mini传媒

Published on December 24, 2020
Job titles and other details are as of the time of publication.
(The interview was conducted in Japanese and was thereafter translated into English.)

The Critical Potential of Artistic Expression Within Transnational Governance Systems

My field of expertise is aesthetics, and I research the critical potential of artistic expression within the transnational governance system known as “Pax Americana” (peace due to American hegemony).

I would like to talk about this more specifically, but I think it is necessary to explain what aesthetics is first. Therefore, I would like to first talk about “comparative literature” that I studied at graduate school in the U.S., how I progressed to research in aesthetics and colonial conditions, and then tell you about my current research and students.

Comparative Literature Attempts to Overcome Nationalism and Power Imbalances

I entered an integrated doctoral program in comparative literature at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2003.

I chose comparative literature, an academic field that developed after World War II in the U.S. Initially, its mission was to compare the best parts of literature from different countries and to protect humanity in the post-fascist world. In fact, it is a field that was pioneered by intellectuals who emigrated from Europe to the U.S. However, the more comparisons are made, the more differences in created images such as national character are reinforced, and it was pointed out that there is a danger that this could become a device that allows for nationalism.

In the 1980s, comparative literature in the U.S. became a receptacle for European philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault and a place for considering theoretical perspectives within the humanities in general. By the time I entered the integrated doctoral program, the interdisciplinary nature had grown, such as reading literature from the viewpoint of gender and sexuality theory, analyzing novels through urban theory, and dealing with arts and popular culture other than literature. It felt like a place of refuge where you could do any kind of research with a certain emphasis on literature, language, and power.

It is an academic field that is open to diverse cultures and worlds, soliciting its practitioners to attune to experiences and writings in the multiplicity of languages. Moreover, the field also interrogates any fixed relationship between the subject and the object of observation that is stabilized through comparisons made through limited imagination – in other words, the “imbalance of power” that lies in the global world.

Aesthetics Is Necessary When Looking At “Colonial Relations”

A typical example of an “imbalance of power” is the relationship between a colony and a metropole. I call this a “colonial relation.”

Since I was studying in the American comparative literature space in the 2000s, I could say that, as a matter of course, I was learning by placing myself in a “colonialistic relationship.” When I asked myself what constitutes a “colonial relation,” I began to think that we should take into account not only literary expression but also aesthetics, that is, the category of beauty, on one hand, and the range of sensibility, on the other.

When people meet other people, the relationships between multiple subjects are determined by contrasting things such as “Your nationality is X / My nationality is Y” and “Your gender is A/ My gender is B,” and the organs that determine this are the five (and possibly more) senses. When we look at the world after colonialism, we can see that racial and national differences and hierarchies have been determined and promoted through people's aesthetic imaginations and sensual experiences.

However, I believed that there were moments when sensibilities not only encouraged differences and hierarchies, but also radically undermined them. Especially in daily, localized and subtle experiences, there are many moments when differences and hierarchies collapse and transform, and relations between people that differ from the dominant relationalities emerge. I thought that artistic expression is able to illuminate this non-determinism that is latent in experience.

Experiences That Break Down Boundaries

After graduating from a private high school in Sendai, I studied at the University of California, Berkeley.

While I was in school, I worked in the cafeteria of a dormitory, where I was able to become friends with people who had migrated from Cuernavaca, Mexico. At university, I encountered radical researchers and artists such as Trinh T. Minh Ha who unraveled the power of representing others in the humanities of the time. The experience of working together in a place where people are otherwise divided by race, gender, and language proficiency was a source of inspiration for me.

UC Berkeley was also a hub for the civil rights movement, the free speech movement, the anti-Vietnam War and minority movements in the U.S. since the 1960s after the so-called “Red Purge” of the 1950s, and the results of these student movements are still reflected in the university curricula. We also tutored middle school students from Vietnamese ethnic minorities living in economically challenged neighborhoods in Oakland as part of a class in which students set their goals and themes without an instructor.

Other majors such as film studies, women’s and gender studies, and ethnic studies were institutionalized within the university as a result of the student movement that continued until the end of the 1960s. UC Berkeley is still partly characterized by student-taught classes, student-designed majors, and support for various social movements and activities, and I hope that someday this can be applied to Japan’s rigid university curriculum.

Moving Research Base from Okinawa to Hitotsubashi University and Continuing to Examine “Colonialistic Relationships”

I experienced both inside and outside academia how racial/national differences and hierarchies are determined, but at the same time, there was always a space for an indeterminacy, and I wanted to take the next step in my career in a place where “colonial relationships” have materialized in a concrete manner. I applied for a position in the English and American Literature program at the University of the Ryukyus because I wanted to critically utilize the interdisciplinary approach that is taken for granted in the field of comparative literature and consider the possibilities of poetic texts including images by way of such an approach. Fortunately, I was accepted.

In Okinawa, I was blessed to meet some older and up-and-coming scholars, activists, younger research colleagues, and artist friends of my generation. I have also been supported by friendships with many people, including, for example, a taxi driver and a poet in his 70s.

After that, in the spring of 2012, I moved my base of research to Hitotsubashi University, where I continue my research.

Specifically, I am considering the kind of aesthetic imagination and sensibility needed to open up the politics of memory surrounding the U.S. and East Asia since the 20th century to something that is not based on the figures of the nations. Drawing on the work of philosophers and theorists such as Theodor Adorno, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Naoki Sakai, I am exploring the critical potential of artistic expression within the transnational governance system known as “Pax Americana.”

In particular, I am focusing on what kind of “sympathetic areas” have been envisioned in poetic literature and cinematic and video works produced in Japan, including Okinawa, and the U.S. Last year, together with 12 leading researchers in this field, I published a collection of English papers called Beyond Imperial Aesthetics: Theories of Art and Politics in East Asia, published by the Hong Kong University Press. I am currently preparing to publish a monograph and will continue to engage in intellectual exchanges with researchers in the English-speaking world, where I currently mainly work in, and in Japan and East Asia as well.

Instructors Should Be a Resource Hub for Students

The treasure of my graduate seminar within the Graduate School of Language and Society, which itself can be considered a melting pot of the humanities, is the students with their wide range of themes and their breadth of rich experiences.

Each student has a certain “something.” It is not the instructors who make that “something” bloom. I think the job of the instructor is to show as many examples as possible and provide opportunities for students to give themselves permission to say, “It’s okay to be like this.” In other words, I believe that the instructor’s job is to serve as a relay point for such permissions and resources.

Therefore, I do not tell them much about my own research such as the one I mentioned above. Although I spare no effort in providing practical support to doctoral course students to help them become independent researchers, I am always learning from them and their research on art, aesthetics, and society. With many of the master's degree students entering the workforce, I think about how we can take joy in continuing the creative struggle with the dominant society that the humanities have engaged in.

After spending time at Berkeley, I have always wanted to be sensitive to the power dynamics latent in the relationship between teachers and students, and part of my aim is to create classes in which we may share various intellectual discoveries from within the non-determinism of this relationship.