EAST 461 Inventing the Modern Japanese Novel Fall 2020 Syllabus

INSTRUCTOR: Jodie Beck Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:35-1:35pm (or by appointment)

TIME/PLACE: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:35pm - 12:35pm meeting on Zoom (60 minutes) (plus pre-recorded lecture of up to 20 minutes per class)

COURSE OVERVIEW This course traces the development of the modern Japanese novel, starting in the Meiji Period (1868~), as a dynamic process of invention and reinvention, both as affirmation and resistance to the West and the Western novel. We will examine the ways in which the national community and the national language (distinctly “modern” phenomena) have been constructed and critiqued through fictional narratives, exploring how different writers at different times have approached “modern” problems of the self, gender, sexuality, family, labor, militarism, technological change, ethno-national identity, and more.

OBJECTIVES Knowledge: • Students will develop and integrate literary, cultural, and socio-historical knowledge of some of the major figures, forms, themes, challenges, and debates surrounding the modern Japanese novel. Students will thus gain competencies in situating literature in its social-cultural, political, ideological, and historical context, and in critically assessing its relationship to other works and movements. Critical thinking: • Students will develop critical thinking skills through textual, historical, and socio-cultural analysis, through a variety of activities including close reading, class discussion, summary and response, formulating and responding to peer questions, and longer written analyses. Effective communication: • Students will obtain and provide information, engage in discussion, and share opinions with others through their study of Japanese literature. They will acquire the terminology and understanding of literary form and theme that will enable them to formulate and communicate their ideas more effectively through regular interaction with others and individual written analyses.

METHODOLOGY Teaching and learning will be done by remote delivery. The course will be organized around a combination of lectures and discussions, as well as some video material. For each day listed on the course schedule, students are expected to complete the required readings, watch the pre-recorded lecture video (up to 20 minutes), do any other required preparation, and participate in the Zoom meeting. It is suggested that students complete the readings before watching the lecture video for each class, in order to formulate their own initial thoughts and opinions about the readings and in order to fully understand the contents of the lecture. Zoom meetings will be 60 minutes in length (11:35-12:35) and may involve a combination of lecture, discussion and/or other activities. For students who may have difficulties attending Zoom meetings (e.g. due to time differences), please see “Daily Preparation and Participation".

EVALUATION

Grading scheme: Daily Preparation and Participation (10%) Online Discussion Exercises (15%) Japanese Literature Exploration Project (Presentation) (15%) Mid-term Paper (30%) Final Paper (30%)

Daily Preparation and Participation (10%) Students are expected to come to Zoom meetings prepared to discuss the lectures/readings and to contribute to group and class discussions by sharing questions, comments, thoughts and ideas. Therefore, all readings must be completed and the pre-recorded video lecture must be viewed before class on the date for which they are assigned.

Zoom meetings will not be recorded. Students who have not attended the Zoom meeting will be expected to access the slides posted on MyCourses after class and submit a short response as directed.

Detailed guidelines/rubrics will be provided.

Online Discussion Exercises (15%) For each class, students will be required to submit one question based on the readings and/or lecture, and to respond to two questions posted by other students, on the MyCourses “Discussion” board. Discussion exercises are to be submitted before class start time (11:35) on the date for which they are assigned. The discussion exercises thus function as a way for students to practice identifying areas of significance, developing thoughtful questions, engaging with peers, formulating ideas, and developing critical reading and response competencies, which can then be demonstrated in longer papers. A detailed guideline/rubric for discussion exercises will be provided.

Japanese Literature Exploration Project (Presentation) (15%) For this assignment, students will present to the class a summary, analysis, and response of a short story or novel of their choice from outside the syllabus. Presentations should be approximately 5 minutes in length, either live on Zoom, or by showing a pre-recorded video on Zoom. Students are expected to prepare a slide presentation to introduce the work, and will choose their presentation date by filling in a sign-up sheet. Detailed guidelines and a rubric will be provided. The aim of this assignment is: • To broaden student exposure to and engagement with modern Japanese literature through student-directed exploration and sharing • to practice skills such as summarizing key ideas, identifying points of significance, organizing information and presenting it in a clear and concise manner.

