Discovering Others I (kiso enshû I), 2005

July 13: This brief seminar ended with an in-class student evaluation of our work. Many thanks to the students of the seminar for being good-natured about having been placed in a content course without their consent. I would be pleased to see any of you in kiso enshû II, Culture and Meaning, in the autumn term.

A final note: my apologies for failure to get your final written work back to you by the last day of the seminar. You may collect the work with my comments in 11454 either Thursday or Friday afternoon, July 21 or 22.

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July 6: Special guest presentation, Hiroaki Furihata speaking on “Discourse, Empowerment, and the Independent Living Movement.” Many thanks to Hiroaki for contextualizing our discussions of the term and for bringing both a human face and a very specific case study to our topic.

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June 29: Student presentation on the presenters’ expectations of images and representations of Japan in Thailand and images and representations offered by a Thai friend of one of the presenters. Following this, an attempt at discussion of the specificities of contemporary Japanese culture that tried, without much success, to move beyond clichés and standard representations of an essentialized “Japaneseness.”

Homework (individual): A brief written explanation, 300 ~ 500 words or so in English, of your understanding of the concepts of “otherness,” “representation,” and “discourse.” Proper manuscript form, please.

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June 22: The good follow-up presentation on misperceptions about and misrepresentations of people with physical or mental disabilities led to a discussion of the political nature of the language we use, particularly to characterize groups perceived as “other” in reference to a “normal” (normalized, in part by the language we use) group.

This was a good discussion in the context of this seminar, since the habit of “othering” by racial or ethnic or gendered (or other) terms of disparagement (or ethnophaulisms) is common, often unconscious, and an excellent example of how not to “discover others,” but rather to keep others at a distance by constructing their otherness into a type that exists outside the boundary of the normalized discursive center from within which the definition of otherness arises. How, in this way, are the words “cripple” and “Oriental” (or, for example, Mr. Ishihara’s revival of “sangokujin”) alike?

The suggestion was made that in order to rectify our linguistic constructions of otherness we might turn to the othered group itself for guidance, thus, in the context of the presentation today, for example, to organizations such as these:

I might also mention in the context of today’s discussion Michel Foucault’s seminal Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie á l’âge classique, 1961, Japanese translation here), a “treatment of the [changing] role of madness in Western society,” as SparkNotes has it, which analyses “madness” as a discourse.

Finally, another way not to discover others (or, for that matter, “to create a good atmosphere”):

The Mandom Corp. advertising campaign mentioned in the seminar, which most students present had not heard of, was noted on web sites such as WorldRacism.com, Human Rights Forum, and many others, and in newspapers such as The Guardian, Diplomacy This Week, and many others. Here is the opening of the June 15, 2005 Asahi Shimbun (English) account of the problem:

In response to cries of racism, cosmetics maker Mandom Corp. has pulled TV and magazine advertisements featuring a chimpanzee in dreadlocks and Rastafarian clothing imitating the movements of black actors. In the commercial, several black actors use a cleaning product to wipe sweat from their faces. The chimpanzee, dressed in a costume of gold, red and green, imitates their movements.

“We thought it would create a good atmosphere [for whom?] to have a chimpanzee among friends having fun in a party,” said a company spokesman. “We never intended it to be prejudiced . . .” [more].

We’ll continue with the follow-up presentations in the June 29 seminar.

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June 15: Good student presentation on communication, verbal or non-verbal, as a way to “overcome representation,” and good follow-up discussion, although we did not get to the point of questioning the idea of “overcoming” representation itself, which is not quite, as I understand it, what we’re trying to do. “Counterbalance” or “counteract” or “supplement” representation might be a better way to put it. We’ll continue with the second student presentations, and perhaps finish them, in the June 22 seminar.

Image from VladStudio.

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June 8: Discussion of the homework questions noted below at June 1, and excellent follow-up student presentations on understandings of the representation of Japan in the film Lost in Translation (2003, IMDb link here, a marvelous case of the “othering” of Japan in American film) and the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Yôkoso! Japan campaign. I suggested that both presentations could provide excellent basis for larger projects, on the representation of Japan in American film, the self-representation of Japan in Japanese sources, or (in either case) on “the packaging and consumption of otherness.” Interesting preliminary questions in this regard would be: How has the representation of Japan in American film changed over a set period of time? Who or what is the “other” in the Yôkoso! Japan campaign? Who is representing what to whom?

