...World Society in Literature and Film-Japan Asian Studies 0868 Temple University Fall Semester 2015 Dr. P.B. Reagan Class meets Tuesday and Thursday 9:30.A.M.-10:50 P.M. in Ritter Hall 107 Office: 830 Anderson Hall Office Hours: TR 11:00-1:50 P.M. and by appointment E-mail: paul.reagan@temple.edu Course Description and Objective “Learn about a particular national culture-Japanese-by taking a guided tour of its literature and film. Knowledge of Japanese language is not required to take this course. The student will gain the fresh, subtle understanding that comes from integrating across different forms of human expression. Some of the issues that will be illuminated by looking at culture through the lens of literature and film: family structures and how they are changing, national self-perceptions, pivotal moments in history,, economic issues,, social change and diversity…” NOTE: This course fulfills the World Society (GG)requirement for students under GenEd and International Studies (IS)for students under Core. Attributes: Gen ED Global World Society GenEd World Society courses explore societies and cultures outside the United States. These courses take one of two approaches. Some concentrate on a single nation or region, examining in depth its political, social, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, geographic, and economic landscape. Another approach is to investigate globalization and its effects across nations and regions. Goals and Expected...
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...Naomi Summary Summary (Literary Essentials: World Fiction) Naomi is an ironic account of a seemingly proper gentleman in his mid-twenties who meets a young girl named Naomi, who is working as a waitress in a cafe. The story is told by its protagonist, Joji Kawai. Fascinated by her Western-sounding name and her sensuous beauty, which reminds him of American silent film star Mary Pickford (highly popular in Japan in the 1920’s), Joji decides that he intends to marry Naomi; soon he falls into a Pygmalion-like relationship as he attempts to tame this selfish and willful creature. Joji gives Naomi money for English and voice lessons, only to learn that she is less talented than he had first supposed. She refuses to do any work in the house, buys extravagant clothes, and manipulates Joji into borrowing money under false pretenses from his doting mother, who lives in the country. Naomi next takes up Western dancing and forces Joji to accompany her to her lessons and to Tokyo dance halls. There he realizes that she has developed a whole coterie of younger male friends unknown to him. The young student Kumagai in particular speaks with Naomi in a fashion which suggests that they have been intimate. Joji’s illusions shatter; his work suffers, and he begins to lose control of himself. At Naomi’s suggestion, Joji decides to rent a cottage for the summer in the resort town of Kamakura, south of Tokyo. He commutes from there to his job in Tokyo. Naomi seems happy with this arrangement,...
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...Laura Gutmann Japanese Literature 4/23/14 Final Exam #2 (Death) A recurring theme seen throughout traditional and modern Japanese literary works are the topics of death and religion. It is common knowledge that any person on any given day may be faced with death, regardless of whether it is expected or not. In any culture, people recognize that every living thing must eventually die, because life does not exist without death. This belief is very prominent in Japanese culture and exists in all kinds of traditional and modern Japanese literary works. In this class, all of the readings seem to have something in common: Death is inevitable. Although all of the readings seem to deal with the topic of death in many different ways, I believe that the different representations of death are subsumed under a single point of view. In The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and The Mother of Captain Shigemoto by Tanizaki Junichirō, Buddhism is a key element in the understanding of the Japanese view on death. In The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, there are many instances in which the relationships between death and Buddhism are evident. This traditional novel, written in the 10th century, describes an aristocratic worldview in the Heian period, therefore allowing for a closer look at the religious and spiritual understanding of the Japanese during this time. While Shinto influence is mentioned in the novel, Buddhism, a popular religion in Japan, plays a part in the...
