ANTHRO xx-xx: Japan through its women

Professor Karen Nakamura Last taught: Spring 2001 (Bowdoin College).

Course Description

Japanese women: housewives in frocks bicycling to their volunteer groups, Roppongi girls with deeply tanned faces and platinum bleached hair, school girls wearing sailor suits, office ladies with unnaturally pitched voices and Gucci handbags, Takarazuka actresses playing male roles to swooning fans, "Yellow Cabs" picking up surfers in Oahu, the list is endless. But merely twenty years ago, the literature on Japanese women was nearly non-existent. What has happened? Why has the "office flower" suddenly become the driving force of the new Japanese economy? We are suddenly at a point where we can use these emerging ethnographies on Japanese women as a new lens through which to view Japanese society. What do they reveal of a rapidly changing Japan? This course explores the complexities of gender in modern society.

Prerequisites and Requirements

Anthro 11: Cultural Anthropology

Textbooks and Course Readings

The required textbooks are available at the Ruminator Bookstore. Course readings in the forms of articles will also be distributed in class.

Textbooks:

• Bernstein, Gail Lee (1983). Haruko's world: a Japanese farm woman and her community. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Bumiller, Elisabeth (1995). The secrets of Mariko : a year in the life of a Japanese woman and her family. New York: Times Books. ISBN 081292603X.
• Lo, Jeannie (1990). Office ladies, factory women : life and work at a Japanese company. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0873325982.
• Yoshimoto, Banana (1993). Kitchen. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0802115160.

Library Resources

• Course Reserve List (CLICnet)
• How to cite references:
  • Anthropology Style Guide
  • Citing Electronic Resources