Before the Nation

Kokugaku and the Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan

Nonfiction, History, Asian, Japan, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Government, Communism & Socialism
Cover of the book Before the Nation by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns ISBN: 9780822384908
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: December 2, 2003
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
ISBN: 9780822384908
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: December 2, 2003
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

Exploring the emergence and evolution of theories of nationhood that continue to be evoked in present-day Japan, Susan L. Burns provides a close examination ofthe late-eighteenth-century intellectual movement kokugaku, which means "the study of our country.” Departing from earlier studies of kokugaku that focused on intellectuals whose work has been valorized by modern scholars, Burns seeks to recover the multiple ways "Japan" as social and cultural identity began to be imagined before modernity.

Central to Burns's analysis is Motoori Norinaga’s Kojikiden, arguably the most important intellectual work of Japan's early modern period. Burns situates the Kojikiden as one in a series of attempts to analyze and interpret the mythohistories dating from the early eighth century, the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. Norinaga saw these texts as keys to an original, authentic, and idyllic Japan that existed before being tainted by "flawed" foreign influences, notably Confucianism and Buddhism. Hailed in the nineteenth century as the begetter of a new national consciousness, Norinaga's Kojikiden was later condemned by some as a source of Japan's twentieth-century descent into militarism, war, and defeat. Burns looks in depth at three kokugaku writers—Ueda Akinari, Fujitani Mitsue, and Tachibana Moribe—who contested Norinaga's interpretations and produced competing readings of the mythohistories that offered new theories of community as the basis for Japanese social and cultural identity. Though relegated to the footnotes by a later generation of scholars, these writers were quite influential in their day, and by recovering their arguments, Burns reveals kokugaku as a complex debate—involving history, language, and subjectivity—with repercussions extending well into the modern era.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Exploring the emergence and evolution of theories of nationhood that continue to be evoked in present-day Japan, Susan L. Burns provides a close examination ofthe late-eighteenth-century intellectual movement kokugaku, which means "the study of our country.” Departing from earlier studies of kokugaku that focused on intellectuals whose work has been valorized by modern scholars, Burns seeks to recover the multiple ways "Japan" as social and cultural identity began to be imagined before modernity.

Central to Burns's analysis is Motoori Norinaga’s Kojikiden, arguably the most important intellectual work of Japan's early modern period. Burns situates the Kojikiden as one in a series of attempts to analyze and interpret the mythohistories dating from the early eighth century, the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. Norinaga saw these texts as keys to an original, authentic, and idyllic Japan that existed before being tainted by "flawed" foreign influences, notably Confucianism and Buddhism. Hailed in the nineteenth century as the begetter of a new national consciousness, Norinaga's Kojikiden was later condemned by some as a source of Japan's twentieth-century descent into militarism, war, and defeat. Burns looks in depth at three kokugaku writers—Ueda Akinari, Fujitani Mitsue, and Tachibana Moribe—who contested Norinaga's interpretations and produced competing readings of the mythohistories that offered new theories of community as the basis for Japanese social and cultural identity. Though relegated to the footnotes by a later generation of scholars, these writers were quite influential in their day, and by recovering their arguments, Burns reveals kokugaku as a complex debate—involving history, language, and subjectivity—with repercussions extending well into the modern era.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Crossroads of Freedom by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Conservation Is Our Government Now by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book China's New Cultural Scene by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Laughing at the Devil by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Peasants on Plantations by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Nostalgia for the Modern by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Childhood in the Promised Land by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Race and the Subject of Masculinities by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book The Biopolitics of Feeling by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book One Night on TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Never Say I by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book The Guatemala Reader by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Beyond the Sacred Forest by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
Cover of the book Reality Gendervision by Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi, Madge Huntington, Susan L Burns
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy