EAJ210L
SURVEY OF TRADITIONAL JAPANESE LITERATURE
Fall 2003 · Call Number 8185
2:30-3:50 P.M. · Humanities 112
Course Website: http://www.albany.edu/eas/210/
Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Susanna Fessler Office: Humanities 210
Office Hours: T Th 1:00-2:00 and by appointment Phone: 442-4119
e-mail: fessler@albany.edu Fax: 442-4118
Course Description:
This course is a survey of traditional Japanese prose literature. Material will be presented in a chronological fashion, with the aim of providing the student with an overall view of literary trends. The main textbook contains excerpts from prose dating from the 9th century up to the 19th century. Class format will include lectures and discussion; preparation for class and class participation are an important part your grade.
General Education
Information:
This course fulfills the General Education Categories of Humanities and Regions Beyond Europe.
Characteristics of all General Education Courses
1. General Education courses offer introductions to the central topics of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields.
2. General Education courses offer explicit rather than tacit understandings of the procedures, practices, methodology and fundamental assumptions of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields.
3. General Education courses recognize multiple perspectives on the subject matter.
4. General Education courses emphasize active learning in an engaged environment that enables students to be producers as well as consumers of knowledge.
5. General Education courses promote critical inquiry into the assumptions, goals, and methods of various fields of academic study; they aim to develop the interpretive, analytic, and evaluative competencies characteristic of critical thinking.
Humanities courses teach students to analyze and interpret texts, ideas, artifacts, and discourse systems, and the human values, traditions, and beliefs that they reflect.
Humanities courses enable students to demonstrate knowledge of the assumptions, methods of study, and theories of at least one of the disciplines within the humanities.
Depending on the discipline, humanities courses will enable students to demonstrate some or all of the following:
1. an understanding of the objects of study as expressions of the cultural contexts of the people who created them
2. an understanding of the continuing relevance of the objects of study to the present and to the world outside the university
3. an ability to employ the terms and understand the conventions particular to the discipline
4. an ability to analyze and assess the strengths and weaknesses of ideas and positions along with the reasons or arguments that can be given for and against them
5. an understanding of the nature of the texts, artifacts, ideas, or discourse of the discipline and of the assumptions that underlie this understanding, including those relating to issues of tradition and canon
Approved courses engage students in considerations of the "local" as opposed to the "global." Courses focus on specific cultures (other than those of the United States) or the world's regions. Courses emphasize the features and processes whereby cultures and regions gain their specific identity, offering an explicitly historical organization (i.e., one that emphasizes the narratives whereby any given region or culture has come to gain its specific identity), and balancing topical focus and chronological breadth (i.e., considering a topic of sufficient specificity for the course to be coherent, but over a period of time long enough to ensure that the relevant historical dynamic is clearly visible).
Required Texts:
Testing and Grading:
Course grades will be based on the following criteria:
Intermittent quizzes 20%
5-page paper 20%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Class Attendance 20%
This syllabus is a contract. I agree to teach the topics listed below, and to grade you on the criteria listed above. I consider a grade of "Incomplete" to be for emergencies (death in the family, extreme illness, etc.), not for students who fail to plan ahead. I do not curve grades. I do not give extra credit assignments. My grading scale is as follows: 93-100%=A; 90-92%=A-; 87-89%=B+; 83-86%=B; 80-82%=B-; 77-79%=C+; 73-76%=C; 70-72%=C-; 67-69%=D+; 63-66%=D; 60-62%=D-; 0-59%=E.
If you want to check on your performance at any point in the semester, feel free to come to my office and we'll run through the numbers. If there are extenuating circumstances that you anticipate will unduly affect your grade, it is your responsibility to speak with me IN ADVANCE.
According to the Undergraduate Bulletin, “It is every student's responsibility to become familiar with the standards of academic integrity at the University. Claims of ignorance, of unintentional error, or of academic or personal pressures are not sufficient reasons for violations of academic integrity.” Any incident of plagiarism, cheating, unauthorized dual submission, forgery, sabotage, unauthorized collaboration, falsification, bribery, or theft, damage, or misuse of library resources will be reported immediately to the Undergraduate Dean’s office, and will result in no credit for the assignment in question.
In other words, committing a breach of academic integrity is the fastest, easiest way to ruin your academic career. There are no excuses, there is no turning back. This is hard to remember at 3:00 a.m. when you are strung out on caffeine trying to finish that term paper. Put a post-it on your computer monitor now so you don’t forget then: Turn in garbage before you turn in a perfect plagiarized paper. Garbage can be revised, improved, and earn credit. A plagiarized paper is an absolute dead end.
Topic Reading
Sept. 2 T Course
Intro None
4 Th Video:
Classical Japan, 6th‑12th centuries None
9 T Kojiki
and Nihon Shoki ERES, “Early Shintō”
11 Th The
Tale of the Bamboo Cutter pp.
1-37
16 T The
Tales of Ise pp.
38-69
18 Th A
Tosa Journal pp.
70-102
23 T The
Gossamer Journal pp.
102-155
25 Th The
Pillow Book pp.
156-199
30 T A
Tale of Flowering Fortunes pp.
200-250
Oct. 2 Th The
Riverside Counselor's Stories pp.
251-270
7 T Tales
of Times Now Past & Tales of Uji pp.
271-287
9 Th The
Confessions of Lady NijÇ pp. 287-339
14 T Journal
of the Sixteenth-Night Moon pp.
340-376
16 Th Midterm
Examination
21 T Video: Medieval Japan, 12th‑17th centuries None
23 Th An
Account of My Hut (Hermitage) pp.
377-392
28 T Essays
in Idleness pp.
393-421
30 Th How to
Write About Literature None*
Nov. 4 T NÇ theater Reserve:
Anthology of Japanese
Literature, pp. 264-311
6 Th An
Account of a Journey to the East pp.
421-446; First Draft Due
11 T The
Clear Mirror pp.
447-471
13 Th The
Great Peace pp.
472-493
18 T Companion
booklets pp.
495-509
20 Th Video:
Tokugawa Japan, 1600‑1868 None
25 T Ihara
Saikaku's works ERES; Paper Due
27 Th NO
CLASS--THANKSGIVING -------
Dec. 2 T Love
Suicides at Sonezaki (Puppet theater) Reserve:
Anthology of Japanese
Literature, pp. 391-409
4 Th BashÇ's travel writing pp.
510-551
9 T Ueda
Akinari's Works ERES, “Ugetsu Monogatari”
*Attendance for students who have previously taken EAJ
104L and/or EAJ 212L is optional on this day.
FINAL EXAMINATION WILL BE HELD TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 10:30-12:30 IN THE REGULAR CLASSROOM.