ANTHRO 256b: Minorities and Sexualities in Modern Japan
also WGSS 366b


Prof. Karen Nakamura
Time: MWF 10:30 - 11:20
Location: WLH 113

Classes V2 Server

 

Last offered: Spring 2006
Next offered: Spring 2007


Enrollment limit: 25

 

Brief Course Description

Confronts the image of Japan as homogenous by exploring the various post-colonial, native, caste, and sexual minorities that have become vocal in the last century. Focuses on the mechanisms by which minoritization occurs and the development of social protest movements.

 

Expanded Course Description

Japan is often imagined as a homogeneous nation. This is myth shared by both citizens and the state. In the early 1980s, the government submitted a report to the UN stating that there were no ethnic, linguistic, or religious minorities in Japan. This of course, conveniently overlooked the resident Korean community, former outcaste Burakumin, aboriginal Ainu, nascent gay and lesbian activists, disability protesters, among others. Building pressure for many decades, minority politics have burst on the scene in the past several years, shattering the seemingly calm veneer of Japanese society.

This course examines minority politics in Japan from two related perspectives. The first asks a structural question: What historical, social, or cultural constraints have led to the particular social protest forms and types of minority identity we see in Japan today? The second comparative frame is more introspective: How does exploring the Japanese case help us to understand identity politics in the U.S. as being the result of similar but differing factors? We will be borrowing from contemporary sociological, linguistic, and anthropological theory in order to answer these questions, and others that will arise in the course of our investigations. We will be reading from several key texts that have emerged in the field of minority studies in Japan in the past decade including Sonia Ryang's North Koreans in Japan and Michael Weiner's Japan's Minorities: the Illusion of Homogeneity.

 


Prerequisites and Requirements

An introductory course that covers contemporary Japanese history and culture is recommended but not required.

Students in other majors with previous backgrounds in minority studies or gay and lesbian studies are particularly welcome.


Textbooks and Course Readings

The required textbooks will be available at the Labyrinth bookstore. Course readings in the forms of articles will also be distributed through the Classes V2 server.


Schedule of Readings (when to read what; PDF Format)

Grading
AssignmentPercentage
Participation10%
Pop Quizzes 20%
Position Papers30%
Research Paper 40%

Library and Other Resources



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