Mid-term and Final Papers (30% each): For the mid-term paper, students will have the option of choosing their own topic, or choosing from a selection of options provided by the instructor. For the final paper, students should choose their own topic in consultation with the instructor. Guidelines and a detailed rubric will be provided.

Late submissions: Students should contact the instructor as soon as possible if they think they will have trouble meeting a deadline. Papers submitted late without prior permission of the instructor will be accepted at a rate of 10% penalty per day late (including weekend days). Late submissions will not be accepted more than one week after the deadline. Late submissions of online discussion exercises will not be accepted for points (although students are free to continue posting as much as they wish).

REQUIRED MATERIALS

Students should have a webcam, microphone, and stable internet connection. If you think you will have difficulty accessing these technologies, please contact the instructor to discuss options.

Books for purchase: 1. NATSUME Sōseki, Sanshiro (Penguin Classics, 2010) 2. YOSHIYA Nobuko. Yellow Rose (digital edition) 3. MORI Ōgai Vita Sexualis. (Tuttle Classics, 1989, digital edition) *There are now unlimited digital editions of this book in the McGill Library if you prefer not to purchase 4. TANIZAKI Jun’ichirō. Naomi (Vintage, Reprint Edition, 2001)

Paperback copies of Sanshirō and Naomi have been pre-ordered and are available through Paragraphe Bookstore (pick-up or delivery options, contact 2220 McGill College Avenue 514-845-5811, www.paragraphbooks.com). These books are also available in digital (e.g. Kindle) format online if you prefer. Yellow Rose and Vita Sexualis are available in Kindle format through www.amazon.ca (the Kindle app can be downloaded for free). You are free to use any other digital format that may be available to you (e.g. Kobo). All other readings will be available on MyCourses or through digital editions in the library.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week 1: Introduction: What is the ‘modern’ ‘Japanese’ ‘novel’?

Thursday, September 3 • Course introduction • Brief historical background to “modern Japan” • Discussion of key themes and concepts

Week 2: The Encounter with the West and the New Meiji State

Tuesday, September 8

• Benedict ANDERSON. “Introduction”. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed. Verso, 2016, pp. 1-8.

• Roy STARRS. “Introduction: Modernity and Modernism in a Japanese Context”. Modernism and Japanese Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 1-9.

• MORI Ōgai, and Richard BOWRING. “Maihime. (The Dancing Girl)” [Maihime, 1890]. Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 30, no. 2, 1975, pp. 151–176.

Thursday, September 10

• David POLLACK. “The Idea of the Individual Self”. Reading Against Culture: Ideology and Narrative in the Japanese Novel. Cornell University Press, 1992, pp. 39-52.

• Masao MIYOSHI. “Chapter 1: The New Language”. Accomplices of Silence: The Modern Japanese Novel. University of California Press, 1974, pp. 3-17.

• TSUBOUCHI, Shōyō. “The Essence of the Novel (preface)” [Shōsetsu Shinzui, 1885]. Translated by Donald Keene. Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Edited by Donald Keene, 1st Evergreen ed. Grove Press, 1960, pp. 55-58.

• FUTABATEI, Shimei. “The Drifting Cloud (excerpt)” [Ukigumo, 1888]. Translated by Donald Keene. Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Edited by Donald Keene, 1st Evergreen ed. Grove Press, 1960, pp. 59-69.

Week 3: The I-Novel and the Rhetoric of Confession

Tuesday, September 15

• William SIBLEY. “Naturalism in Japanese Literature”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 28 (1968). Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1968, pp. 157-169.

• TAYAYMA Katai. “The Quilt”” [Futon, 1907]. The Quilt and Other Stories. Translated by Kenneth G. Henshall. University of Tokyo Press, 1981, pp. 35-96.

Thursday, September 17

• Ethan SEGAL, “Meiji and Taishō Japan: An Introductory Essay”. Accessible online: https://www.colorado.edu/ptea-curriculum/sites/default/files/attached-files/meijitaishoessay.pdf

• Kenneth STRONG, “Translator’s Introduction”. SHIMAZAKI Tōson, The Broken Commandment. Translated by Kenneth Strong. University of Tokyo Press, 1974, pp. vii-xxv.

