Loss of Relevance? The Study of Literature in the 21st Century: German Japanology as a Case Study

This paper discusses the study of literature under 21st century conditions, taking Japanese Studies in Germany as a case in point. It asks how technical changes such as digitalization and the internet have influenced contents, as well as the way in which Japanese literature research is conducted, and which changes are to be observed concerning the position of the study of Japanese literature in academia as well as in society at large. Between 1960 and the 1980s, translations of Japanese literature were seldom taken up in general print media, and professional critics were hesitant to critique works, regarding them as fundamentally different. Perspectives changed in the late 1980s with a growing interest in Japan. Japan was the focus country at the 1990 Frankfurt International Book Fair. More recent developments, however, point to a loss of importance of belles lettres in the cultural and intellectual world due to changed reading habits and shifts in the media landscape. How can scholars of Japanese Studies respond the loss of relevance of their subject? Have they become superfluous in the face of the dissolution of canons and professional authority? This paper argues to the irreplaceability of experts as partners in public dialogue

Grenzgänge : (De-)Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in Japan

This year's DIJ Yearbook, Japanstudien 16, has the title "Grenzgänge – (De-)Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in Japan" [Crossing Borders – (De-)Construction of Collective Identities in Japan], and focuses on discourses on difference, homogeneity, and divergence. The studies comprising this book encompass theoretical, analytical, and descriptive contributions. They will, it is hoped, aid in a reconsideration of the all too familiar topos of Japanese ‘group-orientation’, the central argument within the debates on the cultural uniqueness of Japan (Nihonjinron). The essays presented in this volume examine the inhomogeneity of social, ethnic, gender and sexual groupings in Japan, and, by highlighting the occasionally contradictory divisions and intersections, critically discuss the discursive construction of collective identities.Vorwort[Hijiya-Kirschnereit] Grenzgänge - Zur (De-)Konstruktion von sozialen Gruppen und kollektiven Identitäten in Japan. Eine Hinleitung[Germer] Alien Attack? The Construction of Foreign Criminality in Contemporary Japan[Yamamoto] A Touchstone for Transnational Feminism: Discourses on the Comfort Women in 1990s Japan[Wöhr] Re-made in Japan: Nikkeijin Disruptions of Japan's Ethno-Spatial Boundaries[Ishiwata] Telling Her Story: Narrating a Japanese Lesbian Community[Welker] "We are all 'Residents of Japan"': The Construction of Common Identity and the Success of the Anti-fingerprinting Movement[Nakamura] Historische Ansätze von Gruppendefinitionen im modernen Japan[Saaler] Chiiki tsüka - Eine Währung für die Community?[Ducke, Thoma] Konstruktivismus, Wahrnehmung und Gedächtnis: Plädoyer für einen konstruktivistischen Landschaftsdiskurs[Wittkamp] Die Konstruktion der träumenden Frau oder weshalb es in Japan "nur" Traumdichterinnen gibt[Müller] "Die beste und schönste Sprache der Welt". Shiga Naoyas Vorschlag zur Ersetzung des Japanischen durch das Französische[Heinrich] Brochlos, Astrid: Kambun no kiso = Kanbun: Grundlagen der klassischen sino-japanischen Schriftsprache.[Gottheiner] Schulz, Evelyn: Stadt-Diskurse in den "Aufzeichnungen über das Prosperieren von To^-kyo^-" (To^-kyo^- hanjo^- ki). Eine Gattung der topografischen Literatur Japans und ihre Bilder von To^-kyo^- (1832-1958).[Köhn] Trinh, Khanh: Darstellung realer Orte. Die "wahren Landschaften" des "malenden Reporters" Tani Bunchö (1763-1840).[Flache] Murakami Ryu^-: Kibo^- no kuni no ekusodasu. [Der Auszug ins Gelobte Land.][Ducke] ZU DEN AUTORINNEN UND AUTOREN DES JAHRBUCH

