Japanese Literature: Learn from Masters

Name: Japanese Literature: Learn from Masters
Rating: 4.3 (9 reviews)

1000 Years of Japanese Literature

Created byMatt Kyoto

Last updated 10/2024

English

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What you'll learn

Understand the history of Japanese literature
Learn from some of the best Japanese writers
Understand the Japanese psyche
Learn about Japanese history and culture

Course content

1 section • 11 lectures • 2h 25m total length

Introduction3:46
Trace 1000 years of Japanese literature from Genji to modern masters. Highlight haiku, loneliness, minimalism, and the shift from plot-driven to process-focused storytelling, with authors like Soseki and Murakami.
The Tale of Genji19:38
Explore the tale of Genji, the world's first novel, by Shikibu Murasaki, tracing Genji's romantic pursuits and inner suffering in Heian Japan, through prose realism and mono no aware.
Haiku Masters16:25
Explore the history of haiku through Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki, revealing the 17-syllable form with seasonal reference, contrast, and the pursuit of wabi sabi.
Natsume Soseki14:47
Explore how Natsume Soseki bridged haiku and modern novels, shaping Japanese literature with I am a Cat, Botchan, and Kokoro amid Meiji modernization and London influences.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa14:58
Explore how Ryunosuke Akutagawa transformed short stories during Japan's Taisho era, examining truth, morality, and modernity through Rashomon, the Nose, and in a grove.
Yasunari Kawabata12:45
Explore Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel Prize winner 1968, who nostalgically portrays old Japan amid modernization through the dancing girl of Izu, snow country, and the old capital, invoking mono no aware.
Osamu Dazai17:12
Explore Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human, a diary-like meditation on loneliness and alienation in postwar Japan, through Yozo's dual masks, addiction, and failed attempts at belonging.
Kobo Abe12:40
Explore Kobo Abe and his novel the woman in the dunes, highlighting alienation in postwar Japanese literature through a desert setting and Kafkaesque perspective revealing a fragile self.
Yukio Mishima14:52
Mishima trained mind and body to become a renowned novelist and samurai, challenging Japan's materialism through works like the temple of the golden pavilion and confessions of a mask.
Haruki Murakami12:49
Explore Haruki Murakami's fusion of high culture and surreal storytelling, emphasizing small details, personal freedom, and the search for meaning beyond social conformity.
Conclusion5:23
Explores how key Japanese authors from Lady Murasaki to Murakami portray loneliness, meaning, and social change, detailing psychology, modern fiction, and the tension between solitude and tradition.

Requirements

No prior knowledge needed.

Description

Japan has one of the richest literary cultures in the world. So in this course, I want to give you a brief history of one thousand years of Japanese literature.

In the first segment, I will discuss the Tale of Genji, perhaps the most important work of Japanese literature, which is also considered the world's first ever true novel. It depicts male psychology from a female perspective. Then I will discuss the history of haiku, a literary movement that appreciates the beauty of nature and the simplicity of Japanese life which has become a global phenomenon. Then I will discuss the works of some of the greatest Japanese writers including Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Yasunari Kawabata, Osamu Dazai, Kobo Abe, Yukio Mishima, and Haruki Murakami.

But what makes Japanese literature so unique?

First, no other literature captures the loneliness of the human condition. While we are all in big cities, crowded places and constantly bump into other people, we are ultimately lonely creatures, with our own thoughts, emotions, desires and dreams. So this loneliness is perhaps sharpest in Japanese literature that cuts like a German knife. I should say Japanese knife.

Second, Japanese literature is unique because of its minimalism. While classic Russian authors wrote huge novels, the Japanese writers kept it short. Of course there are some exceptions, but most Japanese novels can be read in one or two sittings. Japanese people in general do not talk too much so the same applies to its literature. They keep it short and sweet.

Third, Japanese literature is less plot-driven. This applies to the culture too. The process is as important as the outcome of something. So Japanese novels tend to rely less on intricate plots. This is why Japanese culture is considered a how-culture that appreciates the process while the west is more of a why-culture which is more outcome-driven.

Who this course is for:

This course is for anyone interested in Japanese literature or Japan or literature in general.