JPN410/510 Early Modern Comics

Fall 2014

T/TH 4:00-5:20

Glynne Walley

Poster, Course Syllabus

COURSE OVERVIEW:

This course focuses on the kusazōshi, a variety of comic book popular in 18^th and 19^th century Japan.

We will proceed chronologically, beginning by discussing the child-oriented akahon (redbook), and ending by examining the gōkan (bound volume), the serialized adventure comics that cominated Japanese comics in the 19^th century.  The bulk of our time will be spent on the kibyōshi:  a sophisticated, often risqué, form that catered to adults, particularly the tastemakers of popular culture in the city of Edo, in the late 18^th century.

We will read a wide variety of kibyōshi in English translation, most of what little scholarship has been devoted to the form in the West, and a careful selection of articles that contextualize the kibyōshi both historically and aesthetically.  A background in Japanese and/or comics studies would be helpful, but is not required.

Students in this course will be asked to confront a number of themes, including:  the relationship between text and image in comics;  the relationship of comics to the visual, literary, and theatrical arts;  the production, circulation, and function of images in popular culture;  the tension between urban cultural production and provincial consumption;  the effects of censorship on cultural production;  the emergence of conventions of authorship in the context of commercial publishing;  the historical precedents for modern manga;  and the nature of mass/popular culture in early modern Japan.

Graduate students enrolled in the 580 version of this course may expect extra weekly meetings with the instructor, devoted to discussing extra readings.