Problem: Applying western theories on japanese films

[Maria Jose Gonzalez]

Dear Robert,

You might find Miriam Hansen's ideas on "vernacular modernism" useful  
towards your research.

Maria Jose

PS. Naruse's Nyonin Aishu was a true delight.



On 2007/10/12, at 19:30, Robert.Geib at gmx.de wrote:

> Dear subscribers of KineJapan,
>
> First, I want to introduce myself: I?m a young scholar of media  
> studies from Jena, Germany. I?m currently preparing my  
> dissertation on body & memory in contemporary japanese cinema. I  
> want to show that current japanese films (Kurosawa, Tsukamoto,  
> Oshii and others) contribute aesthetically to a broad debate about  
> body and memory in cultural- and media studies.
>
> Drawing on the works of film phenomenology, the writings of  
> Foucault and Deleuze and recent trauma theory, I want to articulate  
> a specific view of the body and memory that emerge through close  
> analysis of these films. Of course I?m just in the first steps of  
> my research and I have a lot more preliminary research on the topic  
> to do, but a certain problem has already occured and I wonder if  
> some of you could help me out.
>
> The reemergence of the body and memory particular in film practice  
> and theory since the late 1980s is closely linked to a criticism of  
> the dominance of ocular vision in certain branches of film theory.  
> These theories are based on certain assumptions, stated by Jonathan  
> Crary and Donald Lowe among others, that ocular centrism is a  
> distinctive feature of modern (western) societies. This mode of  
> perception that can be traced back to philosophical belief systems  
> of the Enlightment, the invention of single-point perspective in  
> the Renaissance and technological changes of the media landscape  
> (namely photography and cinema).
>
> Now I?m a little reluctant to apply these models of a history of  
> perception and subject formation on japanese cinema; models that  
> are based on the analysis of specific historic, aesthetic and  
> social circumstances in western europe. Although many ideas of the  
> Enlightment were adopted in the Meiji restauration and technologies  
> like photography and cinema were quickly imported and assimilated,  
> I?m not sure if the implicit hierarchy of the senses (which can be  
> broken down to a slogan like 'seeing equals knowing') has found  
> it's way into the modern japanese society (given the complex nature  
> and history of japanese adaptation of foreign ideas).
>
> Do you suggest, that japanese cinema is a 'special case' and cannot  
> be approached by models and theories based on western thought?  
> Should they be used reflectively, assuming the role of a distant  
> observer, always insisting on the 'special case' of the japanese  
> history of art and perception? Or should I take a more postmodern  
> approach, where I don?t really care about the 'otherness' of  
> japanese cinema (thereby also circumventing the notion of the  
> 'exotic') and simply apply these theories if they seem viable?
>
> I really hope that I?m not beating any dead horses here, but I  
> would very much appreciate if some of you could comment on my  
> problem and suggest further literature on that issue.
>
> Thanks in advance and greetings from Germany,
> Robert Geib
>
> -- 
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