E472 focuses on psychological "realism" as a mainstream goal of modern
Japanese literature from the late nineteenth century to the present.
Psychological "realism," as we will discover, is not an absolute term.
Rather, an author's idea of what is psychologically "real" works to critique
"idealized" thoughts and feelings attributed to people in his or her social
period. We will see, for example, how the weak willed
and lustful hero of Futabatei Shimei's Drifting Clouds challenges the ideal
of a purposeful, high minded samurai, and how the angry heroines of woman
writer Takahashi Takako question the social idea of a nurturing and devoted
mother.

E472 covers 75-100 pages of reading a week, including both short stories and
secondary material. Students' work will be evaluated through regular
homework assignments, 6 microthemes (or short papers), a midterm
and a final.