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This course explores post WWII Japanese music, literature, artistic media, and hi-tech products. Investigates social themes ranging from post-holocaust Japanese hedonism to childhood fantasies by looking at Manga comic books, Anime animated movies, and popular music from Enka to J-Pop to Karaoke, as well as fashion and style, popular technology, consumerism, and environmental issues. Explores the evolution of pop culture and its impact on society. Taught in English.
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In JAPN 308 we looked at modern Japanese culture and how it is reflected in a variety of mediums. Our instructor provided us with various reading material relating to different topics related to pop culture and quizzed us each week as an assessment of what we have learned from the reading. The three final assessments were a test, an essay, and presentation (in course work section below). This course satisfied two of my Major Learning Outcomes for Japanese.
One Major Learning Outcome that this class satisfies is MLO 2: Japanese Culture. For this class I learned about a more modern aspect of Japanese culture through various mediums such as: literature, television and movies, music, and art. One cultural aspect discussed in class was the presence of region in these types of works. We watched a few episodes of various animated television shows to see how religion is portrayed in popular culture. For example, in class two shows we watched were Mushishi and Natsume's Book of Friends which both focused on portraying Yokai, creatures associated with the traditional Japanese religion of Shintoism. Another Major Leaning Outcome was MLO 4: Research and Technology. This outcome was fulfilled primarily during the final presentation, which required me to research and create a presentation on a certain topic related to the popular culture. My topic was Japanese cinema and popular culture in Japan, for which I discussed three topics; animated movies, the evolution of cinema, and how cinema can portray real life events. |