Course Details

Course offered Spring 2024

HONORS 212 B: Okinawa in the Japanese Literary Imagination (A&H, DIV, W)

HONORS 212 B: Okinawa in the Japanese Literary Imagination (A&H, DIV, W)

SLN 15268 (View UW registration info »)

Davinder Bhowmik (Asian Languages and Literature)
Phone: 206-543-4699
Email: dbhowmik@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

This course introduces students to modern prose fiction, poetry, drama, and film that depict Okinawa, Japan’s tropical playground on one hand, and its military colony on the other. While the focus of the class will be on representations of Okinawa in literature and the occasional film we will also pay close attention to the socio-historical context of the works in order to more fully understand them. In addition to introducing students to the variety of literature and film from and about Okinawa, the course will train students to read carefully and critically; to develop the ability to construct sound readings of literary works, and to argue these readings persuasively in English. All course material will be considered historically as well as analytically. No knowledge of Japanese is required; all works are in English translation and films are subtitled.