Situated at the origins of Japanese literature are the beautiful and revealing diaries of ladies in waiting at the tenth- and eleventh-century imperial court. Since that time, the Japanese literary tradition has valued confessional writing of many kinds, from Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book and other classical and medieval diaries to the haiku master Basho's eighteenth-century travel journals. This continues into the modern period, with authors like Mishima Yukio and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro writing novels that are sometimes thinly disguised autobiographies, other times completely fictional diaries. We will look at a selection of these texts, as well as some modern documentary film, and ask what it means for these authors to write from their own experience, and also what new things we can reveal in their work by writing about it ourselves. This is a writing-intensive class, in which students will practice developing interesting, original ideas about the literary texts and constructing convincing readings to support them. The class and the readings are in English. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: one in-class exam and two short papers plus a number of shorter writing and revision assignments related to the papers

No prerequisites. No familiarity with Japanese language or culture is required. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19).

Hour: C. BOLTON