Japanese literature through a significant corpus of texts from the end of WWII to the present.
1. Atomic Bomb Literature
2. Il Buraiha: Dazai Osamu
3. Endō Shūsaku
4. Mishima Yukio
5. Abe Kōbō
6. Ōe Kenzaburō and Kawabata Yasunari: the Nobel Lectures
7. Ōe Kenzaburō
8. Literature during the 1980s: Murakami Haruki
9. Enchi Fumiko. Women's Contemporary Literature
10. Literature after Fukushima: disasters and social crisis in contemporary Japan.

L. Bienati, P. Scrolavezza, La narrativa giapponese moderna e contemporanea, Marsilio, Venezia 2009.
L. Bienati (a cura di), Letteratura giapponese. Dalla fine dell'Ottocento all'inizio del terzo millennio, Einaudi,2005.

Ibuse Masuji, Black rain (Kuroi ame)
Mishima Yukio, Confessions of a Mask (Kamen no kokuhaku)
Endo Shusaku, Silence (Chinmoku)
Kawabata Yasunari, Japan, the Beautiful and Myself, Nobel Lecture (Utsukushii Nihon to watakushi, see Nobel.org)
Oe Kenzaburo, Japan, the Ambiguous and Myself, Nobel Lecture (Aimaina Nihon to watakushi, see Nobel.org)
Oe Kenzaburo, Hiroshima Notes (Hiroshima noto)
Abe Kobo, The Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna)
Murakami Haruki, a novel of your choice.
Yoshimoto Banana, a novel of your choice.
Enchi Fumiko, Masks (Onnamen)
Tawada Yoko, Persona (Persona)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTcQlLvbHsRUFTQxkUNhkafhdD_40byAf3uZU-QsfuA/edit#heading=h.ovmhnxcyxffr

Conventional, with powerpoint presentations.
Presentations and further readings are available on the moodle platform.

See: "moodle" for powerpoint presentations of the lessons, syllabus and further materials.

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