Childhood, Media, and Culture in Japan

This seminar examines how childhood became a central—and contested—category of social and cultural life in modern Japan. We’ll explore why childhood and adolescence emerged as newly visible social identities in the late nineteenth century, how they have been shaped through a wide variety of media over the past one hundred years, and how divergent experiences of youth are shaped by class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Students will work with a wide range of materials—from fairy tales and manga to film, animation, propaganda, and fiction—alongside critical readings in history, literature, and cultural anthropology.