Nakai and Egypt

[Alex Zahlten]

Hi Mathieu,

if you are looking for a German equivalent to "fear of space" you might check out the (somewhat twisted history) of the term "Raumfurcht." It pops up quite a bit in the 1910s and 1920s, and for example was used by ethnologist Fritz Graebner when he was trying to rework Frobenius' theory of cultural circles (Kulturkreis) to establish a model of the diffusion of culture (or more precisely: cultural complexes). 
The theory later came under suspicion, not always fairly, for sharing some ideas with Nazi ideology, and indeed was used for arguing for something of a hierarchical idea of culture.

Raumfurcht was then later picked up by Hegelian philosopher and eventual cyberneticist Gotthard Günther, especially in his book "The American Apocalypse" (this is too late to be of any influence for Nakai, but it's quite interesting as a book). In it Günther sees Europeans as subject to Raumfurcht, which heavily influences their relationship to the (spatially expansive) "new world" of America.

Alex




> 2010/6/8 Mark Roberts <mroberts37 at mail-central.com>
> 
> > Mathieu,
> >
> > Off the cuff, I would say: have a look at what Kant says about the
> pyramids
> > in A. §§ 26 of the "Critique of Judgment", and see if that resonates
> with
> > what Nakai says in "Bigaku nyûmon". It's a discussion of the sense of
> > bewilderment associated with the mathematical sublime, and Savary's
> account
> > of the pyramids is cited as an example.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > M. Roberts
> >
> >
> > On Jun 8, 2010, at 7:08 PM, Mathieu Capel wrote:
> >
> >  Dear Kinejapaners,
> >>
> >> Those of you who have approached Nakai Masakazu's theory may know that
> he
> >> often seemed reluctant to fully quote his sources. The realm of his
> >> interests is actually known, more or less, and can be linked, for
> instance,
> >> and besides other japanese fellows who were his contemporaries, to
> german
> >> thinkers from the end of 19th century to the beginnig of the 20th.
> >> Nonetheless, when reading Nakai's "Introduction to Aesthetics" (Bigaku
> >> nyûmon), it may be far from easy to locate his sources. In the chapter
> "Eiga
> >> ni kûkan", Nakai talks about the pyramid of Egypt, and the "fear of
> space"
> >> they symbolize : this idea actually was borrowed from " one critic" (p.
> 298
> >> in the Iwanami Bunko edition), but who that critic is, that's something
> I
> >> wouldn't know.
> >> Being something as a detail of small significance, where he took that
> idea
> >> may seem of minor importance, but I have the feeling that knowing the
> name
> >> of that very "critic" may help to rebuild a little further Nakai's
> network
> >> of influences, thus, to evaluate what was the novelty of his thinking
> in the
> >> field of "iconology", and then, in the theory of cinema.
> >> I tried to find the answer in Takahashi Naoyuki's "Nakai Masakazu to
> sono
> >> jidai", but wasn't lucky enough. I have been searching until now around
> >> Burckhardt and his followers too, such as Wölfflin, for Nakai's theory
> seems
> >> close to the idea of "Zeitgeist" ; around Panofsky's iconology also,
> after
> >> Warburg, and Cassirer. Anyway, I couldn't find yet the proper
> quotation...
> >> Would someone know the answer ? Many thanks.
> >>
> >> Mathieu Capel
> >> Paris
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mathieu Capel
> 67 rue de la Roquette
> 75011 Paris
> 06 50 32 45 00 / 01 43 79 19 19
> mathieucapel at gmail.com

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