In the June 15 seminar meeting we’ll continue with the second round of student presentations.

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June 1: I was pleased with the presentations on “Representations of Thailand,” “Misunderstandings [or Misrepresentations] of Japan,” “Representation Around Us,” “The Discourse about Autism,” and “The Visual Image and the Written Image.” Very good indeed.

The homework is to prepare a second presentation in which you push further the insights you began to touch upon in the first presentation. I would be pleased if the topic is the same as before, but if you would like to turn to something new that also is acceptable.

Among the questions I would like you to consider: Who is responsible for the representations around us? How do they get out there? Is it possible to get “beyond” them? If so, how? To what degree are we able to “discover others” in their own subjectivity instead of in our own representations and discursive constructions about them? Why is this important?

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May 25: Student discussions about choosing topics for short presentations that will begin next week.

Homework: Individually or in a group, prepare a 5-10 minute presentation on the relation of some part of our discussions with something else of your own interest. Presentations may be in either English or Japanese, but in either case should include as a handout an English summary. Concepts that might be used include representation, discourse, nationalism, internationalism, identity, otherness, power, culture.

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May 18: Discussion of the concept of a “discourse,” as the term is used in the work of Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and many others. At the end of a brief Wikipedia entry on discourse is a passable if somewhat superficial definition of the concept: As it is used in the social sciences,

a discourse is . . . an institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic. Discourses are seen to affect our views on all things; in other words, it is not possible to escape discourse. For example, two distinctly different discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements describing them either as “freedom fighters” or “terrorists.” In other words, the chosen discourse delivers the vocabulary, expressions and perhaps also the style needed to communicate.

Discourse is closely linked to different theories of power and state, at least as long as defining discourses is seen to mean defining reality itself.

The social conception of discourse is often linked with the work of the French social philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984).

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May 11: Continued discussion of the first Orientalism worksheet, through question 7. In the May 18 seminar we’ll move very quickly through questions 8-10 and then try to come to terms with the concept of a “discourse,” as the term has been used in the work of Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and many others.

Homework: Please focus particularly closely on the notes about “discourse” and questions 11-14 on the worksheet.

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April 27: We finished the Hugo worksheet and began discussion of the questions on the first Orientalism worksheet. Discussion of the concept of “imaginative geography,” the ways that particular powerful imaginations have infiltrated (some would say “colonized”) our own imaginations and even our own languages. Examples we discussed included “the Orient,” the “Near-” “Middle-” and “Far-East” (near to, middle, and far from what?), and India.

Discussion also of the importance of a historical sensibility, of the impossibility of understanding, for example, the nature of any of the problems of the so-called Middle-East without knowledge of the history of the relation of “Israel” and “Palestine.”

Homework: Continue reading Said’s Introduction and preparing responses to the questions of the worksheet. Have a good Golden Week.

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April 20: Good discussion of the Hugo worksheet. We’ll finish this in the April 27 seminar meeting.

Homework: Read at least the first section, pp. 1-4, of Said’s Introduction to Orientalism, and write answers to the questions on the first Orientalism worksheet. Continue thinking about what it means or might mean to love a country and to find a homeland sweet.

Image from elegantstitch.com.

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April 13: Discussion about the nature and content of the course, at the end of which I was pleased that students agreed to focus on the topic of cultural representation, with an emphasis on the work of Edward Said.

Homework: think about, discuss with classmates, and write in any language at least a brief response to the questions on this worksheet. For those of you who would like to work ahead, we’ll begin discussion of the first section of Said’s introduction to Orientalism in a couple weeks. At that time we’ll work from another worksheet, which is here.

The other homework, which is assigned every week of the term, is to look at this course page at least a day or two in advance of every seminar meeting. I shall post here each week summaries of the previous seminar meeting, homework, and occasionally notes about related matters.