Beginning with the end of the Second World War, we will explore literature, film, and manga that foregrounds questions of identity and difference in Japan. Beginning with a manga set in New Guinea in 1944, a memoir of an American soldier who fought in the Pacific War, and a film about a Japanese veteran returning to the site of battle after the war, we map out Japanese views of self and other. Additionally, the course highlights fiction and film from Japan’ minoritized identity groups, including Japanese Koreans, burakumin (outcastes), Okinawans, atomic bomb survivors (Barefoot Gen), and even members of religious cults (Haruki Murakami’s Underground). The course concludes with a unit on gender discrimination, reading works by Japanese women writers who have transformed contemporary Japan. No Japanese required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: