Annual Meeting, Chicago

Session 242, 10:45am-12:45pm

Colorado, Level 2

Participants:

AZUMA Hiroki, MIYADAI Shinji, Ian CONDRY

Moderator: Shion KONO

Chair: Jonathan E. ABEL

What can critics today learn from Japanese post-bubble experience of the 1990s about the role of critique amidst the rapid cultural changes that coincide with economic collapse?  What is the range of possible responses? 

Since the demise of Hihyō kūkan (the journal Critical Space), North American scholars of Japan have turned to broad the problems of historical awareness and politics (or Euro-American cultural studies and postcolonial thought). And in this framework, much of contemporary Japanese critical discussion has gone under the radar.

Now, the mutual understanding of the very term "criticism"—the presumptions it entails and the contents to which it may refer—have been greatly transformed.  As "Literature" and "Politics" no longer propel theoretical discourse in Japan, younger critics have distanced themselves from older critical modes searching elsewhere for critical traction.  Where does this critical re-definition lead?

What can be learned from Miyadai's multi-faceted critical activities, from his high sociological theory to his pop culture fieldwork? How has Azuma sought to re-shape the language of critical discourse in Japan? 

Funded with the generous support of the Japan Foundation.