object and organization:
There are three key words in the title of this course—Japan, anthropology, and modernity. However, I do not presume that students have special knowledge of Japan or any background in anthropology or any experience with theories of modernity. I do assume, though, that you bring to the course some images and popular notions of all three terms. So in Part One, we confront this matter of images—of Japan, of anthropology, and of modernity.
In the first lecture, I concentrate on what I see to be prevalent images of Japan and on the longstanding practice of "characterizing" the Japanese, of imputing certain essentializing qualities of habit and personality that then serve as explanations of their behavior. In the second lecture I will focus more on what I believe to be prevalent images about anthropology and its central concept of culture. I will outline four ways in which this concept has been used (and abused). In the third lecture, following a screening of "The Japanese Version," I use this documentary to discuss theories of modernity and the kind of modernity that we associate with Japan.
A second set of three lectures then applies some of these general lessons to critical examinations of three aspects of "Japan" around which a mythology of national character and uniqueness has grown up: the Japanese language, Japan itself as a place, and Japanese history.
9/4 W "Zen aesthetes" & "economic animals": Beyond the Seven Deadly Clichés of Japanese National Character
[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture][image gallery]
Readings:
Ian Littlewood, "A Question of Category" (pp. 3-12), "A Bevy of Damsels" (pp. 109-119), and "A Streak of Violence" (pp. 159-170) in his The Idea of Japan: Western Images, Western Myths. DS821/L58 [NOTE: See my reading notes for Ian Littlewood]
9/6 F Conceptualizing culture: Four paradigms
[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery]
Readings:
Michael Shapiro, "A Whole Different Ball Game," Japan Society Newsletter, pp. 2-5, June, 1989 P#000743
Peter Frost, "Examination Hell," in Edward R. Beauchamp (ed.), Windows on Japanese Education, pp. 291-305 (Greenwood Press, 1991) P#000725
Elisabeth Bumiller, "From a Great Distance," The Secrets of Mariko, pp. 3-30 (Vintage, 1995) HQ1765/T64/B85/1995
Optional:
"Nicholas D. Kristoff Talks Back" [an interview with Kristoff by Nanako Kurihara] in Zipangu (ed.), Japan Made in U.S.A., pp. 29-37 (New York, 1998)
"How Can You Be Objective? I Like Japanese People" [an interview with T. R. Reid by Yuriko Yamaki] in Zipangu (ed.), Japan Made in U.S.A., pp. 52-57 (New York, 1998)
9/9 M VIDEO: "The Japanese Version"
Readings:
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, "Multiethnic Japan and the Monoethnic Myth," MELUS 18(4): 63-80 (1993)
James Stanlaw, "Englanese: English Loanwords and the Japanese Language," The World & I, Sept, pp. 522-533 [1988] P#001025
9/11 W Modernity and its indigenizations: Japan
[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery]
Readings:
Alex Kerr, "Prologue" to his Dogs and Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Japan, pp. 3-12 (Hill and Wang, 2002). DS891 K47X 2001
Susan J. Pharr, "In the Eye of the Storm: For Japan, a 'Lost Decade'--and After," Harvard Magazine, pp. 37-39 (December, 2001)
9/13 F The Japanese language: Is it "the language of the infinite"?
[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery]
Readings:
Jay Rubin, "Teaching the Language of the Infinite," Japan Society Newsletter, pp. 2-4, November, 1989. P#002379. Reprinted in his Gone Fishin': New Perspectives on Perennial Problems, pp. 11-21 (Kodansha International, 1992) PL533/R83
9/16 M Place and time: Geographical and historical themes
[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery]
Readings:
Jared Diamond, "Japanese Roots," Discover, pp. 86-94, June 1998
Yamaga Sokô, "The Way of the Samurai," in Tsunoda, deBary, and Keene (eds.), Sources of the Japanese Tradition, vol. 1, pp. 384-91 (Columbia University Press, 1964) DS821/T7813
9/18 W The politics of heritage: The samurai as social fact and cultural fiction
[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery]
Readings:
Harold Bolitho, "The Myth of the Samurai," in Alan Rix & Ross Mouer (eds.), Japan's Impact on the World, pp. 2-9 (Japanese Studies Association of Australia, 1984) P#000720
Yokota Yutaka, "Volunteer" and Kôzu Naoji, "Human Torpedo," in Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History, pp. 306-319 (W. W. Norton, 1992) D811/A2/C62X/1992
David E. Sanger, "Loyal Samurai's Suicide: An Alarm Bell for Japan?" New York Times, May 19, 1989 P#002380 [htm version] [pdf version]