Note: The graduate students that attended the class met separately to discuss the following readings.

ALC 690---Prof. Abé Mark Nornes

LECTURE: MW 8:30-10:00; SCREENING: T 8-10:00

 

The History of Japanese Cinema

Goals of the Course:

I. To survey the history of the Japanese moving image, from its beginnings in one-shot actualities to the proliferation of video-based media.

II. To interrogate the relationship of history and photographic representation.

III. To conceptualize "nation," "nationalism" and "national cinema" in a country whose psychic and political borders have been surprisingly fluid in the past 100 years.

IV. To study the interaction between national and international dimensions of texts, auteurs and movements.

V. To compare the development of Japanese cinema to other national contexts.

Grading:

Participation 10%
6-page paper on Ozu Yasujirô 10%
Term Paper 70%

Required Texts (available at Shaman Drum):

Anderson, Joseph and Donald Richie. The Japanese Film: Art and Industry. (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1959). Expanded version: (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982).
 
Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History, ed. by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. and David Desser (Bloomington: Indiana, 1992).
 
Reader

Schedule (see undergradute syllabus for lecture information and additional readings):

Jan 8: Introduction

Jan. 15: 1918: Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, Kikuchi Kan, et al. "‘Jidôsha’ to ‘Katsudô Shashin’ to ‘Kafê’" ("‘Cars’ and ‘Movies’ and ‘Cafés’"); 1922: Tachibana Takahiro. "Eiga no Hakairyoku to Kensetsuryoku" ("Cinema’s Destructive Power and Constructive Power"), in Eigageki to Engeki ("Photoplay and Theater"); Burch 1-66.

Jan 22: 1933: Terada Torahiko. "Nyusu Eiga to Shinbun Kiji" ("News Film and Newspaper Articles"). Burch Debate–1970: Editors of Cahiers du Cinéma, "Japanese Cinema (1)."

Jan 29: 1928: Sasa Genju. "Gangu/Buki––Satsueiki" ("Camera––Toy/Weapon"); Burch 100-122.

Feb 5: 1931: "Haru no Kontinyuitî," ("The Continuity of Spring"); 1952: Nakai Masakazu. "Eiga no Jikan" ("The Time of Cinema"); 1952: Nakai Masakazu, "Shikisai Eiga no Omoide" ("Memories of Color Films").

Feb 12: Burch 123-139; 1937: Tosaka Jun, "Eiga Ninshikironteki Kachi to Fûzoku Byôsha," ("The Description of Custom and the Epistemological Value of Cinema"); 1937: Tosaka Jun, "Eiga Geijutsu to Eiga–Abusutorakushon no Sayô E" ("Film Art and Film–Toward the Operation of Abstraction"); 1936: Iwasaki Akira, Eigaron ("On Cinema"), excerpts.

Feb 19: Burch 262-269; 1937: Imamura Taihei, "Eiga Geijutsu no Seikaku" ("The Character of Film Art"); 1943: Imamura Taihei, "Kokumin Eiga no Mondai" ("The Problem of Citizen Films"); late 1930s: Paul Rotha, Documentary Film, excerpts of translations.

Feb 26: Burch 271-290; 1958: Tsurumi Shunsuke, "Gokaiken" ("The Right to Misunderstand"); 1957: Tsurumi Shunsuke, "Sensô Hihan no Me" ("The Eyes of War Criticism"); 1957: Tsurumi Shunsuke, "Nihon Eiga no Namida to Warai" ("The Laughter and Tears of Japanese Cinema"); 1962: Hanada Kiyoteru, "Taishu to wa Nanika" ("What Are the Masses?"), from "Eiga-teki Shikô" ("Cinematic Thought"); Reports on English books (1 each)

Mar 5: SPRING BREAK

Mar 12: 1955: Joseph Anderson, "Japanese Film Periodicals." Reports on English books (2 each).

Mar 19: 1970: Sato Tadao, "Nihon Eiga no Shisôshi" ("History of the Intellectual Currents in Japanese Film"), excerpt; Selections from Audie Bock, Joan Mellon, David Desser, and Scott Nygren; 199_: Robert Cohen, "Why Does Oharu Faint?"; 1991: Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, "The Difficulty of Being Radical: The Discipline of Film Studies and the Postcolonial World Order."

Mar 26: Hani Susumu. "Tsuchimoto Dokyumentarî Eiga no Hôhô to Honshitsu" ("The Essence and Method of Tsuchimoto’s Documentary"); 1958: Masumura Yasuzô, "Watakushi no Shuchô Suru Engi" ("The Performance I Insist On"); 1963: Ôshima Nagisa, "Sengo Nihon Eiga no Jôkyô to Shutai" ("The Subject and Circumstances of Postwar Japanese Cinema").

Apr 2: 1963: Matsumoto Toshio. Eizô no Hakken–Abangyarudo to Dokyumentarî ("The Discovery of Images–Avant-Garde and Documentary"), excerpt; 1993: Oshima Nagisa. 1960, excerpt.

Apr 9: 1974: Suzuki Shirôyasu. "Sei no Komyunikêshon" ("Sexual Communication"), in Eiga no Benshô ("Apologetics of Cinema"); 1993: Yomota Inuhiko. Den’ei Fû’un ("The State of Electric Shadows"), excerpt.

Apr 16: 1985: Kogawa Tetsuo. Jôhôshihonshugi hihan ("Critique of Informational Capitalism"); 1992: Kogawa Tetsuo, Takemura Mitsuhiro, Ueno Toshiya, and Imafuku Ryuta. Post Media-ron, excerpt.