UTAS Literature Workshop

5-7 September 2008

“Excellence and Innovation in Japanese Literary Studies in the Australian University Context”

Lecture abstracts

(as of 26-8-08)

1.   “Kiki’s Delivery Service: Urban legend from Tasmania to Japan"

-The tourist, the Witch and the Bakery: Japanese Representations of Australia-

By Craig Norris

Tasmania's historic town of Ross, known for its convict-built bridge and sandstone buildings, has been re-imagined into the 21st century through Internet-based rumours spread by Japanese tourists who claim the local Village Bakery is the inspiration for a key location in the Japanese animation Kiki's Delivery Service. This lecture will show how and why this urban legend spread through a close analysis of the animation and the fan/tourist websites that have been an off-shoot of it.

Key words: Tasmanian, urban legend, fandom and tourism, animation, Miyazaki Hayao

2. “From Salaryman to Otaku: Using film texts to understanding changing masculinity in Japan”

By Romit Dasgupta

One way to get students to fully appreciate the social and cultural changes that have occurred in Japan over the post-war decades is to use relevant literary and film texts. This applies in the realm of gender, where some of the significant shifts in the lives of Japanese men and women are best conveyed to students by showing them representative film texts dealing with these issues.

The focus of this paper is on shifts in masculinity in contemporary Japanese society. The meanings and expressions of masculinity, as recent research in gender studies has highlighted, is not an unchanging given fixed across time, but is far more fluid. This paper will show how these multiple expressions of masculinity get articulated in a selection of recent films – Shall We Dance, Densha Otoko, and Hush – and how a discussion of these films in the classroom allows students to better appreciate the dynamics of gender in contemporary Japanese society.

Keywords: Gender, sexuality,  masculinity,  family, film

3.“A reverse perspective: Using Kurahashi Yumiko’s Otona no tame no zankoku douwa (Cruel Fairytales for Adults) in Japanese university ESL creative writing classes”

By Jennifer Scott

Japanese literary texts have proven useful in giving students examples and inspiration for ESL creative writing projects. In the first year of teaching a Creative Writing course, I asked students to write a fairytale as one of their writing projects. Students seemed to have difficulty thinking up their own new version of a fairytale or folktale and there was a tendency to borrow heavily on well-known traditional stories. Rather than trying to oppose or put a stop to this, in subsequent years I decided to make it work for me by having students write what I termed ‘postmodern’ fairytales/folktales – tales which have non-traditional surprising elements and endings, or which combine elements from two or more traditional tales to produce new and interesting stories. Kurahashi Yumiko’s Otona no tame no zankoku douwa combine traditional myths, fables, legends and fairytales from all over the world into quite new and non-traditional versions and these seemed ideal as a starting point for students to eventually create their own stories in English. The benefit of using examples of Japanese texts is that it reduces the time and explanation otherwise necessary if the examples were English texts. Given that time is limited and that the aim of this writing project is not to test English reading ability, but to produce a creative and unique written piece in English, this is an effective tool. Students enjoy this approach and have written some fun stories!

Key words:Japanese literature, Kurahashi Yumiko, ESL/EFL writing, creative writing

4. “Reading against the beautiful and the elegant in The Snow Country” (tentative)

By Toshiko Ellis

Let’s not read the beautiful and the elegant in The Snow County. Or, at least, it’s not just the beautiful and the elegant that is woven in this text. What does it reveal, and conceal?  What appeals to the reader, and what makes it so frustrating to read, particularly to its readers in translation? Kawabata’s text does not meet the expectations of the readers that wish to read a novel.  It also abounds in metaphors and connotations that do not translate into a foreign language. The text is thoroughly permeated by a distinctly male gaze, which in turn deprives the male protagonist of the meaning of his own presence. I will suggest a variety of ways to read The Snow Country, which, I hope, will challenge the traditional, aesthetic reading of this canonised text.

If time allows, I will also present a reading of some short poems by Ogata Kamenosuke, Anzai Fuyue and Kitagawa Fuyuhiko, placing a particular focus on how their works interact with, question, and contest the dominating language of their time.

Key words: male gaze; canonical text; metaphors; translation;

5. “Beyond post-war ‘victim mentality’: the prohibited spectre of devastated Japan and Imperial Army atrocity”

By Barbara Hartley

Critical contemporary English language Japanese studies scholarship justifiably regards Japan as a brutal aggressor in the East Asia conflict which began with the September, 1931, Manchuria Incident and ended with the August 1945 Japanese surrender. This position has often resulted, sometimes less justifiably,  in the rejection of any attempt to engage sympathetically with Japan’s war-time devastation as an expression of support for the ‘war-victim mentality,’ a socio-political trope wielded with considerable success by the Japanese right.

