Cross-listed with WGSS498B. Credit only granted for JAPN498A or WGSS498B.

This course examines a wide variety of representations of femininity and masculinity in Japan by taking a critical lens to fiction, film, drama, art, and legal documents. We will "trouble" (complicate and deconstruct) received notions of gender and sexuality by learning how non-normative notions of gender and sex have been seen as troubling and troublesome in Japanese history. To that end, we explore why "poison women," "modern girls," "new-halfs," and "boy's love" can help us radically rethink the assumed "natural" links between sex, gender, and desire.