JAPN 211 - Samurai: History and Myth

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): ALV
Additional Domain (if applicable): CSI
This class introduces students to the history of the samurai and their modern-day representations. In Part I of the course, we will survey the rise, the golden age, and fall of the warrior class in Japan between the tenth and nineteenth centuries. In Part II, we will look at how the samurai were remembered, imagined, and narrated, and what political and cultural meanings were ascribed to them in the modern era, from the late nineteenth century. By examining the relations between history and representation (remembering that history is a form of representation, after all), we will try to understand critically why the samurai keep resurfacing in the popular imaginary of Japan as a significant element of national culture. Taught in English.