Japanese 145a – The World of Classical Japanese Literature
Fall 2016 Syllabus
This class will introduce students to some of the most artistically significant, historically influential, and culturally celebrated works of Japanese literature from the classical period. We will trace Japan’s rich literary tradition from its emergence in the early eighth century up through the late sixteenth century. We will consider texts from a wide variety of genres, including mytho-historical chronicles, court fiction, gazetteers and travelogues, memoirs, poetry, and religious and philosophical treatises. Moreover, students will also have the opportunity to read and view dramatic forms that continue to thrive today, such as Nō and kyōgen theater. All readings are available in English translation; Japanese knowledge is not required.
Our class meetings will typically begin with an introductory lecture that will help to put the literary works we read in their historical and cultural context. The focus of each class meeting, however, will be close reading and discussion of the texts. Students are therefore expected to read and reflect upon the assigned materials prior to class and to participate actively in discussion.
Students will also be asked to produce brief (about 250 well-chosen words) response essays to the weekly readings at least four times during the semester. These are to be posted to the online discussion forum the evening before class discussion. Short quizzes concerning the readings and lectures will be given occasionally. A short paper (5–7 pages in length) will be assigned halfway through the term that will ask students to make some comparison between two or more of the works we have read. Suggested topics will be provided but students are encouraged to formulate their own questions in consultation with the instructor. As a final project, each student will also be required to submit a final paper (about 8–10 pages in length) that will provide a chance to explore a work of the student’s choice in greater analytical depth. Both writing assignments will be evaluated for their coherence, critical argumentation, persuasiveness, and thoroughness of engagement with the material.
Grades will be determined as follows:
Attendance and class participation 15%
Quizzes 15%
Web posts 20%
Short paper 20%
Final paper 30%
Instructor: Steven Hanna Class: Tu, F 11:00–12:20
Mail: Office: Mandel 115
Phone: (818) 679-6785 Hours: Tu, F 9:30–11:00
Disabilities: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
Extensions: Extensions are not granted except in cases of medical or family emergency.
Four-credit course: Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
Academic Integrity: You are expected to be familiar with and to follow University policies on academic integrity (see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai). All suspected instances of dishonesty will be referred to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions including, but not limited to, failing grades being issued, educational programs, and other consequences.
Texts available for purchase at the Brandeis Bookstore; other readings available online.
● Shirane, Haruo, ed. Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Abridged ed. Columbia UP, 2012. [Abbreviated TJL below]
● Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Royall Tyler. Penguin Classics ed. Abridged. New York: Penguin, 2006. [Abbreviated GM below]
● Varley, Paul. Japanese Culture. 4th ed. U of Hawai’i P, 2000. [Abbreviated JC below]
Additional Resources: The following are useful resources on Japan’s pre-modern history and pre-modern literature. They are on reserve in Goldfarb Library.
○ Shirane, Haruo, ed. Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Columbia UP, 2007. (This is the full edition of the abridged text that will be our main textbook)
○ Donald Keene. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Holt, 1993.
○ Katō Shūichi. A History of Japanese Literature: Vol. 1 – The First Thousand Years. Trans. David Chibbett. New York: Kodansha, 1979.
○ Totman, Conrad. A History of Japan. 2nd ed. Blackwell, 2005.
○ Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Trans. Royall Tyler. New York: Viking, 2001.
Required readings are marked ●; optional readings are marked ○. Students who are interested in reading materials in Japanese (either selections from the primary readings or secondary scholarship) are encouraged to consult with the instructor.
Week One – Overview
Friday August 26: Introduction
○ Haruo Shirane, “Issues in Canon Formation,” in Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki, eds., Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature (Stanford UP, 2000), 1-27.
Week Two – The Ancient Period – Chronicles and Gazetteers
Tuesday August 30: Chronicles
● JC, pp. 1–47.
● Selections from Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712): TJL, pp. 11–33
○ Selections from Kojiki and Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720): Edwin A. Cranston, A Waka Anthology Volume One: The Gem-Glistening Cup (Stanford UP, 1993), pp. 19–25, 53–62; 88–96.
Friday September 2: Provincial Gazetteers
● Selections from Fudoki (Records of Wind and Earth, 8C): Cranston, A Waka Anthology Volume One, pp.131–52; and related selections from Kojiki and Nihon shoki in Cranston, pp. 63–66, 96–105.
Week Three – The Ancient Period – Early Japanese and Sinitic Poetry
Tuesday September 6:
● Selections from Man’yōshū (Collection of Myriad Leaves, c. 785): TJL, pp. 33–59.
● Selections from Man’yōshū: Cranston, A Waka Anthology Vol. 1, pp. 172–77; 197–203; 228–34.
Friday September 9:
● Selections from Man’yōshū: TJL, pp. 59–65.
○ Selections from Man’yōshū: Cranston, A Waka Anthology Vol. 1, pp. 347–59; 629–33.
● Selections from Kaifūsō (Poetic Gems Cherishing the Styles of Old, comp. 751): Judith N. Rabinovitch and Timothy R. Bradstock, Dance of the Butterflies: Chinese Poetry from the Japanese Court Tradition (Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Series, 2005), 33-48.
Week Four – Japanese and Sinitic Poetry of the Heian Period
Tuesday September 13: Early Heian Sinitic Poetry
● TJL, pp. 66–72.
● Selected poems of Sugawara no Michizane: TJL, pp. 83–89.
○ Selected poems of Sugawara no Michizane: Rabinovitch and Bradstock, Dance, pp. 121–40.
