Japanese Courses Spring 2019

Japanese 003. Elementary Japanese (5 units)

Section Instructor Day/Time Room CRN
  001 Mayu Lindblad MTWRF 8:00-8:50A

103 Wellman Hall

77760
  002 Moeko Watanabe MTWRF 9:00-9:50A

080 SocSci Bldg

77761
  003 Kazuhide Takeuchi MTWRF 10:00-10:50A

1116 Hart Hall

77762
  004 Yoko Kato MTWRF 11:00-11:50A

1342 Storer Hall

77763
  005 Miyo Uchida MTWRF 12:10-1:00P

103 Wellman Hall

77764
  006 Miyo Uchida MTWRF 1:10-2:00P

103 Wellman Hall

77765
  007 Yumiko Shibata MTWRF 2:10-3:00P

217 Olson Hall

77766

  008

Junko Ito MTWRF 3:10-4:00P 103 Wellman Hall 77767

Course Description: In JPN 003 you learn to talk about your family, memorable experiences, and the climate and weather in Japan, Davis, and other places. You will also learn how to report your opinions, information you are uncertain of, and information you have on hearsay. All four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are equally emphasized. Students also continue to learn culturally and socially acceptable ways to interact with Japanese people. At the end of JPN 003, students are responsible for information about 193 new and previously learned kanji. For more detailed information about what is covered in this course, please view this page.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Japanese 002 (with a grade of C- or better) or equivalent language proficiency.

GE credit (New): Arts and Humanities, Oral Literacy and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 5 hours.

Textbooks:

  • Eri Banno, Genki I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese [2nd Edition]  (Japan Times/Tsai Fong Books, 2011)
  • Eri Banno, et al., Genki I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese Workbook [2nd Edition]  (Japan Times/Tsai Fong Books, 2011)
  • Eri Banno, Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese [2nd Edition]  (Japan Times/Tsai Fong Books, 2011)
  • Eri Banno, et al., Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese Workbook [2nd Edition]  (Japan Times/Tsai Fong Books, 2011)

Japanese 006. Intermediate Japanese (5 units)

Section Instructor Day/Time Room CRN
  001 Mayumi Saito MTWRF 2:10-3:00P

103 Wellman Hall

77770
  002 Yumiko Shibata MTWRF 3:10-4:00P

217 Olson Hall

77771
  003 Yoko Kato MTWRF 12:10-1:00P

1342 Storer Hall

77772

Course Description: JPN 006 is a bridge course between the second-year and the third-year Japanese language. Its content is similar to the former JPN 111 (until AY 2014-2015). From JPN 001 to 005, you have built up a basic foundation of Japanese language and learned different speech styles and forms. In JPN 006, you learn more advanced grammar, vocabulary and kanji/Chinese characters to be ready for theme-based learning with Tobira.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Japanese 005 (with a grade of C- or better) or equivalent language proficiency.

GE credit (New): Arts and Humanities, Oral Literacy and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 5 hours.

Textbooks:

    Oka Mayumi, Tobira: Power Up Your Kanji  (Kuroshio Publishers, 2010)
    Oka Mayumi, Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese Learning through Content and Multimedia  (Kuroshio Publishers, 2010)

[OPTIONAL]

    Jack Halpern, The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary: Revised and Expanded  (Kodansha USA, 2013)


Japanese 103. Japanese Literature in Translation: The Modern Period (4 units)       [Taught in English]

Chia-ning Chang

MW 2:10-4:00P
106 Olson Hall
CRN 92008

Course description: This course provides a broad survey of the history of modern Japanese literature from the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji era in the mid-nineteenth century (circa 1868) into the postwar decades until the 1970s. It aims to provide a historical and cultural perspective to the understanding of one of the most dynamic literary traditions in East Asia. Modern Japanese literary imagination will be explored in its cultural and historical context by examining its complex relationship with modern Japanese life, politics, thought, social ideology, language, and Japan's relationship with the outside world.

Since students will be required only to read major works of modern and contemporary Japanese literature in English translation, there is no language prerequisite.

Students will study the wide range of techniques and a rich variety of themes with which major Japanese writers interpret modern Japanese life and society; these writers include Natsume Sōseki, Akutagwa Ryūnosuke, Tanizaki Junichirō, Dazai Osamu, Ōoka Shōhei, Kamei Katsuichirō, and Abe Kōbō, writers who practiced their craft from the turn of the twentieth century to the postwar period. The class will also study Japanese literature in the post-1945 period, as the country gradually emerged from war devastation before entering into a period of high economic growth, of increasing political ambiguities, cultural confusions, and continuous intellectual soul-reaching during the decades after the 1950s.

