HIST 6150 - [The Past in the Present/The Present in the Past: Histories of Tokugawa Japan]

(crosslisted)
(also ASIAN 6615)

Fall. 4 credits.

Next offered 2015-2016.

K. Hirano.

This course investigates the interactive play between historians’ interpretations of the past and their concerns with the present. It places an emphasis on the ways in which modern/contemporary historians of Japan interpret early modern thinkers, texts, and events, and the ways such interpretations are shaped by their understandings of Japanese modernity and their aspirations for a better future. The questions we shall address throughout this course are as follows: Why do historians of Japan pay special attention to the early modern period as an epoch indispensable for a better and deeper understanding of Japanese modernity? How do historians’ concerns with the present shape the ways in which they interpret the past? How do historians’ dialogues with the past (interpretations) alter our perspectives not only on the past but also on the present?