- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
- See module specification for other years: 2024-25
One of the most enduring tropes about Japan is that it is a homogenous society characterised by a unique blend of ancient traditions and hypermodernity. Geisha and castles are juxtaposed with robots and bullet trains in journalistic accounts, tourism materials, and popular culture. By focusing on supposedly unique elements of Japanese culture, this portrayal often obscures the fact that modern Japan developed through an extensive engagement with the rest of the world. Understandings and uses of the past played an important role in this process. Between 1895 and 1945, Japan built a diverse, multi-ethnic empire that rivalled and threatened those of the Western powers. The fifty years of imperial expansion into Asia that dramatically changed the societies of Japan and the countries it occupied, and have had a lasting global impact.
This module examines the development of Japanese society from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War through a range of primary and secondary materials. We will consider especially how the past was used to construct new identities, and how ideas of gender, race, and nation were contested and disseminated within Japan, in spheres including culture, religion, politics, sport, and the military. We will explore these developments in light of Japan’s relationship with the wider world. As was the case with other imperial powers, even as Japan was constructing its empire, the empire was simultaneously constructing Japan.
Students taking this module must also take the second part in Semester 2.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2023-24 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1 and a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
For formative assessment, students will be given the opportunity to produce text commentaries in seminar, including a written commentary.
For the summative assessment students build a portfolio of two parts, to be submitted together:
a) Two text commentaries of 500-750 words; and
b) One 1,500-word essay which reflects on the significance of the chosen texts in light of scholarship and sources from across the module.
The commentaries comprise 50% and the essay 50% of the overall mark for this module. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Formative work will be live marked in seminar and supplemented by the tutor giving oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For summative assessment tasks, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading: