Postmodern, Feminist and Postcolonial Currents in Contemporary Japanese Culture

Postmodern, Feminist and Postcolonial Currents in Contemporary Japanese Culture PDF Author: Fuminobu Murakami
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134246226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Using the Euro-American theoretical framework of postmodernism, feminism and post-colonialism, this book analyses the fictional and critical work of four contemporary Japanese writers; Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki and Karatani Kojin. In addition the author reconsiders this Euro-American theory by looking back on it from the perspective of Japanese literary work. Presenting outstanding analysis of Japanese intellectuals and writers who have received little attention in the West, the book also includes an extensive and comprehensive bibliography making it essential reading for those studying Japanese literature, Japanese studies and Japanese thinkers.

Postmodern, Feminist and Postcolonial Currents in Contemporary Japanese Culture

Postmodern, Feminist and Postcolonial Currents in Contemporary Japanese Culture PDF Author: Fuminobu Murakami
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134246226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Using the Euro-American theoretical framework of postmodernism, feminism and post-colonialism, this book analyses the fictional and critical work of four contemporary Japanese writers; Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki and Karatani Kojin. In addition the author reconsiders this Euro-American theory by looking back on it from the perspective of Japanese literary work. Presenting outstanding analysis of Japanese intellectuals and writers who have received little attention in the West, the book also includes an extensive and comprehensive bibliography making it essential reading for those studying Japanese literature, Japanese studies and Japanese thinkers.

Murakami Haruki

Murakami Haruki PDF Author: Michael Seats
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739127254
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This book offers a philosophical intervention in the discussion of the relationship between Murakami's fiction and contemporary Japanese culture. It demonstrates how Murakami's first and later trilogies utilize the structure of the simulacrum, a second-order representation, to develop a complex critique of contemporary Japanese culture. By outlining the critical-fictional contours of the 'Murakami Phenomenon, ' the discussion confronts the vexing question of Japanese modernity and subjectivity within the contexts of the national-cultural imaginary. The author finds mirroring comparisons between Murakami's works and practices in current media-entertainment technologies, indicating a new politics of representation.

Shock and Naturalization in Contemporary Japanese Literature

Shock and Naturalization in Contemporary Japanese Literature PDF Author: Carl Cassegård
Publisher: Global Oriental
ISBN: 9004213481
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This study introduces the concepts of naturalization and naturalized modernity, and uses them as tools for understanding the way modernity has been experienced and portrayed in Japanese literature since the end of the Second World War. Special emphasis is given to four leading post-war writers – Kawabata Yasunari, Abe Kobo, Murakami Haruki and Murakami Ryu. The author argues that notions of ‘shock’ in modern city life in Japan (as exemplified in the writings of Walter Benjamin and George Simmel), while present in the work of older Japanese writers, do not appear to hold true in much contemporary Japanese literature: it is as if the ‘shock’ impact of change has evolved as a ‘naturalized’ or ‘Japanized’ process. The author focuses on the implications of this phenomenon, both in the context of the theory of modernity and as an opportunity to reevaluate the works of his chosen writers.

Understanding Japanese Society

Understanding Japanese Society PDF Author: Joy Hendry
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415679133
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This new edition provides a clear introduction to Japanese society which does not require any previous knowledge of the country. It contains new material on the effects of the Asian crisis and recession in Japan, the changes to the Japanese ruling political elite and more.

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan PDF Author: David G. Wittner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080476
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Introduction : Meiji modernization revisited -- Tradition and modernization -- Iron machines and brick buildings : the material culture of silk reeling -- Smelting for civilization : technical choice and the modernization of the Iron industry -- Bunmei kaika to gijutsu : technology's role in 'civilization and enlightenment' -- Conclusion : from technological determinism to techno-imperialism.

The Strong and the Weak in Japanese Literature

The Strong and the Weak in Japanese Literature PDF Author: Fuminobu Murakami
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136970517
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
This book uses texts from classical to modern Japanese literature to examine concepts of 'respect for the strong', as a notion of an evolutionary society, and 'sympathy for the weak', as a notion of a non-violent and changeless egalitarian society. The term strong refers not just to those with strength and power. It also includes other ideal attributes such as beauty, youth and goodness. Similarly, the term weak implies not only the weak and infirm, but also the disadvantaged, the indecent, the unsophisticated and those generally shunned by society. The former are associated not only with the power of life, competition, evolution, progress, development, ability, effectiveness, efficiency, individuality, the future, hope and romance, but also with violence, fighting, bullying, discrimination and sacrifice. The latter, in contrast, invoke notions of peace, egalitarianism, anti-discrimination and welfare, as well as stagnation, retreat, retrogression, degeneration and the decline of vital powers. By using these two concepts Murakami skillfully weaves a narrative that is part literary criticism, part social commentary. As such the book will be of huge interest to not only scholars and students of Japanese literature, but also those of Japanese society and culture.

