ASIAN 252 From Handscrolls to Manga: Japanese Narrative Design Lab
Instructor: Prof. Reginald Jackson Office: 202 South Thayer Street!, Suite 5127 E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays 11AM-1PM and by appointment
Course Description How do Japanese narrative arts work and how might we reverse-engineer them to design stories of our own? The Japanese Narrative Design Lab blends critical analysis with creative work, prioritizing hands-on exploration to teach students about Japanese visual culture and the mechanics of dynamic storytelling. In this experimental seminar we will study Japanese art forms to glean techniques for fabricating new visual narratives. We will dissect medieval tales, noh and kabuki plays, illustrated handscrolls, paper-dramas, manga, and anime to determine what makes them tick. Our close textual and artistic analyses will then guide creative projects where we generate narrative objects in the style of works like The Wondrous Origins of Mt. Shigi, The Tale of Genji Scrolls, Blade of the Immortal, and Akira. Through a range of individual and collective assignments, students will learn how to read original materials closely and then progressively translate their insights into components like plotting, scripting, tracing, layout, inking, coloring, and storyboarding. We will make use of analog (brushes, scroll paper, ziptone screens) and digital (Sketchbook Pro, Manga Studio) resources for art creation as appropriate. The course will culminate in a public exhibition of our finished pieces. Ideally, a diverse mix of readers, writers, and illustrators will contribute their talents to the class. Students with backgrounds in creative writing, visual, and dramatic arts welcome. No experience in Japanese language or culture required.
The main goal of this course is to train you to become better critical readers of Japanese narrative through a practice-based creative work. By the end of the course your skills of analysis and communication--written and visual--will have improved substantially. You’ll also be a better artist!
A Note on Content Please be aware that some of the materials we encounter in this course will depict sexuality or violence in a graphic manner. If you are disturbed by such material, you should strongly consider enrolling in another course.
A Request and Invitation We’re in this together and I’m here to help in whatever ways I can. In this spirit I would invite you to come see me during office hours should you have any questions or concerns you’d like to discuss outside of class. Rest assured, if those times don’t work, we can find others that do. It is my hope that you find the seminar discussions helpful and illuminating most of the time. That said, if there’s something that you’re finding difficult to understand and want help tackling, please come see me. By the same token, if you experience any emergencies that require missing class or have any suggestions on how to improve the course, please let me know as soon as possible and I’ll do my best
1 to accommodate you. You should also be aware of and take advantage of the resources available through the Writing Center and Dean of Students Office: https://deanofstudents.umich.edu/
Attendance and Class Participation Active participation in class is crucial and attendance at all class meetings is required. Four unexcused absences constitutes grounds for a failing grade in the course. Class is not to be missed except in case of religious observance, family emergency, or doctor- excused illness. You are expected to provide official documentation excusing any absences, otherwise they will count as unexcused. You are responsible for making up any missed assignments.
Requirements and Grading The final grade you earn for the course will based upon your engaged participation every week, and your written work, according to this breakdown:
Thorough preparation for and active participation in class: 20%
Ten short response papers of 200–500 words each (post to Canvas “Discussion”), 10 x 3%: 30% Due by 6PM on Mondays or Wednesdays
Sketchbook (Presented to class each Thursday) 20%
Final Project 30% Draft: 10% (Art and log, 5% apiece); Finished Piece: 10%; Thinking log: 10% Due on Tuesday, April 19th, by 5PM
Writing Assignments Students will submit ten responses over the course of the term. You’ll have to complete one for the first and last week, but are otherwise free to choose which other weeks you respond. These short papers should fall between 300-500 words and should demonstrate knowledge of the readings, an ability to make connections between them, and a capacity to raise good questions about the subject matter. These papers can take different forms. For example, some might want to venture a reading of a pivotal scene in a particular story or evaluate how well a text is translated to screen, while others might prefer to hone in on strengths or weaknesses of a particular author’s argument or approach. The writing style can be as formal or informal as you like; the aim is to get you to think critically about the material and use the paper as a means of processing your thoughts in writing. Feel free to experiment with different formats, use contractions, and ask more questions than you answer in these papers. Please try to push toward “how” questions instead of “what” questions, e.g. “How do architectural boundaries shape masculinity in this handscroll?” or “How does this use of shading and angles reinforce our sense of character?” not “What does this phrase mean?” I expect you to use dictionaries or other reference sources to locate basic factual information. And as always, make sure to cite your texts in some way and credit ideas that are not your own.
