Nakai and Egypt

[Mark Roberts]

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
>
>