JAPN 218
Modern Japan Spring 2014
Division II
Cross-listed HIST 218 / ASST 218
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

A stunning revolution, the construction and collapse of an empire, the waging of wars, devastating defeat and occupation by a foreign power, and postwar economic rollercoaster have marked Japan’s modern experience. This course will explore how various Japanese from politicians and intellectuals to factory workers and urban youth have understood, instigated, and lived the upheavals of the past century and a half. We will ask why a modernizing revolution emerged out of the ashes of the early modern order; how Japan’s encounters with “the West” have shaped the country’s political and cultural life; what democracy and its failures have wrought; how world war was experienced and what legacies it left in its wake; how national identity has been constructed and reconstructed; and how postwar Japan has struggled with the successes and costs of affluence. Materials will include anthropological studies, government documents, intellectual tracts, fiction, films, and oral histories.
The Class: Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 40
Expected: 30
Class#: 3641
Grading: OPG
Requirements/Evaluation: class participation, response papers, two short papers (5 pages), and a self-scheduled final exam or research paper
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis
Prerequisites: none; open to all
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
HIST 218 Division II ASST 218 Division II JAPN 218 Division II
Attributes: HIST Group B Electives - Asia
INST East Asian Studies Electives

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