Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies: Utopia and the Everyday in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Literature
PAST EVENT | 14 June 2018 10:00 - 14 June 2018 17:15
The 2018 Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies, ‘Utopia and the Everyday in Postwar and Contemporary in Japanese Literature’ will be held at Pembroke College on the 14th of June. The symposium will investigate the complex and paradoxical relationship between utopia and the everyday in various works of literature and popular culture.
Many in postwar Japan have participated in initiatives expressing ‘the desire of a better way of being’ (as Ruth Levitas has comprehensively defined utopia) through social movements (shimin undô) or communities such as utopian villages. Moreover, from convenience stores and hostess bars to hot springs and amusement parks, Japanese postmodern space is laden with sites which, whilst narrowly inserted in the temporal and spatial network of working life, nevertheless offer their users respite from the everyday. These initiatives and spaces reflect how the concept of utopia has changed alongside the historical context and social milieu. The symposium will consider issues including the following: How are these sites and places described in postwar and contemporary fiction? What is the relationship between utopia and everyday life, and how is this manifested in literature of this period? Why and when does utopia reveal its dystopian side?
Organisers: Linda Flores and Thomas Garcin (Pembroke College and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford)
The full programme is available here.
This symposium is made possible by a grant from the Tanaka UK Japan Educational Foundation.
Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies: Utopia and the Everyday in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Literature
PAST EVENT | 14 June 2018 10:00 - 14 June 2018 17:15
The 2018 Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies, ‘Utopia and the Everyday in Postwar and Contemporary in Japanese Literature’ will be held at Pembroke College on the 14th of June. The symposium will investigate the complex and paradoxical relationship between utopia and the everyday in various works of literature and popular culture.
Many in postwar Japan have participated in initiatives expressing ‘the desire of a better way of being’ (as Ruth Levitas has comprehensively defined utopia) through social movements (shimin undô) or communities such as utopian villages. Moreover, from convenience stores and hostess bars to hot springs and amusement parks, Japanese postmodern space is laden with sites which, whilst narrowly inserted in the temporal and spatial network of working life, nevertheless offer their users respite from the everyday. These initiatives and spaces reflect how the concept of utopia has changed alongside the historical context and social milieu. The symposium will consider issues including the following: How are these sites and places described in postwar and contemporary fiction? What is the relationship between utopia and everyday life, and how is this manifested in literature of this period? Why and when does utopia reveal its dystopian side?
Organisers: Linda Flores and Thomas Garcin (Pembroke College and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford)
The full programme is available here.
This symposium is made possible by a grant from the Tanaka UK Japan Educational Foundation.