Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan - Kuki Shuzo and the Rise of National Aesthetics

"In her penetrating study, Leslie Pincus has managed to disclose how modernism in Japan (and elsewhere) was directed toward resolving the challenge of historical surplus caused by rapid modernization. She authoritatively demonstrates how thought was confronted with the epochal task of defining a stable culture capable of resisting ceaseless change and authenticating Japanese difference and identity."—Harry Harootunian, co-editor of Japan in the World

"A tour de force—a case study in the modernist critique of modernity. Through her reading of Kuki Shuzo's writings, Leslie Pincus provides a guide to the development of the philosophy of culture in a variety of national settings from the turn of the century through the 1930s."—Andrew Barshay, author of State and Intellectual in Imperial Japan

"In this exquisitely written book, Leslie Pincus examines the contradictions at the heart of Japanese modernity. She demonstrates how the extraordinary relationship between Kuki Shuzo and Heidegger allegorized the more general problem of Japan's relationship with the West. This is a wonderful example of how to situate intellectual history within contemporary cultural debates."—Nicholas Dirks, editor of Colonialism and Culture

About the author

Leslie Pincus is Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

Summary

Focuses on the work of Kuki Shuzo, a philosopher and the author of the classic "'Iki' no Kozo", to explore culture and theory in Japan during the interwar years. This title shows how Japanese intellectual culture ultimately became complicit, even instrumental, in a repressive and militaristic regime that ultimately brought the world to war.

Product details

• Authors: Leslie Pincus, Pincus Leslie
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 25.06.1996
• EAN: 9780520201347
• ISBN: 978-0-520-20134-7
• No. of pages: 285
• Series: Twentieth-Century Japan; Twentieth Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Other world religions; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Japan, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, HISTORY / Asia / Japan, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Japanese, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Asian History, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000