Japanese Fiction and Film

Prof. Darrell Davis
W 1:00-5:00
Location THH 305 226H Taper Hall x3713
Hours: 11:30—12:30 MW
Texts:
Burch, To the Distant Observer (California)
Desser, Eros plus Massacre (Indiana)
Nolletti and Desser, eds., Reframing Japanese Cinema (Indiana)
Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (Grosset, Dunlap) *
Tanizaki, The Key (Vintage)
Ooka, Fires on the Plain (Tuttle)
Ibuse, Black Rain (Kodansha) *
Abe, Face of Another (Kodansha)
Keene, ed. Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu (Columbia)
Brandon, ed. Chushingura: Studies in . . (Hawaii)
* These are LONG works: get a two or three week head start on them.

** In addition to these eight books, several critical articles in Japanese will be placed on reserve for research and/or discussion (see below).

PLEASE BRING TEXTBOOKS TO CLASS FOR DISCUSSION.

Requirements:

1. Lead discussion on one film/novel covered in this course.
2. Write an original seminar paper (20 pages or less) based on research prepared for your discussion; the paper should incorporate critical reflections on the status of fiction as mediated by literary and cinematic means. (more later . . .)
3. Come to class every week. Join the discussion. Offer your questions suggestions and opinions, even if you suspect they are naive.
Course Outline: Five Units

I. FILM AND THEATRE

Jan. 18

READ: KABUKI AND PUPPETS * Chikamatsu, "On Realism in Art"* Brian Powell, "Genroku Chushingura" Burch, Pt. I; Ch. 4, 6, 7

SCREEN: Genroku Chushingura

Jan. 25
READ: Davis *; Desser, Intro., Ch. 1; Brandon, Intro., Ch. 1; Burch, Ch. 23

SCREEN: Yukinojo Henge

Feb. 1
READ: Keene, Intro.,Shinju ten no Amijima/Sonezaki Shinju; Apdx. I. Desser, Ch. 6

SCREEN: Double Suicide

II. WOMEN'S AUTHORSHIP/FEMALE VOICE

Feb. 8

READ: Hayashi, "Late Chrysanthemums" * Desser, Ch. 4, 7; Anderson (Reframing)

SCREEN: Late Chrysanthemums

Feb. 15
READ: Saikaku, "Life of an Amorous Woman" *; Andrew (Landscapes)*; Cohen (Reframing) Burch, Ch. 20

SCREEN: Life of Oharu (+ Gion/Naniwa)

III. TANIZAKI AND FILM

Feb. 22

READ: The Key; In'ei Raisan *

SCREEN: Kagi (An Odd Obsession)

March 1
READ: The Makioka Sisters (Sasameyuki); Recommended: Some Prefer Nettles *

SCREEN: The Makioka Sisters

IV. WAR AND HOLOCAUST

March 8

READ: Fires on the Plain; Hino, "Earth and Soldiers"*; Hauser, (Reframing); Burch, Ch. 22—23

SCREEN: Fires on the Plain; (+ Tsuchi to Heitai)

March 15: SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK

March 22

READ: BLACK RAIN

SCREEN: same

V. IDENTITY, SUBJECTIVITY, ALIENATION

March 29

READ: Face of Another; Desser, Ch. 3

SCREEN: same (+ Woman in the Dunes)

April 5
READ: Snow Country *

SCREEN: YUKIGUNI

April 12
READ: Temple of Golden Pavilion *

SCREEN: ENJO (+ Kurotokage)

April 19
READ: Mori Ogai sh. stories ON RESERVE; Davis, "Uses and Misuses of History"*

SCREEN: SANSHO DAYU (+ GAN)

April 26
READ: Desser, 122—128;

Burch, Part 6; Bordwell (Reframing)

May 1:
PAPERS DUE

SCREEN: INSECT WOMAN

Japanese Language Bibliography

Ishikawa Hiroshi, Goraku no senzenshi.

Maeda Ai, "Sakariba ni eigakan ga dekita" Koza nihon eiga—shi.

"Bunka sangyo no seiritsu" Taisho bunka, ed. Minami Hiroshi. Nihonjin no hyakunen, vol. 12, Taishubunka no hana.

Kano Ryuichi, "Kinugasa Teinosuke to sono shuhen" Koza nihon eigashi, vol. 2.

Iwamoto Kenji, "'Tokai kokyoraku'——Mizoguchi Kenji to Akai Kippu".