Grenzgänge : (De-)Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in Japan

Vorwort[Hijiya-Kirschnereit] Grenzgänge - Zur (De-)Konstruktion von sozialen Gruppen und kollektiven Identitäten in Japan. Eine Hinleitung[Germer] Alien Attack? The Construction of Foreign Criminality in Contemporary Japan[Yamamoto] A Touchstone for Transnational Feminism: Discourses on the Comfort Women in 1990s Japan[Wöhr] Re-made in Japan: Nikkeijin Disruptions of Japan\u27s Ethno-Spatial Boundaries[Ishiwata] Telling Her Story: Narrating a Japanese Lesbian Community[Welker] \u22We are all \u27Residents of Japan\u22\u27: The Construction of Common Identity and the Success of the Anti-fingerprinting Movement[Nakamura] Historische Ansätze von Gruppendefinitionen im modernen Japan[Saaler] Chiiki tsüka - Eine Währung für die Community?[Ducke, Thoma] Konstruktivismus, Wahrnehmung und Gedächtnis: Plädoyer für einen konstruktivistischen Landschaftsdiskurs[Wittkamp] Die Konstruktion der träumenden Frau oder weshalb es in Japan \u22nur\u22 Traumdichterinnen gibt[Müller] \u22Die beste und schönste Sprache der Welt\u22. Shiga Naoyas Vorschlag zur Ersetzung des Japanischen durch das Französische[Heinrich] Brochlos, Astrid: Kambun no kiso = Kanbun: Grundlagen der klassischen sino-japanischen Schriftsprache.[Gottheiner] Schulz, Evelyn: Stadt-Diskurse in den \u22Aufzeichnungen über das Prosperieren von To^-kyo^-\u22 (To^-kyo^- hanjo^- ki). Eine Gattung der topografischen Literatur Japans und ihre Bilder von To^-kyo^- (1832-1958).[Köhn] Trinh, Khanh: Darstellung realer Orte. Die \u22wahren Landschaften\u22 des \u22malenden Reporters\u22 Tani Bunchö (1763-1840).[Flache] Murakami Ryu^-: Kibo^- no kuni no ekusodasu. [Der Auszug ins Gelobte Land.][Ducke] ZU DEN AUTORINNEN UND AUTOREN DES JAHRBUCHSThis year\u27s DIJ Yearbook, Japanstudien 16, has the title \u22Grenzgänge – (De-)Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in Japan\u22 [Crossing Borders – (De-)Construction of Collective Identities in Japan], and focuses on discourses on difference, homogeneity, and divergence. The studies comprising this book encompass theoretical, analytical, and descriptive contributions. They will, it is hoped, aid in a reconsideration of the all too familiar topos of Japanese ‘group-orientation’, the central argument within the debates on the cultural uniqueness of Japan (Nihonjinron). The essays presented in this volume examine the inhomogeneity of social, ethnic, gender and sexual groupings in Japan, and, by highlighting the occasionally contradictory divisions and intersections, critically discuss the discursive construction of collective identities

System Theory as Global Sociology-Japanese Ramifications of Parsonian and Luhmannian Thought

This article explores various engagements of system theory with Germany and Japan, looking in particular at the theories of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann. Talcott Parsons based his sociological theory on the idea of a system of the values of a given society. Niklas Luhmann’s extended version was based on the idea of self-reproduction (or “autopoiesis”) of social systems within all modernized societies. Two studies have recently re-examined system theory on basis of its engagement with Japan: Günther Distelrath has subjected Parsonian theory on Japanese modernity to a structural revisioning in Die japanische Produktionsweise (1996); and Peter Fuchs has reconciled what he calls the “dividualism” of the Japanese psyche with the Luhmannian theory of functional differentiation in Kommunikation — Japanisch (1995). Distelrath critiques the Parsonian school of thought for giving Japan the status of a backward “follower” of the West. Fuchs, in contrast, endorses the universalist premise of Luhmann’s concept of society and makes Japanese “dividualism” the paradigm of effective modernization. Following on from Fuchs, I argue that system theory has the potential to overcome cultural limitations and become a global sociology. Its theoretical agenda in the twenty-first century includes the refinement of its concepts of the psychical system, the revision of its notion of the public and the mass media, as well as a systematic contribution to environmental protection and ecological communication in a functionally differentiated world society