Advanced Issues in East Asian Art and Popular Culture
Code: 101535 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500244 East Asian Studies | OT | 4 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Artur Lozano Mendez
- Email:
- artur.lozano@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Other comments on languages
The topics introducing Critical Theory and aspects of Japanese popular culture will be taught in English by prof. Lozano. The topics on Chinese art, as well as further critical theory topics, will be taught in Catalan by prof. Figliulo.Teachers
- Roberto Figliulo
- Oscar García Aranda
Prerequisites
As it is one of the subjects of the specialisation in Culture, Art and Literature of East Asia, this course is complemented by East Asian Comparative Cultural Studies. Nevertheless, it is not compulsory to take both courses if the student does not want to obtain that specialisation. Students who wish to do their bachelor’s degree final project about issues related to popular culture and contemporary art are advised to take this course.
Objectives and Contextualisation
- Acquire theoretical and methodological knowledge relevant to the analysis of the works, products and phenomena related to popular culture and art.
- Apply those theoretical tools to the study of a particular issue, under the lecturers’ supervision.
- Participate in collective analyses of documents (films, literary works, etc.) in class.
- Improve critical thinking, individual analytical ability, and intercultural and communication skills for debating and exchanging ideas and experiences.
- Develop a critical attitude, rigour and high standards in relation to one's own work.
Competences
- Applying knowledge of the art and popular culture to the analysis and comprehension of written texts in the languages of East Asia.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
- Knowing and comprehending the art and popular culture of the countries of East Asia.
- Knowing and using the information and communication technology resources (ICT) in order to collect, produce, analyse and present information related to the East Asian Studies.
- Knowing the great literary, philosophical, and artistic movements of East Asia.
- Knowing, comprehending, describing and analysing the values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia.
- Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Solving problems of intercultural communication.
- Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
- Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
Learning Outcomes
- Applying knowledge of the art and popular culture to the analysis and comprehension of written texts in the languages of East Asia.
- Assessing the obtained results in the information search process in order to update the knowledge about history, literature, linguistics, thought and art.
- Carrying out the documentary search in the specific languages of East Asia.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
- Knowing and comprehending the art and popular culture of the countries of East Asia.
- Knowing the great literary, philosophical, and artistic movements of East Asia.
- Knowing, comprehending, describing and analysing the values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia.
- Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Solving problems of intercultural communication.
- Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
- Using the specific terminology of history, literature, linguistics, thought and art.
- Utilising different tools for specific purposes in the fields of history, literature, linguistics, thought and art.
- Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
Content
Module 1
Introduction to critical theory and cultural studies: In the first sessions, cultural studies and critical theory’s key concepts, schools and thinkers, along with their impact in studies of contemporary Japanese popular culture, will be introduced in order to provide the students with tools for beginning to critically study works, actors and phenomena.
Schools:
- Formalism
- Narratology
- Structuralism
- Post-structuralism
- Psychoanalysis
Case studies: the case studies will showcase the transversal application of the theoretical frameworks to the study of different contents, genres and themes that can be found in manga, anime and other products from contemporary Japanese popular culture (gender issues, youth cultures, environmentalism, family patterns, tradition and new trends in both narrative and consumerism).
Module 2
The portrait as an artistic and social practice in contemporary China.
In this part of the subject we will analyse how the development of the practice of making portraits and self-portraits over the last century is the reflection, on the one hand, of the great changes undergone by Chinese society and, on the other, of artistic evolution in the country.
In order to understand different aspects and problems related to the culture and society of contemporary China in more depth, we will combine analyses of artistic cultural products and products that are a result of everyday practices.
Methodology
Critical and cultural analysis methodology will be acquired by studying, reading and discussing different prominent figures' contributions to cultural studies, as well as by applying that methodology to fragments of primary documents (films, episodes of series or printed excerpts). Group discussions will take place every week.
In short, this course requires a high reading commitment in order to acquire relevant theoretical tools and add them in a productive way to intellectual and dialogical abilities. Presentations and written work must be academically structured and argued; they should not be just summaries of arguments or recycled comments from blogs.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures and analysis of papers | 50 | 2 | 1, 8, 7, 9, 4, 10, 12, 11, 13, 15, 14, 6 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Document based comments and discussions | 20 | 0.8 | 1, 7, 4, 12, 13, 16, 14, 6 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal reading | 46 | 1.84 | 1, 2, 8, 7, 9, 5, 4, 3, 10, 11, 15, 14, 6 |
Assessment
Assessment activities:
- Written quiz about the contents of Module 1 (30%).
- As the sessions of Module 2 progress, the student will deliver short analysis of articles and cultural products selected by the lecturer (30%).
- Group assignment: blog post consisting of an analysis of a work of art or of popular culture (40%).
Related matters
The above information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins.
Review
When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.
Missed/failed assessment activities
Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.
The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.
Classification as "not assessable"
In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.
Misconduct in assessment activities
Students who engage in misconduct(plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject.
Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.
More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group assignment: blog post consisting of an analysis of a work of art or of popular culture | 40% | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 8, 7, 9, 5, 4, 3, 10, 12, 11, 13, 16, 15, 14, 6 |
| Quiz about the contents of Module 1 | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 8, 7, 9, 5, 4, 3, 10, 12, 11, 13, 16, 15, 14, 6 |
| Short reports analysing articles and cultural products germane to the contents of Module 2 | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 8, 7, 9, 5, 4, 15, 14, 6 |
Bibliography
Module 1
Storey, John (1997, 2009) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. New York : Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1405435~S1*cat>.
Storey, John(2009) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture:A Reader. Harlow: Longman. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1847666~S1*cat>.
Barry, P. (1995). Beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1680655~S1*cat>; 4ª ed. (2017): <https://www.amazon.es/Beginning-Theory-Beginnings-Peter-Barry/dp/1526121794/>
Martinez, Dolores P. (ed) (2007) Modern Japanese Culture and Society. 4 vols. London; New York: Routledge. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1823242~S1*cat>.
Kinsella, S. (2014). Schoolgirls, money and rebellion in Japan. New York: Routledge. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1910486~S1*cat>.
Mes, Tom; Sharp, Jasper (2005) Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film, The. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1675354~S1*cat>.
Sugimoto, Y. (2009). The Cambridge companion to modern Japanese culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1866341~S1*cat>.
Favell, Adrian (2012) Before and after Murakami. A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990-2011. Ed. Timezone 8.
Yamaguchi, Yumi (2007) Warriors of Art. A Guide to Contemporary Japanese Artists. <http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/4770030312>.
Natsume, Fusanosuke; Saito, Nobuhiko (curators, eds) (2009): サンデー・マガジンンのDNA ～週刊少年漫画誌の50年～ (DNAof Sunday and Magazine. The 50 Yearsof Weekly Shonen Manga Magazines.) Kyoto Manga Museum <http://www.kyotomm.jp/english/event/spe/sundaymagazinedna.php>.
Toku Masami (curator, ed); Masuda Nozomi (contributor); Yamada Tomoko (contributor) (2008) 少女マンガパワー ―つよく・やさしく・うつくしく― Shojo Manga! Girl Power!. Kyoto Manga Museum <http://www.kyotomm.jp/HP/2008/05/shojo_manga_power.php>.
McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1276961~S1*cat>.
Denison, Rayna (2015) Anime: A Critical Introduction. London: Bloomsbury. <http://amzn.eu/36LTAUj>.
Lozano-Méndez, A. (ed) (2016). El Japón contemporáneo: una aproximación desde los estudios culturales. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1975381~S1*cat>.
Positions - East Asia cultures critique. (2000-…). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1658166~S1*cat>.
Mechademia (2006-…). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. <http://cataleg.uab.cat/record=b1806582~S1*cat>.
Module 2
Davis, E. L., (Ed.). (2005). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. London; New York: Routledge.
Henriot, C., & Yeh, W. (Eds.). Visualising China, 1845-1965: Moving and Still Images in Historical Narratives, (407-434). Leiden: Brill.
Hou, H. (2002). On the mid-ground. H.-H., Yu (Ed.). Hong Kong: Timezone 8.
Johnston Laing, E. (2004). Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early Twentieth-century Shanghai. Honolulu: University ofHawaii Press.
King, R., (Ed.). (2010). Art in turmoil: the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-76. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Manonelles, L. (2011). Arte experimental en China: conversaciones con artistas. Barcelona: Bellaterra.
Nelson, Robert S. & Stiff, Richard (Eds.). (2003). Critical Terms of Art History – Second Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Sullivan, M. (1996). Art and artists of twentieth-century China. Berkeley : University of California Press.
Wu, H., (2005). Transience: Chinese experimental art at the end of the twentieth century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art.
Wu, H., (Ed.). (2010). Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents. New York: MoMa.
Software
The course does not require any particular software. Students will only need the kind of apps necessary to conduct common academic tasks.