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Responses can be on anything that strikes you in a given scroll, panel, page, reading, or film, and can pose questions in lieu of attempting to answer them. The main purpose of the responses is to get you accustomed to writing brief but focused pieces on aspects of narrative that interest you. Sometimes I will give you explicit prompts, like “Compose a three-panel sequence based on this poem exchange.” (I’ll try to make these fun while preserving the analytical component.)
In addition to providing the starting point for class discussion most weeks, response papers will also demonstrate your engagement with the readings and allow both me and your fellow classmates to respond to your thinking on specific issues. Responses will be due each Monday or Wednesday by 6PM. Late responses will not be counted.
In order to give students feedback their progress and standing in the class, comments on the response papers and class participation will be summarized and presented to the student during a brief mid-term conference. We’ll schedule these for the week of February 22nd.
I want you to analyze a given text or artwork using the theories and interpretive techniques encountered. What’s your initial reaction to this work? What seems particularly challenging to grasp about it? What kind of cultural and ideological work does it do? What critiques does it imply? What ideas, structures, or histories is it working against? How might you tweak it to accomplish different goals?
Materials and books -Sketchbook (Moleskine 7”x10” graph recommended) -Pencils and pens of your choosing
(Available for purchase online and from Vault of Midnight) Scott McCloud, Making Comics Otomo Katsuhiro, Akira, vol. 1 Samura Hiroaki, Blade of the Immortal, vol. 1 Fujishima Kosuke, Oh My Goddess, vol. 1 Koike and Kojima, Lone Wolf and Cub, vol. 1
Other materials will be posted on Canvas or available on the web.
Grading and Deadlines Statement on Academic Integrity: All work done for this class must be a student’s own. Quizzes, writing assignments, and exams will be completed individually or you will receive a zero. All sources, including those from the internet, must be properly documented. Failure to document your sources will result in a failing grade. If you are unsure about any of these points, please consult with me. For more information about academic integrity at UM, see the Academic Judiciary Manual of Procedures, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. www.lsa.umich.edu/saa/standards/acadjudic.html
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:
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• 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.
• Borrowing facts, statistics, graphs, or other illustrative material without proper reference, unless the information is common knowledge, in common public use. (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/academicintegrity/examples.html)
Papers should be in 12-point font with 1-inch margins, and must include full citations for sources, including works read for class, in a commonly accepted format. (For examples see the Chicago Manual of Style.)
Written assignments will be marked down for spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and incomplete citations. Late papers will be marked down as follows: A to A- for one day; A to B+ for two days, etc. Final projects not submitted by the due date will result in a grade of “Incomplete.”
Statement for Students with Disabilities The University of Michigan is committed to full inclusion of all students. Please inform me if you have a disability or other condition that might require accommodations or modification of any of these course procedures. As soon as you make me aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (http://www.umich.edu/%7Esswd/) to help us determine appropriate academic accommodations. Any information you provide is private and confidential and will be treated as such.
Grading Scale A 93%-100% A- 90%-92% B+ 87%-89% B 83%-86% B- 80%-82% C+ 77%-79% C 73%-76% C- 70%-72% D 63%-69% F 0%-62%
A Note on Grading The bulk of your final grade for this course will be based upon the quality of your response papers and design assignments; the other portion of your grade will be based on your participation. For the response papers, keep the following in mind: if they are
4 clearly written, with style, interesting, without factual, typographical, or grammatical errors, and demonstrate not only a familiarity with the material but, moreover, an engagement with the issues it raises, then they’ll likely be very strong. They should not be summaries of the readings. If you consistently produce thoughtful, well-crafted responses, and participate actively in class discussions, then you’ll likely receive a high grade for the course. If you don’t, then you won’t. If you are having trouble composing the responses, please don’t hesitate to come see me and I will try to help. You should also feel free to make use of a writing tutor, if you’d like. If you feel reluctant to speak up in class for some reason, we can address this as well, but please understand that I can’t grade what doesn’t exist. The quality of your written work might earn you the benefit of the doubt when it comes to grading your participation, but it will not substitute adequately for a lack of participation.
