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1
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The four books for this course (ASIA 6J) are available in the UNC-CH student store |
What will we learn, discuss, research? What are the goals of the class? Why study geisha?
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Reading:Geisha, Liza Dalby, Preface and pps. 3-37 & pps. 97-137. | Geisha
Today Discussion of the contemporary geisha profession from the 1970s, as described by Dalby, to today |
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Geisha & Book Clubs |
This unit explores the popular appeal of Memoirs of Geisha and the different ways that readers have shared their responses in reviews, online postings, and book clubs. |
| week
2
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Reading:Memoirs
of a Geisha, pps.
1-208.
Use the Vintage Book Club Guidelines to prepare for discussion |
Memoirs
of a Geisha Discussion of Memoirs of a Geisha (first half). We consider, too, the pleasures of reading books in a group. |
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Reading:FinishMemoirs of a Geisha | Memoirs
of a Geisha We conclude our discussion of Memoirs by thinking about another kind of group reading: some of the over 2,000 readers' responses to Memoirs on Amazon.com |
| week
3
9/13 |
Reading: "Innocence
to Deviance: The
Fetishisation of Japanese Women in Western Fiction,1890s-1990s" [online]
by Narrelle Morris Investigation: Find a book review of Memoirs of a Geisha using the database JSTOR. Summarize its main points in one paragraph.
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Japanese
Women in Western Fiction Discussion of "Innocence to Deviance" and reviews of Memoirs of a Geisha. We compare different kinds of written responses to a novel: the academic article, the newspaper book review, and the amazon.com reader review. How are these responses to fiction different from the immediacy of class or club discussions? |
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Investigation: Review these websites for other artists' take on geisha and Japanese icons and write a reaction to one image (one paragraph) Iona Rozeal Brown Scott Tadashi Tsuchitani-Geisha Guerrilla Tenmyouya Hisashi |
Fieldtrip to the Ackland Art Museum this afternoon. Meet in front of the main entrance to the Ackland by 3:30 sharp. We will view and discuss original Japanese woodblock prints of geisha. |
| Week of 9/13-9/15 | First Tutorials
We scheduled times for you to meet in my office in groups of 3-4. Your first tutorial writing assignment has been handed out on the class listserv. |
First Tutorials |
| Unit Two |
Geisha in Edo Japan |
This unit takes us to Edo Japan and to the world of pleasure quarters, the popular arts, courtesans and geisha |
| week
4 9/20 |
Reading:Chp.
4 in Geisha, Liza Dalby, pps. 49-76. RECOMMENDED: A film on child labor, Stolen Childhoods, will be shown tomorrow night (Wed, 9/21) in Carolina Union Auditorium at 7pm. |
Geisha
Get Their Start Presentation by Jan Bardsley on the Edo-era history of the geisha, with reference to history in Dalby's Geisha |
| 9/22 | Reading: Chp.
14 in Geisha, Liza Dalby, pps. 251-268.
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Geisha
and Japanese Dance (Nihon Buyo)
See video [DVD-1584] & discuss in class today *organize groups for the web-book; discuss web design; suggest format for our web-book in the last twenty minutes of class Pizza and
Geisha Movie
Night!! |
| week
5 9/27 |
Reading:
Chp.
15 in Geisha, Liza Dalby, pps. 269-280; "Hip Bijin
(Beauties)" by
Laura Miller (on reserve)
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Geisha Chic--Discussion of taste and fashion in the Edo era wth an eye to earlier courtly tastes and a look at youth fashion in Japan today. |
| 9/29 | Reading:
Chp.
16 in Geisha, Liza Dalby, pps. 281-302; also, on JSTOR:
Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. “Kimono and the Construction of Gendered and Cultured Identities.” Ethnology. 38 (4) (Fall 99): 351-71. |
Kimono--their history in Japan and their influence on Euro-American fashion-- are the subject of discussion today. |
| week
6 10/04 |
<>Web-book: *Hand
in a short paragraph about the book or play you have chosen for your
research
project. Include title, author, date of publication.
