Translation and Subjectivity: On "Japan" and Cultural NationalismU of Minnesota Press - 231 pages An excursion across the boundaries of language and culture, this provocative book suggests that national identity and cultural politics are, in fact, "all in the translation". Translation, we tend to think, represents another language in all its integrity and unity. Naoki Sakai turns this thinking on its head, and shows how this unity of language really only exists in our manner of representing translation. In analyses of translational transactions and with a focus on the ethnic, cultural, and national identities of modern Japan, he explores the cultural politics inherent in translation. Through the schematic representation of translation, one language is rendered in contrast to another as if the two languages are clearly different and distinct. And yet, Sakai contends, such differences and distinctions between ethnic or national languages (or cultures) are only defined once translation has already rendered them commensurate. His essays thus address translation as a means of figuring (or configuring) difference. They do so by looking at discourses in various historical contexts: post-WWII writings on the emperor system; Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's dictee; and Watsuji Tetsuro's anthropology. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Theresa Hak Kyung Chas Dictée and Repetition without Return | 18 |
The Formation of Japan and the Schema of Cofiguration | 40 |
Watsuji Tetsurôs Anthropology and Discussions of Authenticity | 72 |
4 Subject andor Shutai and the Inscription of Cultural Difference | 117 |
Other editions - View all
Translation and Subjectivity: On "Japan" and Cultural Nationalism Naoki Sakai No preview available - 1997 |
Translation and Subjectivity: On "Japan" and Cultural Nationalism Naoki Sakai No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
aidagara articulation Asian Asian Studies authentic called Chinese Christopher Fynsk Climate and Culture colonial concept constituted critique cultural difference desire Dictée discourse East emperor system epistemic subject ethnos existence fact foreign language formation Heidegger heterogeneous history of Japanese Homi K homolingual address human Ibid identity individual Inscription of Cultural Iwanami Shoten Japa Japan Japanese language Japanese nation Japanese thought Jean-Luc Nancy Language in Postwar linguistic literature Lu Xun Maruyama Maruyama Masao means Miki Kiyoshi minzoku modern mother tongue nation-state national community national language never ningen Nishida non-West Notes to Chapter object one's particular poets political possible Postwar Japan praxis Problem of Japanese relationality of subjective relationship represented Return Rinrigaku Sakai schema of cofiguration sense Shanghai Shisô shukan shutai spatial Subject and Inscription subjective positions Tamura Ryuichi Tanabe Tanabe Hajime theory tion Tokyo totality trans universalism Watsuji Tetsuro Watsuji Tetsuro Zenshû Watsuji's ethics West West/Return Western world history