Wallace Welcome Page / Announcements / EA105 Summer 2013

 

LEGEND

❖ Testable topics and materials
◊ Other topics and materials
✓ To be completed by class time

 

Modern Japanese cinema: Dolls (Japan-Tokyo, 2002)

❖ Recent cinema from Japan (Tokyo): Dolls

Topics:

  • Layering: Non-linearity in timelines (Overall structure of telling three stories at the same time. Then, at the level of each story: Primary story is non-linear; Secondary story #1 (mafia) is past-oriented; Secondary story #2 is perhaps linear but close to static).
  • Faithfulness/bonds/fate : Does this movie explore love as faithfulness or love as unbreakable bond or inescapable bond (fate) and do any of these positions grounded in Confucianism or Buddhism?
  • Nihilism: If the "worldview" is fundamentally nihilistic, what is the status of love? (By nihilism, in this case, I mean a world where meaningful actions are either impossible or so weak as to be ultimately not a source of solice)
  • Comparisons: role of memories in 2046 and Dolls (story-to-story differences / country-to-country differences)
  • Comparisons: Dreaminess in Dolls and Genji.
  • Comparisons: What is love? — in Dolls and Genji.

Some further topics/questions based on the above topics:

  • Faithlessness and its repercussions as imagined by the director.
  • What is the place of love (choosing to love) in a context that suggests we are controlled by fate?
  • What is the course of love in anihilistic context?

 

*UNDER CONSTRUCTION: If this red font phrase underneath the session title has not been erased it means something on this page is incomplete. Perhaps I want to recheck information or perhaps I haven't converted the page from the version of the previous class. It is available but should be taken dubiously.

*ABOUT THIS SESSION: My hope is that you look at this portion BEFORE a session. If there is content here it might help you focus on the main points of the day. However, I add various things here at various times. When I feel I haven't succeeded in class stating something clearly, I might restate it here. Of if it is a difficult concept in might be given in written form here. I will assume that you have read and rechecked for changes this session in preparation for any midterm or test.

Schedule:

M, June 17
Tu, June 18
W, June 19
Th, June 20

M, June 24
Tu, June 25
W, June 26
Th, June 27

M, July 1
Tu, July 2
W, July 3
Th, no class


Course theme: The interpretation of East Asian narrated romance (premodern and modern) through awareness of worldviews and select core values as context.

Course goals:

1) Deeper and more accurate interpretations of East Asian romantic narratives premodern and modern.

2) Vertical analysis (contemporary narratives compared to historical traditions) — As a necessary activity in working towards Goal #1, we try to take a measure of the place of premodern values (relevant to romance) in instances of modern East Asian cinema (with speculation of what this might suggest of society).

3) Horizontal analysis (comparison to one another of values in film and beyond of China, Korea and Japan) — As a derivative of #2, a comparison of China, Korea and Japan, finding differences and similarities worth noting.

Primary means to the goal: Disciplined interpretation & analysis constrained to specific method and rules that consider narratives within cultural context. Analysis is carried out through individual, team, and classwide exercises, reports, presentations & discussions. The class, therefore, is part lecture, part discussion and part workshop.

Course rules:

"all about love" "equal interest in the three countries" "beat average Joe" "subtle differences" "contribution to the class" "tolerance of others" "team cooperation" "narratives are not reality" "subtitles are the official language"