Course Syllabus

After Defeat: The Cultures of Postwar Japan

Asian 312, Winter 2016

Tues/Thurs 4-5:30, 3333 Mason

Prof. Christopher Hill

hillcl@umich.edu                                                                                            

Office 5125 STB;  Office hours Mon. 1-2, Wed. 10-11

This course explores a revolutionary era in the artistic and intellectual life of Japan. The course begins in 1945, when defeat in the Asian-Pacific War pushed writers and artists to rethink the role of the arts and humanities in understanding the past and imagining the future, and ends in the 1970s, when they reevaluated thirty years of intellectual and artistic activism and asked what the "postwar" had really been. The primary materials are fiction, film, plays, visual art, and philosophy. No knowledge of Japanese is required.

We approach the postwar in four pieces: 1) 1945 to the early 1950s, when artists and intellectuals confronted their support for Japan's war in Asia and the Pacific and debated the relationship between art and politics; 2) The early 1950s to the end of the decade, when they examined the society emerging from the return of prosperity, conservative political ascendancy, Japan's subordination to the United States; 3) The 1960s, bracketed by protests at the beginning and end of the decade against the renewal of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, when radical politics and radical experiments in art went hand in hand; 4) The 1970s, when the end of high-speed growth and the narrowing of political possibilities inspired a reassessment of the present and the postwar past.

Course requirements

1) Pre-class posts (15%): Short responses of 125-150 words that note the main points of the reading and other materials, propose interpretations of literary or artistic works, and raise questions for discussion. Grading is credit/no credit (a completion grade).

You are responsible for 18 out of a possible 24 posts. You must submit a post for Jan. 12, 14, 19, and 21. You choose when to write the other 14 posts.

Post your responses to the discussion section of Canvas. Response papers are due by noon the day of class.Late responses will receive half credit. There will be no credit for responses received after class.

2) Midterm exam (25%): In-class test on the first two units of class (1945-1960), consisting of IDs, short-answer questions and a short essay.

3) Paper (20%): Eight to ten double-spaced pages, based on readings and other materials from class.

4) Final exam (30%): IDs, short-answer questions, and a short essay on the second two units (1960-1970s), and a second short essay on the period since 1945.

5) Regular attendance and participation, including contribution to class discussions (10%). More than five unexcused absences will result in automatic failure from the course.

Materials

Short readings and visual materials are posted on Canvas. Purchase Embracing Defeat, The Setting Sun, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, A Personal Matter, Toddler-Hunting, and Lonely Woman at the Michigan League bookstore (where they are on order) or elsewhere. Films will be streamed online via Canvas.

Laptop Policy

Print the required readings and bring them to class for reference during class meetings. No use of laptops or phones will be permitted in class. Research shows that reading comprehension and retention is higher when you read on paper. I recommend that you read on paper rather than on a screen.

Grading

I will hand out grading rubrics for pre-class posts, the paper, and participation. Written work should be in a font no larger than 12 points with 1.25" margins, and must include full citations for sources, including works read for class, in a commonly accepted format. (For examples see the MLA Handbook or the Chicago Manual of Style.) On the importance of citations, see "Academic integrity" below.

Papers will be marked down for spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and incomplete citations. Pre-class posts may be written informally, but you will not receive credit if you write with careless disregard for spelling and grammar.

The course's Canvas site offers several guides for finding books and articles that will increase your understanding of the period and issues of the course. Reading secondary sources will improve your paper. Note regarding sources found on the Internet: You are responsible for investigating the qualifications of authors publishing on the Web. Do not cite authors about whom you know nothing! You may assume that authors of articles in academic journals or books with academic presses are acceptably qualified.

Paper deadlines

You can choose one of three ways to receive feedback and a grade for your paper:

1) You can submit a draft by April 8 at midnight. I will give you comments and you will revise and submit the final version by April 22. For the final version you will receive only a grade (no further comments). This is a good choice if you want to improve your writing.

2) You can submit your paper by April 15 at midnight and receive a grade and comments.

3) You can submit your paper by April 22 at midnight and receive only a grade.

Late papers will be marked down as follows: A to B+ for one day; A to B- for two days, etc.

Academic integrity

Everything that you do for this class must be your own work. All sources, including those from the internet, must be properly documented. Failure to document your sources will result in a failing grade. Writing assignments must be completed individually or you will receive a failing grade. Submitting work that you have completed for another course also will result in a failing grade.

"Plagiarism" is representing someone else's ideas, words, statements, or other work as one's own

without proper acknowledgment or citation. Examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying word for word or lifting phrases or a special term from a source or reference, whether oral, printed, or on the Internet, without proper attribution;
• Paraphrasing, that is, using another person’s written words or ideas, albeit in one’s own words, as if they were one’s own thought, without acknowledgement;
• Borrowing facts, statistics, graphs, or other illustrative material without proper reference, unless the information is common knowledge. (For examples, see www.lsa.umich.edu/academicintegrity/examples.html.)