This presentation uses ‘Shinpan’ (The judgement), a 1947 short story by post-war writer and ex-Imperial Army conscript in China, Takeda Taijun (1912-1976), to tease out the complications inherent in such a stance. ‘The judgement’ is a unique text which begins by drawing on the biblical book, The Apocalypse, to provide an account of the obliteration of Japan by, for example, Allied fire-bombing campaigns in the final stages of the war.  However, using the narrative device of the embedded letter, this work also provides details of Imperial Army atrocities on the Chinese mainland. I will use Takeda’s text to encourage students to consider the possibility of acknowledging the immense suffering of Japanese civilians in the closing months of the war, while simultaneously maintaining a necessary awareness of the horrors of Imperial army actions on the Asian mainland.  In encouraging students to conclude that sympathetic discussion Japan’s war devastation can proceed, and that such discussion can, and should, be framed in a way that rejects any complicity with the notorious ‘victim mentality’ advocated by the right, I will also draw attention to the need to continue to demand justice for those against whom Imperial Army crimes were perpetrated.

Key words: Manchuria Incident, post-war debate, Takeda Taijun, memory,

6. “Cats, girls, and intertextuality: Kanai Mieko’s Indian Summer"

By Tomoko Aoyama

This paper attempts to demonstrate the ways in which one can enhance the pleasure of reading by focusing on specific motifs and elements and by comparing and contrasting them with a number of other texts that are embedded within the text. Using excerpts (chapters 4, 11, and 12) from Kanai Mieko’s novel Indian Summer, the mock class will be conducted as follows:   

• Name three works of fiction, drama, poetry, film, manga, art etc in which a cat or cats play important roles. [I will introduce some useful references and internet resources here.]
• Discuss the cat motif in the selected pages of Kanai’s novel.
• Identify texts within the text and “paratexts” that involve cats.
• How do these references to cats relate to the girl theme?
• Are there any gender implications in the examples we have seen?
• How can you apply the above process to some other themes in other texts?

Key words: intertextuality, thematic, motif, gender, girl

7. “Lecture title: Theatre, modernity, Japan: recent plays by Kawamura Takeshi and the debate about modern theatre”

By Peter Eckersall

Too often literature studies overlook the field of theatre and performance and yet in Japan, as for the modern era more widely, dramatic texts have been one of the most important sites of innovation and culture debate.   This ‘lecture’ will first sketch a history of modern theatre in Japan with particular emphasis on the postwar era.  It will introduce competing notions of modernism and the avant-garde in the work of playwrights and novelists Mishima Yukio and Abe Kôbô and then layout the rejection of text-centred theatre in the 1960s. Arriving on the scene in the 1980s, Kawamura Takeshi formed links between theatre and popular culture.  His play ‘Nippon Wars’ is a critique of the 1960s radicalism while also addressing 1980s cyber culture themes.  His work of 2000 ‘Hamletclone’ is the writing if a mature artist who refects in the problem of history in postmodern Japan.  Written lately, his two modern nô play’s ‘Aoi’ and ‘Komachi’ are meta-commentaries on modern literature in Japan and offer a complex and melancholic view of history.  This lecture will ask student’s to refect on how Kawamura is writing about Japan’s geo-political history while also offering commentaries in Japan’s cultural history of modernity.

Key words: Japanese contemporary theatre, the 1960s, the 1980s, the underground theatre, modernism, Mishima, Abe, Kawamura

8. "The system of comfort in After Dark by Murakami Haruki"

by Rio Otomo

This lecture introduces an alternative approach to the works of Murakami Haruki, unarguably the most prominent contemporary Japanese novelist. Using his latest novel, After Dark, I discuss the ways in which the system of comfort-giving operates in his narratives. Highlighing the aspects of "Risk Society," Murakami creates an enclosure, a corral, within which readers are programmed to find a safe, homely place against the backdrop of danger and hostility, which assimilates the spatial design of the R.P.G software. I introduce to students Michel Foucault's theory, in particular, the ideas of heterotopia, panopticon, and surveillance, which are usuful tools for texual analysis. Students will also learn the definitions of postmodern narratives and the importance of critical reading.

