Course Information (Japanese Visual Cultures)
The Department offers Level 5000 - 6000 courses for our graduate students. Clicking the links below will bring you to the respective sections.
In the descriptions of courses given below, the workload for the courses is displayed in an A-B-C-D-E format where:
A – No. of lecture hours per week
B – No. of seminar hours per week
C – No. of laboratory hours per week
D – No. of project/assignment hours per week
E – No. of hours for preparatory work per week
Pre-requisites indicate the base of knowledge on which the subject matter of a particular course will be built. Before taking a course, a student should complete any pre-requisite course(s) listed for that particular course. Where pre-requisites are specified, equivalent courses will also be accepted. If in doubt, students should consult the course instructor or academic advisors regarding acceptable equivalent courses.
Japanese Visual Cultures Modules (MA Coursework)
JSC5101 Image and Imagination – An Analysis
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course selects important visual works from Japan to illustrate the intricate relationship between cultural artefacts and the times in which they were created and consumed. A close examination of these selected key objects allows students to identify the specific artistic, cultural, historical, societal and political significance of these objects, and learn basic skills in analysing different kinds of visual artefacts. By identifying specific themes within which these visual works are situated, students will also acquire the necessary background knowledge about Japan and its neighbours which will help lay the foundation for other courses offered in the programme.
JSC5102 Visual Cultures in Japan
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course covers the framework and methodology of advanced academic study of contemporary visual cultures in Japan. Topics include but are not limited to gender, sexuality, and national identity. Through primary and secondary texts, students will gain in-depth understanding of current trends in academic approaches to visual studies. Major theories include but are not limited to media ecologies, fan studies and formal analysis.
JSC5103 Japanese Popular Culture – Theory and Methodology
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This is a foundational course that introduces the key theoretical and methodological approaches that undergird studies of popular culture. Specifically, we will examine the relationship between media, culture and power, and use real-life popular culture texts and practices in Japan to explore how dominant power structures that are organized around gender, sexuality, race and class are reinforced and contested in and through popular culture. By the end of the course, students will understand Japanese popular culture as not mere entertainment but a field of struggle in which people’s identities, realities and sense of the world are negotiated, produced and transformed.
JSC5201 Manga Studies
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course introduces students to both theoretical and practical approaches to the study of manga, or Japanese comics. This course covers key foundational knowledge critical to the understanding of manga as a medium. Crucially, it also provides students with opportunities to apply this knowledge through hands-on manga analysis practice. In so doing, students will gain further insights into the dynamics behind manga as a media form, manga authorship, as well as meanings of manga narratives.
JSC5202 Let’s Go Catch a Show
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
In this course we use “show” to connote performance in its widest sense. What parameters, if any, do we use as reference to a show/performance? This course focuses on ways to watch shows and analyse the aesthetic and ideological, among others, framework from which we register performance elements. Students in this course will examine closely different kinds of performances from East Asia and Southeast Asia. They will also learn to think critically about the sociocultural and political contexts in which such performances are created and presented.
JSC5203 Commercial Art in Modern Japan
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course focuses on the origins and development of commercial art in modern Japanese history, focusing specifically on the department store of early 20th-century Japan as a locus of this development. In studying such sources as advertisements and posters as well as film and literature pertaining to the early Japanese department store, students will learn about the intersections of modernity, commercialism and art forms. This course also analyses how the notion of “design” came to be in modern Japan, as well as the role of the artist in this process.
JSC5204 Art and Modernity in East Asia
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course focuses on the development of visual cultures and art production from the late 18th to early 20th centuries in Japan, China and Korea. It covers the broad themes of modernity, transitions from a pre-modern to modern society, and the construction of national identity vis-à-vis the Western world. Students will be introduced to the various artistic movements and subjects of visual representation of this time period, including Western and national styles of painting, new modes of reproducible arts, new representations of women and gender roles, images of war and disasters as well as avant-garde movements.
JSC5205 Gender and Popular Culture
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course examines popular culture through the lens of gender. We will draw on a variety of examples from contemporary Japanese popular culture to critically examine the ways in which ideologies about and practices of gender and sexuality are produced, reinforced and contested in media and cultural production, representation and consumption. By the end of the course, students will be able to apply a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the gendered analysis of popular culture, and think more critically about questions of gender/sexuality, representation, and systems of power and oppression in everyday popular culture texts.
JSC5206 Advanced Readings in Visual Cultures in Japan
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course focuses on training students’ skills in understanding and utilising material written in Japanese focused on a theme of the convenor’s choice relating to visual cultures in Japan. Students will have the opportunity to not only study content related to the chosen Japanese sources but also train their linguistic skills through critical reading of these sources. With guidance from the course convenor, students will learn to curate and present their own analyses of Japanese sources relating to a topic of their choosing (in tandem with the course’s theme).
JSC5207 Pre-Modern Japanese Visual Cultures
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
In this course, students will be provided with an overview of visual cultures throughout various periods in pre-modern Japanese history, beginning from the ancient period and running through to the late Tokugawa period. “Visual cultures” are conceptualised broadly in this course, ranging from pottery to performance and printed texts, with factors such as the influence of religion and cross-cultural exchange (including with China and Korea) also considered. Students will also have the opportunity to examine and analyse primary sources relating to pre-modern Japanese visual cultures.
