Skip to main content

Undergraduate spring application deadline is December 1 for spring term.

HIST 372A History of Japanese Popular Culture

In this course, we will examine various aspects of Japanese popular culture from the Tokugawa period, through the imperial era (1868-1945), to the postwar/contemporary time (1945-present), though more emphasis is put on postwar Japan. Critical analysis of different forms of cultural production, from the theoretical and thematic perspectives of class, gender, globalization, modernity, national/racial/ethnic identity, sexuality, invented traditions, and war memory, will provide insight into Japanese history, culture, and society.

Prerequisites

4 Undergraduate credits

Effective August 14, 2022 to present

Meets graduation requirements for

Learning outcomes

General

  • Can analyze factors affecting the transnational nature of popular culture, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • Can evaluate discrepancies between official ideologies and ideas represented by popular culture, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • Knows the political, economic, and cultural elements which have influenced Japanese popular cultural historically, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • Understands the role of a world citizen who consumes popular cultural products and assigns meanings to them, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.

Minnesota Transfer Curriculum

Goal 5: History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences

  • Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition.
  • Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
  • Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
  • Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.

Goal 8: Global Perspective

  • Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.
  • Analyze specific international problems, illustrating the cultural, economic, and political differences that affect their solution.
  • Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.

Summer 2024

Section Title Instructor books eservices
01 History of Japanese Popular Culture Otsubo, Sumiko Books for HIST-372A-01 Summer 2024 Course details for HIST-372A-01 Summer 2024