Monsters in Japan
From Godzilla to Totoro: Monsters in Japanese Culture In this course we will examine a series of Japanese monsters (foxes, badgers, demons, vengeful spirits, and others), which populate Japanese myths, tales, folklore, art, and popular culture, in order to understand how the fear of the Other leads to marginalization and demonization and how monsters are created to contain undesirable figures. We will also explore the literary expressions of cultural anxieties generated by lack of understanding or misunderstanding of phenomena, such as the powers of nature and the afterlife, as well as the existential terrors resulting from trauma and war.
This course was awesome! Super fun and interesting content, very easy essays and graded assignments, a board game for the final project, and a teacher who really has passion for stuff like this! While I doubt that many students will get the chance to take this class in particular, I think this class well reflects how amazing Professor Milutin is!
While this class required a lot of reading, it was very enjoyable. I absolutely love Professor Milutin! Professor Milutin is very kind and accommodating. She is very passionate about the subject which makes the class much more enjoyable. She always brought snacks and was not a harsh grader which was quite nice.
Class topic was very niche but interesting. Constant readings in preparation for every class. Not a ton of writing and the grading on the few papers was easy. Lots of group work and opportunities for creative projects over conventional assessments. Professor was very knowledgeable and passionate about topic.