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Kimono (continued) Review study guide for midterm |
| 10/06 | Reading: Find online at JSTOR the following article by Jennifer Robertson, "The Politics of Androgyny in Japan: Sexuality and Subversion in Theater and Beyond" ; Also, read the famous play, Love Suicides at Sonezaki by Chikamatsu on e-reserve | Gender onstage: We discuss gender in Japanese theater by comparing the all-women's Takarazuka theater to Kabuki. |
| week
7 10/11 |
Study guidelines for the in-class midterm will be handed out one week before the exam |
in class |
| 10/13 |
"Kabuki and the Twist of Women Onnagata" Special presentation
by From 3:30-4pmin rm 205, we will view the 1992 video, Portrait of an Onnagata; the video includes an interview with an onnagata. This sets the stage for Professor Morinaga's talk. |
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| Unit Three |
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This unit considers the relationship of the term geisha to prostitution in Japanese fiction, film, and society. We then move into postwar ideas about geisha in American popular culture. |
| week
8 10/18 |
Reading: Chps. 5 & 12 in Geisha, Liza Dalby, pps. 77- 96; 211-225 | Changing
Times for Geisha Discussion of shifting social status of women in modern Japan and how that affected the geisha and views of them inside and outside Japan |
| 10/20 |
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| week
9 10/25 |
Reading:
Read
first half of Masuda Sayo's Autobiography
of a
Geisha for today for everyone; if your tutorial is today, finish
the book for that discussion. |
Geisha in Occupied Japan
Discussion of some aspects of the first half of Autobiography of a Geisha; Jan Bardsley will give a presentation on women in occupied Japan |
| 10/27 | Reading:
Finish
Masuda Sayo's Autobiography of a Geisha. Second Tutorials We will schedule times for you to meet in my office in groups of three. Your writing assignment will concern Masuda Sayo's Autobiography of a Geisha. |
View: 1953 film by Mizoguchi, A Geisha in class |
| week
10 11/01 |
Reading:
Sayonara
by James Michener |
Geisha
and postwar
politics We discuss both the novel Sayonara today and where it fit in the racial and gender politics of postwar American culture. |
| 11/03 | View:
the film
version of Sayonara on your own by next
week or attend our movie night viewing tonight at 7pm. |
Class will be devoted to group work on the web-book; bring
ideas for your group's timeline |
| week
11 11/08 |
Reading: Work on reading for your term
paper |
Class will be devoted to group work on the web-book |
| 11/10 | Reading:
Chp.
9 & 11 in Geisha, Liza Dalby
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The Princess and the Geisha After a discussion of the chapters in Dalby, we will consider another icon of femininity, the princess; presentation on royal women in Japan by Bardsley |
| week
12 11/15 |
--no
reading
due so you can work on your research paper *Timelines are due from all groups |
We'll spend class time viewing & discussing parts of Slaying the Dragon (1988), a documentary on representations of Asian and Asian American women in film and, for a much different example, the character O-Ren Ishii from the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film, Kill Bill. |
| 11/17 | *Revised,
final draft of research paper due today
at
3:30pm; make sure to include the abstract that will go on the web. |
Japanese Beauty
Pageants
Jan Bardsley will give a presentation on Japanese beauty pageant history, asking where geisha styles fit in these changing ideals of female beauty. |
| Unit Four |
Producing the Web-Book |
The last unit is devoted to group presentations on geisha lore and the creation of the class *web-book |
| week
13 11/22 |
no homework except to prepare for your
presentations |
Group Three: Jazz Age Geisha Jan Bardsley will start
off the presentations with one on the jazz age; groups have a chance to
work on theirs
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| week
14 11/29 |
prepare for presentations |
Group One: 19th Century Geisha Room 207, House Undergraduate Library |
| 12/01 | No assignments. | Group Two: Madame Butterfly Room 205, House Undergraduate Library |
| week
15 12/06 |
No assignments. | Group Four: Cold War Geisha Room 205, House Undergraduate Library |
| 12/08 | Optional viewing: The Secret Life of Geisha (1999) Call#: 65-V7581 at Media Resources Center | Group Five: Late 20th
Century Room 205, House Undergraduate Library |
| 12/10 + |
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Final exam project, "the geisha museum," sent out one week before the final exam period begins. Format is similar to the tutorials. Grades posted after everyone has taken the final. |