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HIS
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THE HISTORY
OF JAPAN
ESSAY
ONE ASSIGNMENT
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LITERARY
INSIGHTS INTO TRADITIONAL JAPAN
Choose
one of the two following books on which to write your initial
essay. Note both that each assignment comes with a different
DUE DATE and that a JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT
is required on the book not chosen for your essay.
- THE CONFESSIONS OF LADY
NIJO (due Thursday, February 19, 2009): Using examples
drawn from the descriptions of traditional Japanese life found
in The Confessions of Lady Nijo, discuss in depth and
detail an aspect of culture or of traditional social organization
as it existed in early traditional Japan. Limit your
discussion to a single topic or a series of closely related
topics explored in depth; avoid a disjointed or superficial
survey of too many elements.
TOPIC POSSIBILITIES: The role of
women (or men) in early traditional Japanese society; the aristocratic
uses of poetry; the decline of aristocratic culture in the move
to the Military-Aristocratic period; the importance of external
appearances among early traditional Japanese aristocrats; the
place of religion in early traditional Japan; maintaining hierarchy
and group identity in early traditional Japan; the rise of the
Military-Aristocrat as seen in The Confessions of Lady Nijo;
the conduct of male-female interactions in early traditional
Japan.
- FOUR MAJOR PLAYS OF CHIKAMATSU
(due Thursday, March 12, 2009): Choose a topic to
explore in depth that emerges during the Military-Bureaucratic
period of Japanese history as that topic is touched upon in
Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu; explore that issue
using examples drawn from the plays read. Your choice
of topic should be broad enough that illustrations supporting
it can be drawn from a minimum of two of the Chikamatsu plays
read.
TOPIC POSSIBILITIES: The reflection
of bushido values in Chikamatsu; male-female relations
in late traditional Japan; the place of poetry in traditional
Japanese drama; Buddhist influences in Chikamatsu; "lessons"
from Japanese drama; the townsman and the samurai in
Chikamatsu; symbolism and literary tradition in Japanese drama;
Lady Nijo and Chikamatsu's women in comparative perspective.
STUDENTS ARE URGED TO CONSULT THE
INSTRUCTOR AT ANY TIME BEFORE THE DUE DATE FOR THE ESSAY IN QUESTION
TO DISCUSS THE APPROPRIATENESS OF A CHOSEN TOPIC, TO REVIEW AN
OUTLINE OF ESSAY CONTENTS, TO SEEK COMMENTS ON A DRAFT VERSION
OF THE ESSAY OR TO DISCUSS THE WRITING PROCESS IN GENERAL. |
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