| This course looks at the thousand-year history of visual-verbal narratives – comics – in Japan. In particular we will concentrate on three forms of visual-verbal literature: the narrative picture scrolls of the classical and medieval period (ca. 11th-16th centuries), the “yellowback” comic books of the early modern period (18th-19th centuries), and the manga of the 20th-21st centuries.
The course is organized around three major objectives. The first is to trace the development of visual-verbal literature from the earliest narrative picture scrolls to the most contemporary manga. Although we will be exploring the origins of manga (i.e., modern Japanese comics), equal weight will be given to premodern texts in order to illuminate the rich tradition of comics and comics-like narratives in Japan.
The second objective is to give students a one-term introduction to Japanese cultural history from the classical period to the present, with comics as the unifying thread. In the process this course will take in the popular culture elements that students may expect from a comics course. In addition, however, the history of visual-verbal narratives will lead students to encounters with some of the most important examples of high culture in Japan’s history. We will consider the relationship of comics to Japanese fiction, poetry, painting, printing, theater, and film.
The third objective is to locate a discussion of comics within larger discourses on humanities. Is comics studies closer to literary history or art history? How does it relate to theater and cinema? Are comics necessarily a form of popular culture, or can they be the products of an elite for an elite? What kinds of relationships can exist between text and image? Students will be asked to consider these and other disciplinary questions surrounding literary and comics studies.
All readings, lectures, and discussions will be conducted in English. No prior knowledge of Japan or Japanese is required. The course’s focus on defining comics as a medium, and relating it to other forms of cultural production, allow it to satisfy Group I – Arts and Letters – requirements. The course’s focus on visual-verbal narratives of Japan, a country whose cultural history is both widely divergent from and highly relevant to the experience of the modern West, allows it to satisfy the requirements for the International Cultures category of the multicultural category.
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