Classes will be conducted in a variety of formats including lectures, individual or group presentations, overhead projection slides, video screenings, and open discussions. The instructor actively incorporates into his lectures and class discussions his most recent research on many of the topics under discussion, along with what existing scholarship reveals. If possible and depending on the availability of lecturers, guest lectures may be introduced to give students different perspectives in understanding the complex human, literary, intellectual, and social dynamics of modern Japan.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • TBA

Japanese 109. Japanese Popular Culture (4 units)       [Taught in English]

Michael Dylan Foster

Lecture:
TR 9:00-10:20A
102 Hutchison Hall

Film Viewing:
223 Olson Hall

CRN 92003

Course description: This course explores Japanese popular culture from a variety of perspectives. We will examine what “popular culture” means as a theoretical concept, and how popular culture has been a vital part of Japanese history from the early modern (Tokugawa) period through the present. Primary emphasis will be on major forms of twentieth- and twenty-first-century popular culture, including genre films, popular theater, manga, anime, gaming and other forms of artistic expression. Throughout the course we will question the social, economic, and political contexts in which popular cultural products are created and consumed—and about which they inevitably speak. We will also consider the role of Japanese popular culture as a form of “soft power” in today’s global cultural marketplace.

Class will be a combination of lecture and discussion. All readings will be in English and no previous knowledge of Japanese language or culture is required.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Visual Literacy and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour; Film Viewing - 3 hours.

Textbooks:

  • TBA

Japanese 113. Modern Japanese: Reading and Discussion (4 units)

Section Instructor Day/Time Room CRN
  001 Kazuhide Takeuchi MTWR 9:00-9:50A

103 Wellman Hall

77802
  002 Moeko Watanabe

MTWR 8:00-8:50P

80 SocSci Bldg

77803

Course Description: Japanese 113 is the third in the sequence of third-year Japanese courses at UCD. In Japanese 113, students continue to develop their skills in presenting information and opinions in logically connected, coherent, and culturally appropriate ways. Students do extensive reading about Japanese people and society, including Japanese views of nature, traditional craftsmanship, Japanese history, and the political system. Students learn to think and speak, and to write critically about this information. Students are expected to retain the approximately 750 kanji introduced by the end of Japanese 112 and learn an additional 150 kanji during Japanese 113. For more detailed information about what is covered in this course, please view this page.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Japanese 112 (with a grade of C- or better) or equivalent language proficiency.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Oral Literacy and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • Oka Mayumi, Tobira: Power Up Your Kanji  (Kuroshio Publishers, 2010)
  • Oka Mayumi, Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese Learning through Content and Multimedia  (Kuroshio Publishers, 2010)

[OPTIONAL]

  • Jack Halpern, The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary: Revised and Expanded  (Kodansha USA, 2013)

Japanese 153. Love, Sexuality and the Family in Modern Japanese Literature (4 units)       [Taught in English]

Michiko Suzuki

TR 12:10-2:00P
267 Olson Hall
CRN 92007

Course Description: Love and sexuality in their various forms have been a central topic for exploration by writers of modern and contemporary Japanese literature from the late 19th century to the present. While such concepts are universal human experiences, they are also rooted in specific historical and cultural contexts. The family as a social, cultural and legal institution profoundly informs literary examinations of love and sexuality, including issues of normativity and deviance, love within and outside of family ties, different forms of marriage/divorce, gender roles, and the struggle between the family and the individual.

By examining texts written over a one hundred-year period, we will gain a deeper understanding of literary narratives through their engagement with the evolving institution of family and with changing ideas of love and sexuality. We will focus mainly on novels and short stories, but also read several secondary articles in literary criticism, history, religion, and sociology.

Class will combine lecture and discussion. Lectures, readings and discussions are in English. No previous knowledge of Japanese language or culture is required.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • Junichiro Tanizaki, Naomi  (Vintage Books, 2001)
  • Junichiro Tanizaki, The Key & The Diary of a Mad Old Man, translated by Howard Hibbett  (Vintage Books, 2004)
  • Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen, translated by Megan Backus  (Grove Press, 2006)

Japanese 158. The Supernatural in Japan (4 units)       [Taught in English]

Miki Wheeler

TR 2:10-4:00P
102 Hutchison Hall
CRN 92006

Course Description: Depictions of the supernatural in Japanese history through the contemporary era. Overview of Japanese literary and visual arts and the socio- historical contexts of the supernatural. Lectures and readings in English.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Visual Literacy and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Film Viewing - 3 hours.

Textbooks:

  • TBA