This course is intended to give students a comprehensive introduction to Japan's history and culture from prehistorical times up to the 19^th century. Special attention will be given to social change, the historical development of political and economic institutions, and the relations between these developments and parallel ones in religion, philosophy, and the arts. Topics will include Japan's changing definition of itself vis-à-vis China literature, gardens, painting, Buddhism, paintings, and ceramics. Lectures will be supplemented with films and field-trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Asia Society, and the Japan Society, to give students a sense of the rich cultural resources available to them for further study of Japanese culture and history.

A survey of modern Japanese literature in English translation. Representative works from such famous authors as Mori Ogai, Mishima Yukio, Kawabata Yasunari, Enchi Fumiko, and Nakagami Kenji, among others. Through a combination of literary history and close textual reading, this class will seek to determine what made modern Japanese literature both "modern" and "Japanese".