As for the creative work of drawing and writing, I have no intention of grading you on how well you draw. Rather, the course will focus on how creative and compelling you can be in analyzing Japanese narrative arts and solving certain design problems. Simply put, if you show up, do the readings and assignments, and give it your best shot, you’ll do well in the class. If you don’t, you won’t.
Short Manifesto Above and beyond any goals of imparting knowledge or fostering curiosity about Japan, I aim to promote a safe, respectful, and inclusive classroom environment. I sincerely hope that you’ll join me in making this happen! To that end: We will be careful and rigorous in our thinking and presentation of our ideas. We will be considerate and respectful of each other’s views and comfort or discomfort with the material; this means learning how to fault an idea without attacking the person sharing it. We will be patient and will try our best to speak thoughtfully and clearly so that everyone can understand us. We will cultivate an environment that makes it comfortable to think out loud, but without grandstanding or engaging in intellectually masturbatory behavior. We will not keep our good ideas to ourselves. We will treat one another respectfully and hone our ability to listen well to each other. Remember: this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon (maybe a 10K?). I think the class will be challenging, but I'm not quite sure how to quantify that in terms that will make sense. Pages per week of reading? But much of what we’ll read will be filled with images.... The hardest part of the course will likely be to practice reading critically and producing creative work on a daily basis in your sketchbooks.
Weekly Schedule
Wk. 1: Introduction TH -Overview of course: goals, expectations, meeting one another
Wk. 2: What makes a good story? T -Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, “The Tattooer”
5 TH -Bring your favorite story passage/manga sequence and explain why you like it and what makes it effective. -Drawing practice
Wk. 3: Origin Myths T -Heldt, Kojiki, Introduction and selections
TH -Kojiki storyboarding exercise
Wk. 4: Early visual narratives T -McCloud, Intro and Chap. 1 -E-inga kyô (Illustrated sutra of cause and effect)
TH -Sutra-style illustration exercise
Wk. 5: Love Poems and Images T -McCloud, Chaps. 2 and 3 -The Tales of Ise (selections)
TH -Ise image exercise
Wk. 6: The Tale of Genji T -Jackson, Textures of Mourning: Calligraphy and Mortality in the Tale of Genji Scrolls, Chapter One
TH -Shikibu Murasaki, The Tale of Genji: “The Paulownia Pavillion,” “The Broom Tree” (selections) -Calligraphic preface exercise
Wk. 7: The Tale of Genji Scrolls T -Lippit, “Figure and Facture in the Genji Scrolls” -Shikibu Murasaki, The Tale of Genji: “The Twilight Beauty,” “Young Murasaki,” “Heart- to-Heart” (selections)
6 TH -Shikibu Murasaki, The Tale of Genji: “The Oak Tree,” “The Flute,” “The Law” (selections) -Illustrated Handscrolls of the Tale of Genji: “Kashiwagi,” “Minori,” “Takekawa,” “Suzumushi,” “Yokobue” sections -Genji Scrolls preliminary drafting/blocking exercise
Wk. 8: “Masculine” Handscrolls T -Shimizu, “The Shigisan Engi Scrolls” -Shigasan engi emaki
TH -Ban dainagon emaki -“Man-picture” drawing experiment
Wk. 9: Medieval Stories of Magic and Woe T -McCloud, Chap. 4 -Kibi daijin nittô e (Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China) -Yamai zôshi (Sickness Scrolls) -Gaki zôshi (Scroll of the Hungry Ghosts)
TH -Drawing the grotesque workshop
Wk. 10: Edo Images T -McCloud, Chap. 5 -Ihara Saikaku, “Gengôbei, the Mountain of Love” -Analyzing Kabuki prints and Meiji fiction illustrations
TH -Simulating woodblock print effects
Wk. 11: Manga in Earnest T -McCloud, Chap. 6 and 7 -Koike and Kojima, Lone Wolf and Cub, vol. 1
TH -Lone Wolf pacing and inking exercise
7 Wk. 12: Akira T -Otomo Katsuhiro, Akira, vol. 1
TH -Akira mecha drawing and action pose exercise
Wk. 13: Oh My Goddess T -Fujishima Kosuke, Oh My Goddess, vol. 1
TH -Present draft versions of final project -Using screens/ziptones workshop
Wk. 14: Blade of the Immortal T -Samura Hiroaki, Blade of the Immortal, vol. 1
TH -Pencil manga work and wrap-up
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