Topics in Japanese Literature

3 units

TThe course focuses on reading and discussing literary works from the beginning of the Kamakura Shogunate (1185) until the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1868). We will read war chronicles (gunki monogatari), tanka, renga and haiku poetry, zuihitsu essays, novels of urban life in Edo Japan, no, kyogen, kabuki and bunraku theater plays, while placing them within the historical and cultural context in which they were created, using historical sources, films, and other visual media.No prior experience with Japan or its literature is assumed.