IN THE BEGINNING ...

Friday, January 21, 2005
APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPTS OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" - DISTINGUISHING AND DEFINING THE "NONWESTERN" 
  
How and why did the concept of the "nonwestern" emerge? What can the term itself help us understand about ourselves as "westerners" and the assumptions we make with regard to our approach to the rest of the world?

suggested web assignment:

• You might want to begin an exploration of contemporary Japanese life and culture as perceived through an "outsider's" eye by reading through An Introduction to Japan, an illustrated lecture used by Dr. Makela in courses at CSU dealing with Japanese history. An impressionistic Westerner's view of contemporary Japanese life can be found as well in a series of travel reports filed by Dr. Makela during various visits to Japan dating back to 1999.
  
  As you view this material, consider the point of view manifest in the choice of subject matter, the visual illustrations thereof and the assumptions made about the intended audience for these various presentations.

MAP ASSIGNMENT DUE

Monday, January 24, 2005
APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPTS OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" - THE INFLUENCE OF MODERNIZATION THEORY 
  
Is there a meaningful difference between "western" and "modern"? How does this distinction relate to our assumption of the "nonwest" as "third world" and/or "traditional"? How has the general acceptance of the West's pattern of development as "normal" influence our views of the nonwestern world?

reading assignment (to be completed BEFORE coming to class):

[click on any listing below to be taken to the reading itself on Electronic Course Reserve; you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader software on your computer to view this material -- if you don't yet have this program on your machine, click on the underlined words above to take you to the Adobe homepage from which you can download the needed files. We recommend that in most cases you print out a copy of each reading for your own personal use (using the Acrobat Reader's PRINT function). If you find this process too slow or cumbersome from your home computer, you can access reading assignments from any CSU computer and print out copies for use eslewhere.]

• Howard Wiarda, Non-Western Theories of Development, pp vii-viii. AND
• John Kautsky, The Political Consequences of Modernization, pp. 15-17 OR
• Marion J. Levy, Modernization and the Structure of Societies, pp. 89-92 AND
• Kautsky, The Political Consequences of Modernization, pp. 49-59 (scroll through the first few pages of the document -- which covers the pages assigned above -- to get to the section assigned here).

WRITTEN RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ON ASSIGNED READING DUE

Wednesday, January 26, 2005
EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF THE "NONWESTERN" AS CULTURAL IDENTITY
  
An examination of the interactions between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and ways in which these terms impact the notion of "nonwestern" culture.

• View Osaka 2001: at the Dawn of a New Millennium [As suggested in the Introduction, be sure to print out and complete the first part of the survey BEFORE beginning to explore the various portions of the web site.]
  
  These images (like those in the web sites suggested for review on Friday, January 21, 2005) are meant to provide a visual introduction to one of the two major cultures under consideration in the course. The images in this specific case are accompanied by questions and comments meant to stimulate your thinking about some of the concepts and approaches being discussed in class as well through reference to “real world” examples of these ideas in action.
  
  As you examine (or re-examine) these sets of photographs, for example, think particularly about how they might be changing your preconceptions about the “nonwestern world” in general or your ideas about Japan and Nigeria in particular.
  
  You also might want to review some basic facts about Japan by again reading through An Introduction to Japan, an illustrated lecture used in courses at CSU dealing with Japanese history.
  
  As also suggested earlier, a more up-to-the-minute impressionistic view of contemporary Japanese life can be found in a series of travel reports direct from the scene filed beginning in 1999 by Dr. Makela during annual visits to this island nation.

Friday, January 28, 2005
POWER AND AUTHORITY: A CULTURAL MODEL

This class introduces a cultural model of power and authority in the study of Chinese power, authority, and legitimacy. It examines how culture evolves from historical experience, foreign influence and indigenous factors, and how culture shapes power and authority.

Monday, January 31, 2005
DISTINGUISHING “SOFT” POWER FROM “HARD” POWER

Shannon Quinn, “KSG Dean Joseph Nye Advocates the Use of ‘Soft Power”, News and Perspectives from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, April 4, 2002.