• SHIMAZAKI Tōson. “The Broken Commandment” (excerpt)” [Hakai, 1906]. Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Edited by Donald Keene. 1st Evergreen ed. Grove Press, 1960, pp. 134-141.

• Film: The Broken Commandment. Kon Ichikawa, 1962. (please watch on your own time before class). Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLjMtFNUlac

Week 4: Coming of Age in the City: Natsume Sōseki’s Sanshiro

Tuesday September 22

• NATSUME Sōseki. “The Third Night” (from Ten Nights of Dream [Yume Jūya, 1908]). The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Theodore W. Goossen. Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 28-30.

• NATSUME Sōseki. Sanshiro. Penguin Classics, 2010. (first half of book)

Thursday, September 24

• NATSUME Sōseki. Sanshiro. Penguin Classics, 2010. (second half of book)

Week 5: The “New Woman”: Women Writers and Feminist Thought in the Early 20th Century

Tuesday September 29

• HIGUCHI Ichiyō: “The Thirteenth Night” [Jūsan’ya, 1895]. Translated by Robert Lyons Danly. In the Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life of Higuchi Ichiyō with Nine of her Short Stories. Robert Lyons Danly. W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 1981, pp. 241-253.

• Yukiko TANAKA. “Taishō Liberalism and Women”. Women Writers of Meiji and Taishō Japan: Their Lives, Works, and Critical Reception, 1868-1926. North Carolina: McFarland and Company Inc., 2000, pp. 137-159.

• HIRATSUKA Raichō. “The Seitō Manifesto: In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun” [Genshi Josei wa Taiyō de Atta, 1911]. The Bluestockings of Japan: New Woman Essays and Fiction from Seitō, 1911-16. Edited by Jan Bardsley. Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2007, pp. 94-102.

• TAMURA Toshiko. “Lifeblood” [Ikichi, 1911]. Translated by Edward Fowler. The Modern Murasaki : Writing by Women of Meiji Japan. Edited by Rebecca Copeland and Melek Ortabasi. Columbia University Press, 2006, pp. 339-357.

Thursday October 1

• MIYAMOTO Yuriko. “Nobuko” [Nobuko, excerpts, 1925]. Translated by Yukiko Tanaka. To Live and to Write: Selections by Japanese Women Writers, 1913-1938. Edited by Yukiko Tanaka, 1st ed. Seal Press, 1987, pp. 39-64.

• OKAMOTO Kanoko. “The Love of Kishimo” [Kishimo no Ai, 1928]. Translated by Charlotte Eubanks. Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938, Edited by William Jefferson Tyler. University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, pp. 453-461.

Week 6: Youth, Sexuality, and the Boarding School

Tuesday, October 6

• MORI Ōgai. Vita Sexualis [Vita Sexualis, 1909]. Translated by Sanford Goldstein and Kazuji Ninomiya. Tuttle Publishing, 2011.

Thursday, October 8

• Joan E. ERICSON, “The Origins of the Concept of ‘Women’s Literature’”. The Woman’s Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women’s Writing. Edited by Paul Gordon Schalow and Janet A. Walker. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996, pp. 74-115.

• YOSHIYA Nobuko. Yellow Rose (excerpt from Flower Tales, [Hanamonogatari 1916-1924]). Translated by Sarah Frederick. Kindle Edition.

Week 7: Proletarian Literature

Tuesday, October 13

• KŌMORI Yōiichi, “Introduction”, The Crab Cannery Ship and Other Novels of Struggle. Translated by Cipriš Željko. University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2013, pp. 1-17.

• KOBAYASHI Takiji. “The Crab Cannery Ship” [Kani Kōsen, 1929], in The Crab Cannery Ship and Other Novels of Struggle. Translated by Cipriš Željko. University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2013, pp. 19-96.

Thursday, October 15

• Norma FIELD. “Introduction”, in For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution: An Anthology of Japanese Proletarian Literature. Edited by Norma Field and Heather Bowen-Struyk. University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. 1-13.

