Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Japanese Fiction

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
  
• Convenor: to be confirmed
• Assessment: a 5000-word essay (100%)

The course offers you an introduction to contemporary Japanese literature and its most fascinating writers by examining the sexual/textual politics that inform their work.

• What is the critical potential of literary representations of gender and sexuality in contesting (or reinforcing) traditional ideas of gender roles, power relations and social structures?
• Which textual strategies do Japanese authors employ in (re-) writing sexuality and the body?
• How do they attempt to escape prevailing gender dichotomies?
• How do issues of power, gender and race intersect in their writings ? and our readings?

To answer such questions, we will analyse texts selected from contemporary Japanese literature (in English translation) by drawing on critical theories related to issues of gender and sexuality. Structured around specific topics, the course aims to enable you to explore the interpretive possibilities of working within a gender framework in the research of a non-western literature.

There is no Japanese language requirement.