Since the late 1980s, interest in specific forms of Japanese media has increased dramatically around the world. In the United States, manga and anime are now household words with substantial sections in book and video stores, while American remakes of films like Ringu (The Ring) and Ju-on (The Grudge) have introduced us to new forms of fear in the Japanese horror film. In this course we will examine a wide variety of Japanese manga, anime, horror movies and video games, and discuss their relevance to contemporary Japanese and American society. We will consider the transnational migration of Japanese popular media and its origins as Asian American hybrid by studying its historical development during the American occupation following World War II. Our particular focus will be on the pop culture texts Japan has exported since becoming an economic superpower in the 1980s. We will explore utopian/dystopian expression in Japanese sci-fi narratives of this era, and the complex interplay of gender and technology in the new posthuman societies these narratives envision. We will also consider the significance of global fandom as we chart the rise of the American otaku, and its relevance to future Japanese-American relations.
Fulfills Global Cultures flag.
TEXTS:
Roland Kelts, JapanAmerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US, 2007
Susan Napier, Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle, 2005
Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, 2009
