Shelby Oxenford

This course examines what Japanese literature, film, and new media can and cannot do in response to disaster. As we explore a range of human-made conflicts and natural disasters from earliest times to the present, we will consider questions of history, representation, and mourning and memorialization. For example: How did writers narrate disaster in 13th century Japan before the advent of modern scientific thinking? How did responses after the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both elucidate and obscure the lived reality of traumatic experience? How do on-going artistic responses to Fukushima work to address traumatic pastsand give shape to the future? What differences do we see in accounts of slow, accumulative disasters, versus spectacular, shattering events? Readings will be in English. No prior knowledge of Japanese language or history is assumed or required.

Grading Rubric:

• Weekly postings: 15%
• Attendance and participation: 20%
• Midterm: 20%
• Analytic Paper: 20%
• Final: 25%

Course Description:

Drawing from a comparative framework of the literature, film, and media of East Asia, this course takes a humanities-based approach to examine the relationship between humans and the environment. In examining works of fiction, documentary, and testimony from East Asia (including but not limited to China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the larger Pacific region), this course considers legacies of industry and war, environmental degradation and recovery, and disasters both natural and human-made. In doing so, this course places a particular emphasis on works from 1945 to the present, the relationship between humans, the economy, and the environment, and what kinds of futures can be imagined within our current moment.