• NAKAMOTO Takako. “Red”. For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution: An Anthology of Japanese Proletarian Literature. Edited by Norma Field and Heather Bowen-Struyk. University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. 25-34.

• MATSUDA Tokiko. “Another Battlefront”. For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution: An Anthology of Japanese Proletarian Literature. Edited by Norma Field and Heather Bowen-Struyk. University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. 266-280.

• KUROSHIMA Denji. “On Antiwar Literature (excerpt)”. For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution: An Anthology of Japanese Proletarian Literature. Edited by Norma Field and Heather Bowen-Struyk. University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. 321-328.

Week 8 Modernist Experiments of the 1920s-1930s

Tuesday, October 20

Mid-term Paper Due

• Roy STARRS. “Japanese Modernism Reconsidered”. Rethinking Japanese Modernism Global Oriental, 2012, pp. 1-36.

• YOKOMITSU Riichi. “The Machine” [Kikai, 1930]. ‘Love’ and Other Stories by Yokomitsu Riichi. Translated and with an Introduction by Dennis Keene. University of Tokyo Press, 1974, pp. 151- 180.

• KAWABATA Yasunari. “The Sound of Footsteps” [Ningen no Ashioto, 1925]. Three-Dimensional Reading: Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932. Edited by Angela Yiu. University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2013, pp. 62-66.

Thursday October 22

• Seiji LIPPIT. “Introduction”. The Essential Akutagawa: Rashomon, Hell Screen, Cogwheels, a Fool's Life and Other Short Fiction. Marsilio, 1999, pp. xi-xxvii.

• AKUTAGAWA Ryūnosuke. “In a Bamboo Grove”. Translated by Jay Rubin. Rashōmon And Seventeen Other Stories. Penguin, 2006, pp. 10-19.

• AKUTAGAWA Ryūnosuke. “Hell Screen”. Translated by W.H.H. Norman. Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology. 1st Evergreen ed. Edited by Donald Keene. Grove Press, 1960, pp. 307-332.

• EDOGAWA Ranpo. “The Twins (A Condemned Criminal’s Confession to a Priest)” [Sōseiji, 1924]. Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Translated by James B. Harris. Tuttle, 2012, pp. 135-152.

Week 9: Modernist Experiments of the 1920s-1930s

Tuesday, October 27

• TANIZAKI Jun’ichirō. Naomi [Chijin no Ai, 1924-5]. Vintage, 2001.

Thursday, October 29

• ITŌ Sei. “Streets of Fiendish Ghosts” [Yūki no Machi, 1937]. Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938, Edited by William Jefferson Tyler. University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, pp. 105- 167.

Week 10: Narrativizing War and Occupation

Tuesday, November 3

• ŌE Kenzaburō. “Prize Stock”. Translated by John Nathan. The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Theodore W. Goossen. Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 351-390.

• TREAT, John Whittier. “Atrocity into Words”. Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb. University of Chicago Press, 1995. 25-44.

• HARA Tamiki. “Summer Flower” [Natsu no Hana, 1949]. Translated by George Saitō.The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath. Edited by Kenzaburō Ōe. 1st Grove Press ed. Grove Press, 1985, pp. 37-54.

Thursday, November 5

• Yukiko TANAKA. “Hirabayashi Taiko”. To Live and to Write: Selections by Japanese Women Writers 1913-1938. Seattle: The Seal Press, 1987, pp. 127-134.

• HIRABAYASHI Taiko. “Blind Chinese Soldiers” [Mekura Chūgokuhei, 1946]. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 12:4 (1980)18-19. DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1980.10405226.

• KOJIMA Nobuo. “The American School” [Amerikan Sukūru, 1954] Long Belts and Thin Men: The Postwar Stories of Kojima Nobuo. Compiled and Translated by Lawrence Rogers. Kurodahan Press, 2016, pp. 15-52.

Week 11: Entering the “Post-War”

Tuesday, November 10

• Film: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, 2014. (please watch on your own time before class). E-video available through McGill Library at: https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/897772560

• MISHIMA Yukio. “Omi” (excerpt from Confessions of a Mask [Kamen no Kokuhaku, 1949]). Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Edited by Donald Keene. 1st Evergreen ed. Grove Press, 1960, pp. 429-438.

