Week 7:
Race and Reinterpretation of Traditional Japanese Culture (Part I)
This week will be the formal start of our second thematic arc. At this time we will shift from a generalized analysis of the applicability of Postcolonial theories to reading and criticising anime, and begin to incorporate a bit more in the way of historical elements into our discussion.
I want us to begin this week by thinking about what we know about things like samurai, geisha, and other aspects of what might (potentially, problematically) be known as 'traditional Japanese culture. We've previously begun our investigations by starting to think about Samurai Champloo and what that sort of '(Re)Mixing' of the narratives of sword-and-honour romances does, in terms of allowing us to re-think the key aspects of the paradigms. Mugen, as a character, is certainly not 'invisible' in the series in the same way that Ellison's eponymous Invisible Man was. But what can we make of his sort of visible Okinawan 'Difference'? How can we conceptualise this? How can we write about this?
Moreover, this week we will also be taking a look at salient components of the Original Video Animation (OVA) series, Afro Samurai. Whilst this work might seem tailor-made for reearch projects in this class, it may necessitate a bit of work in parsing out what exactly is at stake in this particularly fantastical visitation of elements of the samurai cultural mythos. Let's think about these elements as we go forward, and interrogate their significance as we start to think about our research papers...
The writing we are doing at this point in the semester will take what we have learned about the approaches and conventions of close readings, and will build upon them by incorporating additional elements, such as historicizing, corroborating, and interrogating the text against elements that exist beyond it.
I want us to begin this week by thinking about what we know about things like samurai, geisha, and other aspects of what might (potentially, problematically) be known as 'traditional Japanese culture. We've previously begun our investigations by starting to think about Samurai Champloo and what that sort of '(Re)Mixing' of the narratives of sword-and-honour romances does, in terms of allowing us to re-think the key aspects of the paradigms. Mugen, as a character, is certainly not 'invisible' in the series in the same way that Ellison's eponymous Invisible Man was. But what can we make of his sort of visible Okinawan 'Difference'? How can we conceptualise this? How can we write about this?
Moreover, this week we will also be taking a look at salient components of the Original Video Animation (OVA) series, Afro Samurai. Whilst this work might seem tailor-made for reearch projects in this class, it may necessitate a bit of work in parsing out what exactly is at stake in this particularly fantastical visitation of elements of the samurai cultural mythos. Let's think about these elements as we go forward, and interrogate their significance as we start to think about our research papers...
The writing we are doing at this point in the semester will take what we have learned about the approaches and conventions of close readings, and will build upon them by incorporating additional elements, such as historicizing, corroborating, and interrogating the text against elements that exist beyond it.