Namiki shinsaku, "Purokino undo," Koza nihon eigashi, vol. 2.

Kimura Sotoji and Sato Tadao, "Keiko eiga kara man'ei e" in Koza . . . vol 2.

Yamamoto Kikuo, "Taishu bunka toshite no eiga no seiritsu," " " .

Oya Soichi, Modan so to modan so.

—"'Kane' to 'renai' no kankei"

—"Sararii—man no seikatsu to shiso"

—"Kindai bi to yaban bi: ido shite iku bi no kijun"

Iwamoto Kenji, ed., Nihon eiga to modanizumu.
—"Modanizumu to nihon eiga"

—"Moga mobo no shozo"

—"Ozu Yasujiro to dandizumu"

—"Toshi no montaaju"

—"Nikkatsu modanizumu"

—"Kikai jidai no bigaku no eiga"

—"Supeedo no jidai"; "Hikoki to eiga"

Murakawa Hide, "Shochiku no merodorama no kindaika," ibid.

Yamanouchi Hisashi, "Merodorama no genten"; "Mizoguchi kenji no riarizumu," Koza nihon eigashi, vol. 3.

Takizawa Hajime, "Jidai geki to wa nanika" Koza nihon eigashi, vol. 2.

Shigeno Tatsuhiko, "Yamanaka Sadao," Tada Michitaro, "Aru jidai eiga no ironii," Koza nihon eigashi.

Nakai Masakazu, "Haru no kontinyuitii," "Shiso—teki kiki ni okeru geijutsu narabi sono doko," "Bi to shudan no ronri.""Kikai bi no kozo," N.M. zenshu.

Imamura Taihei, Eiga no me.

Kamei Fumio, Tatakau eiga.

Sato Tadao, "Kokka ni kanri sareta eiga"; Yamamoto Akira, "Gojunen sensoshita, nihon no senso eiga"; Okudaira Yasuhiro, "Eiga no kokka tosei" Koza nihon eiga shi, vol. 4.

FOR REFERENCE

Tanaka Junichiro, Nihon eiga hattatsu shi.

Anderson and Richie, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry.

Andrew, Dudley and Paul Andrew. Kenji Mizoguchi: A Guide to References and Resources. Boston: G.K.Hall, 1981.

Nornes and Fukushima, The Japan—America Film Wars: World War II Propagada and Its Cultural Contexts Harwood, 1994.

Ehrlich and Desser, eds., Cinematic Landscapes: Observations on Film and the Visual Arts in China and Japan. Texas, 1994.

Bordwell, David. Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

"Mizoguchi and the Evolution of Film Language." In Stephen Heath and Patricia Mellencamp,eds. Cinema and Language. Los Angeles: AmericanFilm Institute, 1983: 107-115.

"Our Dream Cinema: Western Historiography and the Japanese Film." Film Reader 4 (1979): 45-62.

Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. "Space and Narrative in the Films of Ozu." Screen 17, No. 2 (Summer 1976): 41-73

Branigan, Edward. Narrative Comprehension and Film. Routledge, 1992.

Alan Casebier, "Images of Irrationality . . . Shohei Imamura" FCrit. 8. 1 (Fall 1983). 42-49.

Barthes, Roland. Empire of Signs. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.

Buruma, Ian. Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers,Transvestites, Gangsters, Drifters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes. New York: Pantheon, 1984.

"Imperialist Japan." Review essay, The New York Review of Books, March 17, 1988.
Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon, 1986.

Ernst, Earle. The Kabuki Theatre. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974.

Fujitake, Akira. "The Formation and Development of Mass Culture." The Developing Economies 5, No. 4 (December 1967): 767-782.

Hirano, Kyoko. Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Kirihara, Donald. Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi and the 1930s. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,1992.

"A Reconsideration of the Institution of the Benshi." Film Reader 6 (1985), 41-54.

"Kabuki, Cinema and Mizoguchi Kenji." In Cinema and Language. Los Angleles: American Film Institute, 1983: 97-106.

Komatsu, Hiroshi and Charles Musser. "Benshi Search." Wide Angle 9, 2 (1987).

Sato, Tadao. Currents in Japanese Cinema. New York: Kodansha, 1982.

"War As a Spiritual Exercise: Japan's National Policy Films." Wide Angle 2, No. 1 (1977), 22-4.

Chambara eiga ron: Onoe Matsunosuke kara Zatoichi made. Tokyo: Film Art Series, 1978.

Schrader, Paul. Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.