HISTORY OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE THOUGHT

This course falls within the characterizing teachings of the "Japan" curriculum of the course "Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa".
Its formative objectives are within the area of cultural and humanistic skills learning.

Knowledge and understanding:
- to know and understand the heterogeneity and the complexity of the discourses and the languages that characterize the religious experience in modern and contemporary Japan.
- to know and understand concepts and tools from the fields of religious studies;
- to deepen, through the analysis of religious texts and rituals, knowledge and understanding of Japanese contexts, that may have already been studied in other teachings from different points of view (e.g. historical, artistic, literary, etc.), being able to understand the interrelation between the religious doctrines and the social context in the modern and contemporary periods.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- to be able to analyze and interpret the philosophical and religious texts, using philological, historiographical and socio-anthropological methodologies;
- to be able to critically apply the analytical tools of religious studies.

Judgment skills:
- to be able to elaborate, in a personal and well-articulated manner, a critical analysis of the religious phenomena examined during the course;
- to subject various types of sources (statistic, academic, alternative) to critical examination;
- to refine the capacity to criticize essentialist and stereotypical discourses on "oriental religions".

Communication skills:
- to express and elaborate the contents of the program in written form, in a synthetic and effective way, without depending on automatic, schematic and mnemonic study.

Learning ability:
- to know how to take notes in a synthetic and effective way, highlighting the crucial points of the themes examined during the lectures;
- to know how to critically integrate the study of different materials (notes, manuals, virtual texts, academic articles);
- to be able to independently study materials and topics, even those not covered during the lectures;
- to refine the ability to study materials in English;
- to refine the capacity to use the online teaching platform.

It is recommended that students possess a good knowledge of the history of Japanese religious traditions. Moreover, a good knowledge of the history of Japan is advisable.

In the first part of the course, the analysis will be focused on the movements of religious renewal in modern and contemporary Japan, comparing their values and visions of salvation, their rituals, their communication methods and their internal power structure. The analysis will then be focused on the forms of the so-called “new spirituality” in contemporary Japan. A particular attention will be given to the relationship between new religious movements and new media.

- A.A.V.V., The New Age in Japan, Special Issue of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 22, 3-4, 1995. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/i30234450 ) (only those articles available in Moodle)
- Baffelli Erica, Reader Ian, Staemmler Birgit (eds), Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation, Representation and Authority, Routledge 2011. (only Part I, available in Moodle)
- Hanegraaff Wouter J., “The New Age Movement and Western Esotericism”, in Daren Kemp and James R. Lewis (eds), Handbook of New Age, Brill, 2007, pp. 25-50. (available in Moodle)
- Horie Norichika, “Spirituality and the Spiritual in Japan: Translation and Transformation”, Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies, 5, 2009. (available in Moodle)
- Mullins Mark, "Secularization, Deprivatization, and the Reappearance of ‘Public Religion’ in Japanese Society", Journal of Religion in Japan, 1, 2012, 61-82. (available in Moodle)
- Prohl Inken, “The Spiritual World: Aspects of New Age in Japan”, in Daren Kemp and James R. Lewis (eds), Handbook of New Age, Brill, 2007, pp. 359-374. (available in Moodle)
- Reader Ian, "Secularization, R.I.P? Nonsense" The 'Rush hour Away from the Gods' and the Decline of Religion in Contemporary Japan", Journal of Religion in Japan, 1, 2012 (available in Moodle)
- Shimazono Susumu, From Salvation to Spirituality: Popular Religious Movements in Modern Japan, Trans Pacific Press 2004.

Additional readings are posted on the website of the course in Moodle.

The exam consists of three parts:
1. individual essay (around 3000 words).The selected topic will be agreed upon with the lecturer. The essay (.doc, .rtf, .docx,....) should be sent to the lecturer via Moodle at least two weeks before the day of the oral exam;
2. oral presentation of the essay (10 minutes) via google meet;
3. questions related to the topics of the course via google meet.

Frontal lessons.
Bibliography and further readings are available on the Moodle platform.

Italian

See: "moodle" for syllabus and further materials.
This exam (with this syllabus) will be available only for the 4 "appelli" of the 2019-20 academic year. Starting from 2020-21, a new syllabus will be in use.

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