Before Identity: The Question of Method in Japan Studies PDF
Preview Before Identity: The Question of Method in Japan Studies
BEFORE IDENTITY BEFORE IDENTITY The Question of Method in Japan Studies RICHARD F. CALICHMAN Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2021 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Name: Calichman, Richard, author. Title: Before identity : the question of method in Japan studies / Richard F. Calichman. Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, Albany, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020045640 (print) | LCCN 2020045641 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438482132 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438482156 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Japan—Study and teaching. | Education—Philosophy. | Identity (Philosophical concept) | Kafka, Franz, 1883–1924. Classification: LCC DS806 .C275 2021 (print) | LCC DS806 (ebook) | DDC 952.0072—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045640 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045641 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Remembering Kafka: Between Murakami Haruki and Komori Yōichi 9 Chapter 2 The Double Pull of History and Philosophy: Reading Harootunian 57 Chapter 3 The Question of Subjectivity in North American Japanese Literary Studies 107 Coda Some Brief Remarks on Responsibility 181 Notes 189 Bibliography 209 Index 215 Acknowledgments For some time, the process of writing a book has been like swimming underwater: the experience is at once pleasurable and frightening, and one yearns for the moment when one can finally resurface and recommence one’s relationship with the far less demanding element of oxygen. Now that I have arrived at such a moment, I must attend to academic protocol and thank publicly those whose gifts and kindnesses I cherish primarily privately. Friends and colleagues whose insights have helped improve this manuscript include: Michael Bourdaghs, Pedro Erber, Mayumo Inoue, Ted Mack, Cliff Rosenberg, and Atsuko Ueda. I would also like to give particular thanks to Jon Solomon: the years have brought distance and differences, but many of the thoughts expressed in the following pages originated from our past discussions. Parts of the work were delivered as a conference paper at Cornell University in 2017 and as a public lecture at the University of Chicago in 2018, and I am grateful to Joshua Young and, again, Michael Bourdaghs for organizing these events. At SUNY Press, I have been extremely fortunate to receive the help of Christopher Ahn and James Peltz. I am also indebted to the two anony- mous readers whose perceptive comments encouraged me to rethink certain aspects of my argument. The book is dedicated to Naoki Sakai: with respect and gratitude. vii Introduction In the following pages, I attempt to set forth what might be considered a divergent or dissenting approach to Japan studies, one primarily con- cerned with the question of method rather than the more traditional focus on objects. It must be immediately added, however, that there is nothing unique about either Japan or Japan studies that would prevent my remarks from conceivably being applied to other branches of area studies as well. The study of area is typically established on the basis of the unit of the individual nation-state—e.g., French studies, China studies, etc.—and this national unity is given substance by appeal to a unified people, culture, and language. This very division of knowledge, I contend, is intrinsically nationalistic. Regardless of whether the individual scholar comes to treat the problem of nationalism, his or her participation in the discourse of area studies already reinforces the overall sense of national oneness. In order to examine the root of this problem, attention must be directed to the general manner in which difference and identity are conceived and institutionally organized. With particular focus on the region of area studies known as “Japan,” I aim to show that our thinking of such sites must be placed on a more rigorously critical footing. How, then, might one contribute to the formation of a critical Japan studies? This is the question that motivates the writing of this book. As goes without saying, such a question did not arise out of thin air; on the contrary, it is ineluctably a response to the dynamics of the North American field of Japan studies that I have witnessed and participated in for nearly two decades now. Certainly there is much to commend about the current scholarship in this field, and there can be little doubt that the discipline as a whole has continued to evolve in such a way as to become more critically self-conscious and finely attuned to the politicality inherent in any project of knowledge. A glance at recent publications in the major subfields of 1
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