Admission requirements
This course is only accessible for BA Japanstudies students. Students must have successfully completed all courses from BA1, 10 EC in BA2 seminars and the course Texts IIb.
Admission to this seminar happens only through this application form.
Description
The BA3 seminars in the Japanese Studies programme prepare students to conduct academic research within their chosen discipline in the humanities and the social sciences. To achieve this goal, students will learn to identify and apply key concepts and analytical methods from their discipline as well as to use both Japanese and English (primary and secondary) sources critically within their own research projects.
In this course, we discuss the spatial imagination in printed media in early modern Japan. The development of printed media sparked a knowledge revolution in early modern Japan. How did printed media help people from different social backgrounds negotiate a world that was stable and unchanging in the government’s view, but in reality, abounded in economic, social and environmental possibilities and uncertainties? We will discuss how printed media catered to these concerns by emphasizing the role of space and movement in facilitating encounter, transition and transformation.
We will focus on urban space, its margins, and the road, and we will investigate the visual and literary strategies that were used to produce diverse and sometimes clashing views of urban space and the road as places of of leisure and escape but also as places of exile, displacement and indenture. At the end of the course, you will produce a research paper in which you demonstrate your ability to use these concepts and methods by applying them to an analysis of a primary source of choice.
Course objectives
When you finish this course, you will be able to...
...identify key media, genres, historical events and concepts related to social criticism and the world of early modern Japan.
...critically reflect on academic discussions that investigate these media, genres, events and concepts, and evaluate their merit.
...analyse, summarise and reflect on relevant Japanese language source material, both academic and popular.
...report on your analysis of English and Japanese language sources in written form.
...report on original research into a topic related to this seminar in verbal and written form.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment breakdown
Participation (50% of the final mark)
Mandatory attendance of 70% for the text and 70% for the discipline sessions (pass/fail)
Text component assignments: 30% of the final mark
Presentation element: 20% of the final mark
Research
- Final paper (3000 words, including footnotes and bibliography): 50% of the final mark
The final grade is established by determining the weighted average of all elements. In order to pass the course all components must receive a passing grade.
Resit
There is no resit for the participation element. If you miss more than 30% of sessions, you cannot successfully finish this seminar.
If you miss or fail one or more assignments for the text component, you are granted max. one substitute assignment. For any further missing assignments, you will receive a fail (1) for that assignment. The best five web postings are included in the final assessment. The sixth web posting is considered your resit opportunity.
Everyone will receive feedback on their presentation, but you do not have an opportunity to redo the presentation.
There is a two-deadline policy for the final paper; for those who miss the first deadline, this means they have failed on the first attempt. Those who fail on the first attempt – whether by not submitting a paper, or by submitting an inadequate paper – will have one more (second and last) chance to submit their paper by the second deadline. As for all assessments, rules for legitimate extenuating circumstances apply.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Compulsory reading material will be made available through a combination of online access and a physical reader which can be ordered at the following link: link to Readeronline.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the information bar on the right (below this text on mobile screens).
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Herta Mohr