Universität Wien
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150072 UE 3rd Book Club Popular Culture: Visual Novel (2022W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 15 - Ostasienwissenschaften
Continuous assessment of course work
REMOTE

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: German, English, Japanese

Lecturers

Classes

The default slot for (online) meets is Monday, 18:30–20:00. Please make sure you‘re available!

There’s an orientation & introduction on 10 October, which begins at 18:30 as well. Attendance is mandatory!


Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

THE ENGRISH VERSION OF THIS TEXT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

Everyone interested in taking this course is cordially invited to join Moodle even before the nominal course start date, in addition to the formal registration for the course.

All students will be accepted provisionally, even beyond the above limit. That way you can join the orientation & introduction session, and get a taste of the text and its difficulty. However, I reserve the right to de-register students during the de-registration period to ensure a minimum skill level and manageable group size.

This course aims to demonstrate that—and how—one can start to read in Japanese even without all that much textbook knowledge, and have fun doing it!

Specifically, we’re going to read a so-called visual novel, an originally Japanese, text-heavy form of popular culture, in which the text is enhanced by pictures, music, and sound effects. More importantly, in newer releases by major studios, spoken lines are usually voiced by professional voice actresses and actors. Stylistically as well as sub-culturally they’re related to light novels, manga and anime; although more serious works do exist; technically speaking they’re computer/video games; and for historical reasons they often include pornographic elements.

The multimedia nature of the form helps alleviate confusion due to the high-context nature of the Japanese language, while the ability to read and hear spoken text at the same time makes it easier to understand, as well as to and link kanji and vocabulary. Because the text is presented line by line and requires user input to advances, it doesn’t overwhelm the you but allows you to proceed at your own pace.

We’re going to focus on understanding the meaning of the text, rather than the finer points of its grammar. The amount of text is so large that an analytical translation in the style of Theorie/Grammar simply isn’t feasible. This is by design. You’re meant to get so much practice that you’ll reach a certain level of fluency as a matter of course.

Students will read a section of the text each week, and be able to ask (and answer) questions at any time. The weekly reading goes hand in hand with one or more assignments, which function among other things as a check students have read and understood the text meaning- and language-wise; followed by discussion. Additional tasks and/or impulse topics for discussion will be provided when the text provides opportunities for exploring something in more depth.

PREREQUISITES / TARGET AUDIENCE
* decent grounding in Japanese. Something like an A in Theorie and Praxis 1 and 2, plus plenty of experience in the self-study of Japanese as well as with various adjacent Japanese pop culture media would probably be the minimum; a B in Theorie 4 is more realistic, provided you’ve at least tried to read something that wasn’t from a textbook.
* high motivation. Any shortcomings may be overcome provided you bring enough motivation and invest enough time – whether it’s possible in the time-frame specified by the ECTS rating is another matter.
* some German. You should be able to understand it at least. Some or all announcements and assignments may be in German, and other participants may prefer to communicate primarily in German; but it’s perfectly acceptable to write assignments / reply in English.
* Computer running Windows or Linux (maybe MacOS, if you have a lot of experience running games for Windows), stable internet connection, microphone for teleconferencing (camera optional).

See Moodle for more on the estimated difficulty and time investment required (u:space has a character limit).

Assessment and permitted materials

Assessment happens continuously throughout the semester, based on:

* regular assignments re. the weekly reading, e.g. summary, comprehension questions, partial translation, research (re. content or language), …
* active participation in the course, especially asking and answering questions on the forum, contributing to discussions, …
* any extra assignments, e.g. research and presentation of the results to the class.

The lecturer reserves the option, especially with regard to the regular assignments, to mark only a sample, selected in such a way as too guarantee each participant gets about the same number of turns.

Most contributions are to be made asynchronously on Moodle, though some may require participants to be virtually or physically present, depending, for example oral discussions, presentations, ...
Where it is possible and makes sense, students’ contributions will be shared with the class at large (similar to contributions made during conventional lessons).

Plagiarism, including using ghostwriters and blindly and/or secretly relying on machine translations, is strictly prohibited (expulsion from the course and the annotation “unerlaubte Hilfsmittel” [‘cheating’] on the transcript). Otherwise anything goes. In particular, participants are encouraged cooperate (outside solo assignments).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

* More than 50 % of the point total is required to pass the course: > 50 % → 4/D; > 62,5 % → 3/C; > 75 % → 2/B; → 87,5 % → 1/A.
They comprise regular assignments pertaining to the reading (1st item above), ⅔; and active participation (2nd item above), ⅓. Extra assignments (3rd item above) generally go in the second category, except when they’re similar in kind and function to the regular assignments.

* The regular assignments re. the text receive a mark of 0 points if they’re not submitted, though if only a sample is marked, this only applies to participants who are actually selected. At the end of the semester the worst marks in the category are struck (20 % relative to the median number of marks) and the remainder averaged. I reserve the right to weight the individual assignments according to the amount of text covered / effort required, if there are significant differences, e.g. due to holidays.

* Active participation in the forum, in discussions, etc. is marked relative to the median of all participants.

* Extra assignments may be mandatory, no submission → 0 points, or optional, meaning it’s only considered if something has been submitted. Students are not entitled to do optional extra assignments.

Late submissions may not be accepted at the discretion of the lecturer.

Not least because this is an experimental course, the yardstick for a pass is making an honest effort, and progress is deemed as important as absolute skill, if not more so.

* No-shows for the orientation/introductory session may be de-registered (like they would be from a conventional course).
* Students who are inactive on Moodle for more than two weeks, or who fail to submit three mandatory assignments in a row, without a good reason, receive a failing grade and are excluded from further participation (the online version of the usual attendance minimum).
* Otherwise attendance is not mandatory, though you may miss out on important information and opportunities to contribute to the course and your grade.

Examination topics

All course content, in particular the work we’re reading and everything we generate in the course of reading it, including forum discussions etc., plus the materials provided on Moodle.

Reading list

All required material will be provided via Moodle. The enrolment key for self-enrolment [is no longer needed].

Association in the course directory

BA: M16, Modul Alternative Erweiterungen
MA M4

Last modified: Tu 04.10.2022 14:08