Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

In this interdisciplinary course, students will investigate a topic relating to the histories, societies, cultures, knowledges, geographies, and/or ecologies of Japan, Japanese-speaking people, and/or people of Japanese descent in Asia and beyond. May be repeated for credit only when a different topic is taught.

COURSE DETAILS:

Japanese Canadian Cultural Studies: The Politics of Home

This course will critically examine the story of Japanese Canadian and diasporic cultural activism in Vancouver, with a focus on Paueru Gai (i.e., the Powell Street neighbourhood), the Japanese Canadian community’s largest historic home. It is organized around one central question: What does the notion of home have to do with Japanese Canadian and/or Japanese diasporic culture? To answer this question, we will begin by familiarizing ourselves with the history of the Japanese Canadian community in the Powell Street neighbourhood. At the same time, we will question that history: who is missing? What happens if we include them in the story? Then, we will investigate the politics of home in contemporary Japan and across the Asia-Pacific, with a focus on the aftermath of Japanese imperialism. We will analyze discourses of innocence, peace, and authenticity, particularly as they circulate through commemorative sites (e.g., Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park) and literary and cultural arts (e.g., Shō Yamagushiku’s Shima). Finally, we will consider how these intertwined histories move through Japan, across the Asia-Pacific, and ‘land’ in the Powell Street neighbourhood, shaping the ways in which we consume popular Japanese Canadian and diasporic culture (e.g., anime, J-pop, food, and documentary film/photography) in the present-day, here, at ‘home,’ in Vancouver.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: