TUJ Philosophy Lecture Series Vol. 11 Douglas Atkinson on “Karatani Kojin and the Subject OF/IN Lite
Time 3:20 PM - 5 PM December 3rd, 2019 (doors open 3 PM)
Venue Temple University Japan Room 306 3Floor
Language English
Registration Not required
Contact infotujresearch@tuj.temple.edu, philosophy_series@tuj.temple.edu
Twitter @TUJPhil
This lecture will explore the philosophical legacies of modernism by considering its theoretical and stylistic consequences on Japanese literature during the Shōwa period. Specifically, this will be done through an inquiry into the topographies of writing and identity as depicted in the work of Kobo Abe. To this end, the speaker will focus on Abe’s novel The Boxman, which will show to be of significant value in assessing the legacies of Modernism, and his theoretical writings on identity and literature found in The Frontier Within. Most importantly, however, is the intention to read Abe through the lens of Kojin Karatani’s notion of Inversion, with particular emphasis on the topographical centrality of the concept of “landscape” and its role in the development of the space of interiority. Central to both of these exceptional thinkers is the question of the role that literature plays in the creation of a subjectivity premised on the idea of interiority. Given the importance placed on the expression of the interiority of the writer during the Taishō period, this lecture will argue that a systematic engagement with Abe’s work, in particular, his notion of “sustained flight” and its relation to the act of writing, is the ideal context for considering, and perhaps reconsidering, the central concepts of Japanese Modernism.
