Module manager: Dr Irena Hayter
Email: I.Hayter@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2015/16
This module is approved as a discovery module
The module will engage with important literary texts and films within the broader field of Japanese modernity and its socio-political, cultural and technological contexts. Students will deepen their understanding of both the universality and specificity of the Japanese experience of the modern and its cultural articulations. The module is taught entirely in English and no knowledge of Japan or of the Japanese language is necessary.
On completion of this module, the students will:
- have achieved an in-depth understanding of the Japanese experience of the modern (from the 1890s to the present) as seen in important literary texts and films
- critically reflect on current notions and theories of modernity in general
- be familiar with key theoretical approaches (especially formal and historical) to both fiction and film
- be able to analyse cultural texts in terms of the social imaginaries and the ideological messages which they articulate
The course will strengthen skills for
- critical reading and viewing
- theoretically informed textual analysis
- developing, constructing and presenting arguments in both oral and written form
Rather than look at literature and film as separate and sharply divided forms of representation, the course will attempt to bring them together as symbolic responses to larger material and discursive developments. It will be structured around themes such as
- Meiji and the birth of the national subject
- time, narrative and empire
- 'the return to Japan'?
- sexual/textual politics
- postmodernism and the other
- Murakami Haruki, Japanimation and the transnational
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Film Screenings | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Lecture | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Private study hours | 175 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 25 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
100 hours of individual reading
50 hours of seminar preparation
25 hours of preparation for presentation
Progress will be monitored through seminar participation and specially assigned individual oral presentations.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 3,000 words | 50 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 50 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
| Exam type | Exam duration | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc) | 2.0 Hrs 0 Mins | 50 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Exams) | 50 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 6/1/2016
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team