Preparatory Reading - Japanese

Required reading for Japanese Studies

•  David Pilling. Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival. London: Penguin, 2014.
•  Sugimoto, Yoshio. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (5th edition), 2015.  
•  Kato Shuichi & Don Sanderson. A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to Modern Times. (Abridged Edition). London: Routledge, 1997. 
• Rubin, Jay (ed.). The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. London: Penguin, 2018.
•  For Japanese language, students are expected to know hiragana and katakana before the start of Michaelmas Term. Information will be sent to students directly.  

Required reading for East Asian History

• Edward Said, Orientalism. London: Penguin, 2003. (If this edition is not available, any edition will suffice)
• Ebrey, P., The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge UP.
• Kyung Moon Hwang, A History of Korea. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Mason and Caiger, History of Japan: revised Edition. Tuttle. 2011

Further recommended readings

• Friday, Karl F. (ed.). Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850. Westview Press, 2012.
•  Shirane, Haruo, Suzuki, Tomi and Lurie, David (eds.) The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Haruo Shirane (ed.). Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600, Abridged Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. Available on Kindle.
• Haruo Shirane (ed.). Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Available on Kindle.
• Shirane, Haruo (ed.), Traditional Japanese literature : An anthology, beginnings to 1600  (Translations from the Asian classics). New York ; Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2007.
•  Hendry, Joy. Understanding Japanese Society. London: Routledge (4th edition), 2012.
• Hood, Christopher. Japan. The Basics. London: Routledge, 2014 (https://hoodcp.wordpress.com/research-publications/book-japan-the-basics/).
•  Steger, Brigitte and Angelika Koch (eds.). Manga Girl Seeks Herbivore Boy. Studying Japanese Gender at Cambridge. Zurich: Lit, 2013.
• Steger, Brigitte and Angelika Koch (eds). Cool Japanese Men. Studying New Masculinities at Cambridge. Zurich: Lit, 2017.
•  Steger, Brigitte, Angelika Koch and Christopher Tso. Beyond Kawaii: Studying Japanese Femininities at Cambridge. Lit., 2020.
• Goossen, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. (Oxford University Press, 2010)
• Ramon Pacheco Pardo and Victor Cha. Korea: A new history of South and North . Yale University Press, 2024)