Japanese Fiction and Film

Monday, April 8, 2013

Author: Prof. Darrell Davis

Institution: University of Hong Kong

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:

  • Lead discussion on one film/novel covered in this course.
  • 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 …)
  • 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
  • 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.