JAPN 309: Japanese Lit in Translation
This course explores early Japanese prose and poetry to detect native motifs that continue into modern literature. Dramatic scripts, I-Novels, surrealistic fiction, and contemporary authors including Yoshimoto Banana and Murakami Haruki will be read and written about in a student-created literary online diary.
Reflective Narrative:
This course fulfilled my MLO because it created a wide range of work for me to study and participate in. We completed two reports a week about all of the required reading. Each class meeting we would split into groups and interpret our findings with other students. This group setting was valuable to finding fresh perspectives on stories that maybe some of have heard bfore. After beginning the class, each period that passed it became easier and easier to see the connections to social and historical contexts that literature has on the Japanese. It also became obvious that a great deal of Japanese media that we consume in the USA has major influences from literature and religious texts, especially Japanese folklore. When switching topics we also explored significant Japanese cultural customs that applied to everyday life and the in text reading. In this course I complete two literature analysis reports per week. Each assignment had a list of required reading in which I had to share my insights on the cultural value and impact of the pieces. Later on we completed online diary entries where we shared our analysis about in class films that related to the literature. Additionally we completed an end of semester examination of short essay questions about the significance of many different course contents. We also participated in a group presentation where 4 randomly selected students had to work together to create a power point speaking about folklore read in class. This project had to have a cohesive theme and good organization so that we could give all of our observations within the time limit. As a child I spent a great deal of time reading mythology, folklore and legends from different cultures. Once I realized that I wanted to study Japanese I felt that I could not find a suitable entrance to studying Japanese literature without some guidance as it is more obscure to explore Japanese folklore. The knowledge of a culture’s spoken stories and literature is an incredible tool that helps unlock the entire society. This class explored so many different important pieces that I feel that I am primed for reading on my own now. I gained insight into Japanese religion and social expectations by reading key pieces of literature such as “Tale Of Genji”, “The Pillow Book:” and numerous folklore stories from my text. Online reading also supplemented this new information, these hand selected pieces by my teacher filled in gaps that the text left open to me. It saved me a lot of time to read all the assignment thoroughly as it also helped me understand the films I watched in my other class JAPN 310 Japanese Cinema. A lot of Japanese films and their directors draw inspiration from the richly developed folklore and literature in Japan.
Example Work:
JAPN 309 Group Midterm PPT
JAP 309 Final Paper - Class and Social expectations from Japanese Literature
Reflective Narrative:
This course fulfilled my MLO because it created a wide range of work for me to study and participate in. We completed two reports a week about all of the required reading. Each class meeting we would split into groups and interpret our findings with other students. This group setting was valuable to finding fresh perspectives on stories that maybe some of have heard bfore. After beginning the class, each period that passed it became easier and easier to see the connections to social and historical contexts that literature has on the Japanese. It also became obvious that a great deal of Japanese media that we consume in the USA has major influences from literature and religious texts, especially Japanese folklore. When switching topics we also explored significant Japanese cultural customs that applied to everyday life and the in text reading. In this course I complete two literature analysis reports per week. Each assignment had a list of required reading in which I had to share my insights on the cultural value and impact of the pieces. Later on we completed online diary entries where we shared our analysis about in class films that related to the literature. Additionally we completed an end of semester examination of short essay questions about the significance of many different course contents. We also participated in a group presentation where 4 randomly selected students had to work together to create a power point speaking about folklore read in class. This project had to have a cohesive theme and good organization so that we could give all of our observations within the time limit. As a child I spent a great deal of time reading mythology, folklore and legends from different cultures. Once I realized that I wanted to study Japanese I felt that I could not find a suitable entrance to studying Japanese literature without some guidance as it is more obscure to explore Japanese folklore. The knowledge of a culture’s spoken stories and literature is an incredible tool that helps unlock the entire society. This class explored so many different important pieces that I feel that I am primed for reading on my own now. I gained insight into Japanese religion and social expectations by reading key pieces of literature such as “Tale Of Genji”, “The Pillow Book:” and numerous folklore stories from my text. Online reading also supplemented this new information, these hand selected pieces by my teacher filled in gaps that the text left open to me. It saved me a lot of time to read all the assignment thoroughly as it also helped me understand the films I watched in my other class JAPN 310 Japanese Cinema. A lot of Japanese films and their directors draw inspiration from the richly developed folklore and literature in Japan.
Example Work:
JAPN 309 Group Midterm PPT
JAP 309 Final Paper - Class and Social expectations from Japanese Literature