Spring AY2022

Culture and Representation
Undergraduate / Graduate

Undergraduate

Registration Code0055422

Course Category

Arts LiberalCredits

2.0

Term (Semester) / Day / Period

G-II (1st year, Spring Semester) / Fri. / 4 (14:45～16:15)

Instructor

MA RanContact e-mail of the Instructor
ma.ran.d8@f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp●Goals of the Course
In this disorienting, globalizing world, the lives and existence of human beings are to great extent defined by
the urban conditions they are enmeshed within and contending with. This course approaches major urban issues
in modern societies by engaging with a wide spectrum of cultural texts drawn from films and other types ofvisual/image works such as photography, transmedia art projects/installations and anime.
Our case studies pay particular attention to the social contexts and cities in contemporary East Asia. However,the ‘city’ will not be simply explored as the theme or ambience featured in these texts. Following our adventureof ‘entering’ the city as cultural texts (such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki/Hiroshima, Beijing, Taipei, and Seoul),with the socio-historical dimensions of urban space theoretically surveyed, we shall futher direct our attention
to the various types of urbanites and their mental life. We pay specific attention to the experiences of living in
the city as an Other—in terms of our national, cultural, and gender identities, but also regarding how the cities
and metropolitans both allure us and alienate us, defining who we are.
●Objectives of the Course
Overall, departing from our observations upon Asian metropolises/societies, students are expected to debate
and discuss cinematic/visual/cultural texts in relation to the urban condition of local, regional and global scales.
Through the lectures, students are expected to learn how to approach and critique the cultural space of cities byutilizing key concepts drawn from various theoretical perspectives such as cultural studies, visual culture, andsociology.
●Course Content or Plan
NOTE: this plan is tentative; for the finalized schedule and weekly readings please refer to the syllabus handedout on April 15th; screenings would be made available online when in-person meeting is not possible. For thezoom meeting information, write to the teacher before the first lecture.
Week 1 INTRODUCTION (April 15th)
Week 2 A CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY
Week 3 CITY AS CULTURAL TEXT
Week 4 FLÂNEUR: ROAMING IN THE CITY (Paris/Shanghai/Tokyo)
Films for Reference:
Midnight Asia: Eat, Dance, Dream (Tokyo episode), Netflix Original Documentary, 2022
Week 5 TOKYO, OR ELSEWHERE
Films for Reference:
Ghost in the Shell, Dir. OSHII Mamoru, 1995
Swallowtail Butterfly, Dir. IWAI Shunji, 2008
Week 6 THE DISAPPEARING CITY: RUINS & MONUMENTS I (Hiroshima/Nagasaki)
Film for Reference:
Hiroshima Mon Amour, Dir. Alain RESNAIS, 1959
Week 7 THE DISAPPEARING CITY: RUINS & MONUMENTS II (Beijing/Shanghai), with in-classscreening
Week 8 HAUNTING CITIES: THE UNCANNY & THE GHOSTLY
Films for Reference (TBA)
LIVING AS “THE OTHER” IN THE CITY I: Debating Zainichi

Spring AY2022
Week 9SCREENING: Pacchigi! 『 ッWeek 10

LECTURE+DISCUSSION!』 Dir. Kazuyuki Izutsu, 2005

LIVING AS “THE OTHER’” IN THE CITY II: Half? /Whole?
Week 11 SCREENING: HAFU: THE MIXED-RACE EXPERIENCE IN JAPAN/ ー , Dir. Megumi
Nishikura,

LaraPerez

Takagi,2013;

WHOLE,short,Dir.

Bilal

Kawazoe,2021.

[https://www.whole-movie.com/]
Week 12LECTURE+DISCUSSION

Week 13
Week 14
Week 15

LIVING AS ‘THE OTHER’ IN THE CITY III: Diaspora & Cinema
GROUP PRESENTATION (details TBA)THESIS WORKSHOP●Course Prerequisites and Related Courses
This survey course is basically open to all undergraduate students who have demonstrated certain interest incinema and other visual medium, and have the competency in reading and analyzing undergraduate-level
cultural texts in English. Preferably the students could already use English-language skillfully, and are prepared
to write in English for short essays and to present in English.
●Course Evaluation Method and Criteria
40% Attendance + Participation (contribution to class discussions/presentation/Perusall Reading)
30% Reading Journals (15%x2)/300-word each/Details TBA.
30% Final Paper/Details TBA
NOTE: 3 absences (three times or more), including those for in-class screenings without proper evidence
provided equals FAIL. Policy for the withdrawal applies, but please notify the teacher as soon as possible.
●Study Load (Self-directed Learning Outside Course Hours)
Pending on the English ability: 2-2.5 hours per/week for the reading; longer if there are films for reference(optional, if they are not indicated as a “Screening”).
●How to Respond to Questions
Email, Online meeting via appointments, and Perusall (social reading platform).
●Notice for Students
Plagiarism: A writer who presents the ideas of words of another as if they were the writer’s own (that is,without proper citation) commits plagiarism. Plagiarism is not tolerable in this course or at Nagoya University.
You should avoid making quotes or drawing on figures from nowhere—you must provide sources of referencefor quotation and/or citations you use in the paper. This applies to images and media clips as well. Failure toobserve this would risk being charged of plagiarism.
[All assignments/papers will be checked with professional software]● essage fro t e nstructor“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, theirrules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.”― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
When we could only meet online in our zoom avatars at a time when overseas trips—either leaving home or
returning home—become extremely difficult, promises about trips to the cities we love and desire seem like acruel joke. But I hope we can explore the in/visial cities together with the imaginations offered by films, animeand videos—to understand our own identities and positionings in the world better.
A compilation of readings(digitized)
Textbook
Reference BookA compilation of readings(digitized)

Reference ebsite
for this Course

For any course-related questions, please refer to our Persusall page and/or write to
Ma Ran: ma.ran.d8@f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp