JAPANESE CULTURE – note, THIS PAGE IS FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION AND BACKUP RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS. AS LONG AS THE E-LEARNING PAGES ARE WORKING, STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE COURSE SHOULD ACCESS CURRENT COURSE INFORMATION THROUGH THE D2l SITE. You may access the site by logging into argus and then going to the “my info” tab, or by going back to my main page and going through the “on line course login” link.

The course on Japanese Culture is an anthropology “area” offering designed to familiarize students with the broad outline of Japanese cultural development over about the past 1200 years.  The class satisfies the area requirement in the Cultural Anthropology major, and is a common elective for students in international studies, history, and some areas business and education.  Thus, the class does not rely upon extensive technical background in anthropology. 

The approach to Japanese Culture taken in this class is comparative, drawing heavily from popular resources, including the internet, cinema, demonstrations, and materials distributed in class or through this web page and a Desire2Learn course supplement (to access the course page you must log in to D2L through Argus or the direct link at: https://elearning.uwf.edu/secure/index.cfm ).  We will pursue “themes” of Japanese culture through direct comparison and contrast with American culture. My intention is for you to become familiar enough with the principles underlying Japanese culture that you will be able to:

1. Identify the cultural premises that ground the unique Japanese world view.
2. Define the geographic and historical forces that have helped mold modern Japan.
3. Interpret cultural situations involving Japan with empathy to Japanese values.
4. Assess changes in Japanese culture over the past two centuries.
5. Compare Japanese culture within the broader system of Asian culture.
6  Survey the prominent artistic, political, and economic contributions to the modern world.

During this short summer term, each class period will run from 8:00-11:25.  This allows time for us to view substantial film supplements during class.  The material in the selected films will be coordinated with lecture/discussion topics in class and on line.  As with all courses, attendance to classroom sessions is very important.  In this case, much of the material offered in class is not easily available elsewhere.  If you must miss class, please let me know in advance so we can attempt to plan alternative means of getting the information or experience you will miss.  Also please note that I do not lend my films.  Some of them are available through movie rentals in the community.  However, many are only available in our community through this class. 

Student work in the course will be distributed across

ASSIGNMENTS: This page includes the general assignment matrix and reading links for basic informational purposes only. For important additional information, students in the class should log in to the course page through Argus or through the direct D2L portal at: https://elearning.uwf.edu/secure/index.cfm

Three On-Line Response Essays submitted via D2L	27%
Three In-Class Film Review Essays	27%
Haiku Exercise	9%
One Class Project (Annotated bibliography, book review, presentation, creative project, etc.)	9%
Final Examination (scaled multiple choice)	28%

Texts:

Japanese Culture (JC) by Paul Varley
The Tale of Genji (Genji) by Murasaki Shikibu
A Readers Guide, The Tale of Genji (RG) by William Puette
Read Japanese Today by Len Walsh

SESSION SCHEDULE:

DATE	TOPIC	TEXT READINGS	ON-LINE ASSIGNMENTS/READINGS
June 29	Introductions
July 6	Problems for “Western” Students and Stereotypes Gung Ho (video)	JC-Preface	Reasons to Study Japanese Culture
July 11	Language Background and Writing system tutorial –  Haiku exercises -- video examples	Read Japanese Today (all)	Some Japanese Language Background
July 13	Historical Background and Continuity  Excerpts from Ugetsu (video)	JC-chapter 1 JC-chapter 2 RG-Chapter I-II	Some General Themes of Japanese Culture
July 15			On-Line Essay Due
July 18	Religion, Craft and Tradition in Japanese Culture Excerpts from Dreams (video),	JC-chapter 3 RG-Chapter III-V	Bushido and Kendo,  architecture,
July 20	Literature and Japanese History – The Tale of Genji (video)	Genji: 1 "The Paulownia court"; 2 "Evening Faces"; RG 61-72 commentary	Poetry, Theater, Literature
July 22			On-Line Essay Due
July 25	Ghosts, Monsters, and Morality -- Excerpts from Dreams and Kwaidon	Genji:3-5 RG 73-82 commentary	IN CLASS FILM REVIEW
July 27	Taoist and Shinto thought in Japan – Demonstrations	JC chapters 4-6	Chado, gardens
July 29			On-Line Essay Due
August 1	Gate of Hell. Reinterpretations of Classical and recent Western Mythos via Japanese culture; Idealizations of the samurai class.  Excerpts from Ran, Seven Samurai, Samurai Trilogy (Video), and other cinema.	JC chapters 7-8	IN CLASS FILM REVIEW
August 3	Japanese transition from the Meiji restoration through WWII –  Excerpt from The Last Samurai	JC chapters 9-10
August 5			WRITTEN MATERIAL ON PROJECTS DUE
August 8	Post-WWII Japan I – Ikiru (To Live)	JC chapter 11	IN CLASS FILM REVIEW
August 10	Creativity, the West, and Contemporary Cultural Critique – Tampopo	JC chapter 11 (continued)
Week of August 7-11	Scaled multiple choice questions on D2L page.		On-Line FINAL EXAMINATION

A NOTE ABOUT THE FINAL EXAMINATION:

The format for the final examination allows you to score MORE than 28% if you do very well on the questions.  There will be 30 questions each time you take the exam, drawn from a pool of aobut 40 or 50 questions.  You will be able to take the examination 3 times during the final week of the course (on line), and will receive a grade based upon the highest of your attempts.  Each of the questions has more than one correct answer, weighted at 1 point, .66 points, .5 points, etc., depending upon the number of correct answers and the logic behind what I consider the "best" answer.  These are difficult exams, as those who have completed them before will attest, but they also encourage synthesis of the materials and a thorough reading of the texts and other course materials.  Because this is a blended course, there will be additional in-class preparation and feedback, so I anticipate the exam results to be higher than with a purely on-line class.  Still, I don't anticipate raw scores much in excess of 70% (or a score of about 21 out of 30).  Depending on the results, there will also be a "scale" of additional points added to everyone's score.  If the best examination raw score is 22, then I will generally add 6 points to everyone's exam.  Sometimes, with a very difficult exam, I will use the second highest score to set the scale.  In this way, it is my experience that the vast majority of students who have struggled through the whole course will receive a final score equal to a C grade or higher.  Because there is usually considerable anxiety in response to my examinations, I strongly suggest that you communicate with others who have been through the process with me.  And please believe me when I say the exam is difficult, but graded fairly.  Failure in my courses usually results from missing work, not from poor performance alone.  If you give me no choice but to give you a bad grade, I will do so.  But it is my purpose here to use exams and other assignments as a means of assessing your approach to the stated learning outcomes.  If you look at the projected outcomes and study accordingly, you will be fine.