Advanced Topics in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature and Culture (322-0-21)
Topic
Cyber-Japan
Instructors
Patrick James Noonan
847/467-0283
Kresge Hall - Office 4-550
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course explores the interaction between cybernetic technologies and cultural production in modern Japan. We focus on how visual and literary media have been used to represent such technologies (robotics, cybernetics, and the Internet) as well as how these technologies have shaped Japanese culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The notion of the "cyber" - its origins in cybernetics and ensuing proliferation of meanings - forms the conceptual core of the course. After considering early definitions of this term, we turn to how Japanese manga, animation, film, and cultural theory explore the ways in which cybernetic technologies, like cyborgs and cyberspace, have expanded our understanding of human subjectivity and agency, transformed social relations, and blurred boundaries between the human and the animal, the biological and the artificial, and the physical and non-physical.
Teaching Method
Lecture and Discussion
Evaluation Method
Attendance and Participation Short Writing Assignments Midterm Assessment Final Assessment
Class Materials (Required)
All materials will be available through Canvas
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area