CONTEMPORARY JAPAN
IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
CLASS SCHEDULE
ASPECTS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE
(ONE CLASS SESSION PLUS INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECT)
MONDAY, OCTOBER
24, 2005:
A VIDEO INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR CULTURE IN JAPAN
"Culture" often seems confined to elite concerns with literature, art and drama; this is properly seen as "high culture" with "popular culture" representing the activities, pastimes and interests of the non-elite (as influenced by elite definitions and interests as well as larger social, philosophical and religious contexts but nonetheless the "property" of the massess of the population).
VIDEO AND DISCUSSION: The Japanese Version
Consider how the video reflects on the following: popular culture's playful escape from "real world" concerns, its assumption of role playing approaches thereto, the prominence of visual presentation, the level of complexity and detail evidenced and indications of adaptation at work
INTERNET DISCUSSION SEVEN (POPULAR CULTURE) OPEN
INTERNET DISCUSSISON SIX CLOSED
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER
26, 2005 THROUGH FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2005:
DR. MAKELA IN JAPAN -- NO SCHEDULED CLASSES
CLASS SCHEDULE:
| THINKING ABOUT JAPAN | CODES OF CONDUCT | SOCIETY | POPULAR CULTURE | CULTURAL HERITAGE | THE POSTMODERN | EDUCATION, THE ECONOMY AND POLITICS | CONCLUDING THE COURSE OF STUDY |