JAPANESE CULTURE AND LITERATURE 2

Students will acquire an advanced knowledge of Japanese historical, cultural and literary context of the 19th, 20th and 21st Century.

Lectures by the instructor. Students' participation in class discussion is very much encouraged.

The course presents the development of modern and contemporary Japanese literature. Its aim is to introduce authors, literary genres and movements in a diachronic perspective, from Meiji period to present days. The classes will focus primarily on the development of different forms of Japanese fiction (novel, short story…).

For the final exam, students are required to know the fundamental lines of development of Japanese literary history, from Meiji era to present days.

Refrence texts:

• L. Bienati, P. Scrolavezza, La narrativa giapponese moderna e contemporanea, Venezia, Marsilio, 2009.
• A reader prepared by the instructor and available online on Studium.

Students are also required to read eight works from at least six different authors, to be chosen freely from the list below (all available in Italian translation):

• Tayama Katai, Futon
• Mori Ōgai, The dancing girl (Maihime)
• Mori Ōgai, The wild geese (Gan)
• Izumi Kyōka, The holy man of mount Koya (Kōya Hijiri)
• Higuchi Ichiyō, Troubled waters (Nigorie)
• Hayashi Fumiko, Lightnings (Inazuma)
• Natsume Sōseki, Kokoro
• Natsume Sōseki, I am a cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru)
• Nagai Kafu, The Sumida river (Sumidagawa)
• Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Rashōmon and other stories (Rashōmon)
• Edogawa Ranpo, Beast in the shadows (Injū)
• Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, The bridge of dreams (Yume no ukihashi)
• Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, In praise of shadows (In’ei raisan)
• Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, The strange case of Tomoda and Matsunaga (Tomoda to Matsunaga no hanashi)
• Kawabata Yasunari, The scarlet gang of Asakusa (Asakusa kurenaidan)
• Kawabata Yasunari, Snow country (Yukiguni)
• Dazai Osamu, The setting sun (Shayō)
• Dazai Osamu, No longer human (Ningen shikkaku)
• Sakaguchi Ango, In the forest, under cherries in full bloom (Sakura no mori no mankai no shita)
• Mishima Yukio, Confessions of a mask (Kamen no kokuhaku)
• Mishima Yukio, The temple of the golden pavillion (Kinkakuji)
• Endō Shūsaku, Silence (Chinmoku)
• Abe Kobo, The ark sakura (Hakobune sakura maru)
• Abe Kobo, The woman in the dunes (Sunna no onna)
• Ōe Kenzaburō, A personal matter (Kojintekina taiken)
• Enchi Fumiko, Masks (Onnamen)
• Enchi Fumiko, The waiting years (Onnazaka)
• Murakami Haruki, The end of the world and the hard boiled wonderland (Sekai no owari to Hādo-boirudo Wandārando)
• Murakami Haruki, Kafka on the shore (Umibe no Kafuka)
• Yoshimoto Banana, Kitchen
• Tawada Yōko, Persona (Perusona)
• Tawada Yōko, Memoirs of a polar bear (Yuki no renshūsei)