Introduction
PART ONE
Shock of the West and the "new individual":
Required reading:
Natsume Soseki, Kokoro--- What is freedom? The struggle of a Meiji intellectual
Recommended reading:
Mori Ogai Wild Geese--- Self-awakening of a woman
PART TWO
Tokyo Cityscape, 1920s: Fascination/Disillusionment
Required reading: Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s “Aguri” --- Sexuality and the body
Recommended reading:
Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Naomi --- The beautiful enchantress? Modernity and sexuality
Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Kappa, In a Grove, Rashomon--- Struggling with the irrational
(Film Viewing: “Rashomon”)
Yosano Akiko’s poems of “the new woman”
PART THREE
Lost in the Modern
Required reading:
Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human --- Or what does it mean to be human?
PART FOUR
Quest for Identity in PostwarJapan
Rediscovering Tradition(1):
Required reading:
Kawabata Yasunari, Snow Country, Thousand Cranes --- Tradition and aesthetics
Rediscovering Tradition(2):
Required reading:
Mishima Yukio, “Patriotism” --- Tradition and nationalism
Recommended reading:
Mishima Yukio, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Mishima Yukio, Spring Snow
PART FIVE
New Writing after the 1980s
Required reading:
Murakami Haruki, The Wild Sheep Chase, After Dark
--- Where is reality? Freedom and surveillance
Recommended reading:
Murakami Haruki, The End of the World and Hardboiled Wonderland
Murakami Ryu, Coinlocker Babies
Yoshimoto Banana, Kitchen
Young Writers Today
Kawakami Hiromi, Kawakami Mieko, Kanehara Hitomi, Yoko Tawada and others
Concluding Discussion