International Christian University

This course targets the CEFR A2.1 level of spoken and written Japanese. 

By the end of this course, students will be able to: 
1) Understand the main point of texts when expressed in basic language. 

2) Speak and write a series of phrases on familiar topics.
3) Ask and answer questions and exchange ideas and information on familiar topics. 

Prerequisite: “J1: JAPANESE” or equivalent. 

This course studies the social function of language from a micro-linguistics point of view. Language is analyzed in relation to social structure. For example, we may casually say in our daily conversations that people in China speak Chinese, or that “we” speak Japanese. In this course, we re-examine concepts such as language, society, speech community, and code, and analyze the linguistic choices speakers make in order to express their identity in the context of society.

This seminar course studies how Shakespeare used sources from magical theory, folklore, myth and literature to create the fantasy worlds of two of his most famous plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest.  The class will watch performances of these plays, and students will watch other performances on their own and write critical analyses of them.
 

The course also explores early modern drama, including Elizabethan theatres like Shakespeare’s Globe and the Blackfriars. The class engages with secondary reading on the myths and stories that influenced Shakespeare's writing, including Ovid and popular English fairy stories. The course also discusses magic and spellcasting; folklore and mythology; travel literature; colonialism, and gender and sexuality.

Other secondary reading will include parts of other Shakespeare plays (Love’s Labour’s Lost, Macbeth, All’s Well That Ends Well) and the works of other Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights including Robert Greene (Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay) and George Chapman (Bussy d’Ambois).