Topic: Androgyny and Fluidity of Gender in the Arts
This course is designed to introduce graduate students in
Comparative Literature to materials in Japanese literature and
the arts as a model for the study of sexuality, gender, and
culture in general terms. For those in Japanese literature, the
course is intended to help expand their perspectives by
introducing them to selected theories and methodologies of
comparative arts relevant to Japan studies. This semester the
course will explore the semiological fluidity of gender chiefly
in Japanese literature and the arts in comparison with Chinese
and western examples. No polar opposition can be drawn between
Japan/China and the west. In its place, a "liquid" structure is
proposed as an alternative to a phallocentric way of thinking.
Students will be briefly introduced to fundamental Japanese
thought: religious (Shintoist and Buddhist), intellectual
(Confucian and "Nativist") political (imperial and feudal), and
psychoanalytical (Benedict, Doi and others). Selected readings
from Freud, Barthes, Bataille, Paglia, Butler and others will
help provide a theoretical framework for our discussion. The
course itself will not take a single or cohesive theoretical
perspective but will experiment with as wide a range of
concepts as possible. Each member of the course, however, is
encouraged to develop a firm theoretical or critical position
during the semester. Conflicting perspectives will inspire
debates in class and enrich our study.

Topics will include: androgyny and homoeroticism in ukiyoe art,
transsexuality in kabuki theatre, debates on object choice in sex
manuals, the function of beautiful boys in film and manga comics,
among others. Primary texts will include: the noh plays Pining
Wind and The Well-Cradle, Saikaku's The Great Mirror of Male
Love, Gennai's play The Battle of the Boudoir, and his essay On
the Art of Farting, the kabuki plays Scarlet Princess and Benten
Boy, Tanizaki's Whirlpool, Barthes' S/Z, Mann's Death in Venice,
Mishima's Forbidden Colors, and the films, Merry Christmas Mr.
Lawrence, La Cage aux Folles, Paris is Burning, among others.
In addition, many pictorial and video materials will be used.

Each member of the course will conduct a research project. The
final product may be: (1) a critical essay comparing works of
Japanese and Western literatures (or visual arts or film), or (2)
an essay analyzing one or more Japanse works in reference to
religion, folklore, intellectual thought, visual arts, or to some
kind of theory, depending on the individual's area of specialty.
No knowledge of the Japanese language or cluture is needed, and
readings will be entirely in English. Works of which English
translations are not available will be introduced in excerpts
translated by the instructor and by some members of the course.
Students registered for J653 are required to read selected
Japanese materials in the original. Since the design of the
course should reflect the special interests of individual
members, interested students are asked to talk to the
instructor as soon as possible. This course is open to graduate
students only.

WARNING: Many of the texts for this course contain candid and
colloquial expressions in reference to sexual organs and acts and
it is important for the course that sexuality is discussed
openly and with respect (i.e., no euphemism will be used). For
this reason, this course is strictly intended for those students
whose religious or social beliefs find no conflict with such
language and materials.

No knowledge of Japanese language or culture is needed, and
readings will be entirely in English.

Texts:
Cleland's Fanny Hill
Justine Miller's Tropics of Cancer
Weiss's Marat/Sade
Bataille's Story of the Eye
Saikaku's Five Women Who Loved Love
Kyoden's The Wrong Side of Brocade
Tanizaki's The Cat, Shozo, and Two Women
The Diary of a Mad Old Man
Uno's The Wife
Nozaka's The Pornographers
Kono's "Bone Meat"  and others