• ABE Kōbō. “The Magic Chalk” [Mahō no Chōku, 1950]. The Shōwa Anthology: Modern Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Van C. Gessel, and Tomone Matsumoto. 1st ed., Kodansha International, 1985, pp. 63-75.

Thursday, November 12

• Gretchen JONES. “The 1960s and 1970s Boom in Women’s Writing”. The Columbia Companion to East Asian Literature. Edited by Joshua S. Mosdow. Columbia University Press, 2003, pp. 221- 229.

• KURAHASHI Yumiko. “An Extraterrestrial” [Uchūjin, 1964]. The Woman with the Flying Head and Other Stories. Translated by Atsuko Sakaki. M.E. Sharpe, 1998, pp. 2-29.

• TAKAHASHI Takako. “Doll Love” [Ningyō Ai, 1978]. Translated by Mona Nagai and Yukiko Tanaka. This Kind of Woman: Ten Stories by Japanese Women Writers 1960-1976. Edited by Yukiko Tanaka and Elizabeth Hanson. Stanford University Press, 1982, pp. 198-223.

Week 12: Zainichi and Buraku Narratives

Tuesday, November 17

• Melissa L. WENDER. “Introduction”. Lamentation as History: Narratives by Koreans in Japan, 1965-2000. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005, pp. 1-20.

• KIM Sa-ryang. “Into the Light” [Hikari no Naka ni, 1939]. Translated and with an introduction by Christopher D. Scott. Into the Light : An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan. Edited by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, pp. 13-38.

• CHONG Ch’u Wol, “The Korean Women I Love” [Waga Aisuru Chōsen Onnatachi, 1974]. Translated and with an introduction by Melissa L. Wender. Into the Light : An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan. Edited by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, pp. 112-127.

Thursday, November 19

• NAKAGAMI Kenji. “Gravity’s Capital” [Jūryoku no Miyako, 1988]. Snakelust. Translated by Andrew Rankin. Kodansha, 1999, pp. 121-147.

• KIM Tal-Su. “In the Shadow of Mount Fuji” [Fuji no Mieru Mura de, 1951]. Translated and with an introduction by Sharalyn Orbaugh. Into the Light: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan. Edited by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, 39-65.

Week 13: Rethinking the “Modern” “Japanese” “Novel”

Tuesday, November 24

• Angela YIU. “National Literature and Beyond: Mizumura Minae and Hideo Levy”. Edited by Leith Morton and Rachael Hutchinson. Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature. New York, NY, 2016, pp. 227-240.

• TAWADA Yōko. “Tawada Yōko Does Not Exist”. Translated by Doug Slaymaker. Yōko Tawada: Voices from Everywhere. Edited by Doug Slaymaker. Lexington Books, 2007, pp. 13-19.

• TAWADA Yōko. “Where Europe Begins”. Where Europe Begins. Translated by Susan Bernofsky and Yumi Selden. New Directions, 2002, pp. 121-146.

Thursday, November 26

• MURAKAMI Haruki. “TV People” [TV Pīpuru, 1989). Translated by Alfred Birnbaum. Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction. Edited by Alfred Birnbaum. Kodansha, 1991, pp. 5- 26.

• MURAKAMI Haruki. “Barn Burning” [Naya o Yaku 1983]. The Elephant Vanishes. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin. Vintage Books, 1994, pp.

Week 14: Wrap-up and Peer Workshopping

Tuesday, December 1 Wrap-up and peer workshopping

Final Paper Due by Monday, December 14

Academic Integrity: “McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures” (see www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information).(Approved by Senate on 29 January 2003)

Language of Submission: “In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded. This does not apply to courses in which acquiring proficiency in a language is one of the objectives.” (Approved by Senate on 21 January 2009 - see also the section in this document on Assignments and Evaluation.)

“As the instructor of this course I endeavor to provide an inclusive learning environment. However, if you experience barriers to learning in this course, do not hesitate to discuss them with me and the Office for Students with Disabilities, 514-398-6009.”