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...Written just after the year 1000 A.D. by an aristocratic lady known today as Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji was immensely popular among the author's contemporaries in Heian Japan. With the sound of flute and koto music over the pond and dragon boats under the harvest moon, this yearly festival at Daikaku-ji is as close as it gets to the courtly pastimes of Genji's day. Murasaki wrote the Tale in 54 separate books which were avidly read by well-bred ladies of the time, as we know from the memoir As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams (Sarashina Nikki), written by Lady Sarashina. There had never been anything like it. Up to that point, Japanese literature had consisted mostly of collections of poetry written in the borrowed Kanji script of China. Prose was limited to fairy tales and a couple of memoirs written in the new phonetic syllabary known as kana. No one had ever written a novel, let alone a novel with character development and a complex plot. The Heian period lasted from A.D. 794-1185. The emperor had moved the capital to Nagaoka from its previous location at Nara (then known as Heijo-kyo), to escape the overbearing influence of the Kegon sect of Buddhism. Ten years later, in 794, it was shifted again to Kyoto (Heian-kyo). It was a peaceful era with the emperor acting largely as a figurehead and centre of ceremonial activities while the real political power lay in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, the power behind the throne for 500 years. Heian Society The...
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...have the purpose of illustrating the tensions that exist between modernity and traditional culture, additionally dealing with the nature of this conflict in light of the efforts to form an authentic cultural identity. The literature of Junichirō Tanizaki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and Yasunari Kawabata was an excellent medium by which to achieve this purpose. The audience this piece is intended for consist of those with an interest in this niche area of study. Namely, the nature of modern Japanese literature as addressing the discords of modernity. Thus the aim was to construct a piece which is clearly articulated and understandable, whilst retaining textual integrity and originality. In the drafting process I came to task with a significant divergence from my primary vision. Initially, I considered my piece strictly in terms of it being a critical response regarding a concept; specifically, modernity. Modernity would be explored in the construct of social and literary experiences of identity, a sense of place and the sentiments that it invokes. In achieving this aim, I proposed exploring how the above concepts were made evident in the spatial frameworks of a culture and the consequent production of spaces in the works of a number of authors of Taisho period literature. Yet over a period of weeks with the research phase wearing on, the scope of the focus appeared increasingly broad; too substantial indeed, to meet the word limit requirements of the critical response (4000-5000 words)...
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...Prevailing Philosophies and Psychosocial Dimensions of Philippine Contemporary Novels in English Chapter I – Introduction Philippine contemporary novels or literature in general is an offshoot of the Philippine-American War or what is coined as the Philippine War of Independence which transpired from 1899 to 1902. As early as 1863, the Spanish colonizers have introduced the public elementary school system to the Philippines. During the American colonization, U.S. soldiers have started layering down the bricks as foundation of the public school system in the Philippines when they opened the first public school in the Philippines at Corregidor Island. On January 21, 1901, the Taft Commission headed by William Howard Taft, passed the Education Act No. 34 that incepted the Department of Public Instruction. William Howard Taft was also given the responsibility of expanding the public school system in and around the Philippines. On August 21, 1901; around 600 American educators or “Thomasites” were sent to the Philippines by the U.S Government aboard the USAT Thomas whose main purpose is to integrate a new and expanded public school system, to train and hone Filipino teachers with the use of English as the primary medium of instruction, and to inculcate basic education to Filipinos. The American educators taught an extensive curriculum which cover subjects on English, Grammar, Reading, Mathematics, Agriculture, Housekeeping and Related Arts (cooking, sewing, and crocheting),...
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...❑ To develop the skills of students in the use of idiomatic English and the capability of expressing ideas and thoughts in English; ❑ To develop and reinforce communicative interaction; ❑ To introduce the understanding of western philosophy and ideas and their influence on literature; ❑ To introduce classical literature, the Greek myths, the Bible and other writings which have influenced English literary works; ❑ To introduce and refine the understanding of American literature with emphasis on some selected literary works; ❑ To increase the appreciation of Bangla literature and culture among students and to develop their ability to relate experiences from English and American literature to Bangla literary works; ❑ To deepen students’ awareness of the universal concerns that are the basis of literary works; ❑ To stimulate a greater appreciation of language as an aesthetic medium and of the artistic principles that shape literary works; ❑ To appreciate literature as an expression of human values within an historical and social context. ❑ To understand the fundamentals of information communication technology and be able to use it for greater understanding of English language and literature. CURRICULUM STRUCTURE: Total requirements of credits...
