This course explores post WWII Japanese music, literature, artistic media, and hi-tech products. Investigates social themes ranging from post-holocaust Japanese hedonism to childhood fantasies by looking at Manga comic books, Animation, and popular music, as well as fashion and style, popular technology, consumerism, and environmental issues. Explores the evolution of pop culture and its impact on society. Taught in English.
This course satisfies MLO2: Culture. In it we looked at Japanese pop culture starting after the end of WWII into modern time. It examined a variety of sources of pop culture, from music, literature, art, and even the products Japan was exporting to the world. It, of course, also examined manga and anime, as well as the evolution of Japanese street fashion. Through this vast variety of topics and sources of pop-culture, we examined how Japan rebuilt itself after WWII and what values it fostered as well as the values of the youth and counterculture movements that also arose. We examined the hedonism present during the bubble economy in the late 70s into the 80s as well as the effects of the the bubble bursting and the lost decade of the 90s.
There were a couple of things we examined in depth in class. One of those was the rise of kawaii culture. It started in the 70s with girls in school as a form of rebellion against what society wanted of them. Middle schoolers and high schoolers felt that they were being pushed into adult roles too soon in the bubble economy and that the media was pushing a glamorized adult ideal on them. So they pushed back and started emphasizing cute childlike things. They even created a system of cute handwriting that was so different from standard Japanese that teachers banned its use in schools. But there was also an element of sadness to it as they were regretting the childhood they saw as slipping away from them. The term kawaii, which means cute, in fact came from the term kawaisou, which means pitiful. One area where you can see this sadness come in is in the art of Yoshitomo Nara, who paints children with large heads in a cute style, but often they are shown with unhappy or angry expressions or depicted with paraphernalia often associated with adults such as alcohol or cigarettes.
At the culumilation of the class we had to pick a topic of our choosing, relating to Japanese pop culture and write a ten-page, in-depth research paper and give a presentation on our topic. I chose to look at the culture that fans create around the media they enjoy, specifically looking at the importance of the transformative works that some fans create. I examined both the place of fanworks in the Western-Anglo world as well as doujinshi in Japan. Below I have included both the paper I wrote, as well as the presentation I gave on the topic, though I recommend reading the paper before viewing the powerpoint for better understanding. I then went on to continue studying and researching fan culture for my capstone.
This course satisfies MLO2: Culture. In it we looked at Japanese pop culture starting after the end of WWII into modern time. It examined a variety of sources of pop culture, from music, literature, art, and even the products Japan was exporting to the world. It, of course, also examined manga and anime, as well as the evolution of Japanese street fashion. Through this vast variety of topics and sources of pop-culture, we examined how Japan rebuilt itself after WWII and what values it fostered as well as the values of the youth and counterculture movements that also arose. We examined the hedonism present during the bubble economy in the late 70s into the 80s as well as the effects of the the bubble bursting and the lost decade of the 90s.
There were a couple of things we examined in depth in class. One of those was the rise of kawaii culture. It started in the 70s with girls in school as a form of rebellion against what society wanted of them. Middle schoolers and high schoolers felt that they were being pushed into adult roles too soon in the bubble economy and that the media was pushing a glamorized adult ideal on them. So they pushed back and started emphasizing cute childlike things. They even created a system of cute handwriting that was so different from standard Japanese that teachers banned its use in schools. But there was also an element of sadness to it as they were regretting the childhood they saw as slipping away from them. The term kawaii, which means cute, in fact came from the term kawaisou, which means pitiful. One area where you can see this sadness come in is in the art of Yoshitomo Nara, who paints children with large heads in a cute style, but often they are shown with unhappy or angry expressions or depicted with paraphernalia often associated with adults such as alcohol or cigarettes.
At the culumilation of the class we had to pick a topic of our choosing, relating to Japanese pop culture and write a ten-page, in-depth research paper and give a presentation on our topic. I chose to look at the culture that fans create around the media they enjoy, specifically looking at the importance of the transformative works that some fans create. I examined both the place of fanworks in the Western-Anglo world as well as doujinshi in Japan. Below I have included both the paper I wrote, as well as the presentation I gave on the topic, though I recommend reading the paper before viewing the powerpoint for better understanding. I then went on to continue studying and researching fan culture for my capstone.
the_place_of_fanworks_and_doujinshi_in_society.docx |
the_place_of_fanworks_and_doujinshi_in_society__the_new_modern_consumption_of_media.pdf |