2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Nov 18, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

JAPN 110 - Pop Culture in Japan & East Asia

In this course, we will examine popular culture in Japan and East Asia - literature, film, anime and manga, music, visual art - from the 1980s to the present, considering how popular cultural production shapes social and national identity in Japan, and how the transregional circulation of popular media influences cross-cultural attitudes toward Japan in and beyond East Asia (Korea, mainland China, and Taiwan). Engaging with theories of media and globalization, we will explore the production, consumption, and circulation of Japanese popular culture in East Asia as well as its transpacific reception in North America. Topics include: Japanese “uniqueness”; race and gender; history and postcolonial memory; cross-cultural fandoms; intersections of Hallyu and Kawaii culture; and the aesthetics of new media. You must be placed at the Verbal Expression level to be admitted into this seminar.

Formerly titled: Japanese Pop Culture (students who previously took this class should not take it again & will not earned credit again)

Prerequisites: Writing placement required or IDND 018

Course Designation/Attribute: VE, WE, DI

Anticipated Terms Offered: bi-annually