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WEEK 1 -- Part 1
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Tuesday, Jan. 26: Introduction to the Course
Introduction to the course – no readings due
Thursday, Jan. 28: The Perils of National Character
readings due:
Nicholas Kristof. 1998. “Uncompetitive in Tokyo: In Japan, Nice Guys (and Girls) Finish Together.” The New York Times. April 12.
Ken Belson. 2003. “Japan’s Samurai Past Thunders into the Present.” The New York Times. December 7.
Lisa Katayama. 2009. “Love in 2-D.” The New York Times. July 21.
Friday, Jan. 29: Short writing assignment due at 5pm.
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WEEK 2
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Tuesday, Feb. 2: Gendering National Character
readings due:
Peggy Orenstein. 2001. “Parasites in Pret-a-Porter.” The New York Times. July 1.
Ann Hastings. 1998. “Reviews: Memoirs of a Geisha.” Cnn.com. May 25.
Michiko Kakutani. 1997. “A Woman’s Tale, Imagined by a Man.” The New York Times Book Review. Oct. 14.
Anne Allison. 2001. “Memoirs of the Orient.” Journal of Japanese Studies 27(2): 381-398.
Thursday, Feb. 4: Gender Theory
readings due:
Anne Cranny-Francis, Wendy Waring, Pam Stavropoulos, Joan Kirkby. 2003. “Ways of Talking.” In their Gender Studies: Terms and Debates. New York: Palgrave. Pages: 1-41.
(optional) Joan W. Scott. 1986. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” American Historical Review 91(5): 1053-1075.
(This reading is really excellent -- incredibly smart -- but better for students who have already encountered “gender” as a theory in other reading or courses. Absolutely take a look and I will bring it up in class.)
Friday, Feb. 5: Short writing assignment due at 5pm.
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WEEK 3 -- Part 2
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Tuesday, Feb. 9: How is Ideology different than National Character?
readings due:
Anne Allison. 2000. “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus.” In her, Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 81-104.
Brian McVeigh. 1997. “Cultivating ‘Ladylike’ and ‘International’ in Takasu.” In his, Life in a Japanese Women’s College: Learning to be Ladylike. London: Routledge. Pages: 60-84.
Thursday, Feb. 11: Gender in Historical Perspective, 1868-1945
readings due:
Kathleen Uno. 1991. “Women and Changes in the Household Division of Labor.” In, Gail Lee Bernstein, ed. Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 17-41.
Morris Low. 2003. “The Emperor’s Sons Go to War: Competing Masculinities in Modern Japan.” In, Kam Louie and Morris Low, eds. Asian Masculinities: The Meaning and Practice of Manhood in China and Japan. London: Routledge. Pages: 81-99.
Friday, Feb. 12: Short writing assignment due at 5pm. See course website for details.
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WEEK 4
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Tuesday, Feb. 16: Gender in Historical Perspective, 1945-1991
Viewing due:
“Living through a Miracle.” Viewing page is here
reading due:
Suzanne Vogel. 1978. “Professional Housewife: The Career of Urban Middle Class Japanese Women.” Japan Interpreter 12(1): 16-43.
Dorinne Kondo. 1999. “Fabricating Masculinity: Gender, Race, and Nation in a Transnational Frame” In, Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcón, Minoo Moallem, eds. Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State. Durham: Duke University Press. Pages: 296-319.
(optional) Andrew Gordon. 2008. “Economic and Social Transformation.” In his, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa times to the present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pages: 245-269.
Thursday, Feb. 18: Families in the Mainstream
reading due:
Elisabeth Bumiller. 1996. The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and her Family. New York: Vintage. Pages: xi-90.
Friday, Feb. 19: First short paper due.
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WEEK 5
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Tuesday, Feb. 23: Education in the Mainstream
readings due:
Elisabeth Bumiller. 1996. The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and her Family. New York: Vintage. Pages: 91-222.
Thursday, Feb. 25: Work Lives in the Mainstream
readings due:
Elisabeth Bumiller. 1996. The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and her Family. New York: Vintage. Pages: 223-332.
Friday, Feb. 26: Short writing assignment due at 5pm.
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WEEK 6
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Tuesday, March 2: Reassessing Ideal Intimacies
Viewing due:
“Shall we Dance?” 1996. Suo Masayuki, dir. 136 min. Viewing page is here
readings due:
Amy Borovoy. 2001. “Recovering from Codependence in Japan.” American Ethnologist 28(1): 94-118.
Allison Alexy. draft copy of “What Can Be Said? Communication and the Intimacy of Ethnographic Representation.” 1-37.
Thursday, March 4
No class meeting so we can attend “Too Cute: American Style and the New Asian Cool.”
Optional sample readings from conference participants:
Christine Yano. 2004. "Kitty Litter: Japanese Cute at Home and Abroad." In Toys, Games, and Media. Jeffrey H. Goldstein, David Buckingham, Gilles Brougère, eds. London: Routledge.
