Incorporations 2005: Main

AIM OF THE COURSE. The study of human cultures - Japanese and other - has generally been reducing its scope to social relationships, natural symbols and political ideologies, that is to say, it left the sensuous, physical and gendered appropriation of such categories largely unreflected. This course will use the question of embodiment to think through the relations of the social, material and natural worlds in contemporary Japan. The body is truly a cultural crossroad between such worlds. From various techniques of sleeping to the diverse skills of coping with disease, from mobilizing the physical labor of millions of people to the simple action of moving a finger human bodies play important mediative roles between society and individual, between nature and culture. The mixture of classes and activities will try to show how these categories are intertwined in contemporary Japan, and locate the role of the human body in informing and shaping such connectedness.

OUTLINE. The seminar is divided into four topical components, each with sections intended to focus on the different ways bodies are getting caught up in theories, ideas and practices in contemporary Japan

1. Theorizing and Historicizing Embodiement in Japan
2. The Attunement of the Body, or Learning the Ways to Act Naturally
3. Biopolitics and the Mediation Between Selves, Things and Society
4. The Quest to Overcome the Physical

ACTIVITIES & REQUIREMENTS. Lectures and readings in the class will be supplemented by videos and assigned participant examination of scenarios where embodiment is potentially experienced in the context of everyday life. During the five weeks of the seminar everyone will read the assigned materials daily, which will be then elaborated in a class (or group) discussion. In addition, each day two seminar members will be asked to provide an analytical synopsis (2-3 pages, 10 minutes) of the extra readings assigned for that day: summarizing their principle arguments and offering questions to be addressed in further discussion.
Daily activities will include visits to a school of East Asian medicine, a public bath and Kyoto’s wholesale fish market; cultural exchange in an elementary school and two universities - among others. Students will take responsibility for overseeing their assigned fieldwork, including the in-class preparation of narrowly-focused interview questions, taking photos and contribute a short report (2-5 pages handout) for the final exams, in which they summarize the impressions of their assigned reading and fieldwork. The professor and graduate teaching assistant will consult with you to design your project, and will guide you in preparing your final reports, due June 16, 2005 in a form of presentation and a short hand-out.

GOALS FOR STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. Acquiring knowledge and extensive experience of the interconnectedness of natural, material and social issues in contemporary Japan; developing and understanding of both culture specific (e.g. ki, amae, mi ni tsukeru) and theoretical (e.g. embodiment, biopolitics, situated learning) concepts. It is intended furthermore that students will improve their skills in organizing data and analyzing the relation between theoretical works and observed phenomena. Finally, the course will offer participants various opportunities of enhancing their ability to argue a point both in discussions and in individual presentations; and to design a small research project on the basis of class work, further readings and participant observation.