Introduction to Japanese Popular Culture

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What can popular culture do? What makes culture popular? What makes popular culture Japanese? This class represents an invitation to think critically about our entertainment, and to take popular culture seriously. In this class, we will take the materials of pop culture as our primary objects of analysis and ask what they say about the society that produced them, as well as what they say to that society. In other words, we¿ll be thinking of anime, manga, film, and other popular media not just as objects that reflect their culture of origin, but also as objects that offer meaningful critique of that culture. Furthermore, we will consider the ways that Japanese popular culture interacts with global flows of popular culture in the contemporary world. Students should expect this course to equip them with the intercultural competencies necessary to engage with the global flows of contemporary culture, introduce them to the socio-historical development of Japanese popular culture, and guide them through considerations of different methodological approaches to cultural studies.