MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE LITERATURE

This is one of the characterising courses within the "Japan" curriculum of the Corso di Laurea Magistrale in"Lingue e Civiltà dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea".
The course contributes to the attainment of the teaching goals of the Corso di Laurea in the area of the humanities-related skills.
In particular, this course helps the student acquire:
- a high level of critical knowledge and understanding of literary phenomena;
- a deeper knowledge of social realities, ways of thinking, and textual cultures of the chosen area;
- the ability to handle competently and confidently sources and research tools related to the chosen area;
- the ability to produce oral and written texts related to the field of literary studies;
- the ability to apply their knowledge to the field of literary studies

Knowledge and understanding:
- basic knowledge of Pierre Bourdieu's theory and methodology;
- in-depth knowledge of Japanese historical and literary phonemena that can be apprehend through such theory and metodhology;

Applying knowledge and understanding:
- ability to apply the theoretical and methodological tools acquired in the first part of the course to single phenomena from the field of modern Japanese literature;
- ability to recognized the application of such tools in previous scholarship;

Communication:
- to summarize and communicate in a formally correct and effective way, either orally or in writing, the gist of scholarly texts

Making judgements:
- to be able to examine the available sources and detect their points and presuppositions;
- to create one's own research project related to the topics of the course;

Lifelong learning skills:
- to be able to work autonomously and beforehand on assigned texts
- to perfect one's ability to wwork on texts written in English and Japanese

- A basic knowledge of the history of modern Japanese literature. The students who are willing to deepen their knowledge are invited to contact the teacher for further readings;
- Willingness to read 20-30 pages of material every week;
- The ability to read texts in Japanese is a plus, but is not strictly required to attend the classes or do the final exam.

The students are required to read 20-30 pages of materials per week. For the "frequentanti", most of these materials will not be part of the exam, but the students should prepare them if they want to follow and understand the lessons more effectively and, especially, if they want to interact during classes. In-class interaction and participation will be evaluated.

The course is organized in two parts.

In the first part, we will read and study a selection of parts from:

Pierre Bourdieu, "Le regole dell'arte: Genesi e struttura del campo letterario", Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2013 (vanno bene anche altre edizioni).

The second part will be devoted to possible applications of Bourdieu's theory and methods to the study of Japanese literature. We will examine a certain number of case studies. Reading materials will be indicated during classes.

General part:

Mandatory:
Pierre Bourdieu, "Le regole dell'arte: Genesi e struttura del campo letterario", Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2013 (editions in other languages are also accepted).

Optional:
Anna Boschetti, "La rivoluzione simbolica di Pierre Bourdieu", Venezia, Marsilio, 2003.
Denis Saint-Amand, « Ce que Bourdieu fait à la littérature », "Acta fabula", vol. 11, n° 9, Essais critiques, Octobre 2010.

Study cases:

Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, "La morte d'oro", a cura di L. Bienati, Venezia, Marsilio, 2016.

Further readings will be provided at the beginning or during the course.

To qualify as a "frequentante" student you have to attend in class at least 7 lessons out of 15.
Due to the interactive nature of this class, merely watching the recorded lessons without simultaneous interaction does not qualify as class attendance.

Frequentanti:
- general part & case studies (intermediate exam: 40% of the final grade): intermi tasks on moodle + participation and writing of a report on an assigned article (further instructions will be provided during classes)
- final exam (60% of the final exam): writing a paper proposal based on the research topics and methods discussed in the course; to be turned in before a short oral exam in which the student will present this essay (further instructions will be provided during classes)

Non frequentanti: oral exam on:
- Bourdieu, "Le regole dell'arte";
- Boschetti, "La rivoluzione simbolica di Pierre Bourdieu";
- Bourdieu, "Campo del potere e campo intellettuale", Roma, Manifestolibri, 2002; (if not availabe, another text can be agreed upon between the student and the teacher)
- all the creative texts and critical literature discussed and presented in class (a definitive list will be provided by the end of the course)

Lectures and seminars. Students' participation will be encouraged. Assigned readings will be discussed in class.

Italian

This exam (with this syllabus) will be available only for the 4 "appelli" of the 2021-22 academic year. Starting from 2022-23, a new syllabus will be in use.

written and oral