Representation of Modern Women in Japanese Literature

4.0 credits

Who is the modern woman? Is she simply someone who lives through modernity? Or someone ahead of her time? How has the depiction of modern women evolved and changed in Japanese literature? These are a few of the questions we will be considering in this course. Our journey will start during the Meiji period and bring us all the way to the late 2010s as we explore the many incarnations of the modern woman in Japan. Students will engage with questions of identity, race, and sexuality to discuss the depiction of Japanese modern women. By the end of this course, students will have a clear notion of what modernity and modernism mean in the context of Japan, with a focus on gender issues.