Anthropology 316JF - Special Topics in Anthropology: 'Japan Through Film'

Film is one medium through which Japan as an imagined community is produced and sustained over time. Certain subject matter and cinematic sensibilities have at times epitomized what might be considered quintessentially Japanese. And yet film has also served to complicate normative understandings, and to re-imagine other kinds of Japan. In this course, we will pair films with readings in anthropology to explore a range of social and cultural issues and the way they have been represented both in films as well as through academic, in both fiction and documentary, popular and as well as avant-garde works.

Prereq: 8 credits in Anthropology or Asian Studies.