Making Icons

Making Icons PDF Author: Jennifer Coates
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888208993
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
One distinctive feature of post-war Japanese cinema is the frequent recurrence of imagistic and narrative tropes and formulaic characterizations in female representations. These repetitions are important, Jennifer Coates asserts, because sentiments and behaviours forbidden during the war and post-war social and political changes were often articulated by or through the female image. Moving across major character types, from mothers to daughters, and schoolteachers to streetwalkers, Making Icons studies the role of the media in shaping the attitudes of the general public. Japanese cinema after the defeat is shown to be an important ground where social experiences were explored, reworked, and eventually accepted or rejected by the audience emotionally invested in these repetitive materials. An examination of 600 films produced and distributed between 1945 and 1964, as well as numerous Japanese-language sources, forms the basis of this rigorous study. Making Icons draws on an art-historical iconographic analysis to explain how viewers derive meanings from images during this peak period of film production and attendance in Japan. ‘It is very difficult not to heap superlatives upon Making Icons. This splendid work sheds a shining light on the situation of women in post-war Japan, and on post-war Japan itself. Not only is this a deft reading of text and context, it expands the very notion of context, seeing stardom through the lens of filmic and extra-filmic texts. A must-read for anyone interested in Japanese cinema.’ —David Desser, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ‘This is a compelling book. I am excited by Jennifer Coates’s art-historically informed iconographic approach towards female representation in post-war Japanese cinema. Making Icons will certainly make a splash in the field of Japanese film studies.’ —Daisuke Miyao, Professor and the Hajime Mori Chair in Japanese Language and Literature, University of California, San Diego

The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater

The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater PDF Author: Scott J. Miller
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461731887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan opened its doors to the West and underwent remarkable changes as it sought to become a modern nation. Accompanying the political changes that Western trade ushered in were widespread social and cultural changes. Newspapers, novels, poems, and plays from the Western world were soon adapted and translated into Japanese. The combination of the rich storytelling tradition of Japan with the realism and modernism of the West produced some of the greatest literature of the modern age. The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature-narrative, poetry, and drama-in modern Japan. This book offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Japanese literature.

Rethinking Japanese Studies

Rethinking Japanese Studies PDF Author: Kaori Okano
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351654950
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Japanese Studies has provided a fertile space for non-Eurocentric analysis for a number of reasons. It has been embroiled in the long-running internal debate over the so-called Nihonjinron, revolving around the extent to which the effective interpretation of Japanese society and culture requires non-Western, Japan-specific emic concepts and theories. This book takes this question further and explores how we can understand Japanese society and culture by combining Euro-American concepts and theories with those that originate in Japan. Because Japan is the only liberal democracy to have achieved a high level of capitalism outside the Western cultural framework, Japanese Studies has long provided a forum for deliberations about the extent to which the Western conception of modernity is universally applicable. Furthermore, because of Japan’s military, economic and cultural dominance in Asia at different points in the last century, Japanese Studies has had to deal with the issues of Japanocentrism as well as Eurocentrism, a duality requiring complex and nuanced analysis. This book identifies variations amongst Japanese Studies academic communities in the Asia-Pacific and examines the extent to which relatively autonomous scholarship, intellectual approach or theories exist in the region. It also evaluates how studies on Japan in the region contribute to global Japanese Studies and explores their potential for formulating concrete strategies to unsettle Eurocentric dominance of the discipline.

Defending Rights in Contemporary China

Defending Rights in Contemporary China PDF Author: Jonathan Benney
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415694302
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Defending Rights in Contemporary China offers the first comprehensive analysis of the emergence and development of notions of rights defence, or weiquan, in China. Further, it shows that rights defence campaigns reflect the changing lives and priorities of Chinese citizens, both urban and rural, and the changing distribution of power in China. In this book, Jonathan Benney argues that the idea of rights defence has gone from being a tool of the government to being a tool to attack the party-state, and explores the consequences of this controversial activist movement.