JSC5208 Japanese Media and Translation
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course explores the issues involved in Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translation through the examination of translated media products, as well as actual translation exercises. It introduces students to the linguistic resources necessary for the translation of various media products. The course covers issues in translation theory, analyses of translated texts and hands-on practice. Students will be required to produce their own translations and think critically about the issues involved in the translation process as well as the techniques of translation specific to different media. At least intermediate Japanese proficiency (approx. JLPT N3 or the equivalent) is encouraged for this course.
JSC5209 Political Economy of Popular Culture in Asia
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course explores the political economy of the production, promotion and regulation of popular culture in Asia. The course focuses on Japan, yet will also look at the relationship between the state and popular culture in other Asian countries. Here, states have on the one hand regulated the consumption of local and foreign popular culture, yet have on the other hand discovered creative industries as a source of growth and as a way to propagate policies on the local and national level. The course will introduce these tendencies and tensions through a case-based approach.
JSC5210 Managing Creative Industries: The Case of Japan
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
In this course, students study the business structures and processes of Japan’s creative industries, looking at firms involved in the development, production and marketing of anime, manga, games and music. Through readings and by constructing their own case studies, students explore how firms develop new products, manage labour and production processes, the collaborative and competitive relationships in the industry, and how firms extend their business models and markets beyond Japan.
JSC5301 Advanced Japanese I (Coursework)
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This is a language-training course intended for students enrolled in the Master of Arts (Japanese Visual Cultures) coursework programme. It emphasises the building of various linguistic skills (such as grammar and vocabulary usage) through coverage of various topics relating to Japan, and is intended to equip students with the proficiency to comprehend and appreciate advanced-level material in Japanese. At least intermediate Japanese proficiency (approx. JLPT N3 or the equivalent) is encouraged for this course.
JSC5302 Advanced Japanese II (Coursework)
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This is a language-training course intended for students enrolled in the Master of Arts (Japanese Visual Cultures) coursework programme. Aside from developing their linguistic skills in the Japanese language, students will also be trained to think critically about the Japanese language and its application through studying and analysing its use in complex contexts. At least intermediate Japanese proficiency (approx. JLPT N3 or the equivalent) is encouraged for this course.
JSC5303 Field Studies Course
Units: 4
Workload: N.A.
Students will visit Japan and conduct fieldwork related to a theme determined by the convenor. Activities may include but are not limited to on-site visits (e.g. theatre performances, company visits), participation in classes at a Japanese university pertaining to trans-Japanese visual cultures and interviews with local industry practitioners. Pre-departure, students will attend lessons on a theme of the course convenor’s choosing intended to provide theoretical, contextual and methodological knowledge necessary for fieldwork activities in Japan. After returning to Singapore, students will be required to complete assignments based on their fieldwork and insights.
JSC5304 Case Studies in Japanese Visual Cultures
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
The aim of this course is to guide students to apply the different methods and perspectives they have acquired in the course of their study to one or several larger cases. For example, students will analyse a certain product, exhibition or performance under the perspectives of societal, historical and political context, its conceptualization and production, textual content, as well as audience responses and involvement. Working on a limited number of cases and writing their own case, students will have the opportunity for exploration and will realize the potential of multi-disciplinary engagement.
JSC5305 Internship
Units: 4
Workload: NA
Internships vary in length but all take place within organisations or companies, are vetted and approved by the department, have relevance to the major in JS (and to trans-Japanese visual cultures specifically, for the MA coursework programme), involve the application of subject knowledge and theory in reflection upon the work, and are assessed. Available credited internships will be advertised at the beginning of each semester. Internships proposed by students will require the approval of the department.
JSC5660 Independent Study
Units: 4
Workload: NA
The ISC is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in trans-Japanese visual cultures in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the course. A formal, written agreement is to be drawn up, giving a clear account of the topic, programme of study, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head’s and/or Graduate Coordinator’s approval of the agreement is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% CA and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer prior to seeking departmental approval.
JSC5880 Selected Topics in Japanese Visual Cultures
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-3-3-4
This course will cover specific topics in trans-Japanese visual cultures chosen by department or visiting faculty, in line with their interests and expertise.
JSC5401 Master’s Thesis (Coursework)
Units: 8
Workload: 0-0-0-0-10
Students enrolled in the Master of Arts (Japanese Visual Cultures) coursework programme will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth research on a topic of their choice, to be determined together with their supervisor. They will proceed to write a 10,000-word thesis on the topic.
JS5203 Japanese Literary & Performance Studies
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
This course uses selected texts (including literary writings, historical documents, film and paintings) to examine the Japanese literary and performance discourse in both modern and pre-modern times. Texts produced outside Japan will also be included in order to gain a wider perspective. The extensive scope of texts use and the rigorous critical reading trainings students will undertake will provide them with an in-depth understanding of the practice of literary and performance studies in Japan.
JS5206 Digital Technologies and Japanese Theatre
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-4-3
Digital technologies have become a critical presence in both the creation and consumption of theatrical performances. Students will study contemporary performances derived from traditional theatrical genres and other theatrical forms using printed and multimedia texts. They will analyze theoretical writings on technologies and performance to establish a closer relationship between theory and practice within the field of Japanese theatrical studies. By building digital projects, students will have the opportunity to experience firsthand the ecology of digital technologies and theatrical performance.