Joseph S. Nye, “The Power We Must Not Squander”, News and Perspectives from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, January 3, 2000.

Jack Snyder, “Moral Overstretch: Provoking Resistance to the American Hegemonic Order?”, FATHOM: the Source for Online Learning, Columbia University, 2001.
OR
Joseph Nye, “Soft Power in the Information Age”, IPI World Congress 2000, Boston, May 2, 2000.
OR
Max Frankel, “The Paradox of American Power: Sound of One Saber Rattling”, The New York Times, May 26, 2002.

Wednesday, February 2, 2005
LOOKING AT ISSUES OF "SOFT POWER" IN THE NONWESTERN WORLD

reading assignment:

• Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics [hereafter "Nye, Soft Power"] (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), Chapter Three: Other Soft Power, pp. 73 - 98.

Friday, February 4, 2005
LOOKING AT ISSUES OF POWER AND AUTHORITY IN JAPAN: "THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES"

A case study drawn from the Meiji era (1868 - 1912) in Japanese history focusing on the "real life' application of concepts discussed to this point in the course to the definition of imperial authority and power in late nineteenth century Japan.

reading assignment:

• "Introduction" and "Chapter One" from T. Fujitani's Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pagentry in Modern Japan, pp. 1 - 18.

WRITTEN OBSERVATIONS ON ASSIGNED READING DUE

Monday, March 28, 2005
CONCEPTUALIZING "POPULAR CULTURE"

An examination of differences between "popular" and "high" culture and what an examination of the former can tell us about the nature and exercise of “power” and “authority”.

web assignments (optional but highly recommended):

A basic definition of culture provided by a Learning Topic module "What Is Culture?" developed at Washington State University provides some useful characteristics to consider.

Clifford Geertz in his introduction to a book of essays writes about "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture" in a chapter that outlines some of the fundamental areas of inquiry of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, historians and others interested in the field of "cultural studies".

For an idea of just how extensive this arena of intellectual inquiry has become in the past four decades or so, check out Sarah Zupko's extensive Popculture.com web site, especially her list of Theorists and Critics with its multiple links to writings by and about the most significant thinkers working today on enhancing our understanding of how (and why) "culture" works the way it does.

IN-CLASS EXERCISE DUE

Wednesday, March 30, 2005
JAPANESE “SOFT POWER” IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

An illustrated overview consideration of aspects of current Japanese popular culture as examples of Joseph Nye’s “soft power” at work in the contemporary international context.

Friday, April 1, 2005
MANIFESTATIONS OF AMERICAN “SOFT POWER" IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE

A video entitled "The Japanese Version" explores how aspects of American culture are integrated into contemporary Japanese life and serves as an example of the nature of (locally-transformed) American cultural "soft power" at work in modern Japanese life and culture.

reading assignment:

Joseph S. Nye, “Asia’s First Globalizer”, The Washington Quarterly, Autumn 2002. pp. 121 – 124.

WRITTEN SPECULATIONS ON AMERICAN INFLUENCES ON JAPAN DUE

Monday, April 4, 2005
ISSUES OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE

A directed discussion of examples drawn from earlier considerations of Japanese “soft power” in the international context and "The Japanese Version" video as illustrations of the "power" and "authority" vested in popular culture in Japan today and in the relationship of “popular culture” in general to the larger global context.

reading assignment:

Douglas McGray, ''Japan's Gross National Cool,'' Foreign Policy, May 2002, pp. 44 - 55.

Keith Giles, "Nut in the Shell: Manga Nation", Slush Factory < http://www.slushfactory.com/ >, November 26, 2002.