The MLA Handbook and the Chicago Manual of Style provide examples of ways to cite many different kinds of sources. If you are unsure about any of these points, please consult with me. For more information about academic integrity at UM, see the LSA Academic Judiciary Manual of Procedures: www.lsa.umich.edu/saa/standards/acadjudic.html.

Japanese pronunciation, East Asian names

In transliterated Japanese, consonants are pronounced as in English ("g" always is hard), while vowels are pronounced as in Italian (a = "ah," e = "eh," i = "ee," o = "oh," u = "oo"). There are no silent letters. Long vowels are marked with macrons (ō and ū). Older translations may employ unusual methods of transliteration.

In East Asian languages the family name precedes the given name. (Nobel prize winner Ōe Kenzaburō's family name is Ōe; his given name, Kenzaburō.) This order is preserved in the syllabus. The order sometimes is changed in Western-language translations; if in doubt, refer to the syllabus.

NOTICE

Some materials for this course contain explicit sexual scenes. Other materials employ sexual relations as a metaphor for social or political analysis. We will discuss some of these scenes during class meetings because they are important aspects of the works in question. If you feel that you will be uncomfortable reading such works or discussing them in class, consider enrolling in a different course.

Class and Reading Schedule

Jan. 7             Introductory meeting: What was "The Postwar" for Japan?

Jan. 12            Cultures of Defeat. "Postdam Declaration" (1945); "Imperial Rescript on Surrender" (1945); John Dower, Embracing Defeat, Introduction, chas. 3-4

Jan. 14            Kurosawa Akira, Stray Dog (1949)

Jan. 19            Maruyama Masao, "Theory and Psychology of Ultra-Nationalism" (1946), "Nationalism in Japan" (1951)

Jan. 21            View image gallery. Kazu Kaidō, "Reconstruction: The Role of the Avant-Garde in Postwar Japan"; Iizawa Kōtarō, "The Evolution of Postwar Photography," 209-220 only

Jan. 26            Dazai Osamu, The Setting Sun (1947), chas. 1-3

Jan. 28            The Setting Sun, chas. 4-8

Feb. 2              Cultures of Growth. Dower, Embracing Defeat, cha. 17; Scott O'Bryan, The Growth Idea, cha. 5; Simon Partner, from Assembled in Japan, cha. 5; 1956 Economic White Paper (excerpt)

Feb. 4              Nakahira Kō, Crazed Fruit (1956)

Feb. 9              Mishima Yukio, Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956), chas. 1-5

Feb. 11            Temple of the Golden Pavilion, chas. 6-10

Feb. 16            View image gallery. Alexandra Munroe, "To Challenge the Mid-Summer Sun" and "Circle"; Yoshihara Jirō, "Gutai Art Manifesto" (1956)

Feb. 18            Naruse Mikio, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)

Feb. 23            Midterm exam

Feb. 25            Cultures of Protest. Dower, Embracing Defeat, cha. 8; Yoshikuni Igarashi, Bodies of Memory, cha. 5; Maruyama Masao, "8/15 and 5/19" (1960); Yoshimoto Takaaki, "The End of a Fictitious System" (1960)

Mar. 8             Ōe Kenzaburō, A Personal Matter (1964)

Mar. 10           View image gallery. Hara Tamiki, "Summer Flower" (1947); Ōta Yōko, "Residues of Squalor" (1954); Takenishi Hiroko, "The Rite" (1963)

Mar. 15           View image gallery. Reiko Tomii, "Geijutsu on Their Minds"; William Marotti, "Political Aesthetics"

Mar. 17           Ōshima Nagisa, Death By Hanging (1968)

Mar. 22           No class

Mar. 24           Kōno Taeko, "Theater" (1962), "Snow" (1962), "Final Moments" (1966)

Mar. 29           Kara Jūrō, John Silver (1970)

Mar. 31           Cultures of the "Post-" Koji Taira, "Dialectics of Economic Growth"; Sasayama Yutaka, "Japan's Lagging Standard of Living" (1969); "Indices of National Welfare" (1970); Waga Shimin, "Sit-in Strike Declaration" (1971)

Apr. 5              Harumi Befu, "Nationalism and Nihonjinron"; Marilyn Ivy, "Tradition and Difference in the Japanese Mass Media"; Doi Takeo, from Anatomy of Dependence (1971)

Apr. 7              View image gallery. Akira Tatehata, "Mono-ha and Japan's crisis of the modern"; Iizawa Kōtarō, "The Evolution of Postwar Photography," 220-25

Apr. 12            Takahashi Takako, Lonely Woman (1974-77)

Apr. 14            Fukasaku Kinji, Battles Without Honor or Humanity (1973)

Apr. 19            Concluding discussion: What was "The Postwar" for Japan?

Apr. 28            Final exam (8:00.-10:00 a.m., 3333 Mason)

 

Paper deadlines (due by midnight via Canvas)

Apr. 8              Deadline #1 (to submit a draft and revise)

Apr. 15            Deadline #2 (for a grade and comments)

Apr. 22            Deadline #3 (for a grade only; revised drafts)