Fall 2019  |  ALL 3467 Section 001: Science Fiction, Empire, Japan (20879)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
A-F only
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/03/2019 - 12/11/2019
Tue, Thu 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, East Bank
Nicholson Hall 315
Enrollment Status:
Open (37 of 44 seats filled)
Course Catalog Description:
Premised on its historical position as a non-Western colonial empire, this course takes up Japan as a focal point for examining the relations between science fiction and imperialism. Discussions center on the colonial underpinnings of Japanese science fiction and how particular motifs (future war, time travel, posthuman bodies) critically interrogate this history.
Class Description:
This course serves the dual purpose of introducing students to key issues and themes arising out of the history of Japanese science fiction and providing a space to critically engage with the imbrication of science fiction with empire. It is premised on the understanding that the inter-textually circulated motifs, images, and narratives of science fiction form a coherent and historically situated discourse indebted to the language and logic of colonialism. In light of the fact that, on the one hand, Japan has become a fetishized site in Anglo-American texts such that "Japan" itself is often imagined as signifying a science fictional space as such, and on the other hand, the emergence of the SF genre in Japan in the first half of the twentieth century is intertwined with the ideological deployments of science and discourses of "civilization" embedded in the nation's historical position as the only non-Western colonial empire, this course will take up "Japan" as a specific locus of analysis from which standpoint we will track the overlaps and interactions between the emergence and subsequent development of the genre of science fiction and the histories of empire.

Through the course of the term, we will examine a range of texts (literature, film, and animation) from the history of science fiction in Japan. Our goal will be to highlight the formative effects of colonial histories on our understanding of the history of the genre and how particular science-fictional tropes and themes - from future war stories, to time travel narratives, to representations of post-human bodies, and others - work to produce our collective imaginations of the future. By the end of the semester, students are expected to have both gained a familiarity with key themes and issues that permeate the science-fictional stories coming out of Japan, as well as developed a sense of the larger stakes of science-fictionality as a site of critical thought and practice.

As all the texts will be made available in English translation, no prior Japanese language proficiency is required.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/20879/1199
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
1 August 2016

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