Differentiate between modernity and postmodernity
-Think critically about what culture and art entails
-Identify the political and historical contexts of different art movements from the 20th to the 21st century and how they impacted Japan
-Learn how to analyze visual form and think critically
-Recognize major art movements, events and artists from Japan
-Understand the exchanges and connections in the art world beyond the neatly defined borders and linguistic groups
-Discern the relation between politics and aesthetics
-Compare the processes of modern and contemporary art in different latitudes

What is “modernity” and “postmodernity” and how do such concepts help us navigate the art world? In this course we will explore various cultural manifestations that will help us to think critically about these concepts. Especially looking beyond the standard narrative that focuses on the West. Using Japan as a departure point and taking on a transcultural view, we will examine its role as a place of exchange, connection, and creation, particularly in the post-war period and the beginning of the 21st century. We will maintain a thematic structure that will allow us to look at specific art movements and events that helped shape modernity and postmodernity in the context of Japan, while emphasizing their impact in a wider cultural, linguistic and geographic context. We will examine the work of prominent scholars that have theorized modernity and the transition or the juxtaposition to the “postmodern condition”.
The course will challenge you to critique the notion of ‘art’ and what constitutes the modern and the contemporary in culture.

1

Introduction

2

Mapping Modernity

Readings:Excerpts from: Osborne, Peter, The Politics of Time Modernity and Avant-Garde, Verso, 2010.
Adorno, Theodor & Horkheimer, Max, Dialectics of Enlightenment, Verso, 1997.

3

Modernity in Japan (special guest lecturer)

Readings: TBA

4

Modernity and Aesthetics in Japan

Readings: Excerpts from: Sato, Doshi, Modern Japanese Art and the Meiji State: The Politics of Beauty, Getty, 2011
Marra, Michele, Modern Japanese Aesthetics: a reader, University of Hawaii Press, 2001.

5

Japanese Cultural Identity in Modern Art

Readings: Excerpts from: Mostow, Joshua, Norman, Bryson, et al., Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field, University of Hawaii Press, 2003.
Winther-Tamaki, Bert, Maximum Embodiment: Yoga, the Western Painting of Japan, 1912-1955, University of Hawaii Press, 2012

6

Towards a Postmodern Turn (?)

Readings: Excerpts from: Jameson, Frederic, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Verso, 1992.
Ivy, Marilyn, Discourses of the Vanishing, University of Chicago Press, 1997.

7

The Japanese Postmodern in Western Eyes

Reading:Guattari, Félix, Machinic Eros: Writings on Japan, Univocal, 2015.
TBA

8

Postmodernity Art and Subculture

Readings:Murakami, Takashi, Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, Yale University Press, 2005.
TBA

9

Postmodernity, Gender, Japan and the Posthuman

Reading:Haraway, Donna, A Cyborg Manifesto, Socialist Review, 1985.
Excerpts from: Lamarre, Thomas, The Anime Machine: a media theory of animation, University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Movie:Mamoru Oshii, Ghost in the Shell, (1995).

10

Queer Art and the Postmodern Condition, Yasumasa Morimura and the Pastiche

Readings:Brandes, Kerstin, Morimura/Duchamp: ImageRecycling and Parody, Edinburg University Press, 2003.
TBA

11

Queer Art 2 (Special guest lecturer)

Reading:TBA

12

Blurring the Realm Between Subculture and Fine Arts: Nara, Murakami, Aida & Chim/Pom

Readings: Excerpts from: Murakami, Takashi, Superflat, Last Gasp, 2003.
Excerpts from: Aida, Makoto, MONUMENT FOR NOTHING: Tensai De Gomen Nasai, SEIGENSHA Art Publishing, Inc., 2012, (catalogue)
TBA

13

Pop Culture, the State and Cultural Identity

TBA

14

Wrap up Session

**Submission of the final paper **

板書 /Writing on the Board
スライド（パワーポイント等）の使用 /Slides (PowerPoint, etc.)
上記以外の視聴覚教材の使用 /Audiovisual Materials Other than Those Listed Above
個人発表 /Individual Presentations
グループ発表 /Group Presentations
ディスカッション・ディベート /Discussion/Debate
実技・実習・実験 /Practicum/Experiments/Practical Training
学内の教室外施設の利用 /Use of On-Campus Facilities Outside the Classroom
校外実習・フィールドワーク /Field Work
上記いずれも用いない予定 /None of the above

A minimum of two hour of 'Outside-Class' individual study is expected for each session.