Laura Miller. 2003. "Male Beauty Work in Japan." In, James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki, eds. Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa. London: Routledge. Pages: 37-58.
Sharon Kinsella. 1995. “Cuties in Japan.” In, Lise Skov and Brian Moeran, eds. Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pages: 220-255.
Friday, March 5: There is no short writing assignment due this week.
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WEEK 7 -- Part 3
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Tuesday, March 9: Familial Power in Political Spheres
readings due:
Robin LeBlanc. 1999. Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Thursday, March 11: Spatial Gender, Housing, and Homes
Guest speaker: Dr. Richard Ronald, University of Amsterdam
readings due: Richard Ronald and Lynne Nakano. “Family Formation and the Housing System: The Dilemma of Single Japanese Women.”
Friday, March 12: The thesis paragraph for your second paper is due at 5pm by email.
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WEEK 8
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Tuesday, March 23: Gender in the Workplace
readings due:
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 1-43.
Tuesday, March 25: Gender in the Workplace
readings due:
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 44-113.
Friday, March 26: Your second short paper is due by email at 5pm.
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WEEK 9 -- Part 4
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Tuesday, March 30: Gender in the Workplace
readings due:
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 114-168.
Thursday, April 1: Workplace Masculinity
readings due:
Romit Dasgupta. 2005. “Salarymen Doing Straight: Heterosexual Men and the Dynamics of Gender Conformity.” In, Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta, eds. Genders, Transgenders, and Sexualities in Japan. London: Routledge. Pages: 168-182.
Mark McLelland. 2005. “Salarymen Doing Queer: Gay Men and the Heterosexual Public Sphere.” In, Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta, eds. Genders, Transgenders, and Sexualities in Japan. London: Routledge. Pages: 96-110.
Masako Ishii-Kuntz. 2003. “Balancing Fatherhood and Work: Emergence of Diverse Masculinities in Contemporary Japan.” In, James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki, eds. Men and masculinities in contemporary Japan: dislocating the salaryman doxa. London: Routledge.
Friday, April 2: No short assignment due this week.
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WEEK 10
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Tuesday, April 6: Engendering Social Change
readings due:
William W. Kelly and Merry I. White. 2006. “Students, Slackers, Singles, Seniors, and Strangers: Transforming a Family-Nation.” In, Peter Katzenstein and Tadashi Shiraishi, eds. Japan and Asia: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism. Pages 62-83.
Gordon Mathews. 2004. “Seeking a Career, Finding a Job: How Young People Enter and Resist the Japanese World of Work.” In, Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, eds. Japan’s Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society? London: Routledge. Pages: 121-136.
Thursday, April 8: Drawn Gender
readings due:
Sharon Kinsella. 2000. Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Selections.
Anne Allison. 2000. “Cartooning Erotics: Japanese Ero Manga.” In her, Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 51-80.
Friday, April 9: Brainstorming assignment due at 5pm by email.
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WEEK 11
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Tuesday, April 13: Lacks and Doubles
readings due:
Mark McLelland. 2000. “No Climax, No Point, No Meaning? Japanese Women’s Boy-Love Sites on the Internet.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 24(3): 274-291.
Gretchen Jones. 2005. "Bad Girls Like to Watch: Writing and Reading Ladies Comics." In, Bad Girls of Japan. Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages 97-110.
Selections of yaoi manga translated into English --
** Remember to read from right to left, top to bottom
“All Nippon Air Lines,” by Kei Azumaya.
Thursday, April 15: Commodified Gender
readings due:
Anne Allison. 1994. “Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club.” Selections.
Nana Okura Gagne. 2009. “The Business of Leisure, the Leisure of Business: Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity through Gendered Service in Tokyo Hostess Clubs.” Unpublished manuscript.
Friday, April 16: Begin work on the rough draft of your final paper.
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WEEK 12
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Tuesday, April 20: Performing Masculinity
readings due:
Akiko Takeyama. 2005. “Commodified Romance in a Tokyo Host Club.” In, Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta, eds. Genders, Transgenders, and Sexualities in Japan. London: Routledge. Pages: 200-215.
Laura Miller. 2003. "Male Beauty Work in Japan." In, James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki, eds. Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa. London: Routledge. Pages: 37-58.
Thursday, April 22: Selling Masculinity
Viewing due: The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief. 2006. Jake Clennell, dir.
Friday, April 23:
Continue work on the rough draft of your final paper.
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WEEK 13
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Tuesday, April 27: Language, Standards, and Power
readings due:
Miyako Inoue. 2006. Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 1-107.
Thursday, April 29: Language, Standards, and Power
readings due:
Miyako Inoue. 2006. Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 108-206.
Friday, April 30:
Rough draft due to me and your group members at 5pm by email.
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WEEK 14
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Tuesday, May 4: Language, Standards, and Power
readings due:
Miyako Inoue. 2006. Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 207-282.
Thursday, May 6: Final Thoughts and Future Questions
No reading due
Friday, May 7:
Rough draft comments due to me and your group members at 5pm by email.
Final paper deadline TBA.