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Lecturer(s)
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Course content
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1. Introduction and the first imaginings of Japan 2. Prehistoric Japan: images inside and outside the archipelago 3. Japan as imagined in poetry 4. The limits of "Japan" - who is the Emperor? 5. European perspectives, 16-17 C 6. Edward Said and Orientalism 7. The beginnings of nationalist learning 8. Imagining a modern Japan 9. Japan and the war 10. "Uniquely" Japanese? 11. The "key" to understanding Japan 12. "Cool Japan:" tourism and soft-power 13. Japan is always being imagined: writing about Japan today
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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unspecified
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Learning outcomes
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In this course we will analyze texts that are written about Japan. The course will incorporate a range of genres and time periods, and will cover texts produced both domestically and internationally. For each text we will consider the questions of how the texts present "Japan," who the intended audience is, and how these two factors offer insight into the motives and worldview of the people who wrote them. We will learn about the distinctive rhetorical trends that have emerged over time in writings about Japan, and the social connections and contexts that led to them. We will practice analyzing these texts not simply as unbiased accounts, but as texts that are written to do something in the way it presents Japan to the reader.
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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unspecified
Reading (aproximately 350 pages of prose, secondary sources about 100 pages), student choice of assignments (discussions, Moodle posts, quizzes, short papers), student choice of final (paper, project)
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Recommended literature
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