Hmm, that author's name sounds familiar, if not that particular book as well. I probably had to read from him.
Oh yes, Japan and its "particularism". Are you gonna get to 日本人論? Fun times! Granted, I guess it makes sense to have a complex when throughout your nation's history you've fairly accurately been accused of doing little other than "cultural borrowing", but... I dunno. Being here, it's really kind of ironic. It's like, dude, Japan is totally a special, weird place, but just not in any of the ways the Japanese think it is, heh.
Seriously, its so difficult to sort through the Nihonjinron b.s. when reading through its history. It's definitely an interesting starting point through which to view the world, even if it doesn't hold water when push comes to shove.
At the risk of sounding stupid, what is 日本人論 beyond 'theories of the Japanese people'? Here's our list of major books that we're reading this quarter (there are a bazillion optional books + req'd articles, of course):
Daniel V. Botsman, Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan Gail Bernstein, Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945 Carol Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths Andrew Gordon, Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan Miyako Inoue, Vicarious Language Maruyama Masao, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, trans.Mikiso Hane Jordan Sand, House and Home in Modern Japan Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation Thomas C. Smith, The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan Brett L. Walker, The Conquest of Ainu LandsMostly new(ish) stuff, with the exception of Maruyama and Smith (both of which we've 'finished'). It's a bit odd because it seems that the Japanese historians have a very different approach than us Chinese historians & obviously, the *class* is taught by a Japanese historian (who is
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Oh yes, Japan and its "particularism". Are you gonna get to 日本人論? Fun times! Granted, I guess it makes sense to have a complex when throughout your nation's history you've fairly accurately been accused of doing little other than "cultural borrowing", but... I dunno. Being here, it's really kind of ironic. It's like, dude, Japan is totally a special, weird place, but just not in any of the ways the Japanese think it is, heh.
Seriously, its so difficult to sort through the Nihonjinron b.s. when reading through its history. It's definitely an interesting starting point through which to view the world, even if it doesn't hold water when push comes to shove.
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Daniel V. Botsman, Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan
Gail Bernstein, Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945
Carol Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths
Andrew Gordon, Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan
Miyako Inoue, Vicarious Language
Maruyama Masao, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, trans.Mikiso
Hane
Jordan Sand, House and Home in Modern Japan
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation
Thomas C. Smith, The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan
Brett L. Walker, The Conquest of Ainu LandsMostly new(ish) stuff, with the exception of Maruyama and Smith (both of which we've 'finished'). It's a bit odd because it seems that the Japanese historians have a very different approach than us Chinese historians & obviously, the *class* is taught by a Japanese historian (who is ( ... )
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