ASIA 125 - Tradition & Creativity in Japanese Culture

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as JAPA 125) This First-Year Writing Seminar offers an opportunity to engage critically and creatively with East Asian classics. Students journey through the history of Japan by exploring texts from the eighth to the nineteenth century, covering genres as varied as poetry, novels, diaries, warrior tales, drama, and film. We examine how these works have transcended national boundaries and media formats, continuing to shape cultural imagination today. Special attention is given to the techniques of rewriting, remediation, and reenactment—staples of Japan’s artistic traditions. Alongside lectures and class discussions, students will cultivate their voices as critics and creators through close readings, collaborative glossing and annotation exercises, creative projects, academic essays, and a group presentation, recasting the Japanese past as a source of invention and self-reflection. Pier Carlo Tommasi.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS