Japanese Literature: Texts and Critical Analysis

Course objectives

The course aims to foster critical thinking about Japanese literary texts, providing a knowledge of relevant critical methodologies through selected case studies. Building on previous knowledge of Japanese literary history, students will learn to place authors and literary texts in their cultural and historical context. Furthermore, through selected case studies, they will learn to identify the main themes of a literary text and to make reasonable assertions about their meaning based on its contextualization. Such themes and meanings will be analyzed in class through different methodological frameworks, with the aim of familiarizing students with the major critical methodologies. Students will be encouraged to confront with critical essays and to write well-organized short texts that summarize and discuss such essays on a regular basis. Such texts will be discussed in class in order both to ensure correct comprehension of the essays and implementation of critical thinking, and to foster oral communication about the analysis of literary texts.

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STEFANO ROMAGNOLI Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
Attendance is not required to take the exam. The classroom course will be a literary text study seminar consisting of some frontal lessons and a laboratory of reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources. Students attending the course will be invited to read and reflect in advance on the texts that will be proposed in the following lesson. These exercises will be assigned through Classroom.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of modern Japanese at an intermediate-advanced level
Books
Primary sources Matayoshi, Eiki (1981). Jōji ga shasatsu shita inoshishi, in Ginnemu yashiki. Tokyo: Shūeisha, pp. 7-42. Ōshiro, Tatsuhiro; Higashi, Mineo (1989). Okinawa: Two Postwar Novellas. A cura di Steve Rabson. Berkeley, Calif: Univ of California Inst of East. Yoshida Sueko (1984), Kamāra shinjū. in Yamanokuchi Baku (a cura di)(2020) Serekushon sensō to bungaku 8, Okinawa owaranu sensō. Tokyo: Shūeisha, pp. 361-390. Secondary sources Bhowmik, Davinder (2008). Writing Okinawa: Narrative Acts of Identity and Resistance. London; New York: Routledge. Romeo, Caterina (2021), Intersezionalità e critica letteraria: questioni di metodo. In Stefania Sini e Franca Sinopoli (a cura di), Percorsi di teoria e comparatistica letteraria. Milano, Torino: Pearson, pp. 433-456.
Frequency
not compulsory
Exam mode
The exam will aim to assess the acquisition of the ability to develop an original critical analysis of a literary text, based on the works included in the exam bibliography. Specifically, the candidate will be asked to read and comment on an excerpt from the two texts by Matayoshi and Yoshida, placing the work within the context of the literary history of Okinawa.
Lesson mode
Frontal lessons in the classroom, with non-compulsory attendance. Materials made available through Classroom.
STEFANO ROMAGNOLI Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
Attendance is not required to take the exam. The classroom course will be a literary text study seminar consisting of some frontal lessons and a laboratory of reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources. Students attending the course will be invited to read and reflect in advance on the texts that will be proposed in the following lesson. These exercises will be assigned through Classroom.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of modern Japanese at an intermediate-advanced level
Books
Primary sources Matayoshi, Eiki (1981). Jōji ga shasatsu shita inoshishi, in Ginnemu yashiki. Tokyo: Shūeisha, pp. 7-42. Ōshiro, Tatsuhiro; Higashi, Mineo (1989). Okinawa: Two Postwar Novellas. A cura di Steve Rabson. Berkeley, Calif: Univ of California Inst of East. Yoshida Sueko (1984), Kamāra shinjū. in Yamanokuchi Baku (a cura di)(2020) Serekushon sensō to bungaku 8, Okinawa owaranu sensō. Tokyo: Shūeisha, pp. 361-390. Secondary sources Bhowmik, Davinder (2008). Writing Okinawa: Narrative Acts of Identity and Resistance. London; New York: Routledge. Romeo, Caterina (2021), Intersezionalità e critica letteraria: questioni di metodo. In Stefania Sini e Franca Sinopoli (a cura di), Percorsi di teoria e comparatistica letteraria. Milano, Torino: Pearson, pp. 433-456.
Frequency
not compulsory
Exam mode
The exam will aim to assess the acquisition of the ability to develop an original critical analysis of a literary text, based on the works included in the exam bibliography. Specifically, the candidate will be asked to read and comment on an excerpt from the two texts by Matayoshi and Yoshida, placing the work within the context of the literary history of Okinawa.
Lesson mode
Frontal lessons in the classroom, with non-compulsory attendance. Materials made available through Classroom.
  • Lesson code10611758
  • Academic year2025/2026
  • CourseOriental Languages and Cultures
  • CurriculumLingua giapponese
  • Year2nd year
  • Duration12 months
  • SSDL-OR/22
  • CFU6