Valparaiso University: Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

FLJ 101 and 102 Beginning Japanese I and II	This two-semester series introduces basic grammar, along with katakana, hiragana and about 200 kanji (Chinese characters). Though some attention is given to explanation of grammar and memorization of kanji, the approach is basically inductive and conversational, with emphasis on teaching the student to use Japanese to abstract information and communicate effectively in real-life situations.
FLJ 203 and 204 Intermediate Japanese I and II	This two-semester series is a continuation of FLJ 101-102, with increased emphasis on kanji and continually increasing use of Japanese in class.
FLJ 305 and 306 Advanced Japanese I and II	These final two semesters of core offerings in Japanese are a continuation of the preceding courses, with discussion of grammar, idioms or writing conventions conducted entirely in Japanese. Students are assigned selections from books, magazines, etc., that were originally written by and for native speakers, and are encouraged to discuss them in Japanese.
FLJ 251 Introduction to Japanese Literature	This survey covers the entire history of pre-modern, or "classical" Japanese literature, from the Asuka/Nara through the late Edo periods, based on readings of selected translations. Lectures touch on both the inherent literary qualities of individual works and their place in the social/literary history of Japan. Attention is paid to the cyclical pattern by which folk forms and themes are incorporated, between about 550 and 700, into a courtly literature of loosely structured romances and quasi-fictionalized diaries, and are subsequently diffused back into the popular culture as the common folk appropriate and adapt courtly forms over succeeding centuries. As in FLJ 250, below, Japanese poetry is presented as central to the evolution of the courtly tradition. In addition, attention is given to such themes as the transition of characters, themes and plots from the realm of oral literature to writing ( and often back again); the contribution of Buddhism to the creation of a national Japanese literature; and changes in literary taste as Japan moves from feudalism to increasing mercantilism in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.
FLJ 250 Topics in East Asian Literature and Fine Arts: Classical Japanese Poetry and Calligraphy	This course introduces students from the West to the classical Japanese poetic tradition, which is an essential component of traditional Japanese literature, and the art of kana calligraphy that evolved from the early use of Chinese characters to transcribe the sounds of Japanese. The course begins with a brief prehistory of the Japanese people before the official adoption of Chinese as the court language, and Buddhism as the court religion, by the dominant Yamato clan in the mid-sixth century. Selections from the earliest extant work of Japanese historiography, the Kojiki, are presented with an emphasis on the use made of local folk heroes throughout Japan to lay the foundation for a national folklore, and the appearance of the earliest example of Japanese poetry in a song supposedly intoned by the mythological hero Susanoo. The course continues through the Nara period (710-794), with its representative poetic collection, the Man'yoshu (759); and the Heian period (794-1185), with emphasis on the Kokinshu (905), the first of many poetic anthologies compiled by imperial command. Attention is also given to the stylistically influential Shinkokinshu of 1205, an imperial anthology compiled against a background of decline in the economic and political power of the court elite that had ruled Japan unopposed for some centuries. The latter half of the course stresses the dual themes of the breakdown of central authority and fragmentation of political power during the long medieval period (1185-1600) in Japan, alongside the diffusion and reworking of courtly aesthetic and literary principles among the common folk. Significant in this scheme is the development of renga, Japanese linked verse composed along the stylistic lines set forth in the Shinkokinshu, into a wildly popular poetic form among the people from the fifteenth century onward. Similarly, attention is given to the poetic form known today as haiku, which began as a series of sometimes awkward experiments with the initial two lines of a 100-verse renga and was developed into the dominant poetic form during the Edo period (1500-1868) by Matsuo Basho and Taniguchi Buson, and revived in the early twentieth century by Masaoka Shiki. In addition to series of lectures tracing the development of the Japanese poetic tradition in historical context, FLJ 250 also provides instruction in the analysis of classical Japanese poetry in translation, with reference to the original poems. Students in FLJ 250, like students in any beginning Japanese course, are taught the forty-eight characters of the hiragana syllabary that has been used to write Japanese since about the mid-Heian period. As distinct from the typical language course, students in FLJ 250 learn to write the same kana in classic calligraphic form, on the model of writings by famed Japanese calligraphers over the last thousand years and to learn variant forms of specific kana that were commonly used prior to the Meiji Restoration. The course concludes with a class project in which each student writes calligraphic versions of several poems from the Kkikinshu, as well as a conventional final examination that allows each student the opportunity to display his/her knowledge of the Japanese poetic tradition from the mid-eighth through the early twentieth centuries. To the best of our knowledge, FLJ 250 is unique among the Japanese cultural offerings at American universities, and certainly among schools in the Midwest. The subject matter should be of interest to a variety of students, and especially to those seeking to further develop their artistic ability and powers of poetic analysis. At the same time, young men who are commonly drawn to the world of sports or martial arts may well find themselves intrigued by a culture in which high poetic aspirations are considered perfectly appropriate even to a warrior or other man of action. Certainly FLJ 250 will be of particular value to any young American who seeks a knowledge of Japanese language and culture as an aid to rapid progress in the world of international business. The rare foreigner who can demonstrate a solid grounding in this unique and vital poetic tradition will be known to his Japanese acquaintances as one who has taken the trouble to absorb the kokoro --the spirit-- of traditional Japanese culture, and is likely to be accorded special respect as a result. Yet, even this reward must be considered secondary to the rare experience, offered by FLJ 250, of gaining a direct insight into the heart of one of the world's most complex and fascinating cultures.