Key words: space, memory, nostalgia, male gaze, heterotopia, mise-en-abyme

9. 「日本の大学における文学研究の現状と課題」

押野武志

日本では、1980年代以降、ポストモダニズムの流行などにより、文学及び文学研究の
アイデンティティと意義が疑問に付される。それ以降、文学研究に代わって文化研究
が隆盛する。その研究対象領域は、国民国家生成期の明治から敗戦までの日本の植民
地主義時代に集中し、国民国家の形成やナショナリズムの高揚に果した文学の役割が
批判的に検討された。それと同時に、活字文化がそれまでに持っていた政治的役割も
大きく変容し、代わって台頭した電子メディアや映像メディアによって、日本近代文
学の終焉が語られるようになる。
確かに、文学が読まれなくなったのは事実だが、その代わり、通俗的に文学化した物
語がサブカルチャーの領域において量産される。サブカルチャーやオタク文化が文学
から引き継いだ美的イデオロギーの別の形態をみることで、政治的批評能力を失った
今日の大学におけるサブカルチャー研究の問題点も併せて考えてみたい。

キーワード：文化研究・文学の終焉・美的イデオロギー

（英訳）"Literary studies at Japanese universities: its present and issues"

By Takeshi Oshino

In 1980s’ Japan the identity and the significance of both literary texts and literary studies were brought into question by contemporary thought such as postmodernism. Subsequently, “cultural studies” prevailed, taking over the role of literary studies. Mainly concerned with the time between nation-building in the Meiji period, the colonialist expansion that followed it and the defeat in the Pacific War, cultural studies critically analysed the ways in which literature had played a part in the making of the nation-state and the rise of nationalism.
When hard-copy text culture began to lose its political edge and cede it to the rapidly popularised electronic and visual media, we started to talk about the “end of modern Japanese literature.” It is true that people do not read “literature” as such any more. But in its place we witness the mass production of popularised “literary” narratives in sub-cultural arenas. These so-called sub-cultures, including the otaku culture, inherited the aesthetic ideologies of “literature” and then reproduced them in different forms. I would like to look into this and discuss sub-culture studies at Japanese universities, where the ability to critique politics have long gone.

Keyword: literary studies, the “end of literature” discourse, aesthetic ideologies

10. 「文学としての『家族』ー絆、くびき、ゆらぎ：2008年、近現代文学演習の実践より」

川崎賢子

１）ゼミナールの目的と方法論
二〇世紀における近代家族の形成とその再編、拡散、溶解の諸相を文学はどのように感受し、表出して来たのだろう。ジェンダー/セクシュアリティの方法論を学びつつも、文学表現の自立性を重んじて、分析したい。

1、近代家族の形成とそれに関係するジェンダー・スタディーズ、セクシュアリティ研究の基礎を講義する。
2、学生の分担を決定し、順次、発表、ディスカッション、コメントを行う。
３．取り扱う作品：ハンドアウト参照
４、以上をゼミナール方式で通年で考察することによって、「家族」の表象の歴史的な変化を把握することをめざします。

２）母性保護論争にみる近代のジェンダースタディーズの問題提起。フェミニズムの歴史的形成の確認。
３）近代家族におけるジェンダーロールと幻想、セクシュアリティの囲い込みと拡散、隠蔽など。
４）学生の発表の具体例、現代的（戦後的）枠組と同時代の実態との落差の指摘とアドバイスの方向。
５）学生の素養に即した近現代文学研究指導の諸問題。

(英訳）Family as the literary text – knotting; yoking; fluctuating – from Contemporary-Modern Literature Workshop (2008)

by Kenko Kawasaki

1) Aims and methods of the course
How have literary texts perceived and represented the ways in which the modern family was formed, diffused, and dissolved in the twentieth century? We will approach texts by using gender-sexuality studies methodologies, while we also value the autonomy of literary works.       
1. Introduction to gender-sexuality studies in relation to the formation of the modern family.
2. Students’ presentation, discussion, and my responses to them
3. List of literary texts prepared for the course (See the handout)
4. Aiming to grasp the historical shift in the representation of the “family” throughout the year
2) To present issues surrounding recent gender studies, such as the protection of motherhood debate, and to confirm the historical formation of feminism
3) Issues of the modern family – gender roles and fantasy, enclosure, diffusion, concealment, etc.
4) Students’ presentation: to advise students on the gap between the postwar framework and the contemporary reality
5) Issues of teaching contemporary-modern literary studies: to teach students according to their ability and knowledge.