Japanese 402: Japanese Literature
This course aims to develop advanced proficiency through introducing various aspects of modern Japanese literature, including short stories and significant works by authors of the modern period. Taught in Japanese
I took JAPN 402 to complete Last requirement for MLO 1. In this class, we studied various authors’ works. We studied poems, short stories and longer stories. By looking at the works in deeply, we were able to interpret and then present about these stories. A lot of these stories we had to look at in a very personal manner and after reading them we interpret their meanings, and how we feel about these stories. Altogether, this course seems to directly adhere to MLO 1. I feel that, a lot of the work we did help us meet the MLO. First of we created Haiku’s and stories books. As the term went on we then started looking at short stories. When we started looking at the short stories, this was when we started really getting into what it meant to look closely at short stories, and analyze them. The projects that I chose to upload below are the projects that I felt tied the entire class together. The first is all three of them are the book reports that we completed in this class. These assignments helped me to understand how much it takes to understand Japanese short stories, and I personally feel that I gained a lot from reading these texts. I didn't really know a lot much about Japanese literature, so from the beginning of the class I felt that everything we were doing was something that I wanted to do. I understand know, that Japanese literature, the history of the authors that wrote those stories all have their own history, and thus are all important. This class, introduced me to a part of the Japanese language that I haven’t had a lot on interaction with. I personally would like to continue reading stories that I am interested in to continue my learning more. Once I return to Japan, I plan to start off reading books that are the kind of stories I like to read, but are also interesting to read. By reading stories that I am interested in, it will be easier for me to feel enthusiastic about reading. I think that was part of my problem within this class, a lot of the stories weren’t really what I was interested in so It was much more difficult for me to be excited about reading them. This is why I really liked the fact that our final project is was a book report; I was able to read a story that I looked forward to read, and this I found helped me progress in my learning a lot more than the class.