Gerald Figal
Associate Professor of History
and Japanese Cultural Studies
My fields are modern Japanese history and cultural studies and postwar
Okinawa.
I received my Ph.D. from the East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Department at the University of Chicago in 1992. My publications include Civilizations
and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan (Duke,
1999) and articles on amateur Japanese historiography and on war memorials
and tourism in Okinawa. I'm currently working on a book-length project
on tourism in postwar Okinawa and thinking about another project on the
idea of monsters in contemporary Japanese media and consumerism. My courses
range from surveys in Japanese cultural and social history to thematic
courses in Japanese popular culture and anime. I also teach a seminar
on History and Memory focused on the atomic bomb and Civil War memorialization.
In spring 2009 I'm teaching EAS
212: Explorations of Japanese Animaton and, with my wife
Sara Figal of the German Studies Department, EUS
237: Air War and Aftermath. Information for these courses will
be posted later. For now, this fall we have the following:
As an introduction to Japanese civilization from earliest times to the late
19th century, this course will be organized around the broad categories of “culture” and “politics” as
manifested in aristocratic, warrior, and commoner life. Within this framework
we will survey the ways in which Japanese have over the centuries organized
themselves collectively, created meanings for private and social existence,
and given expression to thoughts and feelings in physical and mental spaces.
We will examine these expressions of Japanese cultural history through myths,
religious texts, law codes, literature, architecture, pictorial art, and other
cultural artifacts.
East Asian Studies 115F: Self & Cyborg in
Japanese Animation (Fall 2008)
Animated films and TV programs (anime) rank among contemporary Japan’s
most prominent global exports and most important domestic media products.
The range of audience and content in anime—from cartoony kid shows
to sophisticated feature films to fantastical romances to philosophically
complex SF to stomach-churningly violent pornography—render it
a significant object of study as a product of the so-called “information
society” of late capitalist, postmodern Japan. Many anime treat
themes associated with “serious art” and thus require us
to take them seriously even as we enjoy them as “simple” entertainment.
While one risks taking the enjoyment out of any pop cultural form by
submitting it to academic scrutiny, we will enjoin our study of anime
in the belief that close analysis of anime will enhance our enjoyment
of it. In this course we will be engaging some of the medium’s
most challenging examples that deal with issues of human consciousness,
selfhood, reality versus illusion, and human-machine relations.
Can one
be human in a non-human body? At what point do technological enhancements
to the body diminish one’s humanity? To what extent
can an artificial intelligence develop a sense of self? What is the relationship
between body, mind, self, and identity? How do visual and electronic
media construct and deconstruct self identity? Does reality matter if
a simulation is realistic and you don’t realize it’s a simulation?
Who are you? These are but a few questions that this course tackles through
the medium of Japanese animation (anime), examples of which are well-known
for taking up challenging philosophical and psychological issues such
as these. The subset of anime that this course focuses on represents
some of the most thought-provoking work created for feature-length theatrical
release and for TV series broadcasts in Japan. We will look at the works
of Oshii Mamoru (Avalon, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence);
Kon Satoshi (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent, Paprika);
and Nakamura Ryutaro (Serial Experiments Lain). We will also view The
Matrix in relation to cyberpunk anime. Outside screenings on Monday evenings
required.
