Fall, 1995
Japanese-German Centre, Berlin, Germany

IDENTITY AND CANON - CANON AS A MEANS OF MODERNIZATION IN JAPAN
AND EUROPE

This workshop is the first in a series of four or five meetings
on the theme 'Orientalism and Occidentalism', which is being
initiated by two scholars from Berlin and one from Japan (Kyoto
Institute of Technology, dept. of Philosophy). The work is
planned in cooperation with the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie
der Wissenschaften.
This workshop reconsiders Japanese modernisation, by viewing the
subject from a trans-cultural perspective. Modernisation in late
19th century Japan has long attracted world-wide attention if
only to trace what is often termed a model of success þ in fact,
it is regarded as the only successful modernisation of a
non-Western nation. Whereas modernisation studies up to the
sixties have stressed Western "influence" and the role of
imitation in the process of Japanese modernisation, later studies
have focused on its indigenous, pre-modern roots. More recent
theories have drawn a more complex picture, focusing on the
"invention of tradition" (Hobsbawn) and the creation of new
institutions in the course of confronting the Western world.
It is in the light of these new research agendas in the
humanities and social sciences that a reconsideration of the
Japanese case promises new insights. Special attention will have
to be paid to the foreign or the "Other" in this process. Whereas
Europe (as Occident) appears to be offering the framework for new
models of Japanese cultural identity, China, the perennial Other,
attains a new role as well.
In the process of creating a nation-state and constructing a
national identity, language and literature played an important
part. In the same way that the idea of a nation-state produced
the concept of a national language, involving a policy of
homogenisation and the "unification of the written and the spoken
language" (genbun itchi), literature, and above all, fiction was
re-defined and institutionalised in new ways. At the same time þ
and on a different level þ literary theory and literary history
were set up within the newly founded framework of academic
institutions and served to formulate notions of a national
cultural tradition. It is these areas of intellectual life þ
interconnected but readily identifiable on their own þ which will
form the focus of attention.

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES
The workshop will focus on new research agendas concerning
questions of identity, canon, and modernisation which have
developed during the eighties and early nineties. In these
writings "tradition" has been high-lighted not as something
given, but as something "invented" (Hobsbawn) and situated in a
complex relationship with modernity. These research concepts are
characterised by a combination of social science approaches and
literary criticism.
As far as Japanese literature is concerned among others Karatani
K“jin (Origins of Modern Japanese Literature, Japanese 1980) and
James A. Fujii (Complicit Fictions. The Subject in the Modern
Japanese Prose Narrative, 1993) describe the often hidden
relations between knowledge, literature and power, which were
established in the process of the formation of new discourse.
This process took place in Japan in literature mainly, but not
only, in the late 19th century, starting around the 1980's. In
Japan, up to then, neither the nowadays commonplace concepts of
"bungaku" (as a term including all literature) or "kokugo"
(national language, "Landessprache" þ as described by Tanaka
Katsuhiko, sociolinguist and mongolist, in various articles in
the 1980's) existed, nor the institutions, that could teach such
things or define their meaning. The corpus of canonical "kanbun"
texts (texts written exclusively in Chinese characters and
Chinese grammar), being the basis for the education of the
Tokugawa elite and not a "national literature", had to be
replaced by another set and type of literature, the "kindai
bungaku" (Modern literature), which contributed to the shaping of
subjecthood and homogenisation, just as, for example, the
Imperial Rescript on Education (1890) did. The carving of a new
canon of literature (with new "masterpieces" and different
characteristics like metaphors in spatial terms instead of a
hierarchic scheme as in the Tokugawa period) as it evolved by
means of confrontation with the Western type, was accompanied by
a new set-up of institutions (schools, universities, literary
journals, clubs, etc.), which could shape the intellectual life.
Of course, this was a dynamic process, in which heterologies were
suppressed and, on the other hand, various forms of resistance
against this suppression arose.
This break-up of the "rhetoric" tradition shows similarities as
well as differences with what happened in the West. In order to
demonstrate this, it is necessary also to involve for instance
scholars of Slavic Literature, German Literature.
The political implications today are obvious þ not only as far as
the discussion on the reform of education in Japan is concerned,
but also in the "nihonjinron", writings which very often answer
the question about the uniqueness of the Japanese with their
unique culture and language. This idea was shaped in the period
under discussion with a newly emerged and then "modern" national
philology, which could draw not only on the German
"Nationalphilologie", but also on the "kokugaku" (national
school) of the Edo period. As a matter of course, the results of
this specific process of modernisation were relevant to Japan's
Asian neighbours and continue to be so.

The workshop will be divided into four sections, dedicated to:
1.  The General Framework
2.  Language
3.  Literature
4.  Literary Historiography

The general focus of the workshop is consequently situated at the
crossing-point of several disciplines and methodological
perspectives. It brings together European, Asian and American
specialists of Japanese intellectual history, comparative
literature and thought, ethnology, sociolinguistics, literary
history, and the history of science in Japan.
By way of solicited comments, the perspective will be widened to
include not only different views on the Japanese topic but also
to introduce, as contrasting reference, the case of other
cultures where analogous processes can be studied. Specialists of
Slavic or Romanic literature will enrich the discussion under a
decidedly theoretical perspective.
The workshop links up with a research project of the
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences entitled "Die
Herausforderung durch das Fremde" (Challenges of the Other). The
organiser is herself a member of the project group and has
designed a case study on "Occidentalism" as a modern Japanese
tradition. Other members of the group, including Jurgen Trabant
and Wilhelm Voákamp, will act as commentators.

Initiators
Professor Wolf Lepenies, Professor Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit,
and Professor Ryosuke Ohashi

Japanese-German Center Berlin (JGCB)
Dr Wolfgang Brenn
Tiergartenstrasse 24-25
10785 Berlin
Germany
Tel: +49-30-250060
Fax: +49-30-25006222