Sex and Gender in the 20th Century: Contemporary Japan
- Course Code:
- 15PHIH010
- Status:
- Course Not Running 2012/2013
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Year 1 or Year 2
- Taught in:
- Term 1
This course examines the history of sex and gender in the context of contemporary Japan as a means of better understanding how the socially constructed aspects of individual identity influence the performance of normative social roles in advanced industrialized societies. While the history of contemporary Japanese society will be our primary case study, this course centers on unpacking the theoretical issues and intellectual frameworks that underpin the study of gender and sexuality in a transnational context. Students should be prepared to engage in critical discussion of assigned readings and be ready to discuss the case of Japan as they develop their own thoughts on gender, sexuality, and the history of gender relations in East Asia.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
- Students should demonstrate their understanding of the main debates in the historiography of sex and gender in contemporary Japan in an East Asian context; identify the leading positions within these, together with their theoretical underpinnings; and relate the Japanese case to the relevant interdisciplinary and comparative literature.
- Students should demonstrate their ability to design an independent research project, including identification of the relevant secondary literature and appropriate primary sources.
- Students should demonstrate the ability to present their work effectively in both oral and written form.
Suggested reading
Comparative Contexts: Europe and the US
Book Chapters for Group Discussion (everyone will read and discuss):
1. Joan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, Columbia University Press, 1999 (selections).
2. Linda K. Kerber, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998 (selections).
3. Alice Kessler Harris, Gendering Labor History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007 (selections).
Comparative Contexts: Korea and China
Book Chapters for Presentation (to be assigned):
4. Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities: A Reader. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
5. Ruth Barraclough and Elyssa Faison. Gender and Labor in Korea and Japan: Sexing Class. London: Routledge, 2009.
Recreating Women
Book Chapters for Presentation (to be assigned):
6. Gail Lee Bernstein, Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, University of California Press, 1991.
Gendering Modern Japan
Book Chapters for Presentation (to be assigned):
7. Barbara Molony and Kathleen S. Uno. Gendering Modern Japanese History. Harvard East Asian monographs, 251. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005.
Sexuality and Sexology
Books for Presentation (individual selection):
8. Gregory Pflugfelder, Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
9. John Treat. Great Mirrors Shattered: Homosexuality, Orientalism, and Japan. Ideologies of desire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
10. Sabine Fruhstuck. Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 2003.
Sex Work
Books for Presentation (individual selection):
11. Cecilia Segawa Seigle. Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
12. Sarah Chaplin, Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History. Routledge contemporary Japan series, 15. London: Routledge, 2007.
13. Lisa Louis, Butterflies of the Night: Mama-san, Geisha, Strippers, and the Japanese Men they Serve, New York: Tengu Books, 1992.
Family and Gender Relations
Books for Presentation (individual selection):
14. Jordon Sand, House and Home in Modern Japan: Architecture, Domestic Space, and Bourgeois Culture, 1880-1930, Harvard University Press, 2004.
15. Amy Borovoy, The Too-Good Wife: Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Postwar Japan, University of California Press, 2005.
16. Gail Lee Bernstein, Isami's House: Three Centuries of a Japanese Family, University of California Press, 2005.
War and Warriors
Books for Presentation (individual selection):
17. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
18. Sabine Fruhstuck. Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
War and War Crimes
Books for Presentation (individual selection):
19. Chunghee Sarah Soh. The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
20. Chizuko Ueno and Beverley Yamamoto. Nationalism and Gender. Japanese society series. Melbourne, Vic: Trans Pacific, 2004.
Work and Gender
Books for Presentation (individual selection):
21. Elyssa Faison, Managing Women: Disciplining Labor in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
22. Helen Macnaughtan, Women and Work in Postwar Japan. Routledge studies in the modern history of Asia. London: Routledge, 2006.
23. Christopher Gerteis, Gender Struggles: Wage-Earning Women and Male-Dominant Unions in Postwar Japan. Cambridge: Harvard Asia Center, 2009.