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...What is literature? * Creative writing of recognised artistic value. * Written works of fiction and non-fiction in which compositional excellence and advancement in the art of writing are higher priorities than are considerations of profit or commercial appeal. * Literature is literally "an acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts. The word literature as a common noun can refer to any form of writing, such as essays or poetry; Literature as a proper noun refers to a whole body of literary work, world-wide or relating to a specific culture... * lit·er·a·ture n. 1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture. 2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value:"Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity" 3. The art or occupation of a literary writer. 4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature. 5. Printed material: All the available collected literature on the subject. 6. Music: All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble: the symphonic literature. Good literature has something important to say about life. If we take the time to read and understand the literature...
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...Kaibara Ekiken, writer of “Common Sense Teachings for Japanese Children” and “Greater Learning for Women”, was born in 1630 and died in 1714. In Tokugawa, he was actually one of the most reputable scholars out of everyone due to his advanced literature and writing styles. He spent a lot of time studying in Edo, where he served as a physician and teacher to the Kuroda lords.. Therefore, he is a credible source as he has written over 100 books in his lifetime and in this particular example, Greater Learning for Women, he had the help of Token, who was Ekiken’s wife. Another reason why this information is credible is because “Common Sense Teachings for Japanese Children” was literally just that, a controversial topic that is practically unbiased. There is no exact date for when the pieces “Common Sense Teachings for Japanese Children” and “Greater Learning for Women” were written, but we can infer that they were written sometime after 1630 and before 1714 because those were his times of birth and death. During this time period, the English Bill of Rights was written, where they may have been an influence in...
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...1. Define Literature. Explain it. Literature is the art of written or spoken works. It uses beautiful, meaningful and expressive language. Literature is an expression of thoughts, feelings and imagination through language. It represents the art of one person’s mind through various abstracts and concretive ideas translated to beautiful language that produces different representations and meanings according to the developer and his readers. Readers and listeners of this literary works may interpret the author’s ideas into them and applying them into their lives. It is also the process of encoding one’s beautiful ideas and decoding by interpreter’s imaginative mind. Events or subjects shown in these works are that of the author’s experiences, environment, culture or just a pure imagination. 2. State the classification of prose. Prose is a continual narration and written in common sentence trend. It is the most typical form of written language that uses basic and ordinary grammatical structure with natural flow of sentences or speech. There are different classifications of a prose. Myth is a story or narrative about the origin of the universe, beliefs about the gods and goddesses, stories about man and mystical and mysterious beings. Legend is a narrative or tale of human actions that orally resurfaced version of ordinary source of things. An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. Essay is written piece that often come from author’s...
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...There is no limit as to the many forms of literature that exist from romance to satire, drama to comedy, and poetry to graphic novels. Comic books or graphic novels do not have a higher standing in the literature world when it comes to character, plot development, and is targeted towards a more youthful audience. In fact, Scott McCloud had at one point believed that comic books were just bright, colorful magazines with poorly drawn pictures and silly stories of men in their tights. Later on, McCloud became a comic book artist and begun to have a deeper appreciation for the medium(McCloud, 2). In his book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, McCloud gives graphic novels a different definition: Sequential Art. The term was coined by the late graphic novelist, Will Eisner and defined it as an art form that uses images deployed in sequence for graphic storytelling or to convey information (McCloud,5). With regards to this topic, this can also be seen in Art Spiegelman's critically acclaimed graphic novel, Maus....
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...Beginning in the 20th century, many nonfiction writers would even look towards fiction for the resources to describe what was considered impossible to describe (Taylor). One way writers have been able to do this is through nonfiction novels. A nonfiction novel is a narrative, of book-length, that unfolds actual events and actual people written in the style of a novel (“Nonfiction Novel”). This style of a novel implies that the book being spoken of can be looked at as art as well as fact (Sharlet). In the mid 1960’s, a nonfiction novel journey began, beginning with the narrative journalistic qualities of Truman Capote, continuing with the story telling of such authors as Norman Mailer, and then continues to stay constant throughout present day literature with works like Katherine Boo’s display of immersion journalism. Truman Capote is said to have invented this new genre in 1966 with, what some call his finest work, the book In Cold Blood (“Truman Capote”). In Cold Blood details the 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, his wife, and two of their children (Wikipedia). Even before the murderers were captured, Capote decided to travel to Kansas and write about the quadruple crime (Wikipedia). This nonfiction novel represents the genre well, primarily because it was based on approximately six years of research, including interviews with the neighbors and friends of the victims and even the two captured murderers (“Nonfiction...
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...DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE College of Arts and Sciences San Beda College COURSESYLLABUS First Semester, AY2014-2015 San Beda College, a Catholic educational institution, is committed to the Christian formation of the Bedan Community as its service to the Church, the Philippine society, and the world. Vision : San Beda College envisions a community that is Fully Human, Wholly Christian, Truly Filipino, and Globally Competitive. Mission : San Beda College aims to form its members in Faith, Knowledge, and Virtue Core Values : Inculcate in the students the Benedictine core values of Study, Community, and Pursuit of Peace ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________ Course Title Course Code Pre- requisite Credits : : : : World Literature Lit 02 Lit 01 3 Units Vision-Mission Statement : Instructor : Email : Office : Consultation Hours: MWF Venue : Consultation Rm. I. Course Description: Socorro D. De Jesus, Ph.D. Associate Professor 1 socorro_dejesus@hotmail.com General Education Faculty Rm, 2 nd floor, St. Anselm's Building 1 The course will introduce students to the writings of persons from selected countries across the different continents of the world. Students will gain an understanding of literary concepts to be able to interpret, analyze and evaluate various genres. Furthermore, students will have the opportunity...
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...The Importance of Hope and Perseverance These three pieces of literature are not only meant to entertain, but they also bring to light the importance of retaining hope and perseverance through even the most arduous times. Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken. Random House, 2010. Print. Unbroken, the true story of Louis Zamperini, know by his friends as Louie, and how he goes from a troubled child, to an Olympic athlete, to being stranded at sea. As a young child Louie was very mischievous; he was drinking, smoking, and stealing all before he was 10 years old. To keep him out of trouble, Louie’s brother got him to join the track team. Little did he know, Louie had the potential to be a tremendous runner. After countless hours of strenuous practice...
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...History of Philippine Literature in English I. Pre-Colonial Period - Consisted of early Filipino literature passed down orally; oral pieces have a communal authorship – it was difficult to trace the original author of the piece since oral literature did not focus on ownership or copyright, rather on the act of storytelling itself; - Many oral pieces became lost in the wave of the new literary influence brought about by the Spanish colonization; however, according to the Philippine Literature: A History & Anthology, English Edition (Lumbera, B. & Lumbera C.), the pre-colonial period of Philippine literature is considered the longest in the country’s history; - Literature in this period is based on tradition, reflecting daily life activities such as housework, farming, fishing, hunting, and taking care of the children as well; - Oral pieces told stories which explained heroes and their adventures; they attempted to explain certain natural phenomena, and, at the same time, served as entertainment purposes; - Pre-colonial literature showed certain elements that linked the Filipino culture to other Southeast Asian countries (e.g. oral pieces which were performed through a tribal dance have certain similarities to the Malay dance); - This period in Philippine literature history represented the ethos of the people before the arrival of a huge cultural influence – literature as a cultural tradition...
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