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[goodcow]

I've had my bouts of semi-not wanting to do a paper before, we all have... but I really just don't want to do this one at all, particularly because I just don't find the book as a historical reference piece, and rather just a very well done and entertaining novel... I would rather have just been slapped with a bunch of academic research to write about, instead of picking out minorly touched on details from a piece of fiction.

HIST 380 Japan Since 1800
1st Paper Assignment: Botchan

A four-to-five page paper on Natsume S?seki's Botchan and written in response to one of the questions raised below is due in class on Tuesday, March 8. Please note that papers are due in class, see the syllabus for a description of the penalties for late papers.

Botchan was first published in 1906. The story is based on S?seki's experiences teaching in a high school in Shikoku in 1895. For the purposes of this assignment let us put aside the fictional nature of the work and take it as a historical document that reflects the turn-of-the-century period it portrays. Address one of the points set out below in a paper that puts forward a clear argument. In making your case you should refer at least once to Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, and if relevant also refer to material found in our primary source readings. Use proper citation; footnotes or endnotes rather than in-text brackets are required. (See proper citation guidelines below)

1) How do the social relations portrayed in this work compare to those described for this period in Gordon and other materials we have read? Focus either on class relations or gender relations.

2) How does the educational system portrayed in this work compare to those described for this period in Gordon and other materials we have read?

3) How "modern" is the Japan portrayed in this work? Explain.

4) The social, cultural, political and economic transformations that occurred in the Meiji period were so vast and profound that by the turn of the twentieth century, Japan is widely acknowledged to have been transformed to an extent seldom if ever matched by other countries in history. That said, what elements of Tokugawa-period Japan might be seen as still manifest in the society described in this work?

 

[Alcibiades]

in how many hours is it due?

j/k, but I have been up procastinating some homework almost every night, and last week I played "finishing a paper" so close that I walked into class 20 min. late finishing it up (lab for printing was 15 sec. away from room)...

I got a B- now I wish I had done it in time, but I pretty much skimmed through 75% (only read the 1st ch. and parts of others) of the book for a summary and commentary (3 pages non-double spaced)...

 

[goodcow]

But I've read the book, enjoyed it thoroughly, and have read all the various dcuments and chapters relevant to the course thus far. However I just don't agree that Botchan is much of a historical reference piece, and surely not enough to focus a four or five page paper on for one of those four questions. (though I'm sure some here would disagree, and apparently the rest of my class is going to cobble something together)

This is my most hated paper in several years.

 

[goodcow]

I think I'll just go with an honest, although risky and unconveintial opening.

Botchan, the tale of a young and cheeky Tokyoite who embarks to the country region of Shikoku to become a middle school elementary teacher, was written during the closing period of both governmental transition, and newly inherited Western influence in Japan. A time wherein Japan’s culture was undergoing a period of metamorphosis, quickly absorbing Western style ideas for items not only such as clothing, food, and cultural mannerisms, both on a more grand scale, having adopted Western industrial technologies like the steam engine for a national railway, and more importantly, a Western influenced form of government. While fictional, Botchan is based on its author Natsume Soseki’s real experiences as a teacher during this period, and as the back of the dust jacket proclaims, it is a “hilarious tale about a young man’s rebellion against ‘the system’ in a country school,” and that I can wholeheartedly agree with. However, as rebellious and cheeky as this may sound on my part, especially against the backdrop of the rest of my fellow peers doing this same assignment, I must respectfully disagree that Botchan is to be taken as a serious historical document, or time piece, as instead I believe it to be more or less a thoroughly enjoyable read, and a great story, but one which only lightly touches upon the societal changes Japan was undergoing during this period, and uses them as more or less only a backdrop to tell a delightful tale. With that in mind, I will try to cobble something together in the following pages.

 

[Andy787]

Hahaha, you have a 4-5 page paper due today, too? I don't have a paper due (well, I have a 1 page paper due Thursday, but that's beside the point), but I do have a presentation I have to do later today, that I wrote like 4 pages worth on. I just pretty much did it all last night at like 7-9am before passing out, I had been dreading doing it as well since the quarter began. Then again, I dread pretty much all homework, and have such an unbelievably hard time motivating myself to do it, that I wind up basically being anxious the entire time up until my assignments are due, finishing them like the day/night of, and just cramming for an hour or two before tests. It is a miserable exsistence.

 

[Tarazet]

I don't think your teacher is trying to present this book as a historical document. This sounds like your basic compare and contrast essay to me, and there should be ample material for fleshing out the similarities and differences between the fictional account and the reality of turn of the century Japan.

 

[goodcow]

I don't think your teacher is trying to present this book as a historical document. This sounds like your basic compare and contrast essay to me, and there should be ample material for fleshing out the similarities and differences between the fictional account and the reality of turn of the century Japan.

If I were to do all four questions in one essay, fine. However, for example, the information in the book on eudcation is one single page, and we were given only one useful article.

 

[Tarazet]

If I were to do all four questions in one essay, fine. However, for example, the information in the book on eudcation is one single page, and we were given only one useful article.

One page is plenty if you pick it apart ruthlessly and use every detail you can possibly get out of it. I've based entire essays on a single sentence before.

 

[Scrow]

One page is plenty if you pick it apart ruthlessly and use every detail you can possibly get out of it. I've based entire essays on a single sentence before.

what mark did you get for it?

 

[Tarazet]

what mark did you get for it?

I got an A. It's a perfectly valid technique for writing papers.

 

[fallout]

I picked a major that doesn't require me to write essays. I couldn't write one to save my life.