This seminar is an introduction to some dimension of the history of a nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon selected by the respective instructor. Students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors prioritize critical reading, engaged participation, and focused writing assignments.

Youth is universal, a phase of every individual human life in every society, marked off by sometimes harrowing, but ultimately socializing rites of passage. It is also a time of intense self-consciousness of difference and alienation, a time of learning, and of conflict with self and others. Using fiction, autobiographical and religious writings, film and other visual media, etc., this seminar will explore what is has meant to be young in modern Japan. We will focus on four crucial junctures: after the fall of the feudal order in 1868, the early decades of the 20th century, through total war and defeat in the 1940s, and once more in the 1960s.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills