SOC 380EJapanese Pop. Culture

Catalog

Popular culture and media forms emerging in contemporary Japan are increasingly consumed and celebrated with great passion at a global scale. The course will examine the intimate and intricate relations between the conditions in which popular culture is produced and distributed, fans' experiences and activities, and specific historical and sociocultural contexts. Students will learn to interrogate how popular culture and its reception intersect with issues such as labor, imagination, gender, subjectivity, and globalization. Forms of culture covered in this course include manga, anime, games, pop-idols, and drama. Students will also develop analytical skills and conceptual tools that can be applied to understanding media industries and audiences in Japan and other mediated societies.