This course examines examples of premodern and contemporary popular visual culture in order to reveal fundamental themes common to many times and people throughout the Japanese archipelago. Yet the class does not end there. By exploring cultures that may seem distant and exotic to many of you, we will create a mirror in which we can view ourselves. If we do our work well throughout the semester, you will understand Japan in a deeper way while also denormalizing and defamiliarizing the cultural constructs that shape our daily lives and personal, local worldviews.

A wide variety of films, photography, painting, sculpture, architecture, animation and comics, advertisements, websites, and other media will serve as lenses through which we will focus our explorations of three main themes: "Japan," bodies, and fantasy. These will provide the broad frames for considering concepts about nature and place, personal and collective intersectional identities, indigeneity and hybridity, sex and gender, humanity and its borders, notions of beauty and ugliness, fantasy and virtual realities, violence and war, as well as cultures of consumption. We will also explore parallels between the United States and Japan in recent decades, considering the ways that visual cultures manifest and shape soft power, national identities, and personal experience.

Textbooks/Other Materials: No textbooks are required. All readings and other preparatory materials will be provided in pdf format.

Course Requirements: The requirements for the course will be determined part in consultation with students. Tentatively, in addition to background reading and other preparatory materials, your grade will be determined by your online and in-class engagement (25%), miscellaneous short assignments (15%), one short visual analysis (15%), a mid-term project (15%), and a final research project (30%).

Intended Audience: Undergraduates of any level and any background

Class Format: Two 80-minute general meetings and one 50 minute discussion section meeting per week

Estimated Cost of Materials $0-50

HISTART Concentration Distributions: Asia (Includes China, Japan, India, South/Southeast Asia and the Pacific), 3. Early Modern, 4. Modern and Contemporary