Friday September 16 – tentatively there will be no class today (we will arrange a makeup time to cover this material): Early Heian Poetry in Japanese
● Selected poems of Ono no Komachi: TJL, pp. 78–82.
● Selections from Kokinshū: TJL, pp. 89–112.
● JC, pp. 48–76.
Week Five – Early Heian Narrative
Tuesday September 20:
○ Selections from Nihon ryōiki (Record of Miraculous Events in Japan, c. 822): TJL, pp. 72–77.
● Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, c. 909): TJL, pp. 112–28.
● Selections from Ise monogatari (The Tales of Ise, c. 947) TJL, pp. 128–38.
○ Schalow, Paul Gordeon, “Paradigms of Friendship in the Tales of Ise,” A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan (U of Hawai’i P, 2007): 37-76.
Friday September 23:
● Ki no Tsurayuki, Tosa nikki (The Tosa Diary, c. 935): Helen Craig McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose: an Anthology (Stanford UP, 1990): pp. 70-102.
● Selections from Sei Shōnagon, Makura no sōshi (The Pillow Book, c. 1000): TJL, pp. 138-60.
Weeks Six and Seven – The Tale of Genji and Murasaki Shikibu
Tuesday September 27:
● Murasaki Shikibu, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, c. 1000): GM, pp. 1–86.
Friday September 30:
● Murasaki Shikibu, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, c. 1000): GM, pp. 87–224.
Tuesday October 4: no class.
Friday October 7:
● Murasaki Shikibu, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, c. 1000): GM, pp. 225–324.
○ Selections from Murasaki Shikibu nikki: Richard Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu, Her Diary and Poetic Memoirs: a Translation and Study (Princeton UP, 1982).
Week Eight – Japanese Prose after Murasaki Shikibu
Tuesday October 11:
● Daughter of Takasue, Sarashina nikki (Sarashina Diary, c. 1059): TJL: pp. 217-48.
○ Edith Sarra, Fictions of Femininity (Stanford UP, 1999), pp. 81-125.
● Sagoromo monogatari (The Tale of Sagoromo, c. 1060): TJL (non-abridged ed.), pp. 503-519.
Short papers due Tuesday October 11.
Friday October 14:
● Charo D’Etcheverry, Love After the Tale of Genji: Rewriting the World of the Shining Prince (Cambridge: Harvard U Asia Center, 2007), pp. 23–57.
● Selections from Imakagami (The Mirror of the Present, c. 1170): TJL, pp. 256–60.
Weeks Nine and Ten – Anecdotes and Setsuwa
Tuesday October 18:
● JC, pp. 77-89.
● Tsutsumi Chūnagon monogatari (The Stories of the Riverside Middle Counselor, 10-14C): TJL, pp. 251–56.
Friday October 21: no class (we will try to arrange a makeup time if necessary).
Tuesday October 25: no class (“Brandeis Day” has a Monday schedule today).
Friday October 28:
● Konjaku monogatarishū (Collection of Tales of Times Now Past, c. 1120): TJL, pp. JC, pp. 260-77.
Weeks Eleven and Twelve – The Kamakura Period – Poetry and Buddhist Literature
Tuesday November 1: no class (we will try to arrange a makeup time).
Friday November 4: Kamakura Poetry
● TJL, pp. 278–284.
● Poems of Saigyō: TJL, pp. 284–294.
● JC, pp. 91–111.
Tuesday November 8:
● Fujiwara no Teika and Shinkokinshū: TJL, pp. 294–312.
Friday November 11: Buddhist Literature
● Hosshinshū (Tales of Awakening, c. 1211), Uji shūi monogatari (A Collection of Tales from Uji, early 13c), and other setsuwa collections: TJL: pp. 324-43.
Week Thirteen – The Kamakura Period – Reclusive and Warrior Literature
Tuesday November 15: Recluse Literature
● Kamo no Chōmei, Hōjōki (An Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut, 1212): TJL: pp. 312-24.
Friday November 18: Warrior Tales
● Heike monogatari (The Tales of the Heike, mid-13c): TJL: pp. 343-82.
● Butler, Kenneth Dean, Jr. “The Heike monogatari and the Japanese Warrior Ethic.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 29 (1969): 93-108.
Week Fourteen – The Kamakura Period – Memoirs
Tuesday November 22: Diary and Essay
● Towazugatari (The Confessions of Lady Nijō, c. 1306): TJL, pp. 382–96.
● Yoshida Kenkō, Tsurezuregusa (A Companion in Solitude, 1329-33): TJL, pp. 396–408.
Friday November 25 – Happy Thanksgiving!
Week Fifteen – Muromachi Period Poetry and Theatrical Traditions: Nō
Tuesday November 29: Renga (Classical linked verse)
● Renga by Sōgi and others: TJL, pp. 498-506.
Friday December 2: Nō
● JC, pp. 111–39.
● TJL, pp. 414–22.
● Video screening: Nō.
● Matsukaze (Pining Wind): TJL, pp. 448–64.
● Aoinoue (Lady Aoi): TJL, pp. 422–33.
● Sotoba Komachi (Stupa Komachi): TJL, pp. 433–48.
Week Sixteen – Muromachi Theatrical Traditions: Kyōgen
Tuesday December 6:
● Atsumori: TJL, pp. 464–74.
● Busu (Delicious Poison): TJL, pp. 486–97.
● Video screening: Kyōgen.
Final papers due Tuesday December 6.