WRITTEN SPECULATION ON "SOFT POWER" CROSS-CULTURAL INFLUENCES DUE

Wednesday, April 6, 2005
WILD IRISES AND THE EIGHT- FOLD BRIDGE

An illustrated exploration of the depiction of irises and wooden plank bridges in literature, poetry, garden design, fashion and art as an introduction to a consideration of the role of allusion and metaphor in traditional Japan as sources of “power” and “authority” influencing manifestations of culture in all these various areas of aesthetic expression.

web assignment:

Some Moonviewing Poetry: An Introduction to Japanese Aesthetics

WRITTEN COMMENTS ON TRADITIONAL JAPANESE AESTHETICS DUE

Friday, April 8, 2005
TRADITIONAL SOURCES OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN JAPANESE CULTURE I

Using the written results of a completed web assignment as the basis for our conversation, we will discuss how the realities behind this exercise demonstrate the "soft power" and "authority" vested in cultural tradition even in contemporary Japanese social and cultural life.

web assignment:  

Thinking About 'Meaning' in Traditional Japanese Art 

[Click on the web assignment title above to be taken to an exercise that should be finished before coming to class; the exercise should take approximately one hour to complete.  Be prepared to share your insights with your classmates during our class discussion.]

IN-CLASS EXERCISE DUE

Monday, April 11, 2005
TRADITIONAL SOURCES OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN JAPANESE CULTURE II

A further examination of the ways in which traditional sources of cultural "power" and "authority" influence the reading of Japanese poetry.

reading assignment:

Haruo Shirane's "Lyricism and Intertextuality: An Approach to Shunzei's Poetics", Chapter Four in Charles Wei-Hsun Fu and Steven Heine, editors, Japan in Traditional and Postmodern Perspectives (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), pages 81 - 94.

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF FUJIWARA NO SHUNZEI'S POETIC DEPTH DUE

Wednesday, April 13, 2005
SOURCES OF CULTURAL "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN THE TALE OF GENJI I

The first in a three - part consideration of the exercise of "power" and "authority" in Japanese culture through the force and influence associated with a single work of literature, Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh century novel The Tale of Genji.

reading assignment:

"Evening Faces", Chapter Four in Edward Sidenstecker's translation of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji (New York: Knopf, 1976), pages 57 - 83.

AN ANALYSIS OF ARISTOCRATIC CULTURAL STANDARDS AND TRADITIONS DUE

Friday, April 15, 2005
SOURCES OF CULTURAL "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN THE TALE OF GENJI II

Continuing our exploration of the ongoing influence exerted by The Tale of Genji through the ages and how this source of "cultural legitimacy" has been transformed to reflect changing values and cultural influences at work over the centuries.

reading assignment:

"Impact, Influence and Reception", Chapter Four in Richard Bowring's Landmarks in World Literature: Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji (Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1988), pages 81 - 102

web resources:

The Illustrated Handscroll of The Tale of Genji: one can gain a visual impression of the time period by looking closely at surviving sections of text and painting from the oldest extant illustrated example of the Tale of Genji text, a set of early twelfth century scrolls on display at the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya, Japan. Pictures from the scroll can be found in Exhibition Room 6 of the Permanent Exhibitions section of the museum's web site.

The Columbia University's online exploration of The Tale of Genji in it's Asia for Educators section contains a plot summary of the "Evening Faces" chapter from the novel (under the Class Materials section) and offers some interesting interpretive insights. Other portions of the web site are worth exploring as well; they include a general video introduction to both the novel and the times in which it appeared plus other useful overview materials. Look on the Asia for Educators site under MULTIMEDIA UNITS > JAPAN: CLASSICAL JAPAN > THE TALE OF GENJI > LITERARY SALONS AT THE HEIAN COURT to start.

Liza Dalby, an anthroplogist fascinated by The Tale of Genji and Murasaki Shikibu, its author, has written a novel herself -- The Tale of Murasaki. Her web site promoting the publication of her own fictional take on the author's life includes an extensive series of pages, full of fascinating detail, devoted to explorations of the aristocratic era culture which the novel portrays in such detail.

The Digital Library at the University of Pennsylvania, in its section devoted to the Celebration of Woemn Writers, includes an extended selection from Murasaki Shikibu's diary taken from Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan (translated by Annie Shepley Omori and Kochi Doi, with an introduction by Amy Lowell. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920, pp. 69-145). The selection includes some illustrations worth viewing.

RESPONSES TO IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT DUE

Monday, April 18, 2005
MITATE IN PRACTICE

Discussion of various other examples of allusion, metaphor and motif at work in Japanese society as a reflection of traditional sources of cultural power and authority.

web assignment:  POWER AND AUTHORITY IN

Japanese Popular Culture -- the Traditional in the Modern

[Click on the web assignment title above to be taken to a review exercise covering portions of the material already presented in class; the exercise should take approximately one hour to complete.]

READING and INTERNET ART EXHIBIT:

Isamu Kurita, "Japanese Art and the Japanese View of Nature", an essay prepared as part of the exhibition SETSUGEKKA, "Snow, Moon and Flowers: The Japanese View of Nature" at the MOA Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan

[Click on the reading title above, read the article, then view at least some of the art work featured in the accompanying exhibit.  Be prepared to share your insights with your classmates during our class discussion.]

Richard Amero's article, "An Evaluation of the Tale of Genji", investigates the impact, potential and real, of Murasaki Shikibu's novel on the international cultural scene beyond Japan.

DISCUSSION OF THE TALE OF GENJI AS CULTURAL AUTHORITY DUE

Wednesday, April 20, 2005
THE EXERCISE OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN THE WORLD OF THE CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE ARTS

Taking a closer look at the way in which a modern woodblock print artist and a modern poet combine influences drawn from the past with contemporary issues and influences to produce works of art both provocative and controversial, illustrations of the exercise of the "authority" invested in tradition within a contemporary setting.
 
reading assignment: 

"Morning Necktie" and "Afterword" from Machi Tawara's Salad Anniversary (New York: Kodansha International, 1989), pages 47 - 52

web assignment:  POWER AND AUTHORITY IN

Contemporary Manifestations of Japanese Popular Culture 

[Click on the web assignment title above to be taken to an exercise.]

MODERNIZATION AND WESTERNIZATION MEET TRADITION COMMENTS DUE

Friday, April 22, 2005
THE FUTURE OF "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN JAPANESE CULTURE: THE POSTMODERN ALTERNATIVE

An examination of the concept of the "postmodern" as a cultural construct with examples drawn from the Japanese experience.

SPECULATIONS ON THE CONCEPT OF THE POSTMODERN DUE

Monday, April 25, 2005
EXPLORATIONS OF THE POSTMODERN IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE

Examples drawn from the world of Japanese animation (anime) and popular music videos provide evidence of the persuasive presence of the "postmodern" in numerous arenas of today's popular culture in Japan.

reading assignment:
  
Lee A. Makela, "The Postmodern in Japanese Popular Culture and the Film World of Shunji Iwai" (unpublished manuscript), pages 1 - 13.

DISCUSSION ON CONCEPTUAL CHANGES IN PERSONAL DEFINITION OF THE POSTMODERN DUE

Wednesday, April 27, 2005
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN TRADITION AND ITS REJECTION IN THE JAPANESE POSTMODERN WORLD

A discussion of the subtle interactions between maintained elements of traditional cultural "power" and "authority" and the rejection thereof in the playgrounds of Japanese postmodern popular culture.

ESSAY ASSIGNMENT TWO DUE

Friday, April 29, 2005
"SOFT POWER" AND JAPAN'S PLACE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

 

Monday, May 2, 2005
THE UNITED STATES, CHINA, JAPAN AND THEIR SOURCES OF "SOFT POWER"

reading assignment:

Nye, Soft Power, Chapter Two: Sources of American Soft Power, pp. 33 - 72.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005
"SOFT POWER" AS CULTURAL INFLUENCE AND FOREIGN POLICY ATTRIBUTE

reading assignment:

Nye, Soft Power, Chapter Five: Soft Power and American Foreign Policy, pp. 127 - 148.

Friday, May 6, 2005
DISCUSSION: "POWER" AND "AUTHORITY" IN EAST ASIA AND THE UNITED STATES

Wednesday, May 11, 